X-Cart forums

[snorocket]

Originally Posted by cotc2001

Arghhhhh coupons usage times per customer........ I just paid for that mod

Thats why we no longer buy custom mods anymore, X-Cart ROCKS !!!

[vulcan-works]

Importing products wether it be comma, tab or semicolon does not work for me, it dosent give me an error msg or anything..just nothing
anybody else have this problem?

[Stephen Hatton]

Hi Vulcan-works

Try exporting the standard cart products and then import it. If that works, then look at the output format and see how it is structured.

Just a tip (it's called reverse engineering).

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton

[cherie]

I had trouble logging into the admin area after installing. It appears the master passwd got corrupted. The Recover Password emailed "ц√б╓nOUе╫ц┬е╬" which has been a corruption indicator in the past.

I created a php script that uses a modified version of the blowfish.php and function call to help me create an encrypted password using the key that was generated during install. I could have reinstalled, but I'm not sure the reinstall would not have had the same results and I figured this script will come in handy down the road.

So, I'm back in business but a little concerned about initial master passwd corruption.

[shan]

Originally Posted by cherie

I had trouble logging into the admin area after installing. It appears the master passwd got corrupted. The Recover Password emailed "ц√б╓nOUе╫ц┬е╬" which has been a corruption indicator in the past.

I created a php script that uses a modified version of the blowfish.php and function call to help me create an encrypted password using the key that was generated during install. I could have reinstalled, but I'm not sure the reinstall would not have had the same results and I figured this script will come in handy down the road.

So, I'm back in business but a little concerned about initial master passwd corruption.

same thing happened to me on my live server so i installed it localy and it worked. what waas the script you used ?

[shan]

Heres my list of things that came to mind when I first had a look. Ive not bothered to point out any good things just things that could be better so it may not sound very possitive .....

Add shipping methods - min as well as max weight limit would be good

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Final checkout stage - Should only show fields that are filled in (eg first name, last name)

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If you remove the master/master account or any provider the products added by that person are no longer shown in the store. In Gold should it not even matter who added the products as we are using a single provider / owner. At least it should say that products listed by that provider will no longer work or something.

you should be able to switch provider via a drop down in the admin area / modify products

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subcats list page, number of products is cut off

subcats list page, how come we still show an icon for the parent category and not that of the subcategory. People always complain about this and most mod it to show an actual list of icons and their own category name. would be much better to show

ICON - category name (6 products)

and allow for multi column display too

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Order details - customer - still shows badly laid out invoice - why can we not show the same invoice across the whole store
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Customer Notes - These are still stored along with the cc details and are not shown on the customers invoice. whats the point of this. if the notes dont go on the invoice / delivery slip how is anyone going to be able to make any use of them. been mentioned a million times in the forum. just give the notes their own field in the orders table and then people can do what they want with them. also make them editable on the order details page by the admin. basic stuff this.

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admin - products list - it would be good to be able to also update the list price from here

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Customer - Products list - can we get rid of the product code after the product name - god knows how many people ask about this. its pointless

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It was mentioned before that the word x-cart would be removed from the general text of the store. it still appears all over the place
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Customer - product detail - could we not loose the save % star and add the list price / our price / and amount saved and % in the details area.

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Product options - price modifier - imagine i add 3 options - small / medium / large and set prices for each. here we should be able to set a list price too otherwise the % saved is lost and becomes useless.
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Wholesale pricing - cant choose more then one membership level. this should be a multi select list not a drop down menu

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Wholesale pricing - added a qty and new price, set it for a unique membership. when i changed the membership to all and updated it did not display on the user side

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Static pages - would be great to allow embedded pages to be put into categories

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Upgrade center - usefull to be able to save xcart members area username and pass so that your not asked to log in when you click check for updates. Things like payment gateways should be able to check for newer versions. so much of upgrades is updating payment gateways that most people never even use. Why not just update and even install the ones that you want to use. make it so much easier to make sure you stay current. wouldnt have to wait for a release patch if you could update payment gateways on the fly

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payment methods - whats 'cash on delivery method' all about ?


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Credit card payments - how come we still have months instead of numbers in the drop menus. when did you last see the month as a word on a credit card ?

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Invoices - still look untidy, could be made to look so much more professional.. WARNING: Antifraud module is not enabled. is this needed ? why would a customer want to see this. would this not raise concerns or questions from end users ?

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Images Location - why is there not a set of default folders set up during install so that images can be put into files folder.

files/images/thumbs
files/images/detailed
files/images/icons
files/images/manufacturers
files/images/variants

The amount of people who ask about this and then have problems getting images into the filesystem. How many people would rather put the images somewhere else. probably none. once and for all have these basic folders set up as standard and drop an htaccess files in there. a new folder is made for every provider and still the images have not been thought about...........

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Languages - if only one language is installed why ask us to choose one when you first hit that page ? Tiny text boxs for descriptions just makes it hard to edit things. make better use of the space. Whats the point of the description field when adding language vars. 99% of the time its just a copy of the value field. why not just drop the description field and make the value field bigger and easier to use...

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Titles - why not just add these as a subsection of the languages page and build the array out of lng.title_mr , lng.title_mrs etc. having its own admin section is a bit much


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Detailed image pop up - only shows first image, the window it opens is never big enough to display the whole image and also cuts off the next / previous. this window should not be stretchable, it should just fit the image its displaying....

