Order Management is a feature I have wanted to improve for about three and a half years now. I made some major adjustments to the order logging processes in June and July. However, I am happy to report that I have done more in a day towards the overhaul of the order management in version 5.0.0 than I did in a whole month last summer. In addition, all the items I've been working on will be included in the general distributions. I figure this is key feature that I will not withhold for members only. I might make more advanced versions available next year for "members only", if it's found feasible to do, but the idear is to make the cart useful as possible and provide some of the other extras to members only in order to increase donations and memberships (such as additional gateway files and higher maintenance files such as UPS and FedEx shipping in real-time).

I've coded out the backbone for order logs to be written out to individual orders in 3 pieces: cart contents, order details, and old style order logs but for individual orders. I've also added a feature to grab most of the key data from the a gateway order lib file during the processing of an order and place that data into a hash array that can be used in the log_order routines.

Using the above hash array, I've also added the capability to create master order logs in any of the following groups (individually or in any combination): year, by month(within year sold), and an overview log that shows recent orders when logging into the online store manager areas. This will allow reports to be generated by year, month or any range of dates, which are dynamically available according to the dates of orders available within the cart.

I've also kept the old order log style. I have enhanced it for easier downloading and splitting into separate orders for legacy programs that might be looking still use the existing order log schema.

I've also added a product

I still have a lot to do on this aspect of the managers. I need to write the manager routines to look at the data available, and then the routine to generate the reports. It's going to be very flexible. This new format will also make it easier to code out the QuickBooks accounting format exporter, or even to a tab delimited file for a spread sheet... the possibilities are endless with this new format. (I will look at other accounting formats much later)

I took the stance of what I'd like to see in the sales and order data reported and balanced it with resources and time I have to develop these features. It will definately be an ongoing improvement process as my programming eyes are much bigger than the time i have to devote to the desired features. So, I "tone" it down with the intentions of adding in the needed pieces gradually as time permits. I already have ideas on improvements on the new features for later versions. But, in the end, this is yet another massive advancement for the AgoraCart shopping cart project.

Until next time,

Mister Ed

Howdy,

I've received some good feedback on issues on the product edit/add/delete manager areas.

Here are the changes that have been implemented so far:

1) maxlength of most database fields allow for more information to be input. Some are doubled & tripled in the max number of characters allowed. Userfields are now doubled. Image name and category name, are also lengthened considerably.

2) adding clearer infomation next to some of the boxes.

3) added some links and notes at bottom of the add and edit screens. Still a bit ugly, but allows folks to see some of the key information without wondering where to look. Links open new browser window.

4) the previously posted user field name/title overhaul. This is a really cool update for those struggling to remember what each userfield was being used for. this allows user defined changes the titles for the userfields in the Add Product and Edit Product screens.

5) added more image upload boxes.

6) doubled the viewable area on the description field. Increased from 5 rows to 10 rows that can be seen before scrolling intervention is needed.

7) default number of products show in each category was increased from 25 to 100.

8) navigation for additional & previous pages of products within a category are now showing at bottom as well as the top of the screens

9) created routines to filter out all carriage returns, spaces ,newlines, and tabs on image names, prices, shipping info, and item numbers/IDs DB fields.

10) tabs, carriage returns, and newlines removed from all other database fields. Duplicate spaces and white space removed from all userfields, the description, and the product name.

11) #9 and #10 jointly will cut down 98% of cut and paste errors that grab invisible characters and spaces at both ends for those fields that these issues are critical on, in regards to parsing out the products/database for AgorCart generated pages. This is also a big help, I think, in eliminating some of those hidden errors we all have troubles seeing (spaces and hidden white space characters like the dreaded tabs and carriage returns).

There were other items I wish I could have added, such as a search box onthe delete screen, much like that found onteh edit product screen. Hoever, due to the way the items are deleted, this would not allow double checking to ensure you really wanted to delte the product... especially if you entered the wrong item number by accident. This aspct might be explored later, but for this round of development, it will be skipped.

I am really looking forward to this new cart release, and I'm hoping that it will be as useful as I envision it now with all these really cool changes.

Well, time for me to get back to work. Until next time, Mister Ed has left the stables...

Mister Ed ... of course ... of course

Howdy,

I am currently working on the product management aspects of the online store manager areas. I am hoping that folks will submit any ideas or features they would like to see in this next version. If you like to submit your requests or observations, please post a reply to this article or post at the following forums:

freebie forums:
http://www.agoraguide.com/faq/

or the members only forums at:
http://members.agoracartpro.com/proforum/

If you have a suggestion, a problem with how the current product management process functions, or even a feature request, please feel free to submit a constructive response.

Thanks,

Mister Ed

Howdy,

a light day today on development. I completed a nice little tool that will allow store administrators to rename teh database userfield names as they are shown in the Product Add and Product Edit managers for the store.

This new feature will help store admins remember which userfields are used for what purpose. It will automatically detect the number of userfields available in a particular version.

Just another handy tool to help with product entries into the database.

---------------------------------

On another note, I made minor modifications to the Product Edit and Product Add screens in an effort to make them a bit easier to follow and hopefully atleast a little more user friendly for newbie store admins.

Howdy,

Last night I started developing the new look inside store manager areas of the version 5 series. I have tinkered with several idears on the look and layout previous to last night. However, as I was working thru designs to actually implement, I was curious about some issues in displaying a new look. So to do a quick check, I loaded up a template from the front page of AgoraCart.com. The result was very good and better than I had expected. I started to wonder if I shouldn't keep this look for the store manager layout. After talking to a few folks and showing off the initial concept, I decided to keep the manager layout consitent with the official website appearance. In doing so, I've found that I can tie in help sections and misc features of the cart in a tighter fashion than I could with a design from scratch. Plus it saves much needed time to develop templates for the client/customer side of the store, whcih also needs a new look or two.

So, I am proceeding forward with this new manager look that ties into the look and feel of the official website. However as time marches forward, I will look at refining the look and the features it highlights. First off, I will remove items that might be offensive to designers and web hosting companies as I'm not looking to take their customers away. Besides, I love interacting with design and hosting companies of all shapes and sizes. In fact, I'd rather send business to a competitor that uses and builds around AgoraCart than let business slip into other arenas, so I consider it necessary and it is a long standing tradition with me to promote those that promote the cart.

On other notes:

I finally finished the electronic downloader. I had some final issues to clear up with this new add-on feature. It's not as clean as I'd like, with features such as dedicated download variables for thank you pages and emails (I attached to existing ones to save time in going thru all the payment gateways). I also want to expand it so you can log into the store and get a list of your downloads, but I'll save that for expansion programming as the version 5 platform progresses over the next 1-2 years of development.

I also finished the taxable/non-taxable indications for each product. Each product is considered taxable by default unless you indicate otherwise in a predetermined userfield. Later I want to be able to indicate differing rates for products as some states and countries need this expanded. But hopefully this is a step in the right direction to build upon later.

Well, that be the end of my notes fer today. I nee dto get back to work on what I think is the largest functional increase of AgoraCart in this single release versus all the changes over the last 3 1/2 years. It's going to be exciteing to see all the "wows" folks will have when they see how much it has improved in one release.

Till next time... fight hard, fight with honor, and may you be victorious in your ecommerce venture

Mister Ed