X-Cart 4.0.0 alpha 1 Release - Non Production Test Version

carlisleglass · #51 06-04-2004, 12:12 AM

Code:

- speed up config_load, simplify compiling (Monte)
- speed up compiled templates, hardcode plugin filepaths
    instead of dynamically calculate at runtime. (Monte)
- add math speedup to core (Dominik, Monte)

that to begin with !

adpboss · #52 06-04-2004, 06:19 PM

Verbic. Speed plain and simple is the greatest benefit I have seen.

Install a default 3.5.7 store and then install one running Smarty 2.6.2. You will see a difference. Anyone can.

Speed is a tangible performance benefit. Not a feature that only some will use.

So many X-Cart sites feature upwards of 500 products. These are the stores that will benefit from the upgrade.

adpboss · #53 06-04-2004, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Gee, I'm a bit confused about Smarty. I don't think Smarty 2.6.2 will work with X-Cart out of the box without any problems. We spent much time patching and fine tuning Smarty 2.5.0 before it stopped generating incomatibility issues.

I'm hoping you are not being sarcastic here. Of course it will require patching and fine tuning to get 2.6.2 working. That's why you come out with new versions, and not to sound like a party pooper but when was the last time you guys had a stable version before X.X.5? I think never.

You want us to upgrade to do bug fixes, we want you to upgrade to add performance. Seems like a reasonable request to me.

anandat · #54 06-04-2004, 07:08 PM

Search by Param00 fileld must be there.
Param00 field is could be any thing like Author,Model,Brand etc
So every one would like to have facility Search by Author, or Search by Model or Search by Brand
I hope many of us would be agree with this

mattia · #55 06-05-2004, 07:40 AM

just a few constructive complaints regarding x-cart:

1 - bulk product upload to cart should be an option, so if a customer needs - for instance - to order 5 consumables items for his printer, he would just go to the printer page, find all "compatible" products, fill in the qtys in the text boxes and do a "ADD ALL TO CART", kind like filling in an order form.
Today, he must go back and forth from the catalog to the cart page at least 5 times, much more if he needs to update quantity in cart or add product options.
Just to remind you: anyone knows the "one-click purchase" option of Amazon? Fewer clicks for multi-product purchase sessions is a must.

2 - I did a search on EDI on the forum and came up with nothing. I believe the general scope of the xcart project could gain a tremendous boost from the addition of an integration module for Ingram Micro's "Inside Line" or Tech Data XML components. I would be more happy to gain that than some better looking templates which I will need to customize anyway, or do them from scratch. After all I think at least 50% of all cart users are IT resellers anyway, so most likely they should be customers of Ingram Micro or Tech Data (which btw are present with the same XML integration package in dozens of countries). BTW integration manuals are available for free.

3 - Membership specific pricing. Maybe this should be at Nб╟1. Today if I want to do that I should either create a global discount associated with that membership level from qty=1 (but that's only for a flat or % discount, which in general is not true) or alternatively I can create a Wholesale price for each product. If I have 100s of products this is not viable. So maybe it would be good to provide at least 3 main price fields for 3 default membership levels (like gold, silver and bronze, or end user/reseller/master reseller)

4 - New products and Categories should optionally gain a "NEW" icon next to their name for x number of days

5 - season promotions
created by associating specific templates, buttons and discount/coupons to specific data ranges (like december for "Christmas Promotion", Mother's day, or every july 4th), so that on the first day of the promotion the frontend would automatically "change" to reflect the new season. Maybe a wizard should be provided to guide the store admin through the creation of the "season".

6 - Italian GW CC processors: Banca sella, Carta Sц╛.

7 - Integration with Italian Post APIs.

8 - Just an idea: Option to define/flag product as an "accessory". Accessories are products TO BE USED in/for other product(s) (or all product of a certain category) and once defined the "compatibility list" (for ex. one Epson toner cartridge compatible with several Epson printers). When browsing the detail page of a product (ex: printer), all "compatible" products should be listed ordered by category (ex: "media", "Toner Cartridges", "Service Plans",...).
I would guess you could do something like this with upsell/cross sell or x-configurator, I am too new to xcart to tell. if this is the case, forget it.

thanks to all active forum members and to xcart team.

matt

adpboss · #56 06-05-2004, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattia

2 - I did a search on EDI on the forum and came up with nothing. I believe the general scope of the xcart project could gain a tremendous boost from the addition of an integration module for Ingram Micro's "Inside Line" or Tech Data XML components. I would be more happy to gain that than some better looking templates which I will need to customize anyway, or do them from scratch. After all I think at least 50% of all cart users are IT resellers anyway, so most likely they should be customers of Ingram Micro or Tech Data (which btw are present with the same XML integration package in dozens of countries). BTW integration manuals are available for free.

