Subject: MiniVend 2.02 Shopping Cart
From: [email-masked] (Mike Heins)
Date: 7 Nov 1996 14:48:56 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.announce,comp.lang.perl.misc

ANNOUNCE: MiniVend V2.02 -- Powerful shopping cart package

MiniVend, based on Vend, Andrew Wilcox's fine shopping cart program, has
come out with a new release, Version 2.02. 

It will be available at all Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN)
sites in the directory CPAN/authors/id/MIKEH.

See info at:

               http://www.iac.net/~mikeh/mvend.html

-------------------------------------------------------------

    MiniVend V2.02

    Copyright 1996 by Michael J. Heins <[email-masked]>

    Largely based on Vend 0.2 Copyright 1995 by Andrew M. Wilcox
    <[email-masked]>

    Portions from Vend 0.3 Copyright 1995,1996 by Andrew M. Wilcox

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
    published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
    the License, or (at your option) any later version.

-------------------------------------------------------------
                       W H A T ' S    N E W

- Experimental mSQL support has been added, with a set of tag primitives
  allowing powerful SQL queries.
- CreditCard processing and validation has been improved, with embedded
  PGP encryption of credit card numbers in otherwise plain-text orders.
- Items can now be separately added to the order lists, allowing
  better control of item attributes (e.g. size and color)
- Embedded Perl now allows operations to be untrapped by the system
  administrator
- Search returns can be sorted on two levels, and can return
  non-repeating lists
- Search reliability and speed improved, with no database access
  required for many searches
- Multiple shopping carts allow buy/sell/layaway of items
- Automatic installation of File::Lock module on Solaris
- Hooks for CyberCash and other real-time fulfillment systems
- Many bug fixes

-------------------------------------------------------------

                        M I N I V E N D
                                       
   MiniVend is a full-featured electronic catalog system (commonly known
   as a shopping cart) with online ordering capability. It is designed to
   provide an interface complete with SSL security and full database
   support.
   
   MiniVend is freely-redistributable under the GNU General Public
   License -- you can download it via FTP.

   IMPORTANT NOTE:  MiniVend requires Perl 5.002 or higher and GDBM
   or DB_File databases. The program is no longer compatible with 
   NDBM or Perl 5.001.
   
    Features

    MiniVend is a full-featured electronic catalog system (commonly
    known as a shopping cart) with fast and easy online ordering. It
    is designed to provide an interface complete with SSL security
    and full database support. It is as powerful as commercial
    systems costing thousands of dollars.

    MiniVend 2.02 Features

       * Users maintain a "shopping cart" for ordered items
       * Multiple independent or shared catalogs allow one server
         to run many storefronts or a "mall"
       * SSL support means secure and practical credit card ordering
       * PGP support for secure off-site mailing of orders
       * Catalogs can be of almost unlimited size with excellent
         performance
       * Multi-server mode for very high capacity on systems with
         sufficient memory
       * Forked searches for consistent response time in single-server
         mode
       * Cookie support allows browsers to leave catalog and come
         back without losing session state
       * Complete addressable database support with virtually
         unlimited rows and columns
       * mSQL support (experimental in this version)

    Powerful search capability

       * Fast binary search
       * One-click scan and search -- build a whole search in a single HREF
       * Complete Glimpse interface
       * Range searching, numeric and alphanumeric
       * Search sorting with reverse, numeric and case-insensitive options
       * Independent field search selection and return
       * Search any file, build results from any database

    Complete control of appearance

       * Full frames support
       * Catalog pages automatically selected -- either built
         "on the fly" from the database or pre-made for popular items
       * The on-the-fly page is selectable from the database
       * Embedded Perl and conditional HTML allow complex and
         flexible catalog pages to be completely built from
         the database

    Flexible Ordering Process

        * Multi-level order screens with configurable field
          verification
        * Multiple shopping carts per catalog, allows both buy
          and sell operations
        * Shipping calculation, mixed modes, with UPS table lookup
        * Sales tax calculation, with fully independent non-taxable
          item and taxed shipping
        * PGP encryption of credit card information or
          the entire emailed order
        * Fully-configurable discounts with coupons or
          across-the-board discounts
        * Fully-configurable quantity pricing
        * Back end order entry capability
        * Full client-side imagemap support, including frame targets and form
          submits
        * Fully configurable order reports

    Easy Administration

        * Automated installation and configuration
        * Runs under Perl 5 and almost any UNIX
        * Designed to be secure, runs with taint checking enabled
        * Built-in online help capability
        * Offline database builds
        * Static page build for high performance
        * Works well with all browsers

    Andrew Wilcox wrote Vend, the copylefted shopping cart software.
    MiniVend is based on Vend V0.2, but enhanced considerably,
    adding support for frames, powerful searching, remote
    administration, superfast server mode, conditional HTML,
    user-customizable help and displays, and much more. This version
    of MiniVend includes an automatic configuration and installation
    utility, and continues to be free under the GNU copyleft.

    To learn more about MiniVend, see the HTML documentation, visit
    the offical MiniVend site, or download it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

                      A V A I L A B I L I T Y
                              A N D
                     C O M P A T I B I L I T Y

MiniVend has been well-tested on Solaris 2, SunOS, Linux,
OSF/Alpha, BSDI, and FreeBSD. The underlying Vend engine has
certainly been tested on several more OS versions -- and it
should work on any UNIX with Perl 5.002 or higher and GDBM or
DB_File support.

GDBM works best for most -- it is the fastest for import,
and most reliable.  DB_File is best for BSD operating systems.

IRIX 5 has problems with MiniVend -- it apparently has bugs
in the UNIX-domain socket code that were not yet resolved as
of this writing.

For Solaris 2, you will need the File::Lock module, which is
now included with MiniVend (installation is attempted).

Please let the author know if you have successfully run MiniVend
on any additional platforms -- patches would be appreciated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The author is very interested in learning your problems with
MiniVend, and is interested in clarifying the documentation for
future improvements.  (He isn't much interested in BEING your
documentation, though, unless you pay well and promptly.) Please
send kudos, comments, questions, and complaints to:

       [email-masked]