Orchard CMS Virto e-commerce module - asp.net

I developed previous web-applications with Orchard CMS and I enjoyed working with it. Now I started to create an E-commerce application and found out that Orchard has some modules for this so installed the Virto-commerce module but I'm starting to notice the lack of functionalities.
For example I can not figure out (lack of documentation) how to place attribute filters on de products page. Is it even possible?
Can the module be used to create a fully functional webshop like http://demo.virtocommerce.com/electronics/camcorders or is it very limited with just basic functionally?

The module for CMS Orchard is really simple and was developed only for demo-purposes - just to show that it is possible to use VirtoCommerce API with Orchard. So, for now this module has very limited functionality - only placing widgets on corresponding pages - and can not be used for creating a real-world e-commerce web site.
Actually we are open for your suggestions about integration VirtoCommerce and CMS Orchard.

Related

how can i add a functionality ( with the framework .net ) in shopify?

I has created eshop in shopify and I want to add a functionality ( with the framework .net ) in shopify but I don't know how....
I searched on the internet but I didn't find anything just I found this link from the ShopifySharp github but I didn't understand how to use it.
Who can help me?
https://github.com/nozzlegear/ShopifySharp
There are several possible ways to add functionalities to a Shopify shop depending on what you want to do.
They range from editing your shop's theme (mostly for simple needs) using html and/or js and/or and/or css and/or the liquid templating language (be careful though that any theme update may override your edits), to developing and hosting a custom app that would interact with your shop via a set of APIs (for more complex needs). Both techniques require a certain level of expertise (especially the later). See this very complete blog article for more info about how to build a Shopify app.
Basically you can build an app using any language and framework. The repo you found on Github looks like a C# SDK implementation of Shopify API. You are free to structure your app as you want provided you authenticate and communicate with Shopify using the possibilities offered by the API.

Is WordPress appropriate for building customized Web Apps

Our company is aiming to build an eLearning Website, we are a team of developers and our boss is suggesting using WordPress for it. We are experienced in building web apps using Codeigniter and Laravel.
I already know that we can build any type of web app using WordPress, but my questions is that is it appropriate using WordPress for building it, in terms of ease in teamwork, time, customization, easiness or anything else which you may suggest compared to usign Codeigniter or Laravel?
Yes definitely Wordpress would be a great platform to work in. Since it has extended its wings from a normal CMS to ecommerce, social networking and much more to come.
And about developing the eLearning site yes it would be definitely magnificent to develop it in wordpress as there could be some plugins for it or else you can develop one with ease.
Benefits of Working in Wordpress:
Large number of community members around to help you.
Your website will be most search engine friendly with it.
Really takes less time to develop any application because most of things are in built and you can also modify them to match your requirements.
Installation and migration is effortless.
It absolutely is suitable. There's several advantages:
Prototype can be developed in a number of days
Great for SEO since it's also a blogging platform. You won't have to code SEO friendly CMS by hand.
Possible to have a website front end that can compliment the webapp front end
JSON API is already done for you.
Lots of people are proficient with wordpress so it's not difficult to find staff further down the track
It can use a responsive design straight out the box
The JSON API can work with HTML5 mobile app API's like cordova and jquerymobile and onsen.

Is there an ASP.NET CMS that doesn't complicate the integration of Web Forms components?

Let me explain first that I'm new to web development and it's not my area of interest. A few months ago I made a quick research of various web technologies and I decided that I will learn ASP.NET - Web Forms. This has been working out for me for a simple site - I like the master pages idea and the modularity idea supported by custom controls. I made a few custom controls that I surely wouldn't find on the internet.
Problems began when I started to look for a blog that I could elegantly integrate into my existing master page with my existing themes and styles. The best thing I could find was BlogEngine.NET. But it is designed as a standalone blogging system, not as a control (I just want to display the posts and comments). Isolating what I want from the code base and integrating it with my web app is going to take unknown amount of work and time.
So I turned towards CMS with a blog - Orchard looked very promising. Then I realised that integrating my own Web Forms into Orchard is almost an impossible task for me (definitely not something I have time for). What do I think is the problem here? The CMS is not providing reusable components for easy integration in the spirit of Web Forms - it locks me in - as long as I stick to what they offer I am safe, but once I want to integrate my own Web Form - it's a no go.
So, do you know any NET CMS that allows integration of third party web controls just like you would do without CMS? Or better still - is just a collection of isolated, reusable components?
I realize this is an old thread, but don't know if you ever got the info you needed. If you are OK with commercial software, you might consider SiteFinity (by Telerik) as it uses master pages to generate layout, and webforms user controls for custom code. If you are more in need of an open source/free product, you might consider looking at MojoPortal or CarrotCake CMS.

Dot net nuke without module development?

