New mass update released (CHECK OFTEN, ALL UPDATES ARE ADDED HERE)

As promised, a first bunch of updates are now active.
While i work for the next ones, please comment here if you'll find any issue about the updates listed here.
Detiails follows.

Ability to change product while keeping what's currently designed in designer
This can now be done in designer, into the Product tab.
in styles steup, icons that controls that area are "Product Active Tab" and "Product Inactive Tab"

Added Google Chekcout as payemnt method
Only one note here: Google does not allow external tools like RTD to set a page to receive notifications.
This means that orders paid via Google will NOT be automatically flagged orders as PAID in RTD admin panel.
You'll have to manually set in RTD which orders have been paid via Google, if you need that.

Changed the admin panel area where to define online payments
In admin panel, unser "ONLINE PAYMENT OPTIONS", the old "PayPal setup" is now "Online Payment Systems Setup".
In there you can define all about how to manage order payments.

Added Artwork upload for Instant Pricing
It's now possible to enable direct artwork upload into the Instant Pricig area of catalog.
It's the area offered to your users if yor product is marked as "Enable direct to cart Only" or "Enable Both".
That value can be set in "PRODUCT OPTIONS => Manage/Define Products => edit"
The option to allow artworks can be dounf in "PRODUCT OPTIONS => Configure Products => Configure Product Configurator".
Value to set is "Artwork Upload Enabled", defaulted to NO.

If you will enable artwork upload, customer will be allowed to upload an artwork directly in catalog, with no need of even entering in designer.
This is useful if you expect your customers may already have a print-ready file and you don't want to force them using the designer to order it.
If an artwork will be uploaded, also pricing will be calculated against it.
This means that, if an artwork is uploaded, "Colors" and "Letters" values of "Configure Product Configurator" will be ignored for price calculation.

Added 3 text labels for registered users:
- Registered Users: Not Logged In
- Registered Users: Logged In As USER
- Registered Users: Not Logged In Customefiles Alert (this was asked here)

Added 22 text labels for instant pricing area.
Basically, i labeled everything in there.

Changed labes related to order submittal.
With Google checkout arrival, paypal will no more be the only system to pay online.
So, some labels will be removed/replaced as follows:

Removed labels:
Cart Order popup: paypal or quote entry text
Cart Order popup: paypal or quote exit text
Cart Order popup: pay using paypal button
Cart Order popup: pay using credit card

New Label:
Cart Order popup: online payment or quote entry text
Cart Order popup: online payment or quote exit text
Cart Order popup: pay using online payments gateways

Added 3 new icons in styles setup, for payment methods
That's it: the new icons are the images shown to users for Google checkout, PayPal and Credit Card.

Changed the order submittal flow
First, order popup is now placed into the "fake popup" (iframe) of designer, instead of a real popup.
This finally should solve all issues about commands between popup and main window, as there are no more popups.
The iframe has and https address, which means it works under SSL and it's secured.
Depending on your setup into "ONLINE PAYMENT OPTIONS => Online Payment Systems Setup", the first screen will change.

In case of "Quote only (no online payments)", user will be directly redirected into a page asking for "Quote Orders Requested Fields"
In case of "defined online payments only" , user will be directly redirected into a page asking for "Online Payment Requested Fields"
In Case of "Quote + defined online payments", user will see a splash page where he decide if he wants to pay online immediately or send a quote.
Below the button to pay online, icons of available online payment methods will be shown.

If user decided to pay online, after order submittal he will see a new page, loaded over the designer one.
This new page will list all the available online payment methods. Clicking on one of them will lead user to the correct page to finalize the payment.
This new page is the 2nd new change. Before launching that page, RTD saves the order.
So, no matter which are the enabled methods, payment will ALWAYS be offered AFTER order is stored in RTD.
This simply means that, in any case, order will be in RTD no matter what.

Added 2 new PayPal settings in admin panel's online payments setup
1st is to set if you want RTD to use internal IPN notification.
If YES, RTD will automatically flag orders as PAID, when a customer completes a payment.
Set to NO if you don't need this or if you need your PayPal IPN setting from your PayPal profile to work (YES will override your PayPal profile's IPN setting)

2nd is "Cancel payment redirect URL", which is the page where Paypal links to if user cancels before payment.
If empty, your generator homepage will be used.

Added 2 more online payment images
In sylte setup you will now see:
- Order Popup Payemnts: Google Checkout (pre-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: Credit Card (pre-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: PayPal (pre-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: Credit Card (post-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: PayPal (post-cart)

The "pre-cart" images are the 3 possible images that appears on first screen, in case you have both online payment and quote order enabled.
"post-cart" images are the ones shown on the final page, so these are the icons user will have to click in order to pay.
"post-cart" images will be shown below the textlabel "Cart Order popup: online payment or quote exit text"

There is not "post-cart" for google because the Google Checkout policies require you to use the Google Checkout hosted button images.

