Despite the title, the first thing I need to establish is whether BVCommerce hosted can support my needs. I haven't seen the product page or signed up for the demo yet, but what I am wondering is how difficult would it be to add plug in functionality such as that of http://www.powerreviews.com/ (the review functionality)? Unfortunately, I have no idea what is entailed in installing it since they don't provide technical information on their website (and I am still waiting for a reply from them), but I imagine it requires more than just javascript because the reviews get picked up by search engines. Most implementations I have seen use a tabbed product form and the reviews are placed on one of the tabs.



Is there a place where I can install a piece of javascript that will run on every page, so I can plug in other tracking mechanisms?



Does BVCommerce Hosted support paying by check (other than PayPal)?



Now, back to the original topic. Since BVCommerce Hosted seems to have the ability to "Sell Now", which is what we desire, we are seriously considering starting out this way. However, for the long term, this stripped down set of options probably won't carry us or at least won't enable us to compete very well (especially if the answers to my questions above are "no"). That is why we will probably upgrade at some point after using the hosted version. What I am wondering is will there be access to the data records so we can transfer the products, customers, orders, etc. over to the new store when it goes online?



Other than the data, are there any other complications with doing such an upgrade?

Thanks for the reply.



I didn't realize Power Reviews had external applications - good to know for my other store. I will have a look at BV's reviews - maybe that is all we need (being that our main competitor is already running Power Reviews, we might be inclined to go with it instead, though).



I have another question. Am I really saving any time by going with the hosted version instead of using VBC 5 with a shared or VPS host? I have never set it up before, but I have been a VB/VB.NET developer for more than 10 years, several of them working on web sites. I can handle the extra workload, but what I am wondering is how much more time it will take to set up VBC 5 than VBC Hosted?



More specifically, approximately how long would it take just to get a VBC 5 site with 5 categories and 50 products up and running after choosing the hosting provider, with minimal time being spent on graphics?

Ahh, ok so it sounds like if I know how to set up a .NET site I can pretty much have it up and running in an hour (after I get a hosting account that is). I have set up the demo of BVC 4 before and it seemed pretty straightforward.

In that case I am more inclined to go with the version with the most functionality (since the time savings is negligible).

Although I would like to mess with the code, I don't currently own Visual Studio 2008, and since it is obsolete now, I probably won't be buying a copy. My current website is still using .NET 2.0. This leaves me with another tough choice - is it worth it to buy BVC 5 now or wait until the next version of BVC comes out (thus going with the hosted version for now), and getting a copy of VS 2010 at that point?

Or...is it possible to get BVC 4 now with the latest service pack so I don't have to mess with my Visual Studio version at this point?



Those points aside...I suppose I don't REALLY need to mess with the code for this new store, but it would be nice if I could if I buy the full version.

AFAIK BV is no longer selling BVC2004.

When it comes to technology, those who wait generally never get anything. There is just ALWAYS something else coming down the road.

Ok, lets just assume (at least for the time being) that I won't be touching the code other than adding some javascript.

I am now working with the BVC 5 demo and the setup went ok, but finding my way around the control panel unfortunately is not going so well. I started with the "Getting Started Checklist", however when going into each piece of funtionality, there doesn't seem to be much explanation for what each piece does. I checked the manual and I found it rather thin too. I added my logo, yet it doesn't appear on the site even though changing various other settings seems to change the home page live. I am going to try watching some of the videos today...

My question is, how do I shorten the learning curve for these mysterious configuration settings? Other than the manual, is there any other roadmap to follow?