[3.5.0] Suggestions

[KTBleeding]

Hey everyone.

I know it's kind of early for this, but since it's under dev.. now is the perfect time.

List the features here that you would like to see in the 3.5 version of Geek Mart.

User Permissions (I'm sure they're planned. But just incase)
If there is only the small image entered, have that be in the product header (Right now it is just blank)
Stock amounts ("out of stock / in stock")
Custom Fields (Probably "per category")
Similar Products

[The Geek]

Cheers for that

User permissions. What do you wan to see? Categories by usergroups?
The image issue should be pretty easy.
Stock amount will be a serious pain. Trying to manage dead carts full of stock can lead to a big problem. If anyone has some good ideas on this - Im very keen :)
Custom fileds. There are custom fields per item already (off the top of my head I think there are some category custom fields too). What type of data would you need to store?
Similar products is a feature I would really like to add for gold.

[KTBleeding]

User permissions. What do you wan to see? Categories by usergroups?
Actually, now that you ask.. and I think about it more, this probably isn't that big of a deal. I mean, you obviously want all (registered) user groups to be able to purchase, right? And that's what it already does. ;)

Stock amount will be a serious pain. Trying to manage dead carts full of stock can lead to a big problem. If anyone has some good ideas on this - Im very keenWell, the reason I suggested this is because if I were to use GM right now, I would be selling t-shirts / cd's. Having an "Out of stock" option would be somewhat ideal for that in my opinion. Also offering a "pre-order / backorder" type of thing?

That's getting way into a full blown shopping cart system though, so I'm not sure where you would stand on that.

Custom fileds. There are custom fields per item already (off the top of my head I think there are some category custom fields too). What type of data would you need to store?
Oh, do they already exist? I didn't notice.
I can't think of anything off the top of my head that I could use this for.. I would probably just put what I needed in the description with some HTML. But for some members who aren't sure how to code, this may be a nice feature.

Or maybe even having the vB WYSIWYG editor for submitting a product? I dunno, just throwing some ideas out. :)

[The Geek]

Keep em coming.

The stock control issue is going to be a tough one. Once things settle down around here and this goes gold - if enough people want it... Ill code it :)

There are (if I recall right) 4 custom fields per item. 2 are editable when you edit the item itself. Im currently using those with mods as various flag holders.
For instance, the membership mod requires custom1 to hold the duration of membership and custom2 holds the usergroupid.

Hopefully most extra needs will be met with the mod system. Already I have:
A license module for purcahsing software
A membership mod for changing usergroups

Im working on:
one for renewing membership (slight variation on the above)
One to interlink with gush to sell ads and keywords to sponsors.

Its actually a pretty groovy little system that should make customization a snap :)

[KTBleeding]

Sounds great.

I have a couple more for you:

Ability to remove items
If no image entered, have a "Image coming soon" or another type of default image. (Like GAS for 3.0.X)

[The Geek]

Remove items as in from your cart? Setting the qty to zero does that - or do you want a more user friendly option?

I suppose a default image wouldnt be too difficult.

Great idea! :)

[KTBleeding]

Oops. Sorry, I should have been more specific.
Not removing items from the cart, but from the product itself. For example, I added 5 new items to one product and ended up only using three. The other two I would like to remove.

[The Geek]

ah - gotcha!

Will sort for near future release.

[Fleabag]

With regard to items being out of stock, how about an option in the ACP to 'Mark as Out Of Stock' - removing the links allowing purchase and adding an approximate delivery date for stock [set while marking the item as out of stock] - would get around stock tracking issues.

[The Geek]

Thats a nice intermidate solution!

[KTBleeding]

How about having it so guests can add items to their cart, but must be logged in to "checkout"? That's not too mandatory to me, just an idea.

[The Geek]

I like it - only thing is that carts are created using the userid. It will take a bit more work to change to a total hash system. Ill slowly start folding it in - but I think that will be tagged for future development.

[sketch42]

how bout...

Customers who bought this Item also bought:

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Item 4


o and can these suggestion be added to both versions (where possible) not just 3.5 ???

[The Geek]

Right now - im maintaining everything for backwards compatability (though it is a bit of a juggling act).

When it goes gold though - ill break the scripts to totally dependant version to take better performace options with vb3.5

In other words - the scripts are pretty much the same for both version save a few functions. So what I impliment in one should be done in the other. Once gold comes - I wont be able to do that as easily anymore ;)

[KTBleeding]

Got yet another one for you..

How about Information for who's online? Right now it displays:

"Unknown Location /forum/geekmart.php?c=1"

[The Geek]

I didnt think macks could do WOL locations. I have a cool mack for 3.08 - but unless someone knows something I dont - then its a job for another mack :)

[Rich]

Hello,

Storefronts that I have used, and still use, have several features that I personally find excellent. The first is how they store data. If a person adds "x" amount of product to their cart, but doesn't complete the checkout, it store their order in the DB. When they log back in, it is displayed and they have the option to checkout, or to remove thitems. Based off of this is product quantity. Again, this is another Database feature that I NEED. If we have 10 t-shirts in "x" size, and 9 are sold, but someone tries to buy 2 t-shirts, it tells them that we do not have that amount in stock and gives them the option to stil pay for them, and have them shipped when the order comes in.