Added another style option in styles setup
New value is "Spacing Between Upper Tabs and Help Icon (in pixels)"
It's the space that you will have on top of your designer, between tabs and help icon.
In past it uses the width of on of the tabs, but this is not correct: you may want to change this new property if needed, now it's defaulted to 112px

Added 13 text labels related to color change and font change popups in designer.
It says it all

Font categories
This is done too!
The key to use them is in admin panel, under "LIBRARY GROUPS => Define Font Groups".
You will find more details in there, hopefully that should be enough to understand how to obtain the categories effect.
If not, just ask here in the forums.

Added 5 new text labels for backgrounds and color checkings

Added two more style options in styles setup
Added styles are:
"Horizontal Spacing Between Top Commands (in pixels)"
"Vertical Spacing Between Top Commands (in pixels)"
and both are defaulted at 2.
These are the horizontal and vertical spacing between the top commands images (tabs, add text, add clips, undo, redo, etc...)

Added one more style option in styles setup
Added style is:
Cart - placement of "buy now" and "start new" buttons (top/bottom/both)
Defualt is top.
Just write "bottom" in there if you want buttons to appear on bottom of cart instead of on top, or both... for both

Added a new option in pricing structure
You will find the new option, at product level, into "Configure Pricing Structure".
The new value to look for is "DISABLE QUANTITY SELECTION WHEN ADDING TO CART?".
If NO, when customer will add a design to cart, he will see prices for all quantities and he will be asked to select one.
If YES, design will be added straightforward to cart with the minimum allowed quantity as default.
It's defaulted to NO. If YES, the middle "quantity selection" in designer step will be skipped.

Added three more style option in styles setup, plus one style image
New style options are:
- Show design colors under cart thumbnails (yes/no)
- Allow to see big images by clicking on cart thumbnails (yes/no)
- Use watermark image on big images from thumbs (yes/no)

The new style image is:
- Watermark image for cart thumbs enlargements

As you probably guessed, the watermark image will be used, tiled and dissolved, to watermark big images from cart thumbs, if enabled.

New specialcode for long product descriptions in Catalog
Out of the [MATRIX] specialcode, you can now include also instant pricing box, if enabled, into your long product descriptions for Catalog.
The new specialcode is simply: [INSTANTPRICINGBOX]
If this code will be found into the description, buttons on top to switch between instant pricing and product description will not be shown anymore.
Users will only see the inline box directly into the description.

New specialcode for long product descriptions in Catalog
Added a specialcode also to change position of the Optional Big Image (for Catalog)
The new specialcode is: [PRODUCT_CATALOG_BIGIMAGE]
If this code will be found, big image will be placed there, if available.
If a big image is defined and this specialcode is not included in the code, image will be shown on top.

Added 2 new text labels and one style image
Added text labels are both for catalog, more precisely for "related products" and ranged size selection.
New image is the "Enlarge cart thumbnails", which will be shown close to cart thumbs if enlarging them is enabled


Secret Update
It's still secret... but not for long!
Shortly i'll do a video demo to show what it is.



Edited 13 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2009 01:10AM by Alex.

Yes and Double Yes. This is it. Looks great. We've started working on things and so far so good. Here's couple of observations:

1) Payments pop up - Is it possible to return the buttons to centered instead of left justify?

2) Turned on Paypal Pro and went through the complete process with a credit card and IT LOOKS PERFECT. Everything worked great.
We will leave Pro on today and see how it goes. Looks like the changes and adding https to the mix may have cured our woes.

3) There might be a problem with the 1st payment screen after the "Complete Order" submission. Not sure how this should work. We are using Paypal/Pro and Submit
You have text button labeled "Submit order and pay online immediately". Where does that single button direct user to? Credit Card or Paypal?
The buttons "credit card" and "paypal" are more obvious to go where you choose. Should the text labeled button actually be a button or just informative to direct user to choose from the buttons below? When hovering over the text buttons my cursor does not turn into a click link icon. Now I can't remember if the old behavior was like this.

4) The change product, but keep the design looks GREAT. Will need to work with that a bit. But, have a very strange issue.
Mac Safari - Somehow after clicking the product button and messing around, I then clicked the Complete Order button. It brings up the Product window. Strange. Happened several times. Haven't seen it happen in Firefox . . . yet.

