Date: 12/06/06 (WebDesign)    Keywords: php, software, security, web, shopping

I have this project, which started out as a relaunch of a relatively simple website for a photographer, and is getting more and more complicated. Which is fine, as long as I'm getting paid and I *know* what to do... ;-)


Part of the website is a simple php based ordering system without payment options (customer chooses photos, orders, gets a confirmation/invoice email; photographer also gets confirmation email, waits for customer to pay via check or bank transfer, then sends photos to the given address).

We had discussed including paypal payment, but now my client wants her customers to have the option to pay directly with their credit card when ordering. I've never done anything like this, and am not sure what is the best and most simple way to implement it.

I know some providers (no provider/host yet, so I'm open for any suggestions) offer e-commerce/shopping cart software, but I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking for, as I don't want to change anything with the ordering system itself if possible. What I do need is a way to initiate the transaction of a given sum of money from the customer's credit card to my clients bank account; including security issues and whatnot.
Is the best/easiest way to use e-commerce software? Is it possible (for someone who's not a total newbie but not a php guru either) to do that with a php script?

Any help, suggestion, information is welcome, thanks. :-)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdesign/1193123.html