Design question

  • Thread starter Thread starter cowznofsky
  • Start date Start date
C

cowznofsky

The plan is this: we want to host a site where vendors will upload a
list of parts, and buyers can then browse them. We are not going to
be part of the transaction, but will charge both buyers and vendors to
use the site.

The business analysts figure that all the vendors have a price list in
excel, so they figure it will be a simple matter to have them upload
an excel file of parts, and then have the ability to modifiy their
list as needed.

I'm not sure of the simplicity of this approach, but if anybody has an
example, or an open source project that could be used, it would be
appreciated.

I know that when I look for car parts there is a fairly common model
for searching by year, make, and part. I'm guessing there is a common
technique for loading parts lists, but I'm not familiar with this kind
of application.

Any comments welcome.
 
Even if that is true, what is the likelihood that all vendors will be using
spreadsheets with exactly the same structure...?

Uploading an Excel workbook (or pretty much any file) is simple enough:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.htmlcontrols.ht......

In addition, Excel files can be used with ADO.NET as datasources:http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&r...

, so they figure it will be a simple matter to have them upload


I would suggest that you store the data in a database rather than a
collection of Excel files...

However, this will mean that all vendors will need to use the same (or very
similar) spreadsheet...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links.

Yes, we know that vendors will have to manipulate their existing
spreadsheets to match ours. And the intent would be to store the data
in a database. But there's concerns here, i.e. what about bad data in
the spreadsheet.

Also, we have an existing hosting company, and we'll have to check
that it's ok to upload the files, even though it would be temporary.
 
Here is the basic idea:

1. Create upload mechanism
2. Consume file using ADO.NET with the Jet provider
3. Create DataSet from data
4. Save off information from DataSet to your database

There are variations on this, but it is a basic pattern.

Lesson 1: Big fish eat little fish

What this means is the ideal above will only work if you are the big fish.
This is probably not the case and all vendors (big fish) will have their own
format.

Here is the likely scenario.

1. You create a common format
2. You send out a document that this is the format to use your service
3. Salesman gets a call from a vendor who wants to use your site
4. Vendor states to salesman he can "go to hell" if he can't use his Excel
spreadsheet format
5. Salesman talks to executive
6. Executive tells you to code for this spreadsheet as it represents dollars

Once you are the big fish, you can say "no". Until then, the import will
likely be a mix of formats. I would go ahead and account for specifying an
upload format per vendor type and creating a provider model type parser.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

Subscribe to my blog
http://feeds.feedburner.com/GregoryBeamer#

or just read it:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/GregoryBeamer

********************************************
| Think outside the box! |
********************************************
 
Here is the basic idea:

1. Create upload mechanism
2. Consume file using ADO.NET with the Jet provider
3. Create DataSet from data
4. Save off information from DataSet to your database

There are variations on this, but it is a basic pattern.

Lesson 1: Big fish eat little fish

What this means is the ideal above will only work if you are the big fish..
This is probably not the case and all vendors (big fish) will have their own
format.

Here is the likely scenario.

1. You create a common format
2. You send out a document that this is the format to use your service
3. Salesman gets a call from a vendor who wants to use your site
4. Vendor states to salesman he can "go to hell" if he can't use his Excel
spreadsheet format
5. Salesman talks to executive
6. Executive tells you to code for this spreadsheet as it represents dollars

Once you are the big fish, you can say "no". Until then, the import will
likely be a mix of formats. I would go ahead and account for specifying an
upload format per vendor type and creating a provider model type parser.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

Subscribe to my bloghttp://feeds.feedburner.com/GregoryBeamer#

or just read it:http://feeds.feedburner.com/GregoryBeamer

********************************************
| Think outside the box!                               |









- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Ok. Good point.
I guess we would have to think about providing some sort of mapping
facility (i.e. indicate the columns for part name and price) as
opposed to defining it ourselves.
And also the row where the raw data starts.
 
Back
Top