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Discussion forum :: General discussions |
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Subject :Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
26-07-2010 15:23:12
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| CritiKill |
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Joined: 06-09-2009 23:03:33
Posts: 25
Location: Pretoria, South Africa |
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Hi there,
Craig and I are looking to the community for some guidance on the future of JHShop. To start off with, we will be placing a super-emphasis on providing quality support to all customers with valid licenses. We believe in JHShop and so it is only right that we offer sterling support to ensure you get the most out of this component. For now though, we're just going through a rough patch but we'll have everything up and cooking in no time.
Be that as it is, I'd like to know from you what features you'd like to see in future versions of JHShop.
To get the ball rolling, here are a few that we're seriously contemplating.
1) Online Catalogue mode - This is where a user can disable the checkout functionality and just display products and prices.
2) Mobile template - this is to be used in conjunction with a mobile plugin which we'll have to develop. It will basically load a mobile-friendly template for Joomla and for JHShop whenever a user tries to access the site from a mobile phone. This will make for a far superior browsing experience and the idea will be to have multiple mobile templates for the different classes of mobile devices (Opera Mini, iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia, etc...). We need to start looking at m-commerce and to ensure that we're able to lead the charge into this arena.
3) SMS alerts - The enablement of SMS alerts for order status changes.
4) Dropshipping support...nuff said!
5) Fully hosted solution which provides users with a complete web hosting package in addition to a fully supported JHShop installation. (OK, this is not exactly a JHShop feature)
6) Administration functionality for editing HTML email templates. This is to make it easier to brand all yoru outgoing emails and put your company logo and footer in there.
These are some of the features we're looking to add in upcoming releases, please could you post on this thread your comments or any of your own ideas...we'd love to hear from you. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
26-07-2010 18:43:32
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| jeffk |
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Joined: 04-04-2010 17:30:40
Posts: 8
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fixing the multiple options bug would be a start  |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
26-07-2010 23:40:40
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
Posts: 26
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Here are a few...
1. Help for when you hover over an option you get a popup explaining how to use the feature
2. Be able to bundle products for specials (i.e. supplies for a copier in a discounted bundle rate but, each item alone is still regularly priced)
2. Shipping - Orders are lumped together and can exceed the maximum of 150lbs volumetric weight for common carriers (i.e. UPS, FedEx, etc). It would be great to have the ability to globally set a break point (i.e. 10lbs, 20, 30 etc. to 140) and have the shipping priced based on those shipping weight break points then totaled together on checkout. I had a custom shipping module for VM written to do this and it was a life saver!
3. Shipping - Be able to set a flag on shipping (product edit) where a rep will call you back to arrange shipping options on single items over 150lbs vol. and have a message embedded in the invoice so that shoppers know a call is pending AND set the order to pending state for these order types
4. A plugin system where you would use JHShop to install plugins to cover the variations NOT listed here  That would REALLY open the third party market up for JHShop. Developers would create an ecosystem around JHShop like they do VM without all the needed hacks required by VM currently
5. (Important one!) Be able to flag a product to hide the price until you added it to the cart or hide the price all together with a user supplied message. This would help with sites that have to adhere to supplier "Minimum Pricing Contracts" that quite a few of my clients deal with. ugg..
6. A Virtuemart 1.1.3/1.1.4 conversion script!
7. Private Shopper Groups - There is an addon for VM which does this same thing and a lot of my clients want this. This would all you to extend the shopper groups to include or exclude product categories from view. A couple of ways to handle this (a) A radio button which could set an Include or Exclude at the shopper group would allow multiple types of conditions. Then you could do sales for select shoppers where you could discount just like some stores do now with private shopping events. (b) Set this at the product level (checkbox) where you could flag the product as private within any group and use a module to display these special items to shoppers. This might be the better route since it would require WAY less coding since these types of sales involve smaller amounts of products.
8. Product Subscriptions - This is a biggie from a coding perspective. On the product page, there could be a product option for subscriptions (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or a day number value). Based on this stored values, the system automatically (via CRON) would create a new order, charge the card which is stored in PP or Authorize.net (2 easiest ones), email the order info. Basically a new order just like now but automated.
I'll have more suggestions the more I think. We've built quite a few shops over the years and these are the recurring requests we see. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
27-07-2010 05:44:54
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| CritiKill |
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Joined: 06-09-2009 23:03:33
Posts: 25
Location: Pretoria, South Africa |
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WOW Webjive, that was awesome! Thanks for those suggestions. I can tell you now, the 2 suggestions of yours that will be pushed to the top of the list are:
1) Migration tool to help users migrate from Virtuemart.
2) Formal plugin system (with installer) to grow the 3rd party developer market. It's vital for us to get the buy-in of other developers to help make JHShop an even greater success and the sooner we do that, the sooner we would be able to enlist the support of an army of developers that could extend the functionality of JHShop to ways we haven't even begun to imagine yet.
We're working on the next changelog and series of bug fixes, so the multiple option bug is on the verge of being squashed.
Keep 'em coming guys. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
27-07-2010 06:08:10
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
Posts: 26
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 That was the top of my list. There are more based on custom coding jobs from prior VM deals. Another one to add to the list is a shipping calculator/estimator whereby you could enter your ZIP/Postal code and get a shipping estimate per product without having to checkout.
That's becoming common and something to consider. I had that one custom coded for a large VM shop we did.
What I find is that pricing products and creating bundles are great features but, without great shipping options, things get dicey. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
27-07-2010 09:49:15
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| CritiKill |
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Joined: 06-09-2009 23:03:33
Posts: 25
Location: Pretoria, South Africa |
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Some great news, Craig is slowly returning to his regular duties and things are looking very positive at this stage.
