ProductCart v5 requires a MS SQL Database

ProductCart requires a MS SQL database. MS Access, MySQL or Oracle databases are not supported. Some Web hosting companies allow you to use MS SQL Express as part of the hosting package that they offer. Please note that although MS SQL Express is perfectly fine to create a testing or development store using ProductCart, it should never be used to power a production store. MS SQL Express was never designed to support a live Web application. It was created by Microsoft as a free tool that Web developers and designers can use while creating and testing a Web application. It should only be used as such.

Make sure to setup the database right after moving the files to the server that will host the store, and before you attempt to activate the product. That is: do not run the ProductCart Setup Wizard unless you have setup the database. Otherwise you will get an error during the activation process.

If you are installing ProductCart locally on your desktop for testing or development purposes, see the section below about using MS SQL Express. If you are not comfortable setting up the SQL database:

• If you are buying ProductCart from NetSource Commerce, you can choose the installation service before or after you purchase the software, and the SQL database will be setup for you
• If you are buying ProductCart from a ProductCart reseller, ask them for assistance with this task

ProductCart’s SQL database has been optimized for use by small businesses. If your database contains a large number of products and other data, we recommend that you consult a database administrator (DBA) to further optimize it to achieve higher performance. As your database gets larger and larger, a good practice is to have a DBA optimize it every few months.