Hello World!
Finally Summer is almost over, and weather here is more autumn-like. I surely work better with lower temperature!
So, I was able to finalize sone new update you'll surely find useful.
Feel free to consider it the "Finally Summer is Over PACK"
NEW LOWRES REFERENCE IMAGE FOD VECTOR OUTPUT
We all know that vector export of orders can sometimes be frustrating. There are some known limitations (as distortions), and guidelines are not always that useful. Often the only solution was to create and refer also to the raster version.
Technically talking such issues cannot be solved yet, but I've added a new option that should help a lot.
The new option is named
Include lowres image as a bottom layer?.
What it will do is to add a lowres raster version of the entire design as a fist layer in the vector itself.
When you'll edit your vector, that means such image can be removed with a single click. But, being there, it will also provide an immediate visual reference for a quick fixing of the vector itself.
This will be true for checking colors, matching distortions, and other similar stuffs. The lowres version is generated through the raster process, so it should always be a 100% match of the original user design.
For the time being the new option defaults to NO, so you'll need to explicitly ask for it to have it. After a period of live usage, we may discuss if it could be a good idea to have it ON by default.
NEW OPTION TO CREATE BETTER NAVIGATION IN THE CLIPARTS POPUP
The new option acts at Group level, so to make benefit of it you need to be using alipart groups already in your product.
Details about clipart groups can be found
here.
The new option is located in the
LIBRARY GROUPS => Define Cliparts Groups area, when both adding or editing groups. Its name is
Show as Top Shortcut, defaulted to NO.
If enabled, on top of your cliparts popup, a shortcut link to the specific group will be added. In other words, instead of scrolling your full list of groups/categories on the left, users can use such shortcuts to quickly jump into a specific group.
There's also an optional
"Show as Top Shortcut" image option as well, and it will allow you to upload an image that will be shown as the shortcut itself.
Assuming you organized well your groups, this option can help a lot in case you need to give some group better visibility/navigation. For example, to address the group listing your background-like images, or any other special category that may be important for your business. And naturally, it's an invitation of making use of Groups: they're nice and powerful, so consider switching to them, in case you hadn't already!
REVISED BORDER TOOL
In RTD there's a border tool option, that you can configure from the Edit Sizes area.
For ranged size, details are
here. For fixed sizes,
here.
So, please note I'm NOT talking about the "External Border", but about the very old "border" tool we always had since 2006!
Now, 6 years later, it was pretty much unuseful. So we started a revision of it.
There are less options in the screen shown in manual, and also its layout in designer changed a lot.
Also, more important, we improved it it a little bit by removing some old options that are really no more senseful to have.
WORDPRESS INTEGRATION - API POWER!
This is spam. I'm just pushing this other announcement thread:
Wordpress Plugin Announced.
I just want to make sure you noticed it, and not only because of Wordpress itself: actually, it will be the first of a set of API-based tools we're planning to release.
API can be extremely powerful to create external applications based on RTD data.
By using API, external modules, new integration methods and Stores, there's really the possibility of creating almost anything without even entering in the main RTD pages.
For this reason, that Wordpress plugin is very important for us: basically, it will be the first official API-based tool we'll release!
NEW WAVE OF TEXT LABELS APPROACHING
This is still in progress, but I'm adding several text labels that was still missed.
Our goal would be to have them all in there to start creating some default sets for other languages, not only US English.
Considering you can create extra text label sets and assign them at Store level, adding those could allow you to offer your services also in other common languages around you, as for example Spanish.
I will post an update when it will be completed.
VARIOUS NEW CSS IDS AND CLASSES ADDED
You will find those from time to time, but there are 2 I'd like to highlight.
One is the
local_table_clipspopup_clipnames class.
It's into the clipart popup, and defaulted with a
display:none;. You can set it to
display:block; in your Direct CSS are in case you want clipart names to be visible underneath thumbnails straight in the clipart popup itself
Second, even if they were created some months ago, is the set of "extclasses" classes.
They have a sintax like
tabs_floatingdiv_extclass_xxx, where xxx can be various things.
It is an extra class to grant you CSS control against RTD popups, in case you want to style those in different ways.
For example, there are the
tabs_floatingdiv_extclass_colors and
tabs_floatingdiv_extclass_fonts classes. By styling them with
!important, you will be able to alter the look of only that specific popup.
Could be very useful if, for any reason, you need your fontcolor/align/etc... popup to look different from other regular popups.
TOGGLE FOR AUTO-PREFILL OF ORDER FIELDS
There's a new option in
SYSTEM OPTIONS => Company Setup, named
Disable Auto-prefill Of Order Fields With Data Gathered From User's Last Order?.
It just does what it says: if enabled, registered user will no more have their last order's data (name, email, etc...) prefilled when submitting an order.
Original discussion about this option is
here
OTHER IMPORTANT/INTERESTING STUFFS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
We're all busy, so it's possible you missed some very interesting updates that had been released lately.
For your convenience, here's a list of the main ones you'd probably may like to check:
The entire Announcement board!
QR Codes - New Property align option - New API Actions
Textures over Colors
Ability to assign products at Store level
Cool RTD integration into existing websites examples
Easy way to set flat shipping prices
Creating a "discount code" using coupons - a simpler version
MORE!
Not enough?
Don't worry! It's too early, but we're already working on other updates as well!
Mostly will not be about new features, but tool to provide a better navigation for your users and a simplest life to admins.
Jest let me keep some secret for the next Xmas Pack, LOL!
In the meanwhile, if you'd like to, do not forget we're about to leave for the next ISA SHOW in Las Vegas. If you'll be there, step by!
More details in the
dedicated thread
That's really it for the time being.
Let us know your comments about the new updates, and thanks for being part of this amazing Community!