Adding a shopping cart
 
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If you want to add a shopping cart to your Web site you can either build your own (very expensive and very time consuming), or buy a product and integrate it (usually expensive with high integration costs). In the latter category is a new offering called InTelaCart from Inline Internet Systems, which claims its product is low-cost and easy to integrate.
InTelaCart (www.intelacart.com/ ) is based on Inline's iHTML (Inline HTML) (www.ihtml.com/ ), a server-side programming language, which the company claims has a short learning curve, demands low integration and resource overhead, and is fast to implement.
InTelaCart runs on Windows NT, 2000, Linux and FreeBSD. It requires a database server, either Sybase, MS SQL, Postgres or mySQL; an ODBC Driver Manager; an ODBC Driver; and a Web server (Netscape, Microsoft IIS, Deerfield/O'Reilly Website, Apache and Zeus are supported).
The product can be implemented directly through iHTML or as a CGI application (which is slower).
All administration is Web-based, and SSL connections are supported through the host Web server. Inline also provides real-time credit card processing through a number of payment gateways (see: www.intelacart.com/partners.ihtml ).
Inline has acquired some providers that have implemented the InTelaCart system on an application service provider basis. Those currently include iBILL (www.ibill.com ) and PSIGate (www.psigate.com/ ).
The list of shopping cart features is extensive (see: www.intelacart.com/features.ihtml ) and the pricing is good: You need iHTML with a single site license ($195 per server) to run InTelaCart. If you want to do development you'll need the Enterprise version for $895, which also allows for unlimited servers.
On top of that, the actual cart system is sold based on the number of individual carts you use per server. The base product includes five carts for $300 ($60 per cart), with a sliding scale in which 100 carts would cost $1,500 ($15 per cart). Beyond that, volume pricing is available.
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Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World.
Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. Gibbs is also co-conspirator of the Vitally Important Information Web site.
Gibbs can be contacted at webapps@gibbs.com. Press releases to pr@gibbs.com.
Inline Internet Systems
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Network World, 11/26/01
