Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET framework

Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework

By Jason Bentrum, James Whatley

Publisher : Sams Publishing

Pub Date : September 20, 2001

ISBN : 0-672-32169-6

Pages : 560

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Tell Us What You Think!

Introduction

Part I. Foundations

Part II. Building the B2C Storefront

Part III. Building Advanced Features

Part IV. Delivering and Keeping the Site Going

Part V. Appendixes

Index

Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework

By Jason Bentrum, James Whatley

Publisher : Sams Publishing

Pub Date : September 20, 2001

ISBN : 0-672-32169-6

Pages : 560

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Tell Us What You Think!

Introduction

Part I. Foundations

Part II. Building the B2C Storefront

Part III. Building Advanced Features

Part IV. Delivering and Keeping the Site Going

Part V. Appendixes

Index

Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework

By Jason Bentrum, James Whatley

Publisher : Sams Publishing

Pub Date : September 20, 2001

ISBN : 0-672-32169-6

Pages : 560

Building e-Commerce Sites with the .NET Framework describes the steps a developer will take to plan,

develop and deploy an actual robust, scalable e-commerce application using the Microsoft Visual Studio

.NET. There are detailed descriptions of design choices a developer makes, implementation details. The

author's first hand experience will save the reader time and effort. Finally, the development of a working,

modern e-commerce site is provided, in this case study approach, along with clear and simple explanations,

screenshots, and step-by-step code excerpts.

Copyright

Copyright © 2002 by Sams Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by

any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from

the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein.

Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume

no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of

the information contained herein.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001086060

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: September 2001

04 03 02 01 4 3 2 1

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately

capitalized. Sams Publishing cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book

should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Warning and Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or

fitness is implied. The information provided is on an "as is" basis. The authors and the publisher shall have

neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from

the information contained in this book.

Credits

Executive Editor

Shelley Kronzek

Development Editor

Songlin Qiu

Managing Editor

Charlotte Clapp

Project Editor

Carol Bowers

Copy Editor

Chuck Hutchinson

Indexer

Rebecca Hornyak

Proofreader

Marcia Deboy

Technical Editor

Kevin Price

Team Coordinator

Pamalee Nelson

Interior Designer

Anne Jones

Cover Designer

Aren Howell

Page Layout

Octal Publishing, Inc.

Dedication

To my loving wife Tonya. Without your love, support, and understanding, this book would not have been

possible.

—Jason Bentrum

I would like to dedicate this book to my new wife Jenna; without her never-ending support, I would not

have achieved this challenging endeavor. I also would like to say a special thank you to my Mom and Dad;

without their guidance and wisdom, I would not be where I am today.

—James Whatley

Acknowledgments

First, I'd like to thank James Whatley and Michael Abdelmalek. Without their help, this book would not have

been possible. They are two of the brightest, most talented developers I have ever met.

I would also like to thank Bill Brown for his continued support during this endeavor. Bill was always there to

encourage and help me when I felt like I couldn't go on.

I've learned so much from so many people that it would be difficult to thank all of the people who influence

me and made this endeavor possible, but here is a shot at it. In the beginning, there were Eric Fritsche and

Chris Rogers who helped me get my career going. Between Eric's vision and Chris's tutelage, I worked on

some of the most exciting projects and learned the most I've learned to date.

More recently, Barry Bloom, Bob Tabor, David Findley, Garth Hughes, Venkat Rangaswamy, Daryl Myrick,

Gary Hartley, Chris Beck, and David Sipos have taught me more than I ever would have been able to learn

on my own. They are all the best of the best, and it has been a privilege and an honor to work with them.

A special thanks to James Worrell for creating the MyGolfGear.NET look and feel. James's talent and

creativity are second to none.

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank the editorial team at Sams. This book would not have been possible

without the hard work and dedication of Shelley Kronzek, Songlin Qiu, Carol Bowers, and Kevin Price.

Tell Us What You Think!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and

want to know what we're doing right, what we could do better, what areas you'd like to see us publish in,

and any other words of wisdom you're willing to pass our way.

As an Executive Editor for Sams Publishing, I welcome your comments. You can fax, email, or write me

directly to let me know what you did or didn't like about this book—as well as what we can do to make our

books stronger.

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to

the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message.

When you write, please be sure to include this book's title and author as well as your name and phone or

fax number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked

on the book.

