Still a little bit to go but I feel now is a good time to share with you about our upcoming release. There have been significant changes and many improvements – the two most fundamental changes are a code overhaul and a new Template Engine that allows a web designer to customize any part of their shop (the same way you can modify a theme in WordPress). Read on young grasshopper.
New Template Engine
Our most frequent request. We did what we were told, we closed the curtains, locked the doors, copied the WordPress template engine and made our own. Now you can control and customize any part of your e-Commerce site. Based off the WordPress templating and Query system WP e-Commerce now has the best template system in town. Web designers can now go crazy!!
Our friend Wes Davis from Net Prophets has stated the the new Template Engine cuts his development time down by half. We’re totally chuffed and glad to be of service.
Intense Debate Integration
Instinct worked with the guys at Crowd Favorite to release an e-Commerce specific version of Intense Debate that lets people add Product Comments and reviews to their products. We felt it was better to do this then come up with our own commenting solution.
A faster Javascript experience with jQuery
WP e-Commerce has swapped out 90% of their custom made Javascripts with ultra fast jQuery. Essentially meaning a much faster e-Commerce experience for your customers.
Some people wonder why we didn’t do this in the first place, its because WP e-Commerce was around before jQuery and this has meant that unfortunately we’ve had to retro fit all our code. Its very close now though – our testers have been very happy with the results.
Video Tutorials!!
Our friend Adam Purcel at Hungry Dog media has launched a number of free WP e-Commerce video tutorials. If you want proof that the WP e-Commerce Plugin works then play the video – if your install does not go this smooth we’re pretty certain you’re doing something wrong or you have a crazy custom built server made by an old school Linux beard ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO-Xrs6qD5U
Goodbye Plugin Conflicts
We’ve been using wp enqueue for a while now, wp enqueue is meant to stop Plugins conflicting with other Plugins. This time round we’ve been a little more and have support for wp enqueue script and wp enqueue style.
Thumbnail Crop
Its hard to make that perfect thumbnail image – we’re Mac fiends here at Instinct and we appreciate the joys of Photoshop so we’re the first to admit that writing code to create the perfect thumbnail image to suit everybody’s needs was always going to be a difficult task.
So rather then try to come up with the perfect image cropping algorithm we’ve made a cropping tool that will allow you to make the pixel perfect thumbnail images.
Settings > Shipping
Shipping management has always bothered me a little so we’ve begun a user interface overhaul. Internal and External shipping calculators have been split up and we’ve moved the edit button to a more logical place.
Checkout Page Thumbnails
Now we have a great new Template engine it was easy for us to add Thumbnail images to our checkout page. If you want to remove them it easy.
A treat for members only / subscription sites
We’ve made a few improvements here. First of all we’ve added the ability to sign up, login and purchase all on the same screen. This greatly improves the user experience for your customers.
Settings > Payment Gateways
You can now change the Display Text for each Payment Gateway in the admin section.
For instance (and using the above image as an example) you can now change the word “PayPal Standard” to read differently in the admin section of your site. It could read something like “Pay by Credit Card” instead.
USA Tax Law
In regards to the USA tax we’ve modified a couple of things to ensure we follow USA Tax law. We have had many a USA customers comment on the way Tax works with regards to our Plugin, so we got a friend in the States to find out the Tax Laws and give us some scenarios so we could make it work just the way it should! To clear the air and make sure we are on the same page, the scenarios we have implemented are as follows:
Scenario 1
My shop is in Alabama. A customer from Texas buys a product and ships it to Alabama (He gets charged tax)
Scenario 2
My shop is in Alabama. A customer from Alabama buys a product and ships it to Texas (He gets charged tax)
Scenario 3
My shop is in Alabama. A customer from Alabama buys a product and ships it to Alabama (He gets charged tax)
Scenario 4
My shop is in Alabama. A customer in Texas buys a product and ships it to Texas (He doesn’t get charged tax)
These scenarios work by checking the shipping country select box and billing country select box on the checkout page.
