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Looking for a StoreFront/RMS integration success story

We have recently purchased Microsoft RMS, LaGarde's StoreFront 6.0, and New West's RMS Web Integrator. Our web developers have been having no end of problems getting StoreFront setup. Service packs are failing, changing the source code and recompiling crashes the system, databases are getting corrupted, and can't get the Web Integrator installed. I'm not a web developer (I don't even play one on TV), so I have to go based on what my project team tells me, but they are not happy. My web developer is ready to pack it in, and we are seriously looking at getting our money back (only had the products for three weeks) and looking at another product (BVC 2004, AbleCommerce), if we thought we could find a better solution and could customize it to suit our needs.

I would like to speak with someone who has successfully implemented a retail store environment with RMS, then added a webstore to the mix with StoreFront and RMS Web Integrator. We are primarily looking for some advice and tips on avoiding our problems, but this could lead to a more formal business consulting relationship. We're not in the business of creating e-commerce sites, and I don't think we would be averse to bringing in a local consultant to help us with this.

I need to talk to a developer who has taken the products out of the box, installed them, and went through whatever trials and tribulations were necessary to get StoreFront and RMS communicating with each other. I am NOT looking to speak with someone who is a LaGarde or New West employee or is going to try to sell us their company line. Nothing personal, but if we were able to get our answers from their support departments, we wouldn't be looking for help here.

Bill Yater Application Developer The Worth Collection, Ltd.

10585 N. Meridian St Suite 240 Indianapolis, IN 46290 317.581.7370, extension 626
Reply to
Bill Yater
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Bill,

I can not offer a success story, but can offer our experiences with SF.

We have been a long time Storefront customer. Version 6 has been nothing but nightmares and lack of support to back up the troubled service packs so we chose not to integrate RMS with it. Aside from coding and memory management issues, I can say that the database failures for us are in direct correlation to the service packs' dbupdate.xml file not performing as it should. More recently the TransMethod field in the admin table, and the PaymentProcessors table not getting updated properly. Any time a dbupdate.xml file gets run, always check the database tables against a basic non-production database for inconsistencies. Prior to that there have been issues with the Stored Procedures not getting created and written properly especially if you are dealing with SQL 7.

By my understanding the New West integrator can work with many different web store types, not just SF6.

Reply to
root

Hi Bill,

What versin of SF6.0 (AE or XE) are you using? If you are using AE, then you can't change the source code; you can only do that with XE version.

Are you using the latest Service Pack 5 for SF6.0? And do you have the latested RMS Files from La Garde to make it work with New West's RMS Add on? There are two parts to the New West Add on, one part is to install locally on your RMS database server; and the other part are SF add on files that you installed on the server.

When you say databases are getting corrupted, do you mean both RMS database locally and SF database on your web host server? If it is local RMS database, then follow

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to fix it. If it is SF database, and you use a web host, then they should fix it for you or their server should have already caught the problem. Since you just bought your prodct from LaGarde 3 weeks ago, I would recommend that you contact their web based customer service support and have them check into your store set up. They can also check your RMS Files and make sure that SF database was updated properly to work with New West's RMS Add on.

Lastly, I have had great success with both LaGarde and New West Tech's technical support. I have only used email and live support.

If you go with BVC2004 and other, you will have to write your own custome codes to make it syncrhonize with RMS database (inventory, pricing, etc.); and I found SF6.0 to be a great product so far because they have many partners out there that make great add ons to their product.

You can always contact me by email if you wish.

Natt

Reply to
Natt

We are using StoreFront 6.0 XE. We have tried to run the service packs, and after several failed attempts (including one which crashed the computer to a point that it had to be rebulit), I believe we have it installed.

I don't know what files we need in the StoreFront database to work with RMS. As I understood it, the Web Integrator is desinged to be a bridge between RMS and StoreFront. We haven't been able to import any of our RMS items into StoreFront (we have a support call in to New West, and they are trying to find an answer from Lagarde)

Our RMS database is fine; it is the StoreFront database that gets trashed. We are hosting this ourselves, and all of our web work is being done in-house.

Setting up the page in DreamWeaver isn't a major problem, but if we so much as look at the source code funny or do a simple recompile, it all falls apart.

Our opinion of StoreFront's support could be charitably described as poor. Even with our extended support contract, it takes them days to respond to our issues, and more often that not it is the wrong answer. That is why we are looking for someone else to talk with.

The few happy StoreFront users I've spoken with are not doing the sort of enterprise-scale work we are doing. They are primarily using DreamWeaver or Frontpage for their work, whereas working with DreamWeaver is just the tip of the iceberg for us. Even the happy customers say that Lagarde's support is terrible, and you just have to be willing to live with a fair amount of trial and error.

We really need to talk with someone who has done more than a mom-and-pop site. We need a StoreFront power user, someone's who has done code customization, overcome the numerous defects and deficiencies in their system, hooked it up to RMS with the Web Integrator, and lived to tell the tale.

"Natt" wrote:

Reply to
Bill Yater

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