Java usage in minivend

["redcoat" <redcoat@redcoat.net>]

We've been using minivend for about 8 months to power the shopping-cart
front end of our online cd store. So far it's been great. SQL Integration
came about a month ago and everything's been great. I do however have two
small problems that i have yet to be able to solve.

1) We are now integrating an 'online cash' system that requires the use of a
java applet. I've dug and dug and dug through docs and mailing list posts
for hours, worked on the project for many more and i simply cannot get
minivend to find the .class files. The only other relevant post in the
mailing list archives was replied to, saying "the .class files need to be in
your htdocs directory". Well, to this end i have tried putting the .class
files in my home public_html dir, the root apache htdocs directory (with
correct ownership for the minivend user), the catalog's "pages" directory
and the "pages/ord" directory as well. As far as i can see, i've tried
everything i can think of and now i'm just going in circles. If some kind
soul wouldn't mind sharing their solution, it'd be greatly appreciated.

2) We still have one slight problem with the SQL integration. When
searching, i couldn't find any way to set a minimum on characters in the
mv_search_field, and when forcing LIMIT on a SELECT in mv_sql_query, i'd
still get an unlimited number of results. (the problem with this was that if
someone searched for a blank, they'd get 380,000 results, which would hang
minivend/mysql for about 3 minutes and usually crashed the server). The only
solution i could find was to edit Scan.pm (in mvend/lib/Vend/) and add
"$query .= ' LIMIT 1000';" to force sql to only return 1000 results. Doing a
SET OPTION SQL_SELECT_LIMIT to 1000 appeared to only work for the current
client session, which turned out to be useless. However, according to my
search logs (i do an sql set for every search on our site), somehow people
are still getting their 380,000++ results with blank searches. We've tried
breaking the site repeatedly and to no avail.. and somehow some mornings
everything's just overflowing with 'simple'/minivend sessions due to a rogue
search. Any tips/ideas?

I've used the minivend docs/mailing list for a reference for all this time
and it's been amazing. Despite some complaints from other mailing list
contributors, i will proudly maintain that minivend is simple *the best*
e-commerce solution available (assuming you have the time, ability, and
experience to mod it the way you like it). All comments appreciated.. to the
list or to me personally.

---
Paul Matthews
CTO
Duffelbag.com, Inc.