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Hello fellow Daniwebians, I'm on the hunt for an eCommerce solution that my selection of keywords just can't seem to find.

I'm trying to find a framework to create an eCommerce website driven by my own database (contains price, shipping, details, etc.. itself). Pretty much hoping for a framework that allows all product info to be stored/removed from my DB and simply display and sell those items online. I don't want to synchronize, instead just want to run directly from my DB.

Hope I described this concisely enough. If need be I can reinvent the wheel, but the goal is to not do that (which is what my next line of questions will be about if there is no such framework).

Any ideas are much appreciated!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by PsychicTide

Dani AI

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As described, the aim is a storefront that reads and sells directly from an existing product database (no sync). That model is fine, but it requires defensive design: treat the DB as authoritative while decoupling schema changes, make writes transactional and idempotent, and expect concurrent updates from other systems. ’s point about extra operational work is relevant—push complexity into well-tested layers rather than sprinkling business logic across the UI.

Practical patterns to apply: introduce a thin adapter/DAL or small service that maps legacy tables to a stable domain model; expose reads through views or read-model tables so the UI isn’t tied to raw normalized schemas; and funnel writes through stored procedures or a narrow API that enforces validation and transactions. Implement optimistic concurrency with a rowversion/timestamp column to detect collisions, for example:

ALTER TABLE Products
ADD RowVersion rowversion NOT NULL;

During checkout, hold a short-lived reservation rather than immediately decrementing stock. A compact reservation table keeps holds explicit and rollbackable:

CREATE TABLE InventoryReservation (
  ReservationId UNIQUEIDENTIFIER PRIMARY KEY,
  ProductId INT NOT NULL,
  Qty INT NOT NULL,
  ExpiresAt DATETIME NOT NULL
);

Operational and safety checklist: use least-privilege DB accounts and parameterized queries; enable connection pooling; add audit columns to record which system made changes; monitor locks and long-running queries and tune indexes; cache product pages but expire caches on key updates (TTL or DB-change notifications). For schema evolution, use migration scripts and backward-compatible adapters; stage rollouts in a mirror environment before touching production.

If a how-to is produced (as mentioned), make it focused: show schema-to-domain mapping, a minimal DAL/service example, the transactional checkout pattern with reservation + rollback, tests simulating concurrent updates, and a short runbook for stuck reservations or rollback scenarios. Concrete examples and test cases will help future readers more than a broad, theoretical guide.

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maybe I could use phpmyadmin as a base? Problem is, seems that works with MySQL, but I need MS SQL... hmm

Edited by PsychicTide
Member Avatar for Dani

Hmm .... sorry, I don't really know of any that are self-hosted, but may I ask why you want to self-host your eCommerce solution instead of outsourcing to something like Shopify? It can turn into a pain with having to deal with SSL certificates and credit card processing.

Member Avatar for PsychicTide

Sorry, I just noticed this post was replied to. Thank you for the response. I'm stunned that someone of your esteemed regard would be interested in this post. I had taken a look at shopify, but it doesn't seem to fit what I was needing (from what I could tell).

The company I decided to take this job for had created a localhost driven program to store and sell items through ebay, hence having to work with a previously created MS-SQL Server DB (not a fan of non-open-source languages/frameworks I have found out). In this way, all updates can simultaniously be done on the new website, local database, and through an eBay account link.

I've found a fairly basic ASP.net (c#) example from the official ASP.net website to base my work off of http://www.asp.net/web-forms/tutorials/aspnet-45/getting-started-with-aspnet-45-web-forms/introduction-and-overview . With enough structure knowledge and perhaps constant finagling, it's not too much of a task to connect to and operate on remote and unique database schemata using .edmx generated source files (using Visual Studio Express 2013 for Web on this project). fortunately the client has decided to go with just paypal express (paypal account and credit cards) as the payment option, so credit card processing and SSL certs can be handled through them.

I noticed there are no tutorials for this type of situation in the eCommerce section. My goal is to create one once this project is completed in the next few weeks (specific to MS SQL Server anyway).

Edited by PsychicTide
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