X-Cart forums

[technicaldata]

Originally Posted by technicaldata

I think it's pretty obvious that a lot of people aren't happy with the current "Real Time Shipping" situation in X-Cart and I was wondering if an attempt was going to be made to improve it in the next release? I saw nothing about it in "SHIPPING MANAGEMENT" section of the change doc. Anybody have any info? To be specific, I'm talking about the improvements that CenturyPerf suggested in a previous post:

"1) The X-Cart coding within the UPS, FEDEX, USPS modules needs some minor enhancements to validate dimensions and weights correctly and also a limit needs to be set (max weight and dimensions *Per Box*) on a per shipper basis. See below

2) The database and cart coding in the product section needs to be able to tell UPS (and other shipping agencies) the correct values for each item as listed below:

- 2a) Add (3) data entry boxes for EACH product for "length", "height", and "width" (in inches or centimeters .. "selectable"). (If there is No data entry, dimensions are ignored, otherwise the calculated dimensions are transmitted for real time rates). This would be three new columns in the products table of the database.

- 2b) Add a radio button (or other selection) for EACH product that when active (checked) it tells UPS that this item can only be shipped as a SINGLE box. This would be one new column in the products table of the database.

- 2c) Set a max weight - max dimension rollover point selectable by the admin of the site. This must be set so that if either weight or dimension is exceeded on the ordered items it rolls over and adds another box. I would prefer this to be an editable area with the X-Cart admin area. NOTE: This would be a GLOBAL selection within the "shipping options" section of X-Cart.

- 2d) Upon checkout using "real time" rates X-Cart tells the selected shipping agencies the compiled number of boxes and dimesions/weights of each box to be shipped. This data is then processed and returns the shipping calculation results (for each activated shipping method) to the checkout page.

3) The above items will need to correspond with matching columns in the product table of the database so as to store this data for each product. (length, height, width, single box, in the "xcart_products" table. Plus the added data for rollover dimensions, max weight per carrier, max dimensions "length, height, and width" per carrier possibly in the "xcart_shipping_options" table).

4) When real time rates are selected for your store the cart will now communicate a fairly correct amount of "boxes", "dimensions", and "weights" of each box being shipped as part of the customer's order.

5) We DO NOT need to list the amount of boxes or weights on customer invoice or order information. Our shipping departments' should have the ability to use common sense knows how to ship orders efficiently. This procedure needs only to be transparent to both the customers and vendor.

EXAMPLE:

One item the customer orders is a very large item that must be shipped as an individual item (Box #1). The customer orders other items that will now compile by weight "and" dimension as additional boxes as part of this shipment. This will work very well on wholesale stores that sell in case quantity. You could set a separate "case" part number for particular items if you wish. Once the weight or dimension "max" value is exceeded the cart tells UPS that there is more box(es) as part of the order (Box #2, #3, etc).

Now, with the max dimensions and values (rollover values) are left up to each vendor, you could effectively use this feature to not only be more accurate with your shipping calculations charged to the customer, but you could also come pretty close in matching the sizes to what shipping boxes each company uses. Say that you ship average sized items and your MAX box size is 24" x 16" x 12". You could set that as your max compiled "dimension" size and use default weight values from the shipping carriers as a secondary rollover point. It should be well posted/documented what the max dimensions/weights are for each shipping carrier.

The coding for this is already part of the UPS, USPS, and FEDEX available XML scripts.

For examples see what the above shipping agencies use on their own websites: (http://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost?loc=en_US, http://postcalc.usps.gov/, http://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/home?cc=US&language=en)

The above modification is nothing more than what the above shipping agencies already ask for, either using their online services or offline software. With the size and weight varieties of the products we sell, we MUST have accurate shipping calculations."

Anybody have any ideas or info?

I just quoted my own post from this thread that I put up previously.

[technicaldata]

Another feature that should also be included is that a customer should be able to enter a zip code to get a shipping estimate. This should also be compusory to get a shipping estimate in the first place. How can you get an accurate real time shipping estimate without a destination zip code in the first place?

[RichieRich]

More abilities with products should be present.

-- Ability to feature one or more random/non random product in menu/ out of menu. Also having ability to have the featured products on main page/category page display random products from the store/category. Showing the rating or something could be optional if rated.

-- Ability to have different quantity for featured products, than standard products per page. (ie. 6 products per page, 8 featured for example)

-- Where product variants are present, with prices; $5, $10, $25, and $100. Displaying $5 on the thumbnail pages isnt useful enough. Where variants are present, price should at least be displayed as FROM: $5-$100. This leads to much confusion currently. If not dont display the prices for variants on thumbnail pages, this should be acknowleged.

-- Recent products should be remembered in the menu.

-- Option to display upselling products in the cart area for the product(s) selected, with an option for customer to add these to their order. (ie. You may also like/ other customers also bought, etc.)