The Virtuemart migration script is now top priority and there's a new release in the pipeline, should take care of most of the reported bugs.
Will keep you posted. Please keep posting your roadmap suggestions here. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
02-08-2010 22:40:17
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
Posts: 26
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I have another couple of feature requests.
First is a frontend guest only checkout. I have two shops request this already and the way I have been handling it is via editing the css and using display:none to hide the registration portion on the checkout page.
Another request is to disable from the settings the frontend sorting (i.e. price dropdown, etc) when linking to All Products. This could be done via a menu parameter.
Thx! |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
02-08-2010 23:30:44
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
Posts: 26
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Another feature request: Alternate shipping address for Guest checkout mode.
I'm going to add the latest to my previous post to keep these in one spot. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
04-08-2010 23:05:18
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
Posts: 26
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Since I can't edit my prior post, another wishlist:
Make the checkout process selectable as 1-4 page checkout process for both guest and registered buyers. This way if I want (like Virtuemart) to have a 2 page checkout, I can set that in the backend. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
11-08-2010 19:27:55
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| jtlutgen |
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Joined: 03-07-2010 03:08:08
Posts: 10
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Better SEF URL Rewrite support
1. Sh404SEF is a common sef rewrite component - you would have my 100 percent support and my loyalty if that was fixed. Thats the only think i think JHSHOp is missing. I haven't changed my stance on that since day one. Everything else works up to this point. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
11-08-2010 19:35:07
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
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Quote:
Better SEF URL Rewrite support
1. Sh404SEF is a common sef rewrite component - you would have my 100 percent support and my loyalty if that was fixed. Thats the only think i think JHSHOp is missing. I haven't changed my stance on that since day one. Everything else works up to this point.
Why would you want to support SH404SEF or any other third party sef product? Those are a nightmare for good SEO (speaking for LOTS of experience). JHShop has all the meta data fields built in which is about the only reason to use a 3rd part SEF.
I have a client site (very old) which runs VM and Artio JoomSEF just to get the metadata features, and what a nightmare on keeping those synced. It's a lot of work and takes a LOT of customer training to get them to understand an external SEF product and the values.
Redirects are easy with the other 3rd party products made specifically for that. One of my favorites is iJoomla SEO. |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
11-08-2010 19:54:33
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| jtlutgen |
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Joined: 03-07-2010 03:08:08
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First this is a road map that users would like to see. Joomla BLOWS with regular SEF rewrites. I either enable all or none. Some apps like i don't know lets say a photo gallery with hundreds of hundreds of pictures i may not want SEF rewrites on. BUT on our blogs i would like to have them sorted out in google for instance. .com/Corral-Canyon is much better than .com/index.php?-component/e338fjnfienf/itemid-1334.fartsacks.blahblah.
Which google likes better and shows up with a much better layout. I work for a search engine company and trust me SEF is needed.
HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO BET THIS IS SEF
http://www.yellowpages.com/denver-co/plumber?g=Denver,+CO&q=Plumber
I can bet and tell you with almost 100 percent certainty if you looked at what the actual call from that was it would be retarded and no user could sent that to someone or remember that.
WOW look at that http://www.yelp.com/denver sef again.
SO there is a reason to use a third party app. Arito SEF i was using before but have found that it is not widely supported some of the corporate and well established apps. sh404Sef - Great interface easy to use. Easy to configure and its easy if you know what your doing to build and upload a plugin. sh404SEF is more widely accepted. Jreviews - Ijoomla (great advertiser plugin) - JomSocial - JoomGallery - just to name a few. Yeah they have plugins - for sh404SEF that i don't have to pay for. Arito SEF is free until you have to start paying for extensions.
I don't care which one uses i am sure they have their benefits... but when it comes down to it i want my users to go to .com/store/lift-kits and bam there... lift kits. Easy for them to remember easy to get to. Your using joomla default SEF - which BLOWS... sorry my opinion i have tried it and am not impressed. I can't write my own alias's which is always nice. If a user gets a 404 - well hell add a new alias to where the correct address is. Which i can tell you that our search engine does now. If a user gets a 404 - we write in a quick little redirect in our machines that points to the correct pages.
So your comment on why use 3rd party because .. 1st party sucks. Point blank.
Thanks,
Jtlutgen |
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Subject :Re:Feature Requests for JHShop Roadmap..
13-08-2010 05:35:31
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| webjive |
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Joined: 25-03-2010 04:40:57
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You can create a URL alias in Joomla's sef via, the alias field in the articles. Now, granted, that's the only place in Joomla for native Joomla and yes, 3rd party SEF greatly enhances that but, SEF URL's only count for so many points in a true SEO position/ranking.
The SEO work we do for our clients, we do just with the Joomla SEF and have no problems getting #1 positions. Are the truly clean SEF URL's nice for people? Sure, but not that important for SEO rankings.
Back in 2007 this was a very important part of SEO but, it's just one item on the checklist now with lower weighting than it used to be. DON'T GET ME WRONG. Good URL's are still key items to pay attention to in SEO but, they are being less favored by Google and BING than they used to. Our research is showing that META Description along with Page Titles and strong/regularly updated content are push things to the top. We use SCRIBE to check the content which has helped SEO tremendously (we tend to get lazy with the real META data that counts).
I do agree that it should be an option for those who really want to push the envelope but, for the average Joe webmaster, the Joomla SEO and the on built in with JHShop are great starts.
Good luck and good talking.. |
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