5) Secret Update . . Needs a VIDEO DEMO? This sounds like a big production. Getting excited!

1) Makes sense, done

2) Crossing finger, then! Again, i changed nothing about how it works. But it's possible some user had issues because of the popup. Let's see.

3) that button send to every online payment method. The screen is absolutely the same in any case (google, paypal and PRO).
The reason i placed those images also in first page are to show customer, immediately, the available payment gateways.
In some way, it's made for "dump customer", which you kow are always around...

4) does it happen when you click the Complete Order button on it's very left?
If so, i may know what it is.
You have a 1x1 image there, but on the left of the Complete Order button there's the "Cart Command: clear and continue" image, which precisely popups the product list. It may be possible you are clicking exacrly that 1x1 hidden image?

5) It may not be that big, but a video surely helps more to show what you can do with it.
So often, by just describing updates, i noticed very few users were able to fully understand what i was talking about.
Doing videos is probably the simplest way to be sure message is correctly sent, IMHO.

I've got the new instant pricing feature and upload artwork w/o designer feature working on several of our products if u want to see it in action....

look at MAGNETIC SIGNS, CUSTOM BANNERS or YARD SIGNS - click on INSTANT PRICING link - new button to upload artwork files is there.

www.discountsignshop.com

Another small tweak.

Added 2 new PayPal settings in admin panel's online payments setup

1st is to set if you want RTD to use internal IPN notification.
If YES, RTD will automatically flag orders as PAID, when a customer completes a payment.
Set to NO if you don't need this or if you need your PayPal IPN setting from your PayPal profile to work (YES will override your PayPal profile's IPN setting)

2nd is "Cancel payment redirect URL", which is the page where Paypal links to if user cancels before payment.
If empty, your generator homepage will be used.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2009 12:57PM by Alex.

Alex,

After going through the updates the only real this I see is when you get into your checkout cart and you are about to get your quote/pay for your purchase that some people won't realize that the "Paypal" and "Credit Card" buttons are buttons. We know that they are buttons but the typical customer may have a hard time and just think they are plain images showing that those are the payment plans that are excepted by our company not that those are the buttons they need to click on to pay for their purchase.

The landing page for the Shipping quote button is going to be confusing as the wording says "Thank you your order has been sent......" then it emails us the order information like they already paid for it when they haven't selected the final payment option between paypal and credit card. It may cause issues between paid and unpaid orders being processed or not processed and may even get into the shipping end and could cause some issues. I know the wording can be changed through the text labels option, however, that page could possibly be bypassed or pushed to come up after the paypal/credit card payment screen, if the old set up for that first button is set up with the new look.

bartongraphics,

"Paypal" and "Credit Card" are buttons, but not mandatory to be clicked. At least in the page where you have to set if you want to pay online or quote. In there, there is actually a button, and that text label can be edited in admin panel (it's the "Cart Order popup: pay using online payments gateways" one).
Next place is eventually after order submittal, where users have to pay for real: no buttons there, but you have a text label to configure too: "Cart Order popup: online payment or quote exit text".
In there, just write "Click the images to pay with the selected method", or something similar.

Landing page:
You can change it to any page you'd like from "SYSTEM OPTIONS => Company Setup => Redirect to this page after order submittal".
RTD emails you on order submittal in any case: if it's paid or not makes no difference.
A quote order will naturally not be paid online immediately, and for same reason it will have no shipping/taxes included.

Barton,

This may help you. You are right in your observations, but need to change how you view RTD's purpose. RTD is extremely flexible. Alex is a world class programmer who, like most world class programmers, has limited graphics abilities (Love you Alex). We, the administrators have the responsibility to take this amazing programming base and put a "graphics face" on it. All of RTD works in this manner. It is what YOU make it.

So, change the payment buttons to look the way you want. We already have . . . and they look like buttons! What a beautiful new feature this is!

As for the Shipping quote button wording . . . I don't know which you are referring to, but most of the text labels can be changed in "Configure Text Labels".

As for the Email confirmation RTD sends - it is editable by you also in "Configure Emails". It must be changed to reflect your business practice and what RTD is doing.

It is important to view RTD as the BASE for a complete work flow from start to finish. RTD is designed to fit many different businesses. It cannot fit all in it's base form. You must have a roadmap in place for every scenario for your particular business then twist, bend, remake, force and skew RTD to fit your business. Once you do this, you will be very pleased with the results from such a flexible quality product.

I can't wait to take a look at the new updates tonight! Alex you are very gifted my friend! I am really looking forward to the double sided graphics fix and the font categories after that.

