Your web site hosted by ResellerAdvantage or
an ISP
ResellerAdvantage can provide a turnkey
solution to host your web site with ResellerAdvantage Web Portal. We will provide the web server,
the Internet connections, the set up and configuration, the database integration
and the on-going maintenance.
Since the web server is located away from your
business site in this scenario, a copy of your Reseller Advantage database is
needed to run Reseller on the Web. The best way to keep your local Reseller
Advantage database synchronized with the hosted Reseller on the Web database is
to use the replication tools available with your Database Management System
(DBMS). Data replication will ensure that orders and product update changes from
the Reseller on the Web database are transferred to your local Reseller
Advantage database. Likewise, any new users, product attachments or other
changes from your local database are transferred to the hosted
database.
In this hosted scenario, the periodic data downloads
from vendors should also be coordinated between your local database and the
hosted database. If you prefer to run the product loads from your local Reseller
Advantage database, you can then replicate the changes to the hosted database.
Otherwise, ResellerAdvantage.com can run the product loads for you on the hosted
database. You can then replicate the changes to your local database so that you
don't have to bother with the product loads at all.
When data is downloaded from your vendors and the
products are loaded into either the local or hosted database, a "mapping" should
be done as part of the database maintenance. Any changed product categories or
manufacturer names should be matched or "mapped" if possible to existing
categories or manufacturers already in the system. Any new categories or names
are added. This maintenance must be done on the same database from which the
product load is done. Therefore, if you have designated the product loads to be
done by ResellerAdavntage.com, we will also do the mapping maintenance for
you.
Your web site hosted in-house
If you choose to host your own web site with Reseller
on the Web, then you only need one copy of your database and there is no need
for replication to synchronize copies. Reseller on the Web can access the same
copy of the database that your in-house users of Reseller Advantage access. It
is assumed that you have an adequate Internet connection available to your place
of business.
It is possible to use one server for your DBMS with
your database, Reseller Advantage, your web server and your web site with
Reseller on the Web. However, for web sites with any amount of significant
traffic, you improve web site performance by putting your web server and
Reseller on the Web on one machine and your DBMS along with your database and
Reseller Advantage on another machine. In this configuration, Reseller on the
Web can still access the Reseller Advantage database.
When data is downloaded from your vendors and the
products are loaded into your database, a "mapping" should be done as part of
the database maintenance. Any changed product categories or manufacturer names
should be matched or "mapped" if possible to existing categories or
manufacturers already in the system. Any new categories or names are added. In
this scenario, since the product loads are done in-house from Reseller
Advantage, your web site automatically accesses the changes in the
database.
