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[raustin3 AT nc.rr.com]

----- Original Message -----
From: Colleen McCarthy
> What is a connector in the context of ordering a product using the Web?

 Middleware (between browser and database)

>Is there a tutorial or material anywhere that someone could 
> point me to that
> speaks to designing the order entry components of a Web site?

 No clue.

> Is Flash the latest technology for creating a 
> professional/glitzy/sexy Website?

 Flash is self descriptive. Name says it all. This is irrelevant 
to e-commerce applications other than to add eye candy.

>  If someone who has been doing Web design and development for a while
> can could give an opinion of how Flash allowed them to create better Web
> pages I'd really appreciate it.  I know that Flash has been around for a
> while, but it seems that suddenly it has become widely used.

 I resemble a developer. The one thing I would suggest is that 
anyone developing an e-commerce application make sure it is very 
simple to operate. Nothing is more irritating than to get caught 
in a crummy catalog and/or shopping cart and being unable to 
complete the transaction without reading someone's mind.

 Middleware can be purchased as a package or developed custom. 
You can use almost any one of them since they are rarely moved 
or scaled. I've used ColdFusion, ASP, and others. Other people 
have used a variety of alphabet soup including PHP, JSP, .NET, 
J2EE, etc. It really does not matter much since much of it is 
based on the server platform and database. All do essentially 
the same thing with differences in the margins.

 Flash should be used by the marketing people to develop those 
irritating little intros to web sites. It is the outside layer 
of glitz, the last thing to worry about in e-commerce if you 
don't already have a working backend system in place.

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