what do you need to build your own auction site using xcAuction

Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 or later. Compatible with Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2003 Server. IIS is the default web server for Windows Servers. Note: Windows NT 4.0 servers need Option Pack 1 installed and may need to be updated to version 5.0 (or later) of the Microsoft Scripting Engine, which is available for free from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/scripting/.

xcAuction can use either a Microsoft JET database, or a Microsoft SQL Server database. A JET database is suitable for smaller sites and is available on every version of Windows Server. For larger sites, or when the highest in reliability, speed, or security is needed, we recommend using a Microsoft SQL Server database.

The Microsoft JET library, Microsoft Data Access Components, and ADO are included in all versions of Windows Server. The most recent versions are highly recommended and are available as free downloads from the Microsoft web site. We recommend at least MDAC version 2.5 or later. A JET database is a flat file database that uses the same file format as Microsoft Access databases, however Microsoft Access is not required at all in order to use xcAuction. To download updates to JET, MDAC, or ADO, see http://www.microsoft.com/data/

When used with a Microsoft SQL Server database, xcAuction supports Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later (including MS-SQL 2000 and MS-SQL 2005. We recommend at least Microsoft MDAC version 2.5 or later. MDAC is available as a free download from the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/data/.

Any one of the supported email components, currently Microsoft CDONTS, CDOSYS, ASPEmail, ASPMail, ASPQmail, BambooSMTP, JMail, SmtpMail, or SmartMail. Note: Some of these components are provided for free from their vendors, and some are commercial. The Microsoft CDONTS or CDOSYS component is a free component that is provided as a part of IIS. See note below on optional components.

xcAuction can be configured to allow your site users to upload images and have the images hosted on your web server. To use this feature, the web server must have a supported upload component installed. You can use any one of the supported upload components. xcAuction currently supports the following Upload Components:
Persits ASPUpload, ASP Simple Upload, ASP Smart Upload, SoftwareArtisans SA-FileUp, WebSupergoo ABC Upload, or Dundas Upload. See note below on optional components.

xcAuction can be configured to automatically generate thumbnails of uploaded images and display them in special views on your site to visitors. It can also automatically constrain images to maximum dimensions to fit your site design. To use these features, your web server needs any one of the supported Imaging Components installed. Like the Upload Component, this is an optional feature and requires a third-party component to function. Currently supported Imaging Components are:
ASPImage from ServerObjects.com; ASPJpeg from Persits.com; AspSmartImage from AspSmart.com. See note below on optional components.

xcAuction can be used in a pay-for-services mode or free. These billing features can be turned on/off at any time as your needs dictate. You can start with a free site and add in the pay options at any time later.

xcAuction interfaces to any external merchant processing software (such as ICVerify), or any merchant service that can import billing data from a batch file. Billing export file information can be customized to suit any software or service.

xcAuction can also interface directly to a vareity of credit card processing gateways. It has a number of Online Processing modules that are available for a variety of gateway service providers. xcAuction supports the following gateway providers:
AuthorizeNet; Bank of America eStores; DirectOne, Echo/OpenEcho; eProcessingNetwork; IonGate; LinkPoint; SecPay; Verisign PayProFlow; and YourPay. Note: certain gateway vendors have additional requirements and may need to have additional software installed on the web server. This software is usually provided free to any account holders or web hosts.

xcAuction also has integrated support for PayPal and NoChex for smaller scale sites that do not need a full fledged credit card gateway. Additional add-ons and further details can be found in our online FAQ database.

If you will be using an ISP's shared web server, or managed dedicated hosting, contact your ISP to see if they already provide support these components. Most ISP's or web host's that provide ASP application hosting will already provide a good selection of components for ASP applications and you will probably not need to directly license any components yourself. If you are using an ISP's shared web server, or managed dedicated hosting, your ISP will probably already supply these as part of your hosting plan. Contact XCENT support if you have any question about hosting requirements with your particular ISP, need help determining system requirements, or need assistance locating a reliable host.

If you are using your own server, dedicated or co-located equipment, these components are third-party products and are not provided as part of xcAuction and you would need to license these components yourself. The actual cost of licensing the components to cover all of the requirements are minimal, as many of the various component types have free versions available. In most typical hosting situations, you only need to install or license any of the third-party components yourself. Otherwise, you would need to contact your current or potential host to see if they currently provide support for any of these components, or are will to provide such support.

To see if your current web server or ISP supports xcAuction and other Active Server Pages (ASP) applications, try the XCENT diagnostic utility xcDiag. This is available on the XCENT web site at http://www.xcent.com/downloads. The xcDiag utility will tell you about the IIS installation and some of the installed components on the web server. If you are using a shared ISP server, you can use xcDiag to verify if any optional components are installed on the web server. However, please always verify this with your ISP. To use the utility, you simply copy the xcDiag.asp file to your web site and try to access the file from your browser using HTTP. If your server supports ASP, then you will see the information about your server and it should look something like shown below.

If any of this is too confusing or more detail than you care to deal with, then please contact us for assistance and we will be glad to help clear up any questions that you might have, or get you the assistance that you need to make xcAuction work as a solution for your needs.