I can build a cart, checkout, etc myself but how do I go about connecting to my payment gateway/mech account? Although it's not setup yet I'll have my own SSL so I assume the credit card info will be in a form under https. I'm just not sure where to submit it to. I'm thinking about going with payQuake but I don't see anything on their site about it. Maybe they will provide this info on sign-up? Or, do you recommend I use an official shopping cart system (i.e. Miva)?

Also, I would like to store the customer info (not CC) in a DB when they sign-up when placing an order. Should this be secure even though it contains no CC data? If so how would I go about making my DB secure?

Finally, if building a checkout (HTML form) myself and assuming payQuake (or whoever I use) provides me with the info on where to submit my form to, how would I receive the order? E-mail? Where is the info stored? Maybe I do need a cart?

Thanks,
Steve

Steve,

Why not use MIVA? (Yes you really need a shopping cart)

It' s about the top of the line in Shopping Carts and Westhost provides it to you. Miva supports Payquake as well as dozens of other Gateways/merchant accounts. All the data you need to "connect is in their documentation which is well laid out. Although it can get confusing Payquake and Charge.com (two of the least expensive) are Gateways and merchant account rolled into a single service. They both will deposit into a standard checking account eliminating the need to get a special business account through some bank.

If you are planning to use your own form for what ever reason (probably not necessary to collect). Securing it can be really difficult using the few free scripts out there, or really simple if you want to spend a few bucks on a decent program script. Asking about Form security on Westhost's forum is useless everyone has an opinion, they are all different, and none of them really work. After three months of looking I threw in the towel and purchased SecuraForm which works pretty good. it does not store orders in databases but does store each order in a seperate numbered, encrypted html file. It also emails the data in encrypted format.

Of course if you use MIVA all this is done for you by the program. from checkout to merchant account to bank account.

Johnie