create a marketplace website like Amazon, eBay

[ansa]

Hi all,

I'm thinking to start this project, which is creating a marketplace website. On this website users are able to sell their products, just like on Amazon or eBay. But unlike eBay, it is not an auction. Users set their own fixed price (so, it's more like Amazon), and the product is online for a certain time. And unlike Amazon or eBay, this website is specialized only in particular product categories (which I will tell you later, if this thread becomes interesting).

Is there a finished software for this purpose, something like OS Commerce, which I can modify later?

I'm a database programmer, who happens to know PHP, HTML, CSS and a a little Javascript. But I don't know anything about those cute and modern web 2.0 scripts (scriptaculous, prototype, etc).

I think this project is too big for me to handle by myself. If any of you is interested to join in, we can discuss it.

By the way, this is supposed to be for German market (don't worry, I do the translation:P)

Thanks!

Andre

[Horus_Kol]

well... prototype and scriptaculous aren't web 2.0...

web 2.0 is community driven sites - like facebook, digg and librarything

prototype and scriptaculous are JavaScript frameworks which make it less tedious to do lots of neat things like Ajax and dynamic display - nothing scary about them if you are already proficient enough in PHP

[ansa]

well, I know that web 2.0 is user driven sites.

I mean, (almost) all web 2.0 websites use these Javascript frameworks, so that they can have the dynamic and pretty displays and stuff like that.

The website I want to build can be considered web 2.0, right? Since the users buy and sell products on my website.

How much do you think it's gonna cost if I let somebody else do it, either completely or partly? Start small and simple, at least for the basic functions, such as CMS for the users (profile, product uploads, etc).

Are prototype and scriptaculous the way to go? Do you have other alternative?

[Horus_Kol]

there are a bunch of frameworks out there - most recently I've been using mootools (http://mootools.net/) - but that offers different things and advantages to prototype, while prototype does other things better...


I couldn't really put a figure on the cost unless I knew exactly what you wanted and can do for yourself.

[ansa]

I've taken a look at these libraries (mootools, jquery, and prototype). I'm wondering if they are complement to each other, or there will be conflicts if I use all three on one website??

I think I'm going to try and do it by myself. It's gonna be "fun" for the next 3-4 months :P

[Horus_Kol]

There is likely to be conflicts - i'm pretty sure that mootools and prototype use the same names for some objects...

[ansa]

I just came across

Can I do this with drupal?

[Horus_Kol]

dunno - never looked at drupal...


well.. there are a bunch of e-commerce modules for drupal, so i guess yeah