Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

a_band · 2007-04-26 04:16:06

Neil: Thanks for the screenshot. Can you verify that the plugin is installed and turned on in your admin screen?

Everyone: To make life easier for you, I’ve just released a plugin containing product display tags Enjoy!

NeilA · 2007-04-26 07:04:21

Nope. No plugin installed or activated Levi.

In fact, I had thought of that, and tried downloading the plugin and installing it, but got the error ‘malformed or corrupt’ plugin.
Am I guessing right that something is amiss with the install… ;-)

-rr- · 2007-04-26 12:49:34

The product display tags work great. Only problem is that the currency symbol does not show correctly. It’s a missing “;” character somewhere probably?

&euro12.00

-rr- · 2007-04-26 13:12:49

The admin products list desperately needs a function to change multiple items’ categories/status instead of one by one.

-rr- · 2007-04-26 13:36:55

Also importing csv files creates problems when the content data contains commas (like sentences do). Could it also allow import of tab delimited text files instead of csv?

a_band · 2007-04-26 17:15:50

rr: I’ll be adding your comments to the issues list.

-rr- · 2007-04-26 17:32:28

I’ve had trouble importing csv-files. I’m only able to get the first product item in. For some reason it ignores the rest. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what’s wrong with the csv-file. I’ve removed all extra commas, made sure the column counts are the same for every product, utf-8 and unix line feeds. I don’t get it. Same happens with the example csv-file.

Additional ideas:
A possibility to export the product list as a tab delimited text file would be really good. In general, it would be really good to be able to manage everything in the product database through the admin interface, or otherwise export the database for editing and re-importing. Otherwise the management of stock counts etc. might become a nightmare soon as there are more than a few products.

Last edited by -rr- (2007-04-26 18:21:10)

-rr- · 2007-04-26 22:09:20

Just a few more issues I noticed:

- Vendors show up as categories with txp:categorylist, so better not use them unless you limit what categories txp:categorylist shows

- Can’t delete vendors in the admin, except by going through the database (phpmyadmin etc.)

- Categories don’t show in product edit view, but you can set them in the article view. Editing product descriptions afterwards will delete category setting so you’ll have to reset it in article view.

- Can’t link to existing image and can’t upload (but that’s maybe just my 777-settings)

- Some way of sorting the product listing would be nice

Having looked at a couple of other ecommerce solutions (e.g. zen-cart), this looks like it’s going to be a fantastic plugin compared to the others’ visual chaos. Levi is right. Textpattern is and excellent platform for this. I can’t wait to see it complete!

I’m ready to help to make things happen faster if there’s anything I can do to help out. Unfortunately that’s mainly in graphics and layout, no php for me…

Last edited by -rr- (2007-04-27 01:01:55)

NeilA · 2007-04-27 00:36:30

Levi,

Not sure what’s going on here, but I blew away the customised version TxP, installed a fresh new copy (including a new db), and I still can’t install the alpha admin plugin from your site. “Badly formed or empty plugin code.” is the error.

Obviously, others are managing this OK, so do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Additional thought: Is there a max size for plugins? Is it influenced by admin > prefs? Or host settings?
I can install other plugins, but not the admin one for this…

Last edited by NeilA (2007-04-27 08:44:45)

-rr- · 2007-04-27 13:38:31

Any ideas for the “import products” function? Does it work for others?

a_band · 2007-04-27 16:01:35

Neil: this is very strange. It seems that maybe the install script didn’t execute correctly for you but I can’t imagine why. I think you were right to try and install the alpha plugin from the site. If you can, try running this SQL on the DB:

@ALTER TABLE txp_plugin CHANGE code code MEDIUMTEXT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci NOT NULL,

CHANGE code_restore code_restore MEDIUMTEXT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci NOT NULL;@

And then try installing the plugin from the site and seeing if that error still appears.

rr: You’ve done some excellent debugging! Thanks for your notes. They are very helpful.

It’s become clear to me that the ‘product import’ function needs some updating, specifically in the areas you’ve pointed out. I especially agree with:

Importing CSV files with delimiters other than commas.
Allowing CSVs to update existing products in addition to importing. This would definitely make managing large catalogs much easier.

In reply to your other issues:

Vendors show up as categories with txp:categorylist, so better not use them unless you limit what categories txp:categorylist shows

This is working correctly. I wanted people to be able to browse products by vendor so I created them as categories. I could see how it might be annoying though.

Can’t delete vendors in the admin, except by going through the database (phpmyadmin etc.)

To delete vendors go to the ‘Content->Categories’ tab and delete the Vendor like you would any other category. It’s funky I know.

Categories don’t show in product edit view, but you can set them in the article view. Editing product descriptions afterwards will delete category setting so you’ll have to reset it in article view.

This is once again, my bad. I’ve been working on this plugin for so long that I forgot how I originally did some stuff. Here’s the fix:

To get product categories working create a root-level article category named: “Products”. Any sub category of ‘Products’ will appear in the product drop-down and save fine. This is something that I will absolutely update in the next release.

Can’t link to existing image and can’t upload

I anticipated that this might be a problem for some users. I would make sure that your ‘images’ directory is ‘777’ so that the files can be written there. By default it isn’t writable.

Some way of sorting the product listing would be nice

Oh, that is coming. Rest assured. :-)

Having looked at a couple of other ecommerce solutions (e.g. zen-cart), this looks like it’s going to be a fantastic plugin compared to the others’ visual chaos. Levi is right. Textpattern is and excellent platform for this. I can’t wait to see it complete!

Thanks! Neither can I. I’m as anxious to start using it for my clients as everyone else.

I’m ready to help to make things happen faster if there’s anything I can do to help out. Unfortunately that’s mainly in graphics and layout, no php for me…

This debugging is extremely helpful. I’m very grateful.

Last edited by a_band (2007-04-27 16:05:04)

NeilA · 2007-04-28 00:43:24

a_band wrote:

Neil: this is very strange. It seems that maybe the install script didn’t execute correctly for you but I can’t imagine why. I think you were right to try and install the alpha plugin from the site. If you can, try running this SQL on the DB:
ALTER TABLE txp_plugin CHANGE code code MEDIUMTEXT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci NOT NULL, CHANGE code_restore code_restore MEDIUMTEXT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci NOT NULL;
And then try installing the plugin from the site and seeing if that error still appears.

Hi Levi,
Thanks for the suggestion. But no change.

I’ve since tried installing the plugin on a number of other functioning installs of ‘standard’ TxP, and the plugin will not install in any of them.

So is this likely to be a language related or some other aspect of TxP or MySQL? My installs of TxP use English (GB) by default.

Thanks.

Last edited by NeilA (2007-04-28 00:43:53)

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#97 2007-04-26 04:16:06

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#98 2007-04-26 07:04:21

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#99 2007-04-26 12:49:34

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#100 2007-04-26 13:12:49

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#101 2007-04-26 13:36:55

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#102 2007-04-26 17:15:50

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#103 2007-04-26 17:32:28

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#104 2007-04-26 22:09:20

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#105 2007-04-27 00:36:30

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#106 2007-04-27 13:38:31

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#107 2007-04-27 16:01:35

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

#108 2007-04-28 00:43:24

Re: Thinking about building an e-commerce plugin...

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