Configuration Concepts for Mutant III

[TrafficCentral]

This topic is for discussing how to cofigure Mutant III in various ways. Since MUTANT is quite flexible, it is also presumed to be complex. This topic's goal is to explain configuration concepts at a high level in general indicating how MUTANT can be applied in various scenarios.

[TrafficCentral]

MUTANT can be configured for many business uses. The list below is not exhaustive but to give an overview of the things MUTANT can be configured for:

>> ecommerce site
>> a walk-up and print coupon kiosk
>> search engine
>> classifieds directory
>> dating site
>> people finder directory
>> social events announcement site
>> job board
>> shopping portal
>> coupon sharing portal / coupon advertising portal
>> company document sharing repository

With each of the potential applications, or others that may be conceived, the core services of MUTANT can be leveraged to provide the base function of many types of sites, with a new "theme" or skin applied to make the site look as desired. There are various levels of customization that can occur depending on the skill level of the parties managing the site. Generally though, some basic HTML web programming skills are required, and skill level in the area of CSS (style sheets) is also desireable, however not mandatory.

In my next posts, I will explain how to set MUTANT up as a hard good selling portal, since that recently has arisen. A MUTANT node showing the early stages of this confifuration will be referenced as well for demo purposes.

[TrafficCentral]

The general concept for hard good sales is to place ads into the proper category of the search engine as an advertising member and point those ads to your ad detail page or order page. It's that simple.

So, in summary, you have two high level setup paths per product to explore:

1) place an ad in the search engine, select the category you want it to go into... the website / web page URL points to detail page.
(note, in this case it is assumed that the detail page ultimately links to a store or shopping cart in some way through an order link etc)

2) place an ad in the search engine, select the category you want it to go into... the website / web page URL points directly to store order page.

Both of these approaches have merit. The first one takes a little more work to setup obviously, but can be used by any advertisers, not just a node owner. This is the benefit to MUTANT for advertisers who wish to get their products into the search results!

Let's take a quick look at an example of a node owner starting to configure his ad for selling products provided by SMC and other drop shippers.

Mike McWhorter of http://Fidly.com and http://Fidly.net is beginning to ad hard goods to his node so that consumers searching can potentially find products for sale as well. Mike has listed a first product, a wine bottle stand, in his node under the "Shopping" category.

To demo: Visit http://Fidly.net and click on Shopping and then search for "wine". You should see a product or two in the search results. Click through and ultimately you will see an order page. Make sure you click on the Mail Envelope icon to see an inner detail page and then further click on the "Member's Other Ads" link to.

This is one setup using option 2 above (without a detail page hosted elsewhere).

This is but one example of how MUTANT can be leveraged for ecommerce.

Doug

[TrafficCentral]

This article explains some of the inner details on the setup of using MUTANT as a hard goods selling portal, taking the prior posts to the next step.

For setup 2, where there is no independent ad detail page or potentially no external shopping cart, we have to creat products also in the MUTANT product management system. Through the command center, you would create a new product category and product, establish the details and ensure the product is showing in the store.

There are a few subtleties here since there is no ad detail page persay. What you do it get the link for the ad in the search engine and use that as the details link while defining the product. That way when someone clicks the image or details link in the shopping cart, it basically cycles back to the search results, which in turn points the user to the shopping cart. So, in effect, the search engine links point to the shopping cart and the detail links in the shopping cart point back to the seach engine.

While this is not the most robust setupo (i.e. a nice ad detail page somewhere would be nicer in general), this is the fast path to getting a product into the search results and into the store for sale. If you set products up in this manner, you can later change to a detail page oriented model as desired.

Doug

[webiron]

Notice: These instructions are intended for Geeks

The simple instructions for someone interested in installing a local version of Mutant IV on their laptop, PC, or other system. These instructions apply for Linux, Windows, or other platforms XAMPP supports. You can also install any PHP capable server that supports the IonCube load (required) and modify these instructions as needed. These instructions are intended for web masters or other technically capable personnel.

Steps (general approach):

a) go to http://apachefriends.org and install a XAMPP environment (apache server) on their laptop.

b) get with Doug Ashbaugh so he can send you a Zip of the Mutant IV system and then you can unpack it in your Document Root directory (apache dir). Appropriate agreements must be in place for running a local copy.

c) Make sure safemode for PHP is not enabled.

d) Install the IonCube loader.

e) Then run the site as http://localhost/cruds/init and configure the node (or follow latest install instructions in the latest Mutant in a Box document).

Then you can run locally and develop and modify things on your PC without worrying about your production node. For themes etc, it is a great way to customize themes and then upload them. It is also a great way to test ad code or copy and setup your ad zones so you can ensure your copy and templates and template plans are in sync with each other before uploading.

Doug