Guest Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 I dont know how many of you have ever used Miva Merchant before, but as a current user I have found many flaws in Miva Merchant to which sent me out looking for other options, and ultimately brought me to osCommerce. The following is just a short list of my compares and contrasts betwee the two. Miva The Good - Large availability of 3rd Party Modules - OpenUI for ease of adding 3rd Party Modules - Integrated Admin with User / Pass protection built in Miva The Ugly - Miva Script (formly HTMLScript) A headache compared to PHP - XDB (Flat File Databasing) If you know much about what 17000 products looks like in flat file, then you know what im talking about. - Hard to change the over all template layout with out serious modifications - Expensive Modules. Unless you have cash to burn on a upstart website, then you might want to stay clear of Miva Merchant. - With out modules your stuck with a basic layout and lack of features. Keep in mind for the following that I haven't "fully" explored the potential of osCommerce yet. (only been using it for 2 days now but have still ran into some things that have bothered me with Miva Merchant. But have also found some things that I have liked. Most of anything this is constructive critism, not meant to be trolling. osCommerce The Good - It's Free (You can't complain about free) - Feature rich Even with out the Contrubutions the base setup is full of features that would cost you a pretty penny in Miva. - PHP / MySQL What better combination could you ask for. Speed, Ease of modification and Open Source. Did i mention that both are also free! osCommerce The Ugly - Lack of a stable release (all in due time I know =P) - No basic install that allows you to add multiple products. (Found Easy Populate to be rather quirky) - Attributes system seems like it needs some major overhauls. - Review system maybe should have a admin accept a review before it is posted on the site to keep people from posting foul language? A safe guard to keep people from defouling your website. - credit card info saved in the database without any encryption? (I'm not really sure on the security issue of this but seems that this would be very insecure. I'm sure I could sit down and poke at both these ecommerce scripts even more and find little things I didn't like about both, and things that I like about both. But I would rather see what you have to say. Let me know how you feel about the two, if you've used both... or in fact if you've used any other ecommerce scripts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 What have you found in Easy Populate that is an issue? I am using it pretty much exclusively to load my products and the only issue I am having is html in the description, and for now I can live without that. There are contributions (free) that should handle the Attributes issues. There is a contribution that handles the review system, I think. It was talked about at least. Debbie [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 I TOTALLY SECOND the Miva Merchant comments. I HATE IT after using it for about 1.5 years and spending $100's on modules. There is more support HERE than on Miva for sure. I will FIGURE OUT this OSC and I will never spend a dime on modules or modifications again. MIVA HAS PRICED themselves OUT of the E-commerce industry, when things should be getting cheaper, they were raising their prices and Starbase 21 wants $125 just to TALK to you about your store. NOT GOOD!! Miva is also VERRYY SLLLOOWWW even with the compiled version it isn't 1/4 as fast as OSC. I like the CONCEPT of Miva, but the application fell way short. Not to fault the guys, they filled a niche for a time, but if I were Joe, I would be taking a very serious look at OSC for future integration into my company!! I DIDN'T KNOW you couldn't use HTML in the descriptions with EasyPopulate. I kind of need that, does anybody know how to download a sample file with the other contribution options for upload/download in mass?? I found the ones to IMPORT, but I HAVE NO IDEA how to lay out the spreadsheet or what the header row needs so I can import. Currently with EP I get: ***************************** Easy Populate 2.41beta7 - Default Language : English(1) Warning: Unable to create '/catalog/temp/Book1.txt': No such file or directory in /home/solvers1/isaiah54-www/catalog/admin/includes/functions/general.php on line 789 Warning: Unable to move '/tmp/phpqTRGIk' to '/catalog/temp/Book1.txt' in /home/solvers1/isaiah54-www/catalog/admin/includes/functions/general.php on line 789 File uploaded. Temporary filename: /tmp/phpqTRGIk User filename: Book1.txt Size: 15618 Warning: file("/catalog/temp/Book1.txt") - No such file or directory in /home/solvers1/isaiah54-www/catalog/admin/easypopulate.php on line 621 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/solvers1/isaiah54-www/catalog/admin/easypopulate.php on line 625 Upload complete ***************************** I TRIPLE CHECKED to make sure the /catalog/temp/ directory was there and that it was CHMOD to 777. I even uploaded a file there with my FTP and checked the permissions through my ISP control panel. I have followed the directions EXPLICITLY in the EP documentation and made sure I have the header row, the columns are all in the right order, etc. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I DO HAVE HTML in the description, I will go remove that and see what happens. ALSO DO SPECIAL CHR's (<*", etc break this thing? Please HELP!! Thanks, Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Look in easypopulate.php and scroll down to where you should see /catalog/temp and make sure that is set correctly. It is telling you that it can't write to the temp dir so it can't complete the upload. Is your temp folder "temp" or "tmp"? Look at your error again. And other people may have figured out how to upload html, I was specifically having problems with urls. Tags work fine. [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 The documentation says "/temp/", that's what I did. But the error on the second line says cannot move "/tmp/..." Now I am confused, I set it to TEMP, should it be TMP, even though the documentation says specifically TEMP??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Yup, that's confusing! I didn't have a problem so I am stumped. Maybe Tim will check in and have a suggestion, or one of the other EP mega users. deb [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harald Ponce de Leon Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 osCommerce The Ugly1. Lack of a stable release (all in due time I know =P) 2. No basic install that allows you to add multiple products. (Found Easy Populate to be rather quirky) 3. Attributes system seems like it needs some major overhauls. 4. Review system maybe should have a admin accept a review before it is posted on the site to keep people from posting foul language? A safe guard to keep people from defouling your website. 5. credit card info saved in the database without any encryption? (I'm not really sure on the security issue of this but seems that this would be very insecure. 1. We're working on it ;) 2. Could you explain how Miva does this? (screenshots would be nice) 3. Yes, this is planned for post 2.2. 