We understand that sometimes these scenarios don’t suit your needs, for example if you customized your checkout page so a customer does not have to enter shipping details, we have added a new option in the checkout settings page called Lock tax to Billing Country. If you have this turned on the shipping country and billing country will be locked to each other, so if you change one the other will automatically change. This changes the above scenarios to:
Scenario 1
My shop is in Alabama. A customer from Texas buys a product he now ONLY has the option to ship to Texas (He doesn’t gets charged tax)
Scenario 2
My shop is in Alabama. A customer from Alabama buys a product he now ONLY has the option to ship to Alabama (He gets charged tax)
Crafty Cart 2
We use Crafty Cart for our development site and we can’t seem to contact Bill the original developer so we’re going to release a new version of Crafty Cart unless Bill comes back to us with more information – if you know how to contact Bill please do.
We have also designed a Crafty Cart version of Drop Shop but its not yet released.
A few misc things
- Chronopay probably won’t work until 3.7 Beta 2.
- Gold files have moved to the wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades folder. This folder should be automatically created when the e-commerce plugin is activated, but if it is not, you will have to create it yourself.
- iShop and MarketPlace themes will be updated in the next Beta release
- As always when upgrading make sure you backup first.
Feedback and Testing
Post your feedback / comments here.
55 Comments
Hey guys,
I have been playing around with this new version of r a couple of days now.. and let me just say AWESOME!
I reckon it will cut my development time in half, just using the new template theme engine.
Thanks guys!
Awesome! I’ve been checking it out, and having trouble with Target market, in the Group. Its giving me this error:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wp-content\plugins\wp-e-commerce\wpsc-admin\display-groups.page.php on line 18
Any suggestions?
We’ll take a look. If we can’t duplicate it you’ll have to provide us access to the site to fix it :)
Thanks, Dan
A very comprehensive set of improvements. Look forward to using it. Thanks. I was getting worried.
Been trying the beta, sadly it gives me tons of errors.
So i’ll stay away from this untill a confirmed stable release is out ;)
Unless you tell us what those errors are theb they will still be present in the next stable release. Until we have confirmation of what is going on I’ll take this with a grain of salt – for instance your server may be behaving funny, there may be a rouge Plugin killing WP e-Commerce or you may have made a mistake.
I’m glad to hear it works for all you other guys. Especially Wes because he’s a legend and knows WordPress.
Give me something to work with people ;)
Sleep time now…
Great release! When are you planning the “full” version? Keep up the good work ;)
Hi,
I’m also having problems with the Target Markets list:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /homepages/26/d235308816/htdocs/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/wpsc-admin/includes/settings-pages/general.php on line 71
Also the Base Country/Region list is blank (I’ll be happy to send you the pass to the WP installation I have these errors; and just for the record- I get this error both on the server and on my local computer so it’s not the server just behaving funny)
Thanks.
Any chance of a multi-product CSV/XLS import/export? I have been manually adding 158 downloadable products and becoming very frustrated having to update 4 tables (wp_product_files, wp_product_list, wp_product_order & wp_item_category_associations).
Will this be more easily accomplished in the future?
Cheers,
Jonathan
I was hoping to see this feature in the 3.7 beta build but since there was no response I built a simple import script that works with 3.6.12 running Apache 2 & PHP. I’ll post it on my blog in a few days, anyone interested?
When I enabled plugin it does not created the tables?
What is the url to create them?
Okay I solved my problem
No tables, just insert wpsc_create_or_update_tables(); function in file themes/current_THEME/header,php and refresh the front_page then delete it.
Any word on when it will be stable to use for Wordpress 2.8? Still noticing that the “add to cart” button, despite actually adding the item to the cart, it has no indicator and appears to do nothing.
I am on a deadline and before I purchase the Gold plugin I need to ensure it is working properly on a client’s site otherwise I may have to go with another plugin alternative.