*This is more of an architecture level question.
I am new to DNN development , we are trying to build an e-commerce site which will showcase all the products which will be tied to our current order database.
Am I wrong in assuming that any custom development that I do via DNN would be in MODULE form ? I created few custom module (i.e. list of products) which would tie to database in code behind and display data from SQL. This seems to be very heavy approach if I have to make modules for every functionality.
Is there a better way here ? Can I (is it recommended) to directly change the DNN pages to accommodate this type of functionality ?
UPDATED
Is it possible to do development without moduels ? i.e. provide code right in the html text editor or something. If i create new module from DNN template then it adds many files ....that is why it feels heavy
It is strongly recommended that you not directly change DNN. This will make it very difficult to apply upgrades to DNN and cause headaches for whoever maintains the site after you.
The main extensibility point in DotNetNuke is the module. The module is just some executable controls that you can place on any page. It shouldn't be significantly heavier than any other approach you would take. Whatever you want to do in DNN itself, you should be able to do in a module, and just place the module on a page.
You could also potentially have some of your functionality in the skin, rather than the module, if that is easier or makes more sense. Generally, the skin has functionality that is shared across most pages in the site, and module are used to place specific content on specific pages.
If you're looking for something simpler, you might try using the core reports module, which will allow you to style the results of a query from the database (if you don't need the interactivity that a module would provide).
Your good options are as follows
Build a separate Web Application for your e-commerce, but provide heavy inter-linking with the DNN site. With this method, DNN would be used for content.
Purchase a third party e-commerce module-set like SmithCart and try to configure it to meet your business model
Build custom DNN modules
Our current project utilizes option #3. We have 25,000 products and about 3,000 product listings with heavy customer-customization functionality.
While it might seem heavy, as in, a distinct module project per section of e-commerce, it doesn't have to be too complex.
Example Modules:
Product Listing
Product Details
Shopping Cart
Order Checkout (we split this into 4 modules)
Search Module
Search Results Module
You can use URLRewrites to map all your products to the same DNN Page/Module.
As a result, we really have very few non-content DNN pages.
In summary, it might feel a bit heavy, but with the proper design it can go rather smoothly in comparison to a separate web app.
There are ways to use existing DNN features without module development. You can do it by adding a sub application in your folder.
For example, you can look at http://www.firstphera.com/GiftRegistry/Index.aspx, FirstPhera.com is a main dnn application and folder GiftRegistry is a pure asp.net sub application that uses dnn's providers to deal with database. Custom implementation of registration and login was the only thing that was challenge, everything else working fine.
But If are building an e-commerce application, at long term you will get benefit from module development way.
It is not strictly necessary that you create separate complected module like you shown in screen shot. If you look at blog module, it has feature like latest blogs, search blog, archives etc are all implemented in single module.
It is also possible to create a single module with related features in dotnetnuke using the technique called ModuleDefinitions. Look http://lakhlaniprashant.blogspot.com/2010/04/dotnetnuke-what-is-module-definition.html.
I would strongly recommend to visit NBStore source code if you want to understand the e-commerce related module development in detail.
Please let know if you have any other question.

CMS - Alfresco, Magnolia, Drupal and Joomla Comparison

I am comparing Alfresco, Magnolia & Joomla especially specific to following features:
a. Ease of Integration of user created templates.
b. JCR (JSR-170?) or CMIS compliance.
c. Scalability in architecture.
d. Mobile site deployment.
I used cmsmatrix.org to compare features but I could not get some of the specific information related to above mentioned points.
Any insights based on your experience on working with one or more of the above CMS products will be helpful.
Thanks,
Krish.
While these four products are branded as CMS I don't think they are really comparable. Drupal and, for what I know, Joomla are web publishing CMS (or WCMS), they are designed to create web sites and manage their content. They are not designed as generic CMS, DMS or ECM. Alfresco, and probably Magnolia, are ECM/DMS designed to manage enterprise contents.
For instance, while manageable in Drupal (given enough effort and custom PHP code), complex multi-states multi-actor workflow for multilingual documents (PDF, Office, etc.) are probably easier to manage with Alfresco. And Alfresco is probably not suitable to manage web content with lightweight publishing workflow and user generated content.
Having the managed content published on a web site does not means it has to be managed by the same tools that the one used to manage the web site. For instance, using the Drupal CMIS module, you can bridge it with Alfresco (or any CMIS compliant ECM) to manage your enterprise content in the suitable tools but publish parts of it on a Drupal site.
Summarizing inputs I received here along with what I found in my search from various discussions so far (thanks #mongolito404 and bkraft).
For web content management features - Drupal / Joomla is recommended.
For Enterprise Content Management / Document Management features with minimal web publishing features - Alfresco / Magnolia is recommended.
For specific requirements the best of different tools can be used - Drupal to publish web content via CMIS support. Alfresco as solution for workflow & document management.
Alfresco already supports & continues to have CMIS in product roadmap (contributes to CMIS community).
Drupal is CMIS compliant (OOTB) with strong web content capability.
Leveraging best of both (Alfresco & Drupal) could also be one of the options depending on the requirement. Refer: http://www.optaros.com/blogs/drupal-alfresco-integration#
Another interesting option seems to be Liferay (v6+ specifically) with their CMIS integration capability: http://www.liferay.com/web/jonas.yuan/blog/-/blogs/integrating-alfresco-through-cmis-in-liferay
Thanks,
Krish.
Can't speak for the others, but from Magnolia's perspective, ease of integration is certainly a core feature. It runs on the Java platform, so integration is a given from the platform side. In addition Magnolia has been rated the most flexible CMS on the market today by independent analyst Tony White of Ars Logica download his free report (always worth a read, and other reports are also available).
JCR: Magnolia is based on JCR, and was so since the first line of code
CMIS: not implemented yet, but planned for Magnolia 5 to be shipped late this year
Scalability: Magnolia's got it covered. See our case studies
Mobile site deployment: again, comes naturally to Magnolia thanks to its architecture and rich out of the box functionality.
Regards
- Boris
Update: CMIS is available as a community module since Magnolia v4.5

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