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

 
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  #11  
Old 04-15-2014, 06:15 AM
 
Mark N Mark N is offline
 

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Default 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.
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  #12  
Old 04-16-2014, 05:55 AM
 
Mona Not Mona Not is offline
 

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark N
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.


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
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  #13  
Old 04-17-2014, 02:35 AM
 
xim xim is offline
 

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Default 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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark N
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.

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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark N
The ability to change ANYTHING on an order from the admin screen. Can't change the order product, the shipping method, the shipping address...

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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark N
Ability to have hidden products

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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark N
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

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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark N
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.)

These features will be available in next 5.1.x minor versions.
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  #14  
Old 04-17-2014, 02:40 AM
 
xim xim is offline
 

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by carpeperdiem
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.

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?
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  #15  
Old 04-17-2014, 03:23 AM
 
carpeperdiem carpeperdiem is offline
 

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by xim
Group Editing is very powerful feature in XC4....
...please, describe your use case how you edit it for multiple products?

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
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  #16  
Old 04-17-2014, 03:51 AM
 
xim xim is offline
 

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by carpeperdiem
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

Thank you, carpeperdiem!

You confirm my statement that group editing is needed to edit only non unique fields of the items
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  #17  
Old 04-17-2014, 03:53 AM
 
carpeperdiem carpeperdiem is offline
 

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by xim
You confirm my statement that group editing is needed to edit only non unique fields of the items

Yes! It's a powerful function and saves time (vs. export/edit/import).
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  #18  
Old 04-17-2014, 08:08 AM
 
Mona Not Mona Not is offline
 

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by carpeperdiem
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


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.
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