[TYPO3] TYPO3 viable as eCommerce system for Amazon-like webshop?

[Dmitry Dulepov]

Hi!

Daniel Smedegaard Buus wrote:
> I hear the learning curve is quite steep with TYPO3, but my feeling is 
> that this is due to the power and customizability of TYPO3, and not 
> because it is needlessly complex by design or something like that?

A number of reasons... Firsts, typo3 is very large. If you need a simple 
site, you can get it withing several days from the very beginning. But 
if you need anything beyond standard functionality, you may need to dig 
further into docs, experiment, look into source code, etc. Documentation
is excellent but one really need practice to work with typo3 confidently.

> I'm working full-time on the project, and the current release schedule 
> says a functionial test version should be running by March 1st 2007, and 
> hopefully a completed, well-functioning system by June 1st 2007.

This looks reasonable.

> I am 
> the sole programmer on this project, backed by my boss, who is project 
> leader and responsible for database design (will optimize, create stored 
> procedures, make sure the XAL system is synchronized, etc.), and the 
> webmaster, who has tons and tons of ideas, and is able to help with 
> diagrams and such, but not with any programming.

It does not look like you will really need database designer there 
unless you want to program own plugin.

> I haven't used TYPO3 before. I've installed it earlier this year for a 
> different project, and fiddled with it a bit, but then summer and new 
> jobs came, so I shelved it. Now I'm considering it for this project. Of 
> course, I need to get up to grasps with all the concepts of CMSes in 
> general, and TYPO3 in particular. So, it's basically a clean sheet for 
> me when it comes to using a CMS/CMF for developing sites, although I've 
> been doing PHP and MySQL on and off for some years now.

PHP/MySQL background is very good for understanding how typo3 works.

> That's what I'm hoping to hear. Not being familiar with how 
> CMS/CMF/eCommerce systems are built, one concern is whether or not I'll 
> be able to use TYPO3 as a base system to build this new "Amazon" without 
> having to make changes to core code, that is, by "playing nice" and only 
> using the API/modules/etc.

It is hard to say right now. I would first sit and write requirements, 
than go through each requirement and see if it can be fulfilled.

> One of the things that make me concerned about this is the need to track 
> every user's complete behavior. We want to record *everything* in the 
> database, so that when a new idea for semantic data analysis arises 
> (such as the ability to figure out what new books this user would like, 
> so that we can mail him and actually present him with something he wants 
> instead of just annoying him), we already have all the data about users' 
> behavior in the database. This may just be my lack of experience with 
> TYPO3 and the likes speaking, but I'm thinking that if this isn't 
> already a built-in feature of TYPO3, I'd have to mess around with the 
> core code to implement it?

Not really. There are PHP libraries that do it and I saw one of them 
integrated into extension. Not sure if it is still there but it should 
be possible to integrate easily. It showed paths through site, times 
spent on each page, etc. Nice thing.

> That may very well be. Also, these things don't necessarily have to be 
> existing already, as they're fairly simple to implement. Only thing is 
> that if they already exist, there's more time for me to do other things 
> - and not worry about not meeting a deadline ;)

typo3 has several extension for commerce. Oldest one is tt_product, 
newest is commerce but it is not ready for product yet. You may want to 
evaluate them all. If they do not suite you, you can do something on 
your own.

> It'd be great to see if someone has made something like this using 
> TYPO3... I'm just not sure if customizing an eCommerce system like 
> osCommerce makes more sense than starting from scratch in something like 
> TYPO3. And finding out for myself would mean having to climb the 
> learning curve on the latter option, perhaps to find that the former 
> option is the way to go, and having wasted a month in the process... Not 
> a nice prospective! :)

Try searching internet :) This is the only that I can say here.

> Again, thanks for your input!

You are welcome.

-- 
Dmitry Dulepov
http://typo3bloke.net/

"It is our choices, that show what we truly are,
far more than our abilities." (A.P.W.B.D.)