PDA

View Full Version : What To Expect In the Next JShop Server Update


JShopSupport
26-10-2005, 08:38 AM
For those of you who are interested in what to expect from the next JShop Server update, here is a list of new features and changes. This is not exhaustive and we will add to this list here on the forums before the release. Please note that we are not accepting any new feature requests for inclusion in this update.


Account type assignment rules at customer account creation allow you to automatically specify which account type to give a customer.
New granular controls over user access to admin system.
Addition of supplier cost.
Re-designed email template system allowing multiple email templates sent to different places on triggers, instead of one per trigger.
Many new payment gateways
Large amount of optimization work done on database queries.
New caching of recommended products to greatly reduce mysql cost in creating these lists.
Ability to add additional fields to sections in much the same way as with products.
Quickbooks export
Labels support in email templates and in receipt.html template
Changes to order status system, allowing the creation of custom order status and attachment of email templates to these status changes
New reports, including stock level report
Time zone offset setting now in admin system for servers operating on different time zones
Built-in carts auto-prune facility
Built-in scheduled database optimize facility
Tax enhancements
Ability to set an order status to something other than NEW depending on the payment method.
Display shipping charges on the cart page.
Sorting facilities available for products within sections on the front of the store
XHTML complicance in all JShop Server produced HTML and JavaScript
Send to a friend facility
"Invisible" extra product fields allow you to add extra product fields that are not for display in the store via. the usual extra fields loop on the product page. This allows you to setup extra information fields that you may not wish to show to the customer.
Built-in returns system.


We are now planning to release this new version in January, to allow time for some further optimization work and the addition of some other new features. Once this release is out we will be reverting to an update every 6 months.

JShopSupport
09-01-2006, 12:15 PM
There are a couple of extra additions we'd like to mention at this point:


Main menu bar in the admin system has been altered to remove the buttons. These have been replaced with links and drop-down menus for single-click access to any sub-level admin page.
We are currently evaluating, and will be licensing and integrating into this next update, a HTML text editor to be used within the administration system. This will be for areas of the admin system where HTML entry is allowed, such as snippets, full descriptions on products, newsletters etc.


We are still looking to release this new version at the end of January. However, we will release it as Beta status with a 'full' release coming at the end of the following month. We're keen to try this method of release in order to open up Beta testing to our entire customer base and thus provide a greater volume of feedback on problems.

JShopSupport
24-01-2006, 11:34 AM
Extra additions:


New URL Options. We've expanded the Safe URL option to now also provide support for extension-less files, e.g. http://host/product/25/, and also have the system add in the product or section name to the end, e.g. http://host/product/19/T_Shirt. In addition both Safe URLs and normal URLs can have the section ID removed from product links as has been requested
If you make your store unavailable you can provide a list of IP addresses that will still be allowed to view the store
Safari support removed. Unfortuantely Safari support is no longer possible in the admin system due to a lack of support for several new changes. Most noteably this is because of the WYSIWYG editor. We could not find a WYSIWYG editor that would work in Safari, simply because Safari does not have the support for the techniques required. Firefox on the Mac has been tested thorougly, however, and works correctly.
Reset button added for users online maximums.


Regarding the Beta release date. We are moving this back by 2 weeks, until the 14th Feb 2005. If we can release the Beta before then, we will, however we still have some extra options and tidying up to do on the code, plus work still to do on the documentation and new default templates. In addition we are working on making the system compatible with mySQL 5. mySQL 5 validates SQL queries that utilize JOINS in a different way to previous versions and this has caused several problems in the system. As mySQL 5 will become more common through the 6 month life-span of this next update, we need to address this now.

JShopSupport
06-02-2006, 11:41 AM
Some of you may have noticed the new Beta Testing forum, and that we've moved this, and the PHP Coding forum, into a new sub-section called 'JShop Server Registered Users'.

First of all, full Beta is not about to start, (sorry) but we will be releasing the new tSys code today which, as it's a seperate module, should work happily with your existing sites (our demo store at http://www.jshopecommerce.com/jssdemo/ is already using this new tSys). There's a lot that's new in tSys which is why we thought it would be good to make this available sooner. We'll be adding a post detailing the new features along with the new code for download on the Beta Testing forum.

We're keen to get feedback on this straight away as it's a pivotal part of JShop Server, and the Beta Testing forum will be the place to post regarding it.

UPDATE: New tSys code has been posted to the Beta Testing forum

JShopSupport
08-02-2006, 04:20 PM
Unfortuantely it looks unlikely that we'll meet the 14th Feb release date for the full Beta due to a number of problems coming to light in new sections of code, a further re-working of the main interface to better fit in with the new drop down menus (we'll post more on that in the Beta test forums soon - but it will make searching in the system much more accessible) and more work in tidying up some of the code changes.

