“I have developed shopping carts in the past, but they have
always been for a specific product line, and therefore not very
flexible. I prefer to use PHP and PostgreSQL. The Zelerate
AllCommerce software can create a flexible, database-independent
solution, using only Perl. AllCommerce provides more than just a
shopping cart; it offers inventory control, order tracking, site
management, and complete Web-based management support for your
e-commerce site.”
“I gave up Perl programming for PHP long ago, but I have always
admired Perl and will occasionally spit out a quick script to do
some administrative task. When I wrote this article, the
AllCommerce Website claimed that all you needed was Perl and the
DBI/DBD modules for the database you wished to use. I found that
while AllCommerce itself only requires Perl, Perl requires much
more. As I was installing, among others, the MIME, MD5, LWP, and
URI modules, I remembered why I stopped programming in Perl.”
“I liked the idea of using PostgreSQL and then upgrading to
something like DB2 if needed. I don’t like fiddling with the
modules and external applications that are all too often part of
open source products.”