E-commerce Catalog
I designed and developed the first version of Acro Media's AcroCommerce catalog system (now called storeBox). The goal of this suite was to replicate the best features of other e-commerce systems, including those custom developed by Acro Media and "off-the-shelf" products developed by other companies, while eliminating some of the poorer design elements of these other systems.
Front-end
The front-end of the catalog system consists of the published catalog, a shopping cart application, and a checkout. The published catalog presents product summaries on a per-category basis, as well as a "more details" view on a per-product basis. Different variations can exist on a single product (i.e. different size and colour combinations), which further streamlines and simplifies the catalog.
The AcroCommerce catalog is published to static HTML files, which allows it to be indexed by search engines and more quickly returned by the Web server. Using client-side javascript, these published pages nevertheless keep a running tally of the user's shopping cart contents and subtotal. A search feature is available for finding specific and related products.
The shopping cart is used by the online shopper to add and remove products to be purchased through the checkout application. This checkout application verifies the validity of the credit card (using the LUHN formula) and, if applicable, communicates with the banking network via a secure payment gateway to pre-authorize the purchase amount on the user's credit card. The order is then stored for management via the back-end tools.
Back-end
The back-end tools are integrated with AcroNet, Acro Media's secure extranet. Using this system, employees of a client company can log in to manage the various facets of the online catalog. A catalog manager is used to add, edit, and remove categories and products, as well as publish changes to the front-end.
A tax manager is used to add, edit, and remove primary and secondary (if applicable) tax rates for various provinces and states. An order manager application is used to fill or credit orders, as well as review orders for accounting or market research purposes.
If the catalog is configured to use a secure payment gateway, filling an order automatically transfers the purchase amount to the client's merchant account, eliminating the need for any off-line transaction settlement.
