Database design for ecommerce site

Hi Guys,

I am looking to design an ecommerce site with categorised products.
Once built, I want my client to be able to add additional categories and be abel to add their products into their chosen category.

Would I be best displaying this dynamnically after creating a table with the products category names in it or doing it static?

Also, if I wanted to show a different header / meta tags for weach category how would I best tie this in?

I have designed a few ecommerce sites in the past but have done it the hard way, creating each individual category page!

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated

 

Most of the databases I have seen have a table in it, say called categories. In this, it might have a category description, category title (maybe name to display if different than title), parent category (if you are supporting multiple categories), an order function so if the customer wants to order the categories a certain way, maybe to make the category active / inactive, and to show or not show on the home page

 

What Corey suggested is probably the best way to go. In addition to this, you can also put in a meta tag field to store meta information for individual categories.
Bye

 

great advice, thank you

How would I then best build the page that shows the products and differnent metas in each category?
I have done it the hard way in the past, creating static category pages.

 

You would use a server side language (ASP, .NET, PHP) to just pull the information from the databases

 

Why write from scratch? I'd look in to x-cart (paid), zen-cart (open-source) or one of the many other available off-the-shelf packages.

 

Check oscommerce.com, it is the best e-commerce solution with a massive forum and help there at your fingertips. I used oscommerce as the platform for my own online shop and we do very well.