Lab Notes: Opensite Auction
<p class=default>
Hosting your own online auctions can seem intimidating. Not
<br/>
only do you have all the overhead of setting up an
<br/>
e-commerce site, but now people are coming into your store
<br/>
and changing the prices all the time.
</p><p>
OpenSite's Auction makes it all less daunting. With the
<br/>
exception of a Web server, it comes with practically
<br/>
everything you need to start taking bids. But be warned:
<br/>
While it offers tremendous flexibility and power, getting it
<br/>
configured properly will take some careful work, as there are
<br/>
literally hundreds of parameters and choices.
</p><p>
OpenSite comes in three different versions. First on the
<br/>
block is the Professional version at $5,000. Next up is the
<br/>
Merchant version ($10,000), which lets sellers add their own
<br/>
items to your site, displays banner ads, and sends e-mail
<br/>
notification of the final sale price to sellers and payment
<br/>
owed to buyers. And for $50,000, the Corporate version
<br/>
hooks up to Oracle to let you store information on a more
<br/>
powerful database (the other versions use a proprietary
<br/>
database). It also adds different auction types, such as
<br/>
lowest bidder and sealed bids -- useful for taking bids on
<br/>
corporate contracts.
</p><p>
We tested a late beta of Auction 4.0 on an NT server,
<br/>
running Microsoft IIS version 4.0. Getting Auction set up
<br/>
wasn't difficult, but took quite a bit of time. There were a
<br/>
few minor beta bugs to swat, but the main chore was dealing
<br/>
with Auction's multiple menus, each replete with
<br/>
configuration choices. Learning what to tweak and how to
<br/>
tweak it can take a couple of days. One plus was that, aside
<br/>
from changing a few directory permissions, we didn't have to
<br/>
touch our overall NT or IIS configuration. And once
<br/>
installed, Auction can be administered from a 4.0-generation
<br/>
Netscape browser.
</p><p>
Auction 4.0 boasts significant improvements over past
<br/>
versions. For example, you can now edit the page templates
<br/>
and overall auction-site styles. We found this feature
<br/>
particularly helpful; the default page styles seem somewhat
<br/>
crowded and busy. You also can import invoices and
<br/>
customer information into Intuit's QuickBooks, and import
<br/>
multiple item descriptions from comma-separated files. And
<br/>
there is better security, with transactions encrypted using
<br/>
SSL.
</p><p>
Once the site is set up, the auction functions much the same
<br/>
way as eBay and other popular online auction sites. Users
<br/>
can easily search for desired items, register, and place bids.
<br/>
They can also find out if they've won a particular auction by
<br/>
visiting that item's page: The pages are updated dynamically.
<br/>
The system can automatically send e-mail invoices to
<br/>
winners and keep track of the accounts. However, Auction
<br/>
does not automatically bill users' credit-card accounts, and
<br/>
site administrators will need a separate payment system.
</p><p>
One confusing characteristic of Auction is that any
<br/>
administrative changes don't take effect until you explicitly
<br/>
publish them -- a process that requires going through three
<br/>
separate screens and checking off various options. We also
<br/>
had problems exporting our sales smoothly to QuickBooks,
<br/>
although the company assures us this was fixed after we got
<br/>
our beta. One final nit is that OpenSite's file layout for data
<br/>
import (including the item definitions) isn't documented in its
<br/>
manual, so you may end up -- as we did -- exporting
<br/>
Auction's sample data into Excel to figure out what it needs.
</p><p>
How does OpenSite Auction compare to other options?
<br/>
Microsoft's Site Server Commerce Edition and IBM's
<br/>
Net.Commerce e-commerce servers both have auction
<br/>
features, but getting one going will take more time and effort
<br/>
than OpenSite. The entry-level version of Auction supports
<br/>
the ability to sell items at fixed prices, so you can establish a
<br/>
mixed storefront that offers auctions and fixed-price
<br/>
shopping with all three products. However, Auction is by far
<br/>
the easiest to administer and run.
</p><p>
Another alternative is to take your business to one of the
<br/>
many Web auction houses, such as eBay and onSale.
<br/>
However, not only do you give up a cut of the profits, but
<br/>
also the control and flexibility afforded by having your own
<br/>
software. For instance, OpenSite lets you set up different
<br/>
types of auctions, and allows users to bid on multiple items
<br/>
from a single screen. If you're serious about auctions,
<br/>
OpenSite is a good start.
</p><p>
David Strom is the author of the newsletter Web
<br/>
Informant and was the founding editor-in-chief of
<br/>
Network Computing magazine.
</p><p>
Lab Notes April 1999 Contents
</p>