3 - Membership specific pricing. Maybe this should be at Nб╟1. Today if I want to do that I should either create a global discount associated with that membership level from qty=1 (but that's only for a flat or % discount, which in general is not true) or alternatively I can create a Wholesale price for each product. If I have 100s of products this is not viable. So maybe it would be good to provide at least 3 main price fields for 3 default membership levels (like gold, silver and bronze, or end user/reseller/master reseller)

4 - New products and Categories should optionally gain a "NEW" icon next to their name for x number of days

I'm not sure that the EDI interation is in such demand. I know a lot of tech resellers and NONE of them use Ingram Micro. Anything that can add features to X-cart is a plus in my books, so long as we keep refining the architecture.

Matt, the wholesale pricing works exactly as you have mentioned. If the logged in customer belongs to a group with wholesale pricing then only their pricing level at qty=1 is displayed. Wholesale pricing is a bit of a misnomer as it is also pricing by membership. I can see why X-Cart bundled it all together in the product modify screen though. It makes sense.

You can mod in the "new" tag. There ae some newest products mods in the Custom Mods section. I'm sure that would provide a solid starting point for your code.

John7 · #57 06-06-2004, 11:23 AM

I vote for the Ingram Micro feature.

Light Speed · #58 06-06-2004, 11:43 AM

As long as integration of product specific items such as ingram micro would remain module based so they can be disabled so as not to "Bog down" the cart for users that are not IT resellers then go crazy!

Sidenote> Is there a list of the install base for X-Cart broken down by product type ie... Apparel, IT, Automotive, Houseware etc.. It would be interesting to know what the cart is being used for most

adpboss · #59 06-06-2004, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Light Speed

As long as integration of product specific items such as ingram micro would remain module based so they can be disabled so as not to "Bog down" the cart for users that are not IT resellers then go crazy!

Sidenote> Is there a list of the install base for X-Cart broken down by product type ie... Apparel, IT, Automotive, Houseware etc.. It would be interesting to know what the cart is being used for most

Couldn't agree more. X-cart is already on the modular components deal. I think they are using that as an alternate revenue stream. We really need to focus our discussion of 4.0 on refining what is in the cart and adding core functionality that EVERY user can take advantage of. Specific modules or features are cool but likely to be sold by X-Cart from this point on as add-ons.

I would also be curious to see what the breakdown of the install base looks like. You would have to believe that X-Cart compiles that kind of marketing info.

mattia · #60 06-07-2004, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adpboss

3 - Membership specific pricing. Maybe this should be at Nб╟1. Today if I want to do that I should either create a global discount associated with that membership level from qty=1 (but that's only for a flat or % discount, which in general is not true) or alternatively I can create a Wholesale price for each product. If I have 100s of products this is not viable. So maybe it would be good to provide at least 3 main price fields for 3 default membership levels (like gold, silver and bronze, or end user/reseller/master reseller)
----------------
REPLY by adpboss:
Matt, the wholesale pricing works exactly as you have mentioned. If the logged in customer belongs to a group with wholesale pricing then only their pricing level at qty=1 is displayed. Wholesale pricing is a bit of a misnomer as it is also pricing by membership. I can see why X-Cart bundled it all together in the product modify screen though. It makes sense.

You can mod in the "new" tag. There ae some newest products mods in the Custom Mods section. I'm sure that would provide a solid starting point for your code.

-----------------
adpboss: thanks for your input on "new" feature, I'll be checking it out. as far as the wholesale pricing though, i'm not sure you got my point: there are many situations where a fixed or % based discount is not sufficient to differentiate members' pricing, for ex if I represent a "challenger brand" I will most likely set my prices according to my main competitor's, and in many cases I may not guarantee the same margin on all products to my reseller/wholesaler. In fact the margin (= (SRP-WP)/SRP) may well end up to be different for each product and even more likely for each category of products.
In this scenario I can't use Global Discount feature (I wouldn't use it for this anyway since it only shows up at checkout) nor can I use Wholesale option on modify product page.
A simple (optional) approach would be to provide in fresh xcart installs, a few (3-4) additional price fields ("PF") in the products table and also the same number of "default" membership levels ("ML") and relate each ML to a PF. In this manner for all users granted ML1, the main price would now be PF1, and so on.
I bet all xcart users with more than 50 products use CSV import/export and a spreadsheet to manage their prices, and many may well have different margins on different products/categories, so this approach would EXTEND the range for product pricing for different kind of customers. Also they wouldn't have to manually create the "special" price one by one, they could simply import it via CSV from their spreadsheet together with other product fields.

As for EDI integration, maybe you are right, it's maybe not a feature everybody will require, but I think xcart developers will like to know that Ingram and Tech Data (largest IT distribuitors in the WORLD) have some 20+K resellers only in Italy and most of these will need a b2b2c website at some point. If not built in, make it an optional Add-on, like X-Configurator, I would most gladly pay extra to have it.

thx & regs to all

matt