[ic] Deciding between Interchange and Miva (Questions)

[Jeff Dafoe]

> 1. How steep is the learning curve on this?  I have
> heard it's pretty high.  I have some perl/mysql
> background and a programmer I work with who has a lot
> more.  I've worked with programs using Template
> Toolkit and have some familiarity with that, which
> seems somewhat similar to how templates are used here.

    I have a pretty extensive background in TT also and Interchange does
have a bit of a learning curve, it really depends on how much you want to
customize the store past its default installation.  I can say that
Interchange's syntax is really nothing like TT's.  As for ease of
development, the store I did at www.subcultural.com wasn't too bad, the one
I am working on at shop.sophee.com was horrendous.  The complexity largely
depends on how much deviation there is from the sample Foundation store.

> 2. How easy is it to switch from one to the other, ie.
> if I decide on one and find it wasn't the right one
> for me, can the data be converted relatively easily
> from/to interchange/miva.

    It would be very difficult to switch between the two.

> 5. Can products be in more than one category?  And can
> there be additional levels of product
> groups/categories... In the demo I see product group
> which appears to be the first level of grouping, then
> category, which appears to be a subgrouping of product
> group.

    You can really customize it as much as you want.  I also think that the
product group and category select boxes in the default are multiselects.
You have to keep in mind that what you see when you look at the demo is the
Foundation demo cart and you can really do everything under the sun with
Interchange.

> 6. I didn't see anything in the demo for importing
> products.  Is there a facility to do this and can it
> handle both full imports (for updating everything on
> the site) and incremental imports (for just adding new
> products)?  And is it as simple as creating a text
> file, uploading and running an import program?

    I'll defer this to someone more knowledgeable, I have had bad luck
importing stuff.

> 7. I don't quite get the concept of having multiple
> catalogs vs subcatalogs.  Ultimately where I want to
> go is to have multiple stores (is that catalogs?) and
> within at least the main store, let vendors have
> access to their product data and reporting (is this a
> subcatalog).

    This issue can get complicated, it depends on whether everyone checks
out through one cart and how the orders are subsequently split and such.

> 8. Is is possible to have different templates for
> different categories.. for example in all of hockey it
> might use one template and another for football... and
> then say on the teams areas, it might use different
> css files for team colors and such?

    Yes.

> 9. How hard is it to add fields to various tables to
> be used either in the user side or the admin side or
> both?  For example, let's say I wanted to add a cost
> field that I can add to reports in the admin?  Or
> options fields for products?  Or say a vendor id or
> additional features for more product information?

    It's ridiculously simple, assuming you have shell access to your server.


Jeff