@dan
Assuming you are talking about version number 3.6.12 and not the beta release that this post is about:
get a copy of jquery from from /your_wordpress_install/wp-includes/js/jquery.jquery.js and make a copy and send it to the /js folder in /plugins/wp-ecommerce/
I had the exact same problem and this fixed it for me.
Hope it works for you
@mccormicky thanks for the suggestion. I was actually referring to the beta version though. There are some great new features I saw in it that I would like to use in it. I’ll try that fix on the beta version.. but it sounds odd because if Wordpress is already loading jquery why would the .js need to be copied to another folder and loaded again?
Hoping to see the beta go stable before Friday otherwise I’ll have to go elsewhere :(
That did fix it in the beta version so the javascript/ajax stuff is working properly now on the front end. thanks
Thanks. Tonights Beta upgrade will include a better fix – the spinning animation will spin beside the add to cart button. Sound good?
If I download the Beta version will I be able to upgrade automatically to the stable version? Had a bit of a shocker and removed the wp-ecommerce database trying to upgrade to wordpress 2.8.
Cheers.
Hi Dan and the Instinct gang. This is great work and a cool update. On a completely vanilla install of WP 2.8 and the beta, I’m getting the same “Target Markets” error as the lads above. The error appears in the “Select the markets you are selling products to. ” checkbox selection in the settings. I literally haven’t done _anything_ and I’d like to think I know what I’m doing with WP and plugins. I’m guessing the $countrylist variable hasn’t been declared properly somewhere ot other.
Absolutely loving the work guys, this is super-fantastic!
Rich
As a follow-up the Base Country/Region dropdown box is empty. So I’m guessing there’s a slight problem with the sql query on line 20 in that same file. Hope this helps a little?
Hey guys, great plugin! Having trouble though!!
I upgraded to WordPress 2.8 – and the wp-ecommerce plugin “Settings” page froze up on me. I couldn’t click on any of the other tabs up top, like “checkout” or “shipping”.
So I deleted that version of the plugin and tried out the new 3.7 Beta release…It looks great and I really want it to work, BUT I have the same error as others here – Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wp-content\plugins\wp-e-commerce\wpsc-admin\display-groups.page.php on line 18
So now I can’t even add products, becuase I can’t add Categories! Now I’m stuck!! Please help!!
Right, I’m just going to make a list of things now, rather than make a post for each thing I’ve noticed, apologies!
Whenever you update any amount of options in the settings, you always get a message that “10 setting options updated” … even if you don’t update 10!
Deleting a shipping layer, doesn’t appear to delete it. It stays there, even if you press update
The adding of shipping layers doesn’t seem to work when you create the first one and update, it just reverts to no layers. However, on subsequent additions, it seems to work fine.
The same seems to happen on the checkout settings page. However this time it appears to be more terminal – in that you can’t add any forms, regardless of how many times you try. Upon ‘updating’ you get a message informing you that of options were updated, but then they don’t appear and you can’t use them.
When I go to products, I am informed that the list of directories is not writable and that I should change that, however, the directories haven’t been created at all. If I manually create them, everything seems fine.
I get this error on the ‘products’ page:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in [you_dont_need_to_know_this_bit]/sandbox/wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/wpsc-admin/includes/display-items-functions.php on line 315
When you create a product, but don’t enter a category, but fill in all of the rest of the details, you get an error saying that you need to select a category, however you lose all of the previous information you’ve just entered, so have to re-enter everything. So, I went to categories to try and resolve this problem…
I get the same error for the target markets above in the ‘target markets’ section.
If I try to add a new group, I enter a name and a description, then press ‘Add New Group’ and I am informed that the group has been added. But it hasn’t. Hence I can’t add a group (or an item) and hence I can’t add any products.
