Should we buy Actinic catalog?

[Mark Leak]

We are looking to buy new e-commerce software, with Worldpay as our card processor. Would you recommend Actinic Catalog to us?

What are the pros and cons?


Thanks,

Mark
www.Britishcandy.com

[pinbrook]

To big a question!!

Maybe if you were to list your requirements we could tell you if catalog will fulfill them

[Mark Leak]

The most important issues are to be able to edit the templates to use our own website design and to integrate Worldpay with out too much trouble.

[Mike Hughes]

As we pretty much all use Actinic on this forum then I think you'll find we're mostly believers in it.

My pros and cons would include:

Pros:

1. Works well.
2. Produces static HTML. Fast and search engine friendly.
3. Integration with a number of PSPs (including worldpay) is built in.
4. Templates can be modified quite easily.
5. Includes order processing.


Cons:

a. Actinic's SMTP for email is flaky. Doesn't work on some ISPs. Workaround is available.
b. No way of manually entering/ altering orders.
c. Limited ability to alter order processing emails.
d. Can't change invoice layout without using Crystal Reports.
e. Version upgrade is always a mess and a complete nightmare. It might work if you haven't changed any templates, otherwise I've found the best way is to take the new templates and manually make all the changes again (so keep good records).

Mike

[Mark Leak]

Thanks for your reply Mike,

I have downloaded the 30day trial of Catalog and im going to see how I get on with desiging the templates and adding products etc.

We used on the last project and I hear that it is similar to Actinic...

[NormanRouxel]

This forum rather naughtily eats competitive product names. That's why there's a hole in your previous post.

I'd recommend also downloading the Advanced Guide and setting up a Standalone Server (details in AUG) if you don't have a local server to test on.

Norman