Re: [dev] Suckless e-comerce script proposal

From: Bobby Powers <bobbypowers_AT_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2016 09:28:56 -0400

Hi Joseph,

Joseph Graham wrote:
> The principal is: most of the website is static. Static index pages. Static
> item description pages. The item description pages link to a CGI script* with
> an ID for the product in a query string. So for example
> /cgi-bin/order?item=burgundy_shoes_23

First, it sucks to expose the fact that you are using a "common
gateway interface" script to the user - Use a URL scheme like
"/checkout?item=dope_shoes" or something.


So what happens when you are out of stock on something? Do you
re-generate the static pages? Or do you throw an error when the user
tries to checkout? In the first case - you are re-generating (or
re-caching) HTML in response to a user request, in the second, it is a
sucky experience.

> Becuase payment is by bank transfer user's data does not contain any financial
> information, just address, name and email etc. However for privacy perhaps
> user's data can be encrypted with asymmetric encryption before writing to disk?

Bank transfer? How is depending on the user to visit another website
(which certainly uses JavaScript and all the things you are trying to
avoid) decreasing the overall suck your users are experiencing?

> -One CGI script, everything else static.

Hopefully you are generating/compiling this static content from
something, and not hand coding HTML on a ton of different pages.

> -Can only buy one item at a time, no shopping basket. For shopping basket we
> would need cookies.

Buy one thing at a time, and re-enter my info a bunch of times in a row? Suck.

> -Payment by bank transfer.

Ever wonder why existing web sites don't do this? Because it wire
transfers are terrible. Either you force users to use a bank website
(Cookies + JavaScript, so you have just lost your moral high ground),
or you force them to drive to a bank, or call up a bank. Such suck.


If you are just thinking of suck as internal implementation
complexity, you have the wrong mindset. You should be making APIs and
user experiences that don't suck, even if that means you have some
amount of (hidden to the user) internal implementation complexity. I
don't care that YOUR life sucks less, I want you to help me make my
life suck less.

Besides, if you expect users to fill out an identical form for each
item they want, and initiate a wire transfer on their own, you are
going to go out of business.

yours,
Bobby
Received on Thu Sep 22 2016 - 15:28:56 CEST