Microsoft and osCommerce

[JakeFromMSFT]

Hi all,

 

My name is Steve Jacobson ("Jake"). I'm a Program Manager in the IIS (MS Web Server) team. I've got a pretty cool job - finding ways for FOSS apps like osCommerce to play better with MS products. I'm currently working with people from a number of the top PHP app communities (Drupal, WordPress, Gallery, phpBB, MediaWiki, ...) on a project we're calling the Web Application Gallery. This is a a gallery on the MS web site that shows apps that are running on Windows and IIS, and installable using a tool called the Web Application Installer. osCommerce is there - http://www.microsoft.com/web/content.aspx?...load-oscommerce. You can go there and get osCommerce up and running and ready to configure on IIS in just a few minutes.

 

We're working on the next version of this, and we'd like to work more with the osCommerce community on what we're doing. Do any of the Community members have any interest in seeing osCommerce work better on Windows servers? Would any of you be willing to talk to us more about what we're doing and how it could work with osCommerce?

 

My contact info here at MS is:

 

[email protected]

(425) 538.4138

 

Harald - or anyone else interested - please drop me a line or call!

 

Thanks!

 

-Jake

[web-project]

I am very interested in project as occasionally getting clients with problems with oscommerce on windows servers.

[bkellum]

Jake,

 

I just came about the Web Application Installer for osCommerce this week and found it very interesting. Microsoft has a nice video tutorial on how to get osCommerce installed and configured on a Windows server.

 

Glad to see Microsoft giving a serious look at osCommerce. :)

[GemRock]

1. osCommerce is NOT just installation;

2. osCommerce can't run on itself - it has to rely on a range of other technology/applications such as MySQL (and dont tell me MySQL can run on windows - the focus is addressing the differences), PHP, and be bettered by hundreds if not thousands of contributions (some key contrib writers by their own admission dont know how to use a windows machine);

3. a proof of concept demo is still miles away from the real world, and is nothing new as osCommerce is by concept platform independent;

4. a more creditable approach would be to show the differences (between apache and iis) how the differences are being addressed.

 

Ken

[cannuck1964]

Rather see Steve's team working on a version 3 compatible database using the MS product, and then if they have time, port over RC2a to use the MS SQL database. I have seen that MS is looking to integrate PHP in more closely to the server process. It is about time for this and osCommerce would be great as a front end for POS / eCommerce system, the use of the MS SQL DB would tie in quite nicely.

 

This I feel would be the most important porting / use of the teams time if they are interested in using osCommerce with a MS server. But this would take commitment on the Team's time and well not sure if MS is just looking to allow it to work on their servers or truly interested in compatibility throughout there systems. This would mean an investment on MS's behalf in terms of code development, as I am sure not many are going to step forward for a multi-billion dollar company and work for free with them ;)

 

cheers,

[jerrymc]

2. osCommerce can't run on itself - it has to rely on a range of other technology/applications such as MySQL (and dont tell me MySQL can run on windows -

 

Ken:

 

Of course MySQL can run on Windows and it is rock solid. I run MySQL on a production Win 2003 server and host db's for apps written in ColdFusion, .asp/.net and php (all of which also run on the MS server).

[GemRock]

...Of course MySQL can run on Windows and it is rock solid. I run MySQL on a production Win 2003 server and host db's for apps written in ColdFusion, .asp/.net and php (all of which also run on the MS server)..

i dont think you understand what is being discussed here and in particular what i was saying in my post. Ive run mysql on windows (albeit with apache NOT iis) for more years than you are a member of the osc forums. I said "dont tell me" because i knew it but the "focus", ie the main issues, must be on the differences between apache and iis where mysql runs. and i am NOT talking about MS servers BUT ms IIS, so what you say is irrelevant.

 

Ken

[JakeFromMSFT]

This is all good discussion. I've also received a number of replies from folks off-line about the future of osCommerce. It seems to me that there are a number of efforts working on moving osCommerce forward, all of which is good.

 

To Ken's points, yes, there are a number of technologies involved. PHP on Windows has historically not been a great performer on Windows, regardless of the Web server. This is being addressed (mostly in PHP 5.2.8 and 5.3)

 

IIS's interactions with PHP were handicapped by first CGI and then ISAPI as the methods for integrating PHP in. Now, FastCGI is available on IIS, which really smooths that part out.

 

MySQL runs fine on Windows. So does SQL and SQL Express. Getting osCommerce to work better with SQL and SQL Express is being worked on by another team here.

 

If anyone has any specific issues related to running osCommerce on Windows, I'd love to hear about them to make sure we're addressing everything we can.

 

The aspect of all of this that I am personally interested in relates to the installation of osCommerce (and other OS software). Right now, for a typical installation (and yes, I'm just talking installation, not any of the customization and store building that all of you do so well), you need to download the archive, un pack it, set up the database, set up file system permissions, and then run through the setup script. My goal is to turn that into "click a button to install osCommerce, and then go to the setup script". People building a storefront shouldn't need to worry about the individual directories, or interacting with the file system at all. We're just trying to make getting open source apps up and running on IIS (either with MySQL or SQL as the database, depending on the app and user input) simpler.

 

Thanks all for your input on this. The discussion is good, and always educational :D