Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

This thread is in part a response to another poster's realization that XC5, despite being touted as a finished product Qualiteam is selling, does not have the functionality to allow tracking numbers to be placed on orders. I would, like pretty much every other merchant on the planet, to consider this to be a "core function" that would come with any eCommerce platform.

So I delved a little further, and here are a few other things users should be aware are NOT included as of now in XC5 so far:

• The ability to change ANYTHING on an order from the admin screen. Can't change the order product, the shipping method, the shipping address...
• Ability to have hidden products
• The central search bar on the admin screen, where you can quickly look up a product/order/customer/whatever regardless of what page you are on
• Extra fields that do not appear on the product page (used for a multitude of purposes, the largest for me being data I feed to product feed sites like Google Shopping)
• Shipping markups on real-time calculated shipping (FedEx, UPS, etc.)
• Ability to relate products using the import feature

I'm sure there are more, but these are a few things I noted.

-Mark

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

last time i looked, all of the export order options didnt exist. we'd never switch without that.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

My problem is I am a new user and can not buy the XC4. It sure sounds like its better than XC5

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

XC4 has been rebranded as XCart Classic. It is for sale:
http://www.x-cart.com/pricing.html

Agreed!

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Not sure how I missed that but I thought I asked at one point and was told XC4 wasnt available.
Oh well XC5 is working more or less.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

I also noticed you mentioned the shipping costs UPS etc... I am lucky right now as the site sells books and they all go out with media flat rate. If I needed more, which we will soon, I really dont know what we are going to do. I just pray someone figures it out. Quick question on that, wouldnt the dimensions of the items be part of the item record? Look at my post on USPS for example.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

I'm regretting purchasing the X-Cart5, but hoping I have overlooked an easier way of accomplishing the same thing... my jury is still out on this.

I'm finding that it's missing things that were not apparent in the Demo.

-Big one that I miss is the ability to update multiple SKUs at once.

-I'm also miffed that the X-Cart5 is missing the banners module, yet X-Cart charges more for the cart! What is with that? Yeah, I can add it... at a premium$$ .

-Import function is fussy and doesn't work properly with attributes. X-Cart 4.6 at least tells you what the problem is.

I'm going to cut this short as I don't want to rant, I'm just not feeling good about my purchase.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

You should be able to update multipe SKUs via csv import / export.

Banner system was available as an extra cost before you purchased x-cart 5 I imagine, so that is an oversight on your part

Best way to work out how the attributes work is to add some to a new product, export the product and open the csv to see how it works

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Not what OP was saying...

In v4, you can select multiple products, or all of the products, and in one-click edit a parameter for all, such as tax or shipping or other global parameter -- and then you are done. One click. No export/import required. This is a feature that should not be removed from v5.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

I've imported literally millions of SKUs using the import functions in various versions of XC. The update multiple SKUs is an administration function in 4.6 which is very handy when making small changes to multiple SKUs. This should not have been dropped in XC5.

Yeah, that was an expensive oversight. I had assumed that it would be part of the cart as it was with 4.6 Gold. My client liked the banner, so I'm either going to have to buy the banner module, write one or use a 3rd party... Oh well.

I know how the attributes work, I just can't upload the entire attributes table. It will only import about a 3rd of the table! It doesn't give me any errors, it just simply doesn't load the whole table. I can't find any errors in the table itself... it's driving me friggin crazy!

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Mona,

I feel your frustration with the XC5 import module. It's very, very slow and does not scale well - XC4 handles large store imports much more efficiently, which is saying a lot because it wasn't spectacular in XC4 either - XC5's import is just that bad.

Personally I import as little as possible using the actual import routine and use SQL inserts to achieve most of the big lifting - for example, I feed a small CSV file with basic product info (SKU, price, description, category) but then use SQL to build and assign attributes, product images, and related products because it just isn't practical to use the import routine for these. For example, right now I have over 400 different attributes I use over 36 classes. And in the case of the related products, as far as I know there actually isn't an import routine at all.