As items are completed through the checkout, it removes that number of product from the "in stock" quantity. When your products are down to a certain number, it also tells you that its time to restock. That notice is sent by a number that you specify in the ACP. (as is the stock quantity)

Users that log off but do not finish the checkout with products in their cart are not counted toward the instock/out of stock items.

Like above, when an item is out, it should automatically list that item as out of stock.

Preferably, you could also add the "expected date" in which the item will be instock. If you tap into the calendar, you could potentially allow the admin of the cart to set a date on the calendar, not viewable by members, when a product will be instock. Then have a query run to retrieve that data and display it.

These are just a few ideas I already have on a free storefront. (OSC) I intend on porting my osc to use my members database at some point, but if your "mart" does the same thing, I can just buy yours and save myself the trouble. :D

[The Geek]

Right now carts go dead after 1 hour of inactivity. It would be easy enough to make that a settign so you can keep it alive forever.
The difficulty with the stock situation is that 10 people could have the last item of your shirt in stock, 1 gets it, then the rest keep getting blocked on checkout (if you follow what I mean). If you decide that the stock is moved at time of cart insertion - then you have to worry about dead carts! Stock control with a web front is a real juggling act.

Id love to somrthing - but we are talking a pretty big challenge ;)

[Rich]

Hello,

If there is one item in stock, and 10 people try to buy it, they would need to be doing so at the same time. Once it is purchased, they are told the item is out of stock and that would prevent them from being blocked. You can't buy out of stock items.

The method i use on my current storefront is I just removed the "purchase"/add to cart button when its out of stock and it displays a small text piece in the footer of the display saying the item is out of stock.

I have never had a problem with people buying the last one in bundles like you described. Since the item is listed as out of stock, even if its in their cart, it won't allow them to buy it. It displays as "out of stock" for them.

[The Geek]

Heres what I mean...

You have 2 options for timings for stock manipulation:
1- The time that the person puts it into cart
2- Checkout closure

Method #1 is best for preventing multiple people from being able to order and item. When someone puts the item in their cart - thats it - no one else can get it.
The downside is that:
They may shop for another 20 minutes and then abandon their cart (effectively tieing up your stock).
They may shop for 15 minutes and then delete item from cart during which time others would have purchased.
If you want in infinate open cart (users can leave and come back to it later) then you can't use this method as you will never know if that person has abandoned the cart with your stock in it or if they are saving it.

Method #2 is the best because stock is only allocated at time of checkout.
If there is 1 item in stock and 10 people are ordering, the first one to checkout gets it.
The problem with this is:
Many pissed off people that had thought they were about to buy the stock suddenly get a message that its a gonner and its automatically removed.

The fact is that #2 would be the best however do not let people put something in their cart if its KNOWN to be out of stock. Your instances of disapointments would be far fewer as you would HAVE to have mulitple people clambouring for the same last item at the same time.

Regardless - theres no way I think I could roll this into the first release as I have far too many open projects at this time :(

But still - love the discussions and the ideas :)

[Rich]

Hello,

Thats what I was trying to say. When an item is out of stock, the buttons to add it to the cart or purchase it don't display. So, there isn't a chance of them buying it at the same time. Since the stock quatity is displayed, if a user adds it to their cart....but doesn't complete the checkout, and someone else comes in and buys it, the other user that tried to "save" their cart is told that the item has been sold.

It may piss them off, but all stores are first come first served. Had they finished the checkout, they would have gotten it and the other person wouldn't have seen the button at all to add it to the cart.

[sketch42]

Hello,

Thats what I was trying to say. When an item is out of stock, the buttons to add it to the cart or purchase it don't display. So, there isn't a chance of them buying it at the same time. Since the stock quatity is displayed, if a user adds it to their cart....but doesn't complete the checkout, and someone else comes in and buys it, the other user that tried to "save" their cart is told that the item has been sold.

It may piss them off, but all stores are first come first served. Had they finished the checkout, they would have gotten it and the other person wouldn't have seen the button at all to add it to the cart.
you can also add (if possible) that say there is 1 item left in stock and 2 people add that item to cart... while one continues shopping the other completes check out...

what could happen is once the item is out of stock the members', thats still shopping, cart would be updated and say Item Out of stock next to the order... see picture

http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/4088/update9ew.th.gif (http://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=update9ew.gif)

effectively showing the customer that they have waited to long to check the item out... also the system would not even try to check that item out and the shopper can continue checkout of the other items in the cart without having to remove the "out of stock" item from the cart since its basically not in the cart {if you go shopping at a grocery store and you want lettuce and there is no lettuce can you put it in your cart? (all this does is show the customer that the lettuce they had is gone)}

[The Geek]

Ill look at adding stock control to the current cycle, however I MAY put that off until I can get a gold, then develop it as a future feature.

[pashnit]

I would like the ability to turn off the quantity option. I have no use for it with my setup.