You might have wondered when the next release of mambo-phpShop can be expected and what new features it will bring. It's time to write something about that...because a lot of important new features will be introduced.
First of all here's a list of the most important changes & new features:
- set Price Display "including Tax" or "excluding tax" per Shopper Group
- Different Checkout Display for B2B / B2C
- define Related Products
- automatic Product Image Resizing
- Basket Templates
- Category Images
- dynamic Pathway, Page Title & Meta Description
- enhanced Modules (Mambo Sideblocks)
- revised CSV-Upload
- new Header Menu Style
There's no fixed release date for the next version. Within the next two weeks I would like to let some Developers and Users to debug and test the current version to make it really stable.
If you like to read and see more about the upcoming version, just read on....
Most important new feature (for most european store owners) is the separation of the Checkout Procedure for Business and Retail Customers. Generally speaking you can now define Shopper Groups to be B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customer): {mosimage}
So if you define that prices are shown "including tax" for the default shopper group, this Shopper Group never sees any price excluding tax. Instead the Tax Total is shown below the Cart as usual in other Internet Shops. The Cart Display has been moved into two Templates - one for B2B and one for B2C. Another step to the separation of Display of Logic, which is missing in mambo-phpShop so much.
Another fine thing is the ability to define one or more related products for a specific product. {mosimage} So you can present a 17" LCD Monitor to a customer when he/she is viewing the details of a Desktop Computer: {mosimage}
{mosimage}The procedure of Resizing and Uploading Product Images was a bit unhandy in the past. To face this problem, the image upload function was enhanced. Now you only need one product image and using the GD library the Shop automatically creates a thumbnail.
The same algorithm is used now creating Category Images.{mosimage} This new feature can be used to present all your categories with images on the Frontpage in the Mainbody of your site. A feature which was badly needed: a better Shop Frontpage.{mosimage}
Being more flexible with a Mambo Site also includes flexible Modules. The mambo-phpShop were not that useful when you needed a horizontal display of your products. Some of you rewrote the code, but of course it's better if this could be switched using module parameters.
{mosimage}
{mosimage}This techniques will be used in a completely re-designed Mambo eCommerce Edition, which will be using the fantastic 247-broad Portal Template by the Devs at the mamboteam.
Using the latest routines for a dynamic website, you can now present your Shop with a dynamic Page Title, Pathway {mosimage} {mosimage}and Meta Description. No bad, he?
{mosimage}Another fine new feature will be the input field for prices including tax (Gross / Brutto). The Shop automatically computes the poduct price excluding Tax (Net / netto) and fills in a price with 5 digits after the decimal point (well known from OSCommerce). So you can be sure that the Net Price plus Tax is exactly the same as the Gross Price you have filled in.
The Administrative Interface of mambo-phpShop has been slightly redesigned. {mosimage} I hope you like it...
Did you ever experience that the template was broken when accessing the Shop Administration from the Frontend? It's a well known problem, but it can be solved now by displaying the whole administration without the template and without Site modules. So you have a feeling like being in the Backend...
Last but not least the CSV Upload Feature has been improved. {mosimage} Most of mambo-phpShop users think and speak of this as the most important feature. You can read CSV files from the Server now that have been uploaded before using FTP. The CSV Upload routine now automatically adds manufacturers for your products when they are not present.
Besides the features mentioned above we - the community at the forum - have fixed so many bugs...! A lot of small improvements have been made that can't all be mentioned here. Just some of them:
- 2Checkout re-integration. Works for v1 and v2 of 2Checkout Gateway
- eWay - automated XML Payment integration finished
- integrated the iKobo Payment Gateway
- integrated the iTransact Payment Gateway
- Implemented fully working Shipping Taxes
- implemented automatic Order Status updates for Payment Methods that use payment/CreditCard processors like authorize.net, eprocessingNetwork, PayMeNow and eWay
- fixed the Zone Shipping module
- switch on or off "Display of the number of Products in a category"
Thanks to all who have helped improving mambo-phpShop!