Alex,
Just wanted to thank you again for all the work. The new improvements are awesome! I am especially liking the change product without losing the design and how the products now popup. I havent really messed with all the text labels at all, I will get to that soon.

@bartongraphics - as far as buttons and such like the paypal and google checkout, cos is right. This program is amazing and so flexible. You need to make it your own and use it for what you need. Therefore, if buttons don't look like buttons, you must create your own. Alex is not going to create buttons, when everyone has a different site design. Those are simply there to tell you that that is what the function is. Keep messing with the program as it is by far the best option in online customization.

@southlandgraphics - how are things coming for you guys? Did you ever get the transparent images to work? Let me know when you start to get things together as I would love to see it. We are getting about done with the designer on our end. I will let you know when it is finished.

I am not having an issue with the look or anything with the programming I think it is fine. This is new for me as I am 2 weeks into it and I am just getting my feet wet with what this has to offer and attempting to take it all and be able to still do what I need to do for my company though I may not understand the back end that well. The forum has been very helpful and the updates are making the learning process easier as well.


I was just looking at it from a "website for dummies" perspective and how if grandma was coming in here to make signs for her yard that she would be able to navigate through without an issue. Now that I know it is customizable to the point of those images I did not know the images were able to change then that makes a world of difference.

I apologize if it seems as if I have simple or redundant questions to previous threads.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2009 03:35PM by bartongraphics.

@mycustomhoodies

Honestly I am terrible when it comes to photoshop. We have been busy with our current customers lately and I had some trouble following the videos.

I was just going to focus on adding 1 shirt, 1 ladies shirt, 1 hoodie and 1 long sleeve shirt at first but just adding 1 shirt is proving to be a challenge.

Another tweak.

Added 2 more online payment images
In sylte setup you will now see:
- Order Popup Payemnts: Google Checkout (pre-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: Credit Card (pre-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: PayPal (pre-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: Credit Card (post-cart)
- Order Popup Payemnts: PayPal (post-cart)

The "pre-cart" images are the 3 possible images that appears on first screen, in case you have both online payment and quote order enabled.
"post-cart" images are the ones shown on the final page, so these are the icons user will have to click in order to pay.
"post-cart" images will be shown below the textlabel "Cart Order popup: online payment or quote exit text"

There is not "post-cart" for google because the Google Checkout policies require you to use the Google Checkout hosted button images.

I've added some more small updates.
To keep good readability, from now over i will add description of new updates by editing first post.
I've already copied new tweaks in there too, as well as this new one.

Added new lables, and FONT CATEGORY IS DONE!
Details on 1st post

Great additions Alex, I will imply them once I get done with other stuff. Getting closer and closer to having ours completely customized. A lot of work but it will be well worth it once I am finished. For those that have seen our designer and our site, we are planning on changing the look of our site to the look of the designer so that it is a completely seamless look. Plan for everything to be done in the next week.

Cos,

What is your website. I would like to check out your site so I can see the steps and figure out where I have my little tweaks I need to do. That is if you don't mind of course.

I've configured the font groups.... Neatest part of this that I didn't realize was the ability to put one font in several groups... Neat!

You can see what I did here.

Stickerz designer screen

Also changed my buttons and added an external border to the design frame. (used Image Cut version 1.5 to slice the external border into the required pieces).

Your comments are welcome.

Mark



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2009 11:25PM by magneticsigns.

Alex,
Awesome new updates, especially the change in that width between buttons, I already changed by buttons to work with that change.

One label that I have been dying for and so had southland graphics is the "BACKGROUND COLORS (CLICK TO SELECT)" that is right below the designer. Let me know if that is a possibility. Dying to know what the video secret is. Is there any time frame or estimated date that you will reveal this. Let me know.

Scott

My Custom Band Merch - www.mycustombandmerch.com

Yes, i have new text labels added bor backgrounds and also color checkings.
But they will be available when i'll do next update, which is about fixing issues for product change and design reimport.
New variables you will have are:

"BACKGROUND COLORS (CLICK TO SELECT)"
"BACKGROUND IMAGES (CLICK TO SELECT)"
"Actual colors used in design: "
"refresh"
"unchecked"

About the "secret update", uhmmm....
It is more like a technology preview yet, and i am still looking also for other associated ideas about it.
Let me say, so far, i would really like to show and discuss this... but out of the forum noise. So only with real, good and motivated RTD users.
So let's say this: i will tell more only to users that will read this post
Drop me a line at alex at alexander-bonivento.net
I will send more details and gladly discuss it with everyone who will ask for it. Just be warned: if you will, i'll have the right to bother you as much as possible, as the goal here is to look at it to propose new ideas and how to implement it in the most useful way for everyone!