I’ve tried this on my own slicehost account and on a localhost setup. Both Apache, PHP 5.2.8 and MySQL 5.1.3. I’m using FireFox 3.0.11 but that’s neither here nor there for these errors :)
If you’d like to see these errors then get in touch and I’ll set you up an account on my sandbox – you have my e-mail.
Thanks for the amazing work and effort so far! Can’t wait for Beta2! :)
I’m excited to use this plugin, the feature descriptions sound awesome!
I have WP v 2.8 (latest version) and the new beta 3.7. I get the below error. When I try to change the permissions on the “wpsc” I am restricted and cant. The “upgrades” folder is not there initially, so I think it is created on the fly.
Anyone else ran into this?
The following directories are not writable:
/hsphere/local/home/likaminds/thadcafe.com/shop/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades/
You won’t be able to upload any images or files here. You will need to change the permissions on these directories to make them writable.
Thad – ran into that same problem. I tried changing the permissions on the wpsc folder and that didn’t work either. Couldn’t figure it out either!!
Try changing the permissions on the upgrades directory.
Also, on your server, what user and group does the web server create files as by default?
@Tom – When I look at my /hsphere/local/home/likaminds/thadcafe.com/shop/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/ I do not see an upgrades directory. Or did I do something wrong upon activation?
@Tom – Sorry, not understanding your question.
I’m having the exact same problem. I cant make the uploads/wpsc folder writable
I’m running into an error when clicking the ‘Make purchase’ button on the checkout page. Here’s a link to my products page: http://crfoods.server265.com/store/products/
Sorry – this is the error:
Array
(
[is_valid] => 1
[error_messages] =>
)
Will we need new Gold Cart files with 3.7?
Yes, they were uploaded yesterday, the zip files how have a 3.6 and 3.7 directory.
Providing you have bought them before, just click on the same link that was in the email, and use the 3.7 files.
They go in a different location for 3.7, you will need to put them in the wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades directory.
I clicked on the link to download and it gives me a zip file that appears to be the old version of the gold cart files. It doesn’t take me to a download page…
If I download the latest gold-files the ZIP file doesn’t contain a 2.7 directory. These are the old files. Are you sure about this Tom?
Thanks, testjay
I’m also seeing issues.
PHP version is 5.2.8 (not sure if that matters).
Fresh install of wp 2.8.
Install ecommerce 3.7 beta 1
When I go to the products->settings page I get this in ‘Target Markets: ‘
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wamp\www\gardentech_wp28\wp-content\plugins\wp-e-commerce\wpsc-admin\includes\settings-pages\general.php on line 71
‘Base Country/Region: ‘ is a blank list.
In ‘Target Markets: ‘ I get this:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wamp\www\gardentech_wp28\wp-content\plugins\wp-e-commerce\wpsc-admin\display-groups.page.php on line 18′
I’d really like to use 3.7. I hope it’s usable in time.
For the error:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
It looks like WPSC_TABLE_CURRENCY_LIST has not been defined (wp_currency_list).
Looking at “./languages/EN_en.php”
/*
This is a language file for the WP Shopping Cart plugin version 3.6.10
*/
Just add this to it:
define(’WPSC_TABLE_CURRENCY_LIST’, ‘wp_currency_list’);
Then you are faced with a new bug that categories cannot be added (no error either). I’m looking into that now.
Ok I basically found out why, none of the new tables are actually created for 3.7!
Look in, database_template.php and compare to your DB and you’ll notice none of the newer tables have been made.
A quick fix is:
1) Backup your DB first
2) Remove all tables with wp_wpsc_*
3) Open index.php and add this to the end
wpsc_auto_update();
Reload your index.php page in your browser, check the DB and notice all the new tables are there. Remove the auto update code and away you go!
This was fixed in last nights development version – we’ll be releasing a beta 2 version tonight.
Regarding the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO-Xrs6qD5U
“if your install does not go this smooth we’re pretty certain you’re doing something wrong”
Well, In the video, 3.6.12 is installed on WP 2.7.1, unless I saw it wrong.
