LiteCommerce 2.2 beta 2 released
 

Just started to try and install beta2

- on the install screen it says 'Version 2.2 beta 1'

- it asks for a username and password, is this my FTP username and password?

- when you chmod '777 .' and '777 classes/modules'
-- is '.' the root folder of the store?
-- do you change the permissions of only that folder or apply the permissions to all files within that folder?

bah, I cant get past this screen. I have left Host and Upload directory as the defaults and inserted my FTP username and password. The directory specified in Upload directory has had its permissions set as 777.

what could i be doing wrong :(

Yes, sorry - the "VERSION" file contains the old information.


Yes.


The '.' means the root of "upload" directory.


That folder only.

You need to specify the "Upload" directory in the same way as you see it when you log in to your site using FTP and apply "pwd" command.

Hi Igor. What is a 'pwd' command? I uploaded the site via my FTP app and do not have shell access (if thats what it is called).

Just started playing so here are some initial comments:

- Checkout page fails to load completely (OS X safari & firefox). Looks like it is waiting for a script to load which never does.

- A second address field in users profiles would be very very usefull. We get a lot of customers who are at university or use a business address.

- Our payment processor (hsbc) limits the number of characters in the username field to 32. Some people (usually in goverment orgs or in schools) have very long email addresses which means they cannot use our system. I was wondering if an optional login could be used, such as customer account number perhaps.

Hi Sheriff, any idea why the checkout page will not load (OS X 10.3.9 Safari & Firefox)?

cheers Kenny

Nope, but we'll investigate this issue.

The same problem occurs when I click on 'Add new user' in admin.

In 2.1 a product can belong to multiple categories. Is this no longer possible in 2.2? My drop down list only lets me select one.

Tax sytems: what is the difference between VAT system and VAT system (alternative)

Errors reported when generating HTML template pages using the 'HTML design import/export' feature

Have a look: http://forum.litecommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=128249#128249

VAT system (alternative) can show separate VAT values for products and shipping.

There are just warnings, not errors :) Those images will be included in the final release.

:? :D :lol: :lol: :lol:

Skins & templates
 

Looking for some clarification on the idea behind these functions.

Skins:
I see it is possible to select different skins. Am I correct in thinking that a skin is a collection of templates? Is it also possible to create your own skin?

Design import/export templates:
This function generates html pages which you can then download and edit offline. I opened the generated main.html file and have to say it looks nothing like the 'live' version. The structure of the page was broken and it was not suitable for editing in a WYSIWIG format. I guess what I am saying is that unless I have done something wrong I dont get how this feature is very usefull.

Templates & upgrades:
One of the features of 2.2 was that it will make it easier to apply upgrades & patches while keeping changes to the visual design of the pages. Is this still the case, and does it apply also to modules (addons)?

Re: Skins & templates
 

Yes.


We'll check this functionality, thanks.


Not sure I understand you correctly.

Skins: Great, i can see where you choose which skin you would like to use but I do not see where you can create your own one?

Templates & upgrades

I understood this to mean that: if I create my own skin the changes I have made will not be overwritten everytime I have to install a upgrade/bug fix for either the core files or addon modules.

Now you cannot create your own skin in the admin zone, but you can create it on your file system (by hand, of course).


Not exactly.


Sorry if that has not been clear. This sentence means that, when you switch your store to use a different design skin, LC installation mechanism calls a special routine from each of the modules installed at your store that tries to apply the skin design to the templates used by that module.

hmm perhaps I am getting confused here over what a skin is and what a template is. Looking at the installed files, inside /skins/ there is only the usual admin, default, mail directories. I am a bit confused where the files are that define the 2-column and 3 column skins options.

To be honest I am not likely to want to switch between multiple skins. All I will want to do is customise the look and feel of my shop so it matches the rest of my site as simply as possible. It occured to me that the intelligent way to do this would be to duplicate the standard skin, call it MySkin and edit this. Is this how it will work or am I still on the wrong track?

Addons: obviously the addons should also fit into the look and feel of my site. You say that LC automatically integrates the addons into the skins. Does this mean you do not recommend editing the addon template files? leaving all site customisation through the new skins system?

Have a look into "schemas" directory - it contains all files for our skins.


You are right.


Yes, because if you download and install the new version of an addon it overwrites all changes in the addon template files.
Due to scalable modular architecture of LC - you can extend basic store functionality by installing and activating your module(s). Your module can contain all customized templates and replace existing templates.

yup, I understand it would be very difficult to have a simple modular system that would allow people to easily upgrade and keep changes to look and feel. However there are some things that always need changing for which creating another addon module is not realistic.

For example I have just upgraded the Gift Certificate addon. I now have to work through all the templates changing the messages so they are relevant to my site. To be honest I do not want 'Thank you for using LiteCommerce shopping system' on the bottom of my ecards!

I have been running live with 2.2 for 2 weeks now and here are some irritating things my customers have found

1 The address entry now works such that if you select UK you get a list of UK counties and if you select USA you get a list of USA states. Very nice, BUT if you have the state list before the country and if your default country is the UK your USA customers do not see their list of states and just select OTHER. It would be nice if the page brought you back up to the states list if the country has changed so that the correct state can be selected. Otherwise it is best to edit the template to put the shipping country above the state.

2 The selected state/county is not always carried accross to the shipping address. Sometimes you get the helpful 'other' in the shipping address. (incidentially if would be nice if the print invoice did not print 'other' as it clearly is not part of a real address.)

3 Bespoke payment gateways may or may not work with the new templates. Mine partially works.

Thats all for now

It is very possible that we will want to create a foreign language version of our site. Since all the error messages etc are 'hardwired' into the templates that get over written when updated what would you suggest as a solution? Are any customers using LC in a language that is not english and do they have similar problems of having to update template files when they install a new module version?

how do you install this ? do you just run the installer, I did that and got a error about a invalid code but the store is up and running? is there any db changes that have to be made?

You install 2.2 by running the install program and following its instructions. If there are any messages I suggest you look into them, we cannot help without details. The 2.2 beta is ONLY for use on a new instalation. It does not have an update script or any way to update a 2.1 installation.

Thus there are no scripts to do db changes nor any documentation to say if there is any change in the db definitions.

Checking progress
 

Hello,

I have been following this thread, but no activity has occured in quite awhile. I am just curious if we will be seeing a release candidate soon and if there are alot of errors w/ the beta versions.

There isn't alot of feedback on the beta's here, is it a big improvement?

I think it is an improvement. That said I dont think there are many beta testers out here so no-one is finding the bugs. If there are any bugs :wink:

I wonder if there is also a problem in the upgrade path. The beta release is only good for a clean install on a new site. I do not know if they have developed a upgrade option to migrate the database from 2.1 to 2.2. Nor how the templates (both client and admin) can be migrated given that they will have been changed by us.

I would be interested in an answer to this. I would like to know when 2.2 will move on. It has too many nice things that I am itching to use on my 2.1 site.

Since 2.2 uses the same modules as 2.1 it may be that the upgrade path is not as bad I think. However we are working in an information vacuum. It would be nice to see it filled.