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The DartCart™ makes e-commerce easy for the vendor and the customer. Database
data can be entered or updated using convenient forms, or pasted in and edited in the
tables directly. On the server, the minor changes, such as updating an items price, can be
quickly accomplished by simply editing a text data file. No need to upload or wait for an
online database to open.
The "Placement Manager" gives complete control of:
product placement in the category; and, category order in the store. Search engine friendly metatags are automatically generated by the
database. |
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Beta customers will be given free
support to get their stores up and running.
There is full documentation in PDF format. The FAQ below answers common questions to get
you started. Send us your questions or comments by email to
(Subject='DartCart Support') |
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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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| Q1) Why is the DartCart™ so
fast compared to conventional shopping carts? |
A1) The primary reason the DartCart™ is faster than
shopping carts is the 'on page' calculations which eliminates the time consuming page
loads and reloads of shopping carts. Typically, selected items are only displayed in
the shopping cart or basket forcing the user to page back and forth to remember the
selected items. The DartCart™ replaces the page loads with 'on page' mouse
clicks with immediate display of quantity and transaction amounts throughout the
order. This reduces the users time, uncertainty and mistakes allowing larger and more
accurate orders.
The figure below illustrates page load behavior of the shopping
cart verses category load behavior of the DartCart™. To add 10 items and display
the quantities and transaction amounts could be made with one page load
and 10 mouse clicks using the DartCart. To accomplish the same, a
shopping cart would download and display 10 product pages, 10
shopping cart pages, and requiring a minimum 20 mouse clicks. |
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The DartCart™ uses reusable scripts to generate the
pages. Once one category is down loaded, only the data, category template, and the images
need be down loaded for the new category making significant reductions in network load and
download time.
Additionally, if a category is revisited, the DartCart™
recovers the page from the browser's cache and posts the current item data on the
page. Shopping carts do not use the browser's cache. Pushing the browser's back button in
a shopping cart will recover an out of date and inaccurate page. Consequently, shopping
carts must go forward downloading additional pages which is more time consuming. |
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| Q2) The DartCart™
uses frames. Is it search engine friendly ? |
| A2) Yes! The opening frameset no frames page has a link
to the automatically generated store index page which is carefully designed for search
engine robots to follow to the individual products. The database automatically inserts
product page metatags generated from the store keywords, the product name and the product
description. When the product page is opened directly it automatically reopens in the
store. Additionally, a store button is displayed for opening the product page in the store
should it not automatically reopen. |
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| Q3) Can products be multi-homed ? |
| A3) Yes! Products can appear in several places in the
store. A unique Identifier in the database must be used for each. For example, if the
original position's Identifier is 9999 then 9999a, 9999b, 9999c ... could used for unique
Identifiers. In the "Sales By Product Report" the product's Descriptive Name
would appear in several categories with the sales for that category. Thus the most
effective product position in the store can be
determined.. |
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| Q4) How do I create my store? |
| A4) After installing the DartCart™ use
the Windows taskbar Start Button--> Program Files --> DartCart --> to open the
Data folder below: |
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Creating
your Store |
- The large product images (gif/jpg/png) for the detailed
pages are loaded into the Product Images Folder.
- An image editing program (IrfranView)
is used to batch create thumbnails of the product images named with prefix
"pre_"imagename in the Preview Images Folder.
- The product thumbnails are inspected for
quality and upgraded if required.
- Selected category images are copied from the
Preview Image Folder or created in the Category Images Folder.
- Optionally, larger or varying shape product images
"pic_"imagename are created in the Data/PicFormat Images Folder for display on
the Category Picture format Pages.
- Additional Tag Images are created in
Windows® Paint then converted to gif/jpg/png format and saved in the Tag Images Folder.
- The site background image is
customized to a watermark or preferred color and the text and color link colors are
specified to match on the Vendor Information form. Alternatively,
one of the presets can be used by executing a _UpdateB.bat file from the Buttons sub
folder.
- The Add Category input form is used to generate
the store categories.
- The Add Product input form is used to add products to
the store categories.
- The Placement Manager is used to rearrange categories
and products, if required
- The Add Currency input form is used for estimates of
local currencies.
- The Add Location input form is used to add locations,
taxes, shipping methods, and the local currency.
