Meld Solutions Inc.

Meld Ecommerce for the Mura CMS ... it's about time

Yes, it is finally coming ... we are now in the process of building an Open Source Ecommerce solution for the Mura CMS.

While the initial version of Meld Ecommerce is going to address the most important aspects of web-based Ecommerce (product entry, organization, shipping, taxes, etc.), we will be focusing upon these fundamental objectives:

• Complete Mura integration
• Flexible product creation
• Extensibility through Mura Events and Meld 'addins'
• A high level of usability
• Shared resources with other Meld tools

Mura Integration

What this means is that content created in either Mura or Meld Ecommerce is compatible and usable by either application.  In other words, a user profile in Meld Ecommerce and a Mura Member profile will be one in the same, a file uploaded in Meld will be available in Mura, and so on.  This will make it easier to not only integrate Meld Ecommerce into your Mura site, but also maintain your content as a single, cohesive unit.

Flexible Product Creation

Products come in all shapes, sizes, and formats ... in the case of downloaded products, they don't have any shape or size at all!  For example, if you are selling shirts then features like fabric type, color, size or embroidered message might be important; if you are selling software then license type, then operating system and delivery method are a concern.

Meld Ecommerce makes sure that regardless of the style or type of product you are selling, you will have the ability to enter the content in a template that accurately reflects the options and aspects of the item.  To accomplish this, an easy-to-use graphically-based interface called "Form Builder" will let you easily create product templates to match the product's requirements.  Need your content entry people to select from a pre-determined list of fabric types?  No problem.  Need your visitors to be able to pick color, size or version?  No need to worry!  The integrated, rich application interface Form Builder will make product template creation a dream.

Exensibility

Added to the flexibility of product creation is an event-driven API interface for developers to add their own functionality to the product entry interface.  Developers will be able to add their own 'tabs' to the product entry form, then choose how entered information is displayed, affects cost  or shipping calculations, and so on.  For example, a developer could create a 'staff discount' plugin (lets call it "Staffy") that lets content entry managers choose what type of discount is applied to a specific product.  When a staff member is on the site purchasing a product, "Staffy" would automatically calculate and display their discount, include the discount in the final calculation, and save the results into the "Staffy" purchases ledger.

We will also have our own type of Meld Ecommerce-specific plugins, which we will be calling "addins" to avoid confusion with Mura plugins.  Addins are essentially self-contained tools that enhance Meld Ecommerce in some way.  Initially there will be support for "theme" and "payment processor" addins.  By dropping in one of these objects, new options will be available to the store owner.  For example, a "PayPal addin" would give the store owner the ability to add and configure their payment processing for use with the PayPal payment gateway.

Usability

We've always believed that an application, no matter how powerful, was useless if it was too hard to learn or use efficiently.  To address this, we have designed a specific set of "Use Case" user models that we will be designing Meld Ecommerce towards.  Theseinclude models like "Betty the Candle Shop Owner", "Kara the Graphic Design Studio Owner", and "Ray the ColdFusion Application Developer".   By designing our application around who we think will be using which sections of the application (and setting the 'usability' bar accordingly) we are hoping that each of these types of users will find their tasks easier to achieve.  That means from the template designers, web developers, ISPs and programmers whowill be setting up and supporting the site, to those who will be "left with the keys" once those others depart, we are designing Meld Ecommerce to be usable within the confines of their particular skill level.

Shared Resources

Meld Ecommerce is, as with other Meld Solutions products, going to be built upon not only the excellent Mura CMS foundation, but upon the Meld Manager foundation as well.  Meld Manager is going to consist of a wide variety of utilities and tools designed to make the Meld experience consistent, comprehensive and most important 'shared'.  For instance, Meld Manager: Profile will make it easy to manage the various types of people who interact with Meld software by having common screen names, login credentials and centralized permissions.  Meld Manager: Form Builder will give a consistent look and feel to the process of custom form creation.  Meld Manager: Gallery will allow sets of images to be shared across applications (and from within Mura itself).