4. I think this is waiting to be commited 5. This relies solely on the module. Currently no module does encryption/decryption in the database though will be looked into. , osCommerce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 osCommerce The Ugly - Lack of a stable release (all in due time I know =P) - No basic install that allows you to add multiple products. (Found Easy Populate to be rather quirky) - Attributes system seems like it needs some major overhauls. - Review system maybe should have a admin accept a review before it is posted on the site to keep people from posting foul language? A safe guard to keep people from defouling your website. - credit card info saved in the database without any encryption? (I'm not really sure on the security issue of this but seems that this would be very insecure. That's one thing i can definitely say about osCommerce - it builds character. I've been frustrated, angry, pissed off - but did not give up. Not bad at all - I now recommend this to everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Zero: There is a CONTRIBUTION to allow/disallow reviews before they post to your site in that section. There are about 400+ FREE MODULES HERE: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions Harald: Don't worry, you have MIVA BEAT hands down by about 20 fold. There is nothing to see it is just an upload dialog. All they do is have a script based upload just like we do on the install script for the database, you can upload tab delimited files. I have torn Miva completely apart, modified scripts until 4 a.m. for months with that thing. I have been about 4 days on OSC and I have accomplished MORE in that 4 days than I did in 4 months with Miva. I LOVE OSC SO FAR!! Jay :P :P :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I am generally pretty mild with my comments for something I dislike if I comment at all .. but I have to say .. I think Miva is the devil :evil: They charge for the cart, charge for updates, charge for modules, charge an arm and a leg for customer support (which didn't even have a toll-free phone number until a couple of months ago) and their customer 'forum' is still a thread list that you can't find anything on. Modifying the look .. that's a whole other bag of worms. Oh yeah .. and now their 'conferences' at $200-$500 bucks a shot .. talk about raping the customer. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying for things .. except when they aren't worth the gun powder it would take to blow them to H*LL . I have tried to get a hosting customer of mine to switch to osC for several months now and even offered to manually put all of their products in for FREE .. but they won't do it because it would cause their customers to get new login user/pwd combos :shock: Sorry for the rant, and I will re-clarify that this is my opinion, but I just find it so difficult to understand why people choose Miva at all. -caz .. devout osC'er Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 You can't export the customer information? [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I was actually told (by Miva) that their database was proprietory and I couldn't export/import into anything else. I later found that they lie to you so you don't try to switch. So evidently there are ways to export their data into something convertable, but I am guessing that even if I got the customer info out (and into osC) that their passwords would not work . If anyone has any info to the contrary, I would be much obliged ;) I had all but given up on the idea and told my customer that I could no longer support their cart .. they would have to go throught miva. -caz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemonj Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 EasyPopulate does allow HTML in the product descriptions. As for your errors, check your EasyPopulate.php file (should be in your admin folder) and verify at the top (after the revision list) you have the following: $tempdir = "/catalog/temp/"; $tempdir2 = "catalog/temp/"; "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - A. Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 I can get html tags in OK, but I am having trouble uploading URL's. Are you able to upload URL's and have them work and not converted to something like "? [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 Sorry, the was the problem we fixed :oops: I meant to say that even with a full a href statement and http:// path I am getting urls that tag on to the end of the store url instead of just the a href url. [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 Caz At one to time there was an import/export script for miva that would dump product data to a flat line text file or a access spread sheet. This could be adapted to dump customer data. Its been a while since I worked with Miva so I do not know if thay encrypt password. I also had a open source DB editor so you could edit the DB's diretly. I will look and see if I have it archived some where. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 Its been a while since I worked with Miva so I do not know if thay encrypt password It's worth a look ;) Thanks Tom ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemonj Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 I can get html tags in OK, but I am having trouble uploading URL's. Are you able to upload URL's and have them work and not converted to something like "? You have to edit EasyPopulate.php and comment the section of code that does that translation. Search for the " and there are about 5 lines to comment out and then all should work well for you. "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - A. Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnieO Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 easypopulate seems to download the text files with descriptions that contain html just fine. However, when I upload the EP file again, most of the products that contained html in the description no longer show up in the catalog. Out of desperation I commented out the 5 lines containing " and tried it again. Same deal. It downloads with the html, but it doesn't show up upon upload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 I agree that Miva will suck you dry. There are plenty of modules, but they all cost money. By the time you pay for all the things you need to have a good cart, you have a lot of money invested. I have been playing with OSC for a few months now, and I think that it beats MIVA hands-down. MIVA is nice because it is stable, but the basic cart will not do much without buying a bunch of add-ons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasson65 Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 easypopulate seems to download the text files with descriptions that contain html just fine. However, when I upload the EP file again, most of the products that contained html in the description no longer show up in the catalog. Out of desperation I commented out the 5 lines containing " and tried it again. Same deal. It downloads with the html, but it doesn't show up upon upload. Hi, Tim the EP author here, derelict in duty... Anyway, I'm here now. I'm going to test the html today and see what's going on. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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