Yes, XC5 is absolutely the future product and getting quite a lot of development, but as of right now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone running a store with more than a few hundred products.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

LOL... I have approx 50 SKUs in this particular XC5 store, it can't handle that!

In my eyes, 4.6 Gold Plus is a far far superior product. I use the import function all the time. It's very convenient and efficient for my needs. I could use SQL directly and do for some special needs.
I was expecting the XC5 to be at least as good if not better.

Here's the sad thing... the attribute table I'm trying to import has 16 color attributes of 5 colors.
XC5 was sold as a Cart that has the import feature available. It's supposed to work and I expect it to work. I did not buy a "Beta Version".

Overall I like X-Cart as a company and really like 4.6 Gold Plus. They do make some great products, but XC5... CENSORED

They should have waited and got more of the bugs out before making XC5 available for sale.

I'm hoping that some of the issues will be resolved quickly so I can like XC5 as much as XC4.6

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Hello, thank you for your feedback, it is very important. Let me give some answers, roadmap and deadlines.


Your are right, Import/Export feature is not ideal as we planned and we have several points to improve it: show the progress in verified and imported items (not in seconds), support related products and improve the speed of the process.

The images importing slows the whole process and we have some ideas to improve it. For this moment we recommend to import the products first and on the second stage import only product images. Especially if the images are located on the other server: system needs to download it, verify and save for different resolution. Yes, this process cannot be too fast.

About classes and attributes. We tried to provide the solution where all the product related fields are shown in one row within this product. That's why the system place each attribute in separated column. I see, that if you have a lot of classes and different attributes it is too difficult to work with product.csv.

As solution we will implement the functionality to do not import Classes and Product-Specific attributes in product.csv (but Global will be imported anyway). And create the separate "attributes-values.csv" file in the format like this.
ProductSKU - AttributeName - OptionName - OptionValue - Default - PriceModified - WieghtModifier

So, as a result your able to define all attributes in separate file.


This is important feature. We will start working on it straight sway after we finish fulfillment order statuses. We need to integrate this major changes first.


Actually, you can do it right now, even the product do not have this status. Create the category and disable it. Assign this category with the product which you would like to be hidden. As a result this product will be available only via search result page or direct URL.


I like this feature in XC4 very much too. This is in our roadmap. Unfortunately it will not be in 5.1 official release, we are planning to release it later.


These features will be available in next 5.1.x minor versions.

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Group Editing is very powerful feature in XC4. But is very difficult to understand and messy. This is the example how we will never do features in XC5.

However, I agree, the group editing is necessary feature for the fields, which can be edited for the group. Like TAX, shipping, availability, Sale Discount, and so on. Not unique fields.

But SKU is unique field. Could, you, please, describe your use case how you edit it for multiple products?

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Max,
I have used global/group editing for things such as:

1. Assigning a new tax zone -- for example, when we started selling in Canada, we needed to assign all products to the new Canadian tax zone(s). This took seconds with group editing.

2. I added a custom feature that excluded some items from coupons. I was able to search for the items and in one list, select (check) all the items that I wanted to exclude from coupons, use group editing and all the items now had the attribute.

3. Assigning membership -- when we built our loyalty program, I needed to quickly assign some items and exclude others... group editing was the perfect way to accomplish this.

I have used the group editing feature many times to solve global issues.

Yes, it is a powerful tool, and in the right hands, can accomplish things in seconds that would otherwise require an export/edit/import (as opposed to, "select all, checkbox, save")

I hope this helps explain why this function is valued by admins.
J

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Thank you, carpeperdiem!

You confirm my statement that group editing is needed to edit only non unique fields of the items

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

Yes! It's a powerful function and saves time (vs. export/edit/import).

Re: Features Missing From X-Cart 5 (that are in XC4)
 

YES and YES, I couldn't have said it better.
X-Cart PLEASE include this it's very important!

It's also a very quick way to move multiple SKUs to a different category or adding to a sub category.