"Microsoft Mastering: Ecommerce Development" provides practical, hands-on instruction for creating Web-based commerce applications using Microsoft's Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition and pipeline technologies. More than a tutorial, the Microsoft Mastering learning system features a variety of tools and building blocks to help developers create working solutions. Instructional modules -- available both in print and online -- step learners through each part of the development process and explain how to add or extend functionality. Students then apply their new knowledge and skills through guided lab exercises. By the end of the course, they've created a simple e-commerce site and basic order-processing pipelines. With its combination of text-based instruction, interactive lessons, narrated demos, hands-on labs, and reusable code, Microsoft Mastering Ecommerce Development delivers the training developers need -- how and when they need it.
People love the speed and convenience of shopping on the Web, but they're notoriously quick to avoid a site (or break off a transaction mid-sale) if they're expected to deal with an ugly or unintuitive interface.
Mastering eCommerce Development: Business to Consumer documents the store-building capabilities of Microsoft Site Server 3 Commerce Edition.
This book is a tutorial rather than a reference. Assuming only knowledge of basic HTML and Active Server Pages (ASP) concepts, the authors walk you through Site Server's features, alternately documenting them and inviting the reader to gain familiarity with them through exercises. The exercises are carefully designed to make the reader do various things; many of them use files on the companion CD-ROM (fully half of this book comprises printed versions of ASP files on the CD-ROM).
This regimented approach to the software exposes the reader to as much of Site Server as possible, but leaves it up to the reader (and reference books) to find solutions to real-life problems. The authors pay some attention to structuring Web pages around business goals, such as getting shoppers to buy more expensive items than the ones they originally pick out, a strategy known as "upselling." You'll find Mastering eCommerce Development: Business to Consumer most useful when you know what you want to do with Site Server and want concise instructions that will solve your problem. --David Wall
Topics covered: Site Foundation Wizard, product catalog design, shopping carts, order processing, order status, and cookie monitoring.