-- Enhanced Availability of items. Where you can select exactly when the item is likely to be dispatched/delivered according to its availability. Customer will recieve this notification within order, and also emailed. Also there should be grouping of orders, where you can select which items have been dispatched, if the order is being sent in two deliveries for some reason, or if one ships within 24 hours, and another within 3 weeks.

-- One last suggestion, to do with categories, although there is a modification for a SITEMAP, a standard built in map would be great, listing in columns perhaps, or including help pages, static pages etc. with bold headings, for customer to easily navigate the store.

Thanks for reading my feedback.

[shan]

heres a simple one.

make the orders list with the latest one AT THE TOP

basic bad layout that one

[NuAlpha]

Another great speed enhancement would be to be able to completely turn off all non-default language features for the customer side for those stores that don't use that feature (as can be done with advanced tracking). That code used up a LOT of resources to run through and we aren't a multilingual store as of yet so it was a pain to have to go through and comment it all out where not needed. Would be handy to be able to turn that code off entirely by changing a simple config value as I am sure numerous people don't have the time or resources to maintain quality translations for a multillingual store.

Another speed enhancement would be to cleanup the product descriptions and such at the time of import or when any changes are made, NOT each time func_search_products() or func_select_product() is called, which pointlessly adds processing overhead.

[groovico]

Originally Posted by shan

heres a simple one.

make the orders list with the latest one AT THE TOP

basic bad layout that one

Theres alot of the basic simple ones missing, that one bugs the hell out of me and my clients.

For all the wants and everything posted, x-cart need to concentrate on simplyfing and speeding up whats already there.

Seriously guys take a break from adding this and that, the carts big enough as it is. Refine whats there further.



Here's just a tiny washing list for you:

Order Display: Bring the status back to the standard search not the advanced one.

Order display: bring the order ID search box back so you can show a SINGLE order fast instead of going through the advanced search

Order display: Reverse the display as shan says, it's straight forward UI practice to show what the customer needs most first.

Product order history: seperate the product database from the order history, this is *REALLY REALLY* bad practise to have them merged. You delete a product in the current x-cart you get "product deleted" in order history. Seriously this is kids stuff.

Order display: if there are settings in the advanced order search active, then show that DIV, otherwise it confuses people as the filter cant be seen when they return to the machine.

Product extra fields: they need to be available else where in the system like x-cart 3 and below

Product search: bring back the product search via URL like x-cart 3 and below. You've killed so much functionality and value in the search by removing that its not even funny, it had practical use in emails, newsletters, optimisation and alot more.

I could go on forever but this isn't my job, it just feels as if for every 2 steps forward x-cart takes they always insist on taking 1 back.


Open up an ecommerce site of your own that shifts tangeble goods (not electronic), you'll see EXACTLY where the problems lie when your using x-cart. Theres a massive difference between creating a shopping cart system, and using one for real life streamlined business senarios.

[shan]

Open up an ecommerce site of your own that shifts tangeble goods (not electronic), you'll see EXACTLY where the problems lie when your using x-cart. Theres a massive difference between creating a shopping cart system, and using one for real life streamlined business senarios.

Sooooooooo true.

I was disapointed when i installed 4.1 . I thought we were going to experience a major transformation and all the things that make xcart annoying would be fixed.

lets make sure when 4.1 is released things have really turned a corner.

You must listen to the people that use xcart day in day out. both as developers and store owners and shoppers.

[NuAlpha]

Originally Posted by groovico

Seriously guys take a break from adding this and that, the carts big enough as it is. Refine whats there further.

Couldn't agree more!

Originally Posted by groovico

Product order history: seperate the product database from the order history, this is *REALLY REALLY* bad practise to have them merged. You delete a product in the current x-cart you get "product deleted" in order history. Seriously this is kids stuff.

That had to be one of the first things we fixed when we got Xcart. No less than 50 orders in and we realized how big a problem that was causing.

[thumbsatplay]

I agree, X-cart should stop focusing on new modules and increase performance, fix some of the basic issues as Shan mentioned, etc.

I love X-cart and I understand that the company makes money on support, customization, etc. while giving out upgrades for free. But I am willing to PAY for upgrades if that's what it takes to get some of the things that Shan has mentioned (basic stuff man!). I honestly don't need a lot of the modules such as FancyCategories or services like Ready4Xmas...like I said I will pay for a more efficient, cleaner cart.

I'm still developing my site and will launch here soon....I believe that X-cart will get better and better with time, but like Balinor says, I don't want to always feel like a "Beta tester" - crossing my fingers that something will not break after an upgrade.

[RichieRich]

The search function is the weakest tool at the moment imo.

Lets say you have a title "a day in the life of xcart developer book" in your store.

If you searched for "xcart book", (a common search term) did you know you would get 0 results?

Nobody knows that you have the book in stock, and they go elsewhere, not everyone wants to go through all the categories and manually find items.

The search should actually work properly, no one is going to search for the exact title, or always get the words in the right order, ease of use on the customer end should be priority number one.