Status Update 3.7.6 Beta 1

By Dan Milward | January 18, 2010

Hello everybody. Welcome to 2010!

I’m pleased to announce that we have uploaded a new version of the WP e-Commerce Plugin – it is a small taste of things to come in 3.8 which is already in development.

  • Better UPS integration
  • US checkout form field state issue fixes
  • Checkout Form Fields (snazzy new interface)
  • Google Checkout fixes (Please make sure you update your themes in wpsc/uploads/themes)
  • Added australian Post shipping module for testing
  • Coupon `total_quantity` condition fix
  • Multiple conditions ability added
  • Coupons page gets a slight interface upgrade
  • Added product dimensions form fields into edit products page
  • Import script auto detects line endings for csv files
  • Introduction of .MO and “gettext”

In a few days time we’ll be launching our new support site, just in time for Shayne to announce it at WordCamp Boston. It blows everything else online far far away – we’re sure you’re going to love it, especially the bbPress forum work we’ve done.

Also a note on the .mo and translation efforts that have gone into WP e-Commerce. If you are an existing contributor or you would like to provide a new language file please leave a comment here and I will contact you personally about the new langage tools we have in place.

The 3.8 release is going to blow your mind. We will have removed just about all the database tables, we’re using proper WordPress options for every setting and to top that off we will have introduced a powerful new Shipping Zones feature, a new and much more advanced UPS module and even a new advanced currency converter made for all those serious internationalized businesses out there. Stay tuned…

» Download 3.7.6 Beta 1
» Who’s canonical? We are!

Posted in WP Plugins, WP e-Commerce | 87 Comments

Whats in the christmas trunk?

By Dan Milward | December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas folks. And for those of you that don’t believe in Christmas  I hope business as usual is working out well for you! So who wants to know what lies in store for next year?

Well the trunk (Development Version) of the WP e-Commerce Plugin is probably one of the merriest releases yet. It comes with a range of powerful new features and enhancements, thus making the WP e-Commerce Plugin still the most powerful and “canonical” platform for e-Commerce that you’ve ever seen.

Whats going on in the trunk right now:

  1. New streamlined Database (Matt Mullenweg – We bow down before you!!!)
  2. Advanced shipping Zones (Ben Huson we love you!!!)
  3. New Members Only module (Tom good work!!!)
  4. Advanced checkout allowing for multiple checkout form sets (Jeff bloody legend mate!!!)
  5. Duplicate Product now also duplicates Variations (Dale that one is for you!!!)
  6. Variations now support SKU and Sale Price (Great new feature – until child products take over)
  7. QR Code module (Vales – nice work buddy!!!)
  8. New Events & Ticketing Module (perfect for every wordcamp!!)
  9. Tons of “canonical” plugins in the WordPress repository already (love you community!!)

We anticipate launching the next version of WP e-Commerce in the first couple of months in 2010. A lot of hard work and planning has gone into this release and the team of contributors is stronger then ever before. Not only will the next release be the best yet but we’re launching a new support site along side it – I’ve seen it. And its going to be amazing. Its already full of videos and new documentation!! (love you Sara!!!)

This year has had many more ups then it has downs. To be honest its been a blast – it was amazing to be asked to sell tickets on the wordcamp.org website for WordCamp New York, we did it and we did it well. I found an investor in Japan. We got lots of good press. New staff came on board. The business is doing well. Competition has come. And gone. And we’re still standing tall.

So bring on 2010!!! And on that note I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Further reading: Canonical

Posted in WP Plugins | 27 Comments

WP e-Commerce Extensions

By Dan Milward | December 15, 2009

Of course we all already know that WP e-Commerce is a hugely extensible piece of software – we know this because more e-Commerce themes and modules made for WP e-Commerce then any other WordPress extension. Not such a shabby claim eh – but its true.

So to make sure our Plugin is truely the best canonical e-Commerce platform we’ve decided to take a few things out of the Plugin and make them add-on modules instead. To begin with I personally think we could afford to remove the following from core;

  • Personalization Options
  • Shipwire Shipping
  • QR Codes

I strongly believe that by removing these features from core and by us providing documentation on how they tie back into the Plugin as modules / Plugins will make WP e-Commerce a little and faster Plugin. It will also work as a resource that you will be able to use to base your own add on modules.

What else do you think could be removed from WP e-Commerce core and replaced by an additional Plugin?

Posted in WP Plugins, WP e-Commerce | 58 Comments

WP e-Commerce Plugin 3.7.5.1

By Dan Milward | December 3, 2009

Kia Ora team. I’m pleased to annouce a new minor realease of the WP e-Commerce Plugin. No major enhancements have been added to this release however the following fixes should improve your online shop.

* Fixes to the Paypal Pro merchant file
* Fixes to the Paypal Express Checkout merchant file
* Tracking email improvements
* HTML in descriptions does not break RSS (thanks to http://www.leewillis.co.uk)
* Category permalinks will now be regenerated properly on installation and on update
* Category list bug preventing viewing a product when viewing a category fixed

» Download WP e-Commerce 3.7.5.1

Posted in WP Plugins, WP e-Commerce | 78 Comments

Campaign Monitor Trail Plugin – Beta Testers Wanted

By Dan Milward | December 2, 2009

Hi Team. We’ve finally nailed the ability to send emails to your subscribers through campaignmonitor.com all from within your WordPress website. Assuming it works then this is the latest breakathrough in campaignmonitor.com + wordpress + wp e-commerce plugin integration.

Internally at HQ we have renamed the Plugin to Campaign Trail to avoid any additonal confusion between campaign monitor and the campaign monitor Plugin made by Instinct – Campaign Trail comes from the Hunter S Thompson (gonzo) book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Who should use this Plugin?

  1. Anybody that wants a subscription management / email system for WordPress sites
  2. Anybody that loves campaignmonitor.com
  3. Anybody that can’t be assed running an email server (thats me and most of you)
  4. Anybody that uses the WP e-Commerce Plugin that wants to manage email campaigns with their customers

CampaignMonitor charge you a nominal fee to send emails but it is not expensive. And in the long run it is a lot cheaper then running and maintaining an email server. Trust me.

Download

When you install the Plugin please ensure that the templates folder is writable by your webserver – if you don’t know what this means you shouldnt be using this Plugin ;)

This version of the Plugin is a Beta release. So give it a shot and let us know what happens. Whatever you report here will be acted upon by our developers as quickly as possible.

» Download Campaign Trail Beta

Posted in WP Plugins | 22 Comments

new dibs, hushmail and 2checkout payment gateways

By Dan Milward | December 2, 2009

Hey Team.

I’m pleased to annouce three new payment gateways all submitted by close friends of the WP e-Commerce Plugin. These gateways are available as free downloads however to use them (like most payment gateways) you must put them into the merchants folder.

The DIBS Payment Gateway

This Payment Gateway is a remake of the chronopay.php gateway adapted to work with the scandinavian payment gateway DIBS. This file works with a solution called “DIBS payment window”, which redirects to DIBS and then back to WP with a success or cancel URL.

It was made by adapting chronopay.php, and as such it could be more cleaned up; please let me know if you would want me to do any more work on it. I would be happy to get it included in the updates.

» Download Now

The Hushmail Payment Gateway
Hushmail allows credit card orders to be accepted via your site that are then sent to a secure Hushmail account allowing the site owner to process the  orders manually offline.

A word from the developer:

By ‘manual’ payment we mean capturing the credit card info in order to process the credit cards off line. We know security and encryption are issues in this scenario.  However no credit card are saved in the DB and we only store the non-secure stuff, name, date, order info etc. Then we send the complete order via a secure email using HushMail and their API – Dan Ryan

» Download Now

The 2checkout Payment Gateway

The 2CO Gateway provides turnkey e-commerce solutions to thousands of business customers around the world. 2CO’s proprietary technology supports back-office functions including financial reporting, tracking, fraud prevention, affiliate tracking, customer service and sales tracking.

» Download Now

Install & Help

Because these gateways are currently in Beta we’re not currently able to provide professional support. However we will be following your feedback (comments) and we will work with developers to ensure that these Payment Gateways are ready for prime time very soon.

These gateways are available as free downloads however to use them (like most payment gateways) we suggest you put them into the merchants folder like so:

payment gateway

Posted in Payment Gateway, WP e-Commerce | 29 Comments

PayPal Express

By Dan Milward | December 1, 2009

One of the things we’re working on before launching the next minor WP e-Commerce Plugin update is a PayPal Express Checkout tweak. The user interface was a little tired and in need of a little CSS love.

For those wondering about PayPal Express I just copy and pasted this excerpt from another website.

“PayPal Express takes you from the shopping cart page to PayPal where you enter your address & credit card details; this automatically signs you up for a PayPal account (whether you want one or not), then you are taken back to the seller’s website where you select your correct shipping option. Clicking the confirm order button here will send the shipping details back to PayPal where they then adjust the total amount payable and debit your account.

The good thing about this payment system is that it is fast, easy and does not require the seller to record or store buyer’s credit card details (which would need SSL).

PayPal have also just changed their ‘Express’ payment method so that the customer now has the option of just paying with just their credit card, or saving their payment details with PayPal and opening a PayPal account (the same as PayPal standard). This has made PayPal Express much more attractive as a payment option.”

This is encouraging and while PayPal do not support PayPal Payments Pro in New Zealand perhaps we will explore using this on our own website as an alternative to PayPal Payment Standard.

» Read More information on PayPal Express Checkout

Posted in Blog, WP e-Commerce | 3 Comments

WP e-Commerce Update 3.7.5.1 Beta

By Dan Milward | November 26, 2009

I’m pleased to annouce that a new minor update is due out sometime tomrrow. This release includes the following noteworthy enhancements.

Thumbnail Images
We overhauled the thumbnail image management. Unfortunatly our last update gave you some new functionality but it also removed some existing functionality by mistake. This udate returns the ability to custom resize your thumbnails and even replace them on a thumbnail by thumbnail basis.

PayPal Address Override – fixed!
Address override allows override of payer’s stored address. In otherwords when your customers buy something from your checkout and enter their address details in your form then that address will be used in your PayPal purchase log.

If you don’t use address override then PayPal will automaticly replace the address from your checkout page with the address saved on the buyers PayPal profile. This functionality was broken in 3.7.5 but is now working again.

Super Cache 2
The WP e-Commerce Plugin is now 100% compatible with Donacha’s WordPress Super Cache. WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress. It generates html files that are served directly by Apache without processing comparatively heavy PHP scripts. By using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly.

PayPal Payment Pro
PayPal Payment Pro now works even if shipping details are incomplete. This is useful if you are selling digital downloads and only want to provide Billing details to PayPal.

Categories Widget
Updating to WP e-Commerce 3.7.5 from previous versions broke the Category Widget “on some sites”. This was a problem with how we integrate with WordPress Permalinks. This is now resolved.

Download Beta

Hate the extra digit but love the upgrade. This should be the final update before we release 3.7.6 which will blow your socks off. The 3.7.5 release bends WP e-Commerce through space time to help you sell online.

» Download 3.7.5.1 Beta 1

Posted in WP Plugins, WP e-Commerce | 30 Comments

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