Fax: 317-581-4770

Email: [email protected]

Mail: Shelley Kronzek

Executive Editor

Sams Publishing

201 West 103rd Street

Indianapolis, IN 46290 USA

Introduction

The presence of the Internet has been growing at an unbelievable rate over the past five years. With this

rapid growth, portions of the developer community started moving into the world of Web development.

During this time frame, developers were using tools that were originally created for building Windows-type

applications. All types of companies, both new and existing, started jumping to the Internet with e￾Commerce applications. Now, with the emergence of .NET, developers have a tool that was created from

the ground up with the Internet in mind. This book focuses on building a business-to-consumer (B2C) e￾Commerce site using Microsoft's .NET Framework.

Who Is This Book's Intended Audience?

This book is mainly geared toward developers. We expect the developer audience to be made up both of

new developers to the .NET Framework as well as .NET developers who have been using .NET since its early

stages. All the code in this book is in C#.

What Do You Need to Know Before Reading This Book?

Having some type of programming background should be the minimum requirement. This background could

include Visual Basic and even some scripting languages. We don't go over the basics of programming. Also,

some knowledge of Web development is helpful but not necessary.

What Will You Learn from This Book?

This book will provide you with a foundation necessary to develop an e-Commerce application using the

.NET Framework. You will learn about various ASP.NET features available to build a robust, yet scalable,

Web site. This includes but is not limited to state management in ASP.NET, datasets, and user controls. We

also discuss the database that supports the site and components that manage or manipulate an order.

What Software Will You Need to Complete the Examples Provided with This Book?

Your system must meet some requirements to run the code provided with this book. First, you will need to

install the Microsoft .NET SDK, which is available for download at Microsoft's Web site at

http://msdn.microsoft.com. Although we used Microsoft VisualStudio.NET as an "editor," it is not required.

What's on the Web Site?

The chapter-by-chapter source code that is described in this book is available on the Sams Web site at

http://www.samspublishing.com/. Enter this book's ISBN in the Search box and click Search. When the

book's title is displayed, click the title to go to a page where you can download all the source code in a

chapter-by-chapter zip file.

The Case Study's e-Commerce Web Site: MyGolfGear.NET

This book is a case study on how the MyGolfGear.NET e-Commerce site was designed, developed, and

deployed. It depicts in detail how each part of the site was developed using the .NET framework and walks

through the code necessary to implement all the features of the site.

MyGolfGear.NET has the basic functionality that you would expect an e-Commerce site to provide, such as a

product catalog, shopping cart, and the normal checkout pages. In addition, the site contains some rich

features including but not limited to cross selling and up selling of products, a product search, a wish list, a

product spotlight, user registration, and support for gift certificates.

The site is fully functional and can be found online at http://www.MyGolfGear.net. We recommend that you

visit the site often while reading the book to try out the different features that you are learning how to

code.

How Is This Book Organized?

To organize the great deal of information covered in this book, we have divided it into four main sections.

The following list describes these sections:

Part I: Foundations

In this section, we discuss the foundation for building an e-Commerce application using the .NET

Framework. This section includes an overview of .NET as well as the planning that went into the

creation of the MyGolfGear.NET e-Commerce site.

Part II: Building the B2C Storefront

This section focuses on the storage, retrieval, and maintenance of our product catalog.

Part III: Building Advanced Features

This section discusses areas where we added more functionality to the e-Commerce site to make it

more appealing to its users. These enhancements include discounts, featured products, product

reviews, wish lists, gift certificates, product information e-mail, cross selling, and up selling.

This section also discusses key parts of an e-Commerce site such as building the shopping cart, the

checkout process, and order status.

Part IV: Delivering and Keeping the Site Going

The main focus of this section is on the tasks that are required after coding is complete. These tasks

include optimizing and debugging, securing the site, and finally deploying the site.

Appendixes

The appendixes included in this book are a C# Language Reference, VB.NET Language Reference, the

ASP.NET Object Model, and finally an ADO.NET Quick Reference.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographic conventions are used in this book:

Code lines, commands, statements, variables, and any text you type or see onscreen appears in a

mono typeface.

Code that we wanted to emphasize appears in an italic mono typeface.

Italics highlight technical terms when they're being defined.

The drop-down arrow is used before a line of code to signify that the author meant for the continued

code to appear on the preceding line.

The book also contains Notes, Tips, and Cautions to help you spot important or useful information

more quickly. Some of them are helpful shortcuts to help you work more efficiently.

Some code listings have line numbers in them. We used them to make sure that you know which line

of code is being described.

Some chapters end with a Self Instruction section. Here, we will give you instructions on how to

enhance the code that was just described in detail.