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buttons - can we not use one method for buttons.. whats the point in having go buttons. why not just make all the buttons look the same

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products list - sort by, whats the point in having an option for default ? as a user what does that mean to them. to make it useful why not have 2 drop menus, 1 says order by and the other says how many products to show per page. an option to list products without images would be useful too. so would an option to list products as just title / price / qty and an add to cart for the whole page (multi add to cart in one go)

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Send To Friend - I see theres an option to be able to turn this on and off in admin but why not just add this as a module and allow it to be switched oin and off with all the others. would make more sense that way.

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UK config - when installing the store and choose UK style - why not have the following ..

Zones - UK / Europe / Rest Of World
TAX - VAT - 17.5% for UK / Europe

why do we need a zone for UK/London - get rid of this
why have a euro zone that includes the UK (if the store is in the UK then this is national not international)
why bother with 5% VAT option - get rid of this

Every store Ive set up in the UK ive removed all the stuff that was set to supposidly be helpfull and set up my own zones / vat as it should be.

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Countries management - has states - why not have these all unchecked as standard unless they actually do have states or at least allow them to be all turned off in one go.

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Emails - customer order complete, processed, cancelled etc etc etc - why not simplify the whole email thing and make a standard header and footer and pass a variable to the main mail template to say if processed include processed body. lets just cut down on the amount of seperate templates needed. most of them repeat the same things over and over. same applies for profile notifications

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<PRE>
<FONT>
{include file="customer/main/customer_details.tpl"}
</FONT>
</PRE>

- could we just loose these tags and format the things like customer details in a clear and simple way. having things displayed in such a way really make the store loose its edge. So simple to apply some attention to detail.


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Currencies - its a pity that were still stuck with only 2 currencies. we should be able to add as many as we like


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what are we using <font> tags or <span> tags. should we not by now just be using <span> tags. are font tags not outdated now ?

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CSS FILE

.CategoriesList - can we just loose this, no reason why categories links should be any different to other links

Do we have to have all the fancy cats styles in there. most people dont use this. can these not stay within the module itself
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If this is to be a database only upgrade then seize the moment and clean up all the templates. Even if it takes another few months.

lets get as near html compliant as possible.
Make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view
streamline the user experience and make it idiot proof
did i mention make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view

[cherie]

Originally Posted by shan

same thing happened to me on my live server so i installed it localy and it worked. what waas the script you used ?

I'll PM you. If anyone else is interested, please PM.

Originally Posted by shan

If this is to be a database only upgrade then seize the moment and clean up all the templates.

Agreed! This is where most customizations occur, and having a rock solid base to start with would be great. And it can be more logical for both shoppers and programmers.

[jmell]

When you have enough Categories and Sub Categories that puts the menu out in to the pages far enough that your menu goes over a Qty drop down
the Qty drop down is in front of the Menu. Making it look bad................

[Online Michael]

The new checkout process has a similarity to John's Easy Checkout mod so it just goes to show what a good mod it is (menus disappear for less distraction, progress bar on top, etc.).

It's also great to see there is a detailed image popup option too. Any chance of enabling this so we can see it in action?

Images for variants...WOW!

Just one more question... Will the new Fancy Categories module work with 4.0.XX????

[Stephen Hatton]

Hi Shan and all

Shan, your list of items are very detailed and include many things talked about on the forum. Some of the issues you have touched on are issues that many people have a lot of heartache about (even over the many revisions).

<font> is totally out of date and the .bottom styles in the css are too loose in definition (they can be used in font, tables, img, etc). XCART PLEASE READ W3C on stylesheets and prepare the way for compliance to XHTML.

My skin1.css is 50Kbytes at this point, however it is precise control over fonts, tables, images, fields, backgrounds, etc. and is downloaded once by the customer until the customer clears their cache. With ADSL > 50Kbytes per second, it is no longer a byte/time issue.

Images - Just check the forum for how many people have had issues with images. A shopping cart without images is a textbook - nice read but you most likely will never buy anything.

Embedded Static Pages (not on the help menu) - I have a solution if somebody wants it now. PMAIL me.

Invoice detail - define accurately and use css to control looks.

Make sure excel Export/Import module works - a lot of people on the forum have many problems.


As a side note - I have addressed all of these issues in my cart, however there are too many templates to fix for W3C compliance. So I re-iterate Shan's last comments (who is seeing all the forum feedback and trying to bail water on basic issues):

lets get as near html compliant as possible.
Make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view
streamline the user experience and make it idiot proof
did i mention make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view

You will get more recommendations when you address critical basic issues first. It is nice to have features, but it's not nice if it breaks the cart and you have to become a programmer to fix problems (or have very deep pockets with money) and have the patience of a monk.

From 99% of software on PC's, all upgrades work painlessly. I realise our customisation will cause issues, but look at your changelogs objectively. Do some statistical analysis on them - the more features, the more bugs/fixes and they have been increasing over the years (and what is not good is the same faults re-occuring regularly).

So QA should be a priority, not a secondary item. MAKE V4.1.0 A FLAGSHIP OF EXCELLENCE, then add features.

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton