1) From a quick perusal of the CGI::Application::Plugin::Session code (which is the newer version of CGI::Application::Session, so I'd recommend an upgrade to this version), I'd say that calling CGI::Session->name("sid") before your first call to $self->session would be effective at this since C::A::P::S uses C::S under the covers anyway.

2) There aren't supposed to be - C::A::P::S should hide many of the details of C::S to make it easier, but there is still a C::S object under it all.

3) I would think of storing it in the session unless you need to do some sort of data mining on unfinished shopping carts.

4) If no one else has any idea, you may want to look this up on google or something - I'm sure this question has been answered by many other sites already.

5) Because more people will be able to help you with it? ;-)

6) Templating systems are almost as religious as editors. In that vein, I would suggest familiarising yourself (and your web design people, if that isn't you ;-}) with one of the templating systems, and using it. I may use HTML::Template for websites, but it's inadequate for other templating jobs, which means to me that it may also be inadequate for other websites which may be more convoluted than mine. You'll need to come up with a list of requirements that you need in a templating system and figure out which templating system meets those requirements. You may also want to run it by the monks - some monks may be able to help you come up with more requirements, or may explain how to design code differently so that some of your requirements can go away.