We apologise for this delay and hope that this is the last delay before we can make it available. So we are pencilling in a date of 28th February as the date for Beta release.

We know that a number of people are waiting for the new update as it adds support for the up to date Protx protocol (that supports 3D Secure), so we are going to be releasing that on the Beta Test forum next Monday regardless, packaged so it's suitable for 1.3.0.

One other thing to add, as if we haven't teased you all enough with this new release, is that we're seeing at least a 1/4 drop in page generation time on our test sites with the new code (this is excluding the improvements made to tSys execution time as well).

JShopSupport
11-02-2006, 11:12 AM
We've just released the beta test of the new Protx 2.22 VSP Form integration on the Beta Test forum. This has be packaged suitable for installation on 1.3.0.

If you are a registered user of JShop Server and do not already have access to the registered users boards on the forum please email support@jshop.co.uk with your forum username and JShop Server registration details and we'll activate your account.

JShopSupport
22-02-2006, 01:40 PM
We will be putting up a demo of the new front end store for JShop Server at the end of next week (3rd March), along with the release of screenshots of the updated admin system.

By Monday 13th March we will also have the admin system for the demo store available.

Final beta release will happen within 2 weeks of that, all being well.

Due to the large number of changes made to the layout of the admin system, and the completely re-written templates, this next update will be released as version 2.0 when officially released.

EDIT: Due to a number of people asking for clarification, there will not be a charge for the upgrade itself (as per our free upgrade policy), although we will be charging for installation as we did with the last update. In addition the price of our licenses will not be increasing. This seems to have all come about because we're going to be labelling the new release as 2.0 - that's simply being done because it makes sense to at this time.

JShopSupport
03-03-2006, 10:36 AM
We've released the first screenshots of the admin system for 2.0 on the following post:

http://forums.jshopecommerce.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=2381

A demo of the front end is still to follow - we are currently finishing off changes to the templates and validating everything through the W3C Validator (which takes a long time). As soon as we can we'll make it available.

JShopSupport
13-03-2006, 08:04 AM
The demonstration site for the administration system will be available this week, although not today as promised. We're finishing off some changes to the layout and making some changes for problems that have come to light with the Internet Explorer 7 Beta. By Friday we'll have the admin system up and available for login.

JShopSupport
17-03-2006, 09:12 AM
Release of admin demo postponed until Tuesday 21st March.

JShopSupport
21-03-2006, 11:21 AM
As our telephone and email has been bristling with enquiries as to whether the admin preview will be online today, we can confirm that it will be and we are currently creating the update installer so we can create an updated version of our demo store.

There are several things that will, initially, not be available on the preview, due to final work still needing completion. These will be:

1. The returns system
2. Some new tax features
3. Some new reports

The preview will only be available to registered users. A full Beta demo store will be available once the system goes out for registered users to beta test on their own servers.

JShopSupport
21-03-2006, 03:23 PM
We have now made the administration system preview available to registered users. Please see the Beta Testing forum for details.

JShopSupport
27-03-2006, 11:22 AM
Registered User Preview is currently continuing. We should be in a position to make preview available to all visitors at some point next week.

JShopSupport
25-04-2006, 11:40 AM
As some people have missed what was said in the admin system screenshots thread, we'll repost it here:

Beta moved to around 12th June. We'll update this post if further time is needed.

JShopSupport
08-06-2006, 01:23 PM
It's looking increasingly likely that we won't hit the 12th I'm afraid, so we're going to push Beta back (one final time, honest) until the week of the 19th. It will be by the end of that week at the latest, although hopefully sooner.

We'll be issuing a patch for 1.3.0 to add mySQL 5 support by Monday at the latest though. One caveat that needs to be made on this however, this patch will not add in support for the newer PHP conncection routines, it will simply allow the join queries to be run correctly on mySQL 5 servers. The newer PHP connection routines are supported in 2.0 and will be selectable from the config.php file.

JShopSupport
20-06-2006, 04:22 PM
Well you're going to hate us but there's going to be a further delay of hopefully no more than a week or so (3rd July is a Monday, and it makes more sense to release on a Monday, rather than a Friday, so we're aiming for that day), just whilst we rectify some problems that have come to light that need resolving before Beta (otherwise we'd get bombarded about them during Beta).

However, we'll be in a position hopefully to put up the new templates next week on the development demo store so you'll be able to see the new default templates and the new front-end options.

I'll be sleeping on a bed of nails until it's finished as punishment for the delay.

JShopSupport
30-06-2006, 07:34 AM
The new templates are still having changes made to them and will be shown either on Monday or Tuesday next week with the Beta release hopefully happening by the end of next week, although this may change until the week after is need be.

Apologies for the delay.