You’re very observant. Now since this is a beta thread do you mind explaining your point :P
My point really was just that ‘Video Tutorials!!’ in the post made me think that this was something new for the 3.7 release. I went watching the video hoping to see what I had done wrong with my 3.7 install.
I really do hope to use 3.7 and wp 2.8.
I’m hoping the beta cycle is rapid.
hi,
im currently under version 3.6.12. If i change my plugin to use the 3.7, will the current data in DB deleted ?
Hi there – I’m a little way since this plugin seems to make the WP Dashboard spit out errors in the “Incoming Links” section and stop rendering the rest of the Dashboard:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1966080 bytes) in /home3/renewalm/public_html/wp-includes/class-simplepie.php on line 5353
Hey guys, love the plugin, thought I’d give some feedback.
When I upgraded I deactivated the old 3.6 install then ran the update, but it looks like the database didn’t properly upgrade, no products or categories or logs transferred over to the new install. I ended up jumping back to the old 3.6 and now there are a few issues when adding products (only visually so far) but at least the data is still there.
Looks great guys! I tried the 3.7 beta but get internal server error with those files. When might the full version be ready? I’m stuck due to the widgets issue. Starting a new shop, so it makes sense to use the latest version of WP and WP-ecommerce if poss.
I donwnloaded beta, which sounds awesome, and when I tried to activate, I got this message… please help-
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 491520 bytes) in /home1/egfabric/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/install_and_update.php on line 343
Change the memory setting in your php.ini file (in your root dir) from 32M to 64M
There is also a bug with
nszhpcrt_homepage_products()
The image name is returning as a foreign key, I have uploaded the fix here.
http://pastebin.com/f67df77f6
Had major problems yesterday with beta 1. Today i tried the “nightly build” on a fresh wp 2.8 setup and it works much better.
Awesome plugin, it’s very noob friendly which fits me well :)
Can’t wait till the final version is out so i can start selling my rather large collection of used cds and records. Will def pay for the gold cart and other extras.
Fantastic. We’re pretty excited too – its a bummer Beta 1 had a few remaining issues but it looks like the nightly Development Version (which we’ll be releasing as Beta 2 soon) is much better again. Cheers.
I purchased the gold cart and the grid view. Wordpress is 2.8 and WP Commerce is 3.7 Beta.
When I try to go and install the WP-Ecommerce like the readme says, first of all the folder they are asking to drop things in “WPSC” is empty. So I created the Upgrade folder, dropped the file in there. I went and validated my API key. When I go to make changes to the site I run into this:
The following directories are not writable:
* /home/half/public_html/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/downloadables/
* /home/half/public_html/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/previews/
* /home/half/public_html/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/
* /home/half/public_html/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/thumbnails/
* /home/half/public_html/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/category_images/
* /home/half/public_html/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades/
You won’t be able to upload any images or files here. You will need to change the permissions on these directories to make them writable.
This is fine and all, but these files do not even exist on the server, they were never created. I have installed, activated, deactivated, reinstalled, 2 or 3 times now and nothing works.
Anyone have any ideas
Not really. Try the latest nightly development version or wait 12 hours until we release Beta 2. If it doesnt work we suspect that your server permissions need some linux guru loving ;)
Will wait for Beta 2.
Hi, looks great so far! A couple of errors that I get:
On the general settings page, in the Target Markets box:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/zconhzud/public_html/store/wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/wpsc-admin/includes/settings-pages/general.php on line 71
AND
On the categories page, in the Target Markets box:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/zconhzud/public_html/store/wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/wpsc-admin/display-groups.page.php on line 18
These errors exist in those boxes before doing anything on those pages.
Thanks for your help!
We have reason to believe that most of the Beta 1 bugs reported have been resolved.
I’m closing this thread now and I’ll soon be opening up a Beta 2 thread for comments. We hope you enjoy.