I am trying to design a database that will completely automate my inventory for an ecommerce business. While this sounds fairly simple, what I want it to accomplish is not that simple. While I understand that almost anything is possible, I want to be sure I am not spinning my wheels with some aspects of this project. I am a novice programmer who is more than willing to learn what is necessary to accomplish this, but want to make sure that it is possible before I spend my time on this. Let me briefly describe what I have in place and what I hope to accomplish. I currently have three different mediums for selling my wares, a standalone site, a third party automatic Bot that sells digital media, and an eBay store. However, I am going to start by talking about the server choice.
I understand that eventually I will need to run my own web server. I have done so in the past for a very basic site, and would prefer not to have to get that going right away, as I remember this being a pain in the… I am currently using godaddy.com (I know boo urns….. but I have always used them and have never had a problem…). However, my domain/hosting is expiring soon and I am more than willing to switch if necessary. What I need is to be able to have my inventory database automatically update itself (every couple hours) from csv files that are stored on a machine of mine (more on this later). So I think I am stuck with setting up my own web server, unless someone has a way around this.
The standalone website should be the easiest to implement. I have it set up with osCommerce, which is a shopping cart that is written in PHP and uses a mySQL database. I have installed an add on to this chopping cart which can update from a csv file. However, this is not automated, ie I have to go to the back end and upload the file. I do not see this being too complicated, but it brings up the server question again. I could theoretically have the database create the csv file and save it on the server. So I do not think my own web server is necessary for this.
Next is my eBay store. I use Turbo lister for this, which can import, you guessed it, a csv file. However, this is also not automated and would need to be so. Turbo lister can be quite finicky at times, and so I might look to a different medium. Same thing I would have the database generate a csv file that could then be uploaded into Turbo Lister. However, the problem again is getting turbo lister automated.
Last, is a automated bot that buys and sells digital Magic The Gathering cards. This program, MTGO Library, was written in PHP and so this should be somewhat easy to work with. The program automatically updates a csv list (stored on whatever machine is running the bot) every time it makes a trade.
My goal is as mentioned above, as much automation as possible. So for instance if the MTGO bot sells a card, it will automatically let eBay and the standalone site aware of the transaction, so I do not sell the same card (assuming I only have one) to two different people. So long story short, two main questions: Is this possible? Do I need to get my own web server (Linux, I assume) set up in order to accomplish this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If there are certain functions or snippets that would help achieve this, I am not opposed to a push in the right direction.
Thanks for reading.
Is this possible...
Moderator: General Moderators
-
srikanth03565
- Forum Newbie
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:13 am
Re: Is this possible...
Hi
By seeing your question i understand that you want to automatically update your csv file to database.
This can be done in simply by using cron job or any other job scheduler.
I.e if you are using a linux machine you can use cronjob to set automatic job schedulling.
i.e you can write a simple script in php which reads your csv file and inserts data in database.
then you can go to cronjob command is like crontab -e
set what exact time you want to upload data this will uploads data automatically.
Other ways are like write a scheduler file and configure like it will reads from your action itself so that you do'nt need to write any code.
By seeing your question i understand that you want to automatically update your csv file to database.
This can be done in simply by using cron job or any other job scheduler.
I.e if you are using a linux machine you can use cronjob to set automatic job schedulling.
i.e you can write a simple script in php which reads your csv file and inserts data in database.
then you can go to cronjob command is like crontab -e
set what exact time you want to upload data this will uploads data automatically.
Other ways are like write a scheduler file and configure like it will reads from your action itself so that you do'nt need to write any code.