Site Features
  • Site created by Josh Schumacher as a class project for MIS 314 at Western Washington University.
  • All product information is dynamically generated using Active Server Pages.
  • Book, customer and order information is stored in an Access database.
  • Server-side includes are used for all components that are used more than once (such as the search/browse and Author scripts, as well as the header and footer).

  • Home Page
    • "Today's Features" are randomly selected from the database.
    • The browse menu is dynamically generated from the database using a SQL query that shows only the current book categories.
    • Book descriptions are truncated to the last full word after 300 characters.
  • Search/Browse response page
    • The search function searches book titles, descriptions and categories fields in the database.
    • The RecordCount property of the RecordSet object is used to count the number of books found by the search.
    • Searches that have no matches respond gracefully
  • Shopping cart page
    • Uses a cookie to store the ISBNs of items in the cart.
  • Checkout pages
    • Searches the database for email addresses of existing customer accounts and writes their shipping information in the form on the order confirmation page.
  • Order Confirmation Page
    • Checks for shopping cart and prompts user if cart is empty.
    • All fields are checked to make sure that they contain information.
    • Checks email address in database and prompts user to try again user if address not found.
    • Modifications made to customer information are updated in the database.
    • Order information are written to the database.
    • An email is sent to the customer with the order information.
    • The shopping cart is emptied by setting ItemCount to zero in the ShoppingCart cookie. .
  • Order History Page
    • Searches the database for all orders associated with username
    • If no matching username is found user is prompted to try again.
  • Enhancements
    • Enhanced User Creation (EUC). EUC allows for users to create and edit their account info at any time and allows them to do it securely with a password. EUC also allows for users to "maintain state" while surfing the site. This means that a user only has to provide their username and password once and they do not have to enter it again during that session. EUC also helps in remembering users when they come back at a future dates by storing the login name of the last succesfull login to a cookie.

    • Protection from SQL injection by removing all single quotes in search box. Not only does this make the page more more secure but it also prevents it from "blowing up" when fed bad data.

    • Self Designed interface. All images are made using Adobe Photoshop with the exception of the book pictures. The images and icons were designed by yours truely. The site design is also uses an origninal design using HTML4 and CCS2. A lot of time and effort went into making sure the user experience was as pleasurable as it could be with rich colors and easy to understand images

    • Contact page that allows user to send email to the webmaster without opening a seperate email client.

    • Enhanced truncation algorithim that prevents a word from being cut mid-word when the description is shortened on the main page


  • Thanks to Amazon.com (the world's greatest on-line bookstore) for the use of its icons, book pictures and book descriptions.