Perl / CGI

2.1 Client Requirements
Client want to develope a online shopping portal for selling posters using C#, and SqlServer-2000. He offers over 100 different frames and 150 mats in online frame shop. Once in the frame shop user should be able to use 3-step frame tool. Start by choosing a frame moulding. user can choose to view them by price, material, and color. If user clicks on the frame image the frame should be graphically rendered around the selected item.Next choose mats. Mats can be selected by color. Finally choose the type of glass user would like. client want to We offer canvas transfer services on many of the posters and prints. 3 options are available for canvas transfers. Canvas Transfer Only: Item is shipped rolled without stretchers. Stretch and Mount: Canvas is stretched and mounted on a custom made wooden frame backing. The canvas is wrapped around the sides and stapled to the wooden backing on the back (museum style mount). Transfer and Frame: Most all transferred prints can also be framed. No matting or glass options are available for framed canvas transfers. The whole site should be managed by superadmin with different rights to admins at different levels. There should be a proper time management for serviced items and non serviced items.

2.2 Our Approach
The whole site is devided into 2 parts

1. User Side
Displays different poster, frames, mats, glasses available for users to select. It deals with users registration, Authentication, shopping cart, search functionality, categorywise sorting, data filtering.

2. Admin Side
Admin part manages product managenment, order processing, Batch processing, Payment transactions, Shipping sizes management, database utilities.

2.3 Technology Used

3.1 System Feature 1
Object Oriented Programming with class hierarchy is used to manage all database tables. Microsoft.net provides facility for creating custom components which are used in dynamic management and control of the site. Web User controls are created for common functionality through out the site.

Image processing was an important aspect of the whole site. Seperate module is created for managing image processing of frames and canvases. Service items images are created at run time for any frame or canvas selected for any poster.

Separate modules are created for Authentication, User registration,Order processing,Shipping Management, Shipping cost calculation. Variable shipping costs are calculated for different frames and canvas material.

3.2 System Feature 2
Sql Server-2000 is used as backend database. Sql Server-2000 gives optimum performance with Microsoft.net. Microsoft has written separate classes for Sql Server database interaction which helps in faster retrival of data from database. Sql Server supports stored procedures which are used throughout the site for data manupulation.

4.1 User Interfaces
This is an interactive site developed in C#.Net,Sql Server-2000 for buying posters online. Users can select different frames of different material,price range and color. Users can go for different canvases,mats, glass available with any image. They can stretch existing images to fit there requirements. They can view complete frame before placing an order. Creating frame view with different images, for different canvases was a crucial part of this project which involved lot of image processing work. Different shipping prices for products depending on there frames,canvas selections are calculated. Different sorting options are available for users to view data. Different custom controls were developed to easily maintain site. Database driven stored procedures were written to manage different database activities.

All posters are separated in different categories like Animals, Art,Celebrity Photos, College, Education, Fantasy, Flowers, Humor which are again devided into different subcategories. This helps users to reach their desired poster very easily. Search option helps users to search for any poster if they donot know posters categories and subcategories.

Search results can be filtered for different conditions like Min Price, Max Price,Width range, height range, Poster Type,Poster Orientation like Portrait, Landscape,Square. Results can also be sorted in different order like Alphabetical order, Newest Items, Most Popular items, Order by Price.

Every user must create an account with buyposters.com before purchasing anything from site. Creating an account helps users to track their orders for shipping. It also helps users in getting address details quickly. users will come to know about different schemes from emails and newsletters from buyposters.com

Different frames of different material,price range and color are available to create framed posters. Users can go for different canvases,mats, glass available with any poster. They can stretch existing poster to fit there requirements. They can view complete frame before placing an order.

Product price changes for every frame selected. frame details are also displayed in shopping cart.

Site Administration
complete site is managed by superadmin with full rights. Following image shows inventory management from admin side. Admin can filter the products by different suppliers available, dropshipped items, discontinued items. Admin can edit any product he want by selecting the checkbox in ID column and updating any of the columns he want. Admin can also export selected products in Excel or csv format. To add new products in database admin will upload a csv file in proper format to the server. The uploaded file will be processed on the server to add new inventory.

Database Updater Utility
It is always easy to take database backup in csv,excel format at regular interval. These files will be used as reference in future in case of any failures. Admin can also upload new data in csv,excel format. Admin has to set upload criteria before uploading any file to server.

Orders Management
All pending orders are displayed in Orders Management screen. Orders can be sorted on order status, services whether order items are serviced or not, different product types, suppliers for order items, payment types, shipping spots. Orders are clubbed together and batches are created. The idea is to group order items with common interest, like all serviced items will be added in one batch.

Batch Management
Every batch will be shipped after collecting payments from the users credit cards. Each batch will be assigned a tracking number given by shipping company. These tracking numbers will be emailed to customers to track there orders online.

Ready to Ship Items Management
This screen displays batch items which are ready to be shipped. Their tracking numbers are already assigned and emailed to customers.

Shipping Sizes Management
Shipping cost depends on product dimensions. products are differentiated into different sizes depending on their dimensions. Larger the product dimension higher is the shipping cost. Admin can edit any shipping size or add new shipping size.

4.2 Software Interfaces
Exceed component is used for zip, unzip utility used in database backup.
Payment integration with Authorize.net is done for orders and transaction processing.