- Complete the Vendor Information including the account information conformational email preferences; the Store
Title, Description, and Keywords used in the metatags.
- Optionally complete the Accounting Integration for IIF import of Customers and Invoices into
Quickbooks®
- Optionally complete the Coupons Form to generate customer and affiliate coupons
- The Download and Uploads button is used to securely
upload the store to your web server.
- Make a few test orders and edit the
Templates for CGI or the templates for your Gateway to suite.
Product and preview Images are not
absolutely required and a default list format will be generated.
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| Q5) What is the exact format of the server settings on the Vendor Information Form ( i.e. no extra slashes
...) |
A5) Exact format of
example settings are:
| Server Settings Summary |
Field Names |
PublicHTML accounts |
VDS accounts |
| Web Site
Address |
http://192.168.123.100/~account1 |
http://dartcart.com |
| Server IP
Address |
194.168.123.100 |
75.87.209.211 |
| Server Path
Method |
PublicHTML |
VDS |
| Unix path to
HTML |
/home/account1/public_html |
/var/www/html |
| Unix Path to
CGI |
/home/account1/public_html/dartcart |
/var/www/cgi-bin |
| Relative Path CGI to HTML |
. (a
period only) |
/dartcart |
| Domain Name |
192.168.123.100 |
dartcart.com |
| Hyperlink
Prefix to Store |
192.168.123.100/~account1 |
dartcart.com |
| Server User Id |
account |
account |
| Server User
Password |
password |
password |
| Email Host Name |
smtp.xxx.net |
smtp.dartcart.com |
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| Notes:
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These may vary but the format requirements are the same.
See our Install Service to purchase, check your server's documentation, or ask your ISP
for Unix Paths and mail settings. |
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| Q6) Is it possible to update
the currency exchange rates without uploading the entire store? |
| A6) Yes, the following procedure is
suggested: |
- On the main form press the Downloads and Uploads
button and process/print any orders ... .
- Before answering yes to "Do you wish to create upload
files now?"; open the Currency Table and make the changes to the
exchange rates.
- Then close the table.
- Answer Yes to the "Do you wish to create upload files
now?" prompt.
- Answer No to the "Do you wish to begin upload
now?" prompt
- Transfer the file postax.js from local
folder C:\Program
Files\DartCart\DartCart\Data\unused uploads\upload_most_recent to the dartcart directory on the server using a
secure SSH client such as WinSCP.
- Check the site to verify the changes were successful. ( You
may have to refresh the browser frame twice to see the updated results.)
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Alternatively, you can just edit postax.js
file in the dartcart server directory using the WinSCP editor (F4).
The currency conversion factor immediately precedes the three character currency code. |
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| Q7) Is it possible to update
the price of one product without uploading the entire store? |
| A7) Yes, the following procedure is
suggested: |
- Determine the category sequence number ##
for the product using the Placement Manger. i.e. category sequence number
2 is 02
- On the main form press the Downloads and Uploads
button and process/print any orders ... .
- Before answering yes to "Do you wish to create upload
files now?"; open the Add Product form and make the change to the
item price.
- Close the form.
- Answer Yes to the "Do you wish to create upload files
now?" prompt.
- Answer No to the "Do you wish to begin upload
now?" prompt
- For the small store version transfer the file invoiced.js
from local folder C:\Program
Files\DartCart\DartCart\Data\unused uploads\upload_most_recent to the dartcart directory.
- Transfer the file cat0##d.js
to the dartcart directory and also to the dartcart/cat0##
directory on the server using a secure SSH client such as WinSCP;
- Check the site to verify the changes were successful. ( You
may have to refresh the browser frame twice to see the updated results.)
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Alternatively, you can just edit invoiced.js
(small store) and the cat0##d.js in the
server directories using the WinSCP editor
(F4).
The item price immediately follows the item name. Be sure to update the item price in the
database
to ensure the Edit Order Form verification calculations are in sync. |
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| Q7) Why can't Access display the
jpg/gif/png files on the product form? |
| A7) The text and graphic filters were deselected during the
Microsoft® Office install. |
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| Q8) It it possible to transfer a prior version of the database to a new computer running Windows Vista®? |
| A8) Yes! Prior versions of the dartcart.mde are fully functional in Windows Vista® and Access 2007®. Contact DartCart™ Support for the details. |
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