I would recommend looking at X-Cart. It's a PhP/MySQL solution, and unfortunately it's not free ($185 I think) but it should suite your needs. http://www.x-cart.com OScommerce is another free solution, though I never had any success with it... Josh On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 17:51:58 -0500 nick phillips <np at f-matic.net> wrote: > an kinda OT question, but these seems a good forum to post it... > > i'm in the beginning stages of starting up my own used bookstore that > would (at least initially) sell solely online through existing retail > channels like amazon, half.com, abe.com, and so on. i've spent about > five years dealing with used books one way or another, and i've > encountered many book database systems, most of them windows-based, and > most of them fairly lacking in areas i would deem crucial to operating a > decent scalable bookstore inventory system (i.e. lacking flexibile > customization options, lacking a decent relational database system, and > lacking flexible export options that would allow you to format your > database to upload to more than one website, each of which accepts > fairly different file formats from UIEE, tab-delimited, etc.). > > anyhow, i'm looking around for an ideal database system that allows > flexibility for these options. i'd ideally like the system to run on > linux, mainly for expandability -- i'd prefer to avoid incurring extra > user fees each time i add a computer, and i'd prefer to avoid being > forced into upgrading my OS for windows updates -- not to mention the > other obvious benefits of using linux for business systems. i'd also > prefer to use an open source database, also for keeping operating costs > down. i'm not very knowledgeable on databases, and i've been doing some > research into MySQL and PostgreSQL. as far as i can tell, both of these > would provide a pretty robust DB system that could allow me to catalogue > books in whatever format i need, and could eventually also power a > e-commerce website should the need arise (which would be ideal, since i > could have realtime interaction between cataloguing books, accepting > online orders, and the central DB). > > however (and please correct me if i'm wrong), as i understand it, i > would need to first build my database in MySQL or PostgreSQL, then build > an application (in PHP or Perl or similar) to allow me to interact with > this DB? i'm not a DB programmer, so i imagine i'd have to hire someone > to build this for me -- can someone on this list give me a vague > estimate the cost of such a project? or does such a thing as a prebuilt > MySQL inventory system exist for linux? thinking ahead to opening a > retail location, are there any prebuilt Point-Of-Sale systems for linux? > i've done some googling, and found some old links to what look like > abandoned POS-on-linux projects. i'd really prefer to avoid windows for > this... can anyone offer me any advice? > > thanks, and please correct any of my misunderstandings. i'm fairly new > to DB software, but i know there has to be something out there better > than the Piece-of-Sh*t systems i've had to use in the past.. > > thanks in advance, > Nick > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list