i-BikeShop System Upgrades & Updates

This page details the last 40 system upgrades and updates that have taken place to the iBS system.

All new features added will be listed, plus any system modifications.
SHOW ALL UPGRADES

General System: updated 2017-06-21 17:28:25
Free DV SSL rollout to all sites where requested.
General System: updated 2017-03-31 13:02:44
FAQ Widget extended to give UP TO 20 independent FAQ's
General System: updated 2017-03-30 15:18:30
FAQ Widget added
General System: updated 2017-03-27 23:33:48
Extended inline editing option to all fixed pages.

Primary page heading and the main body content can be edited independently directly on the page.
General System: updated 2017-03-27 17:40:29
Inline editing of template regions added.
Products: updated 2017-02-06 17:27:02
New "markers" for the product page templating:

{CROSSSELLING-RELATED} Inserts Related products and related categories
{CROSSSELLING-BOUGHT} Inserts Premium Cross Selling - People Who Bought also Bought
{CROSSSELLING-VIEWED} Inserts Premium Cross Selling - People who Viewed also Viewed
{CROSSSELLING-CONSIDER} Inserts Premium Cross Selling - You Might Also Consider
Data Importer: updated 2017-02-01 15:06:06
New Data Import/Export system for Product relationships added.
General System: updated 2017-02-01 01:21:34
Seanic Retail EPoS Integration upgrades:
Auto Synchronisation
Auto Clearance
Auto Archiving
General System: updated 2017-01-17 23:11:32
Offers area MOVED from /offers.php to /offers/

*NEW* Clearance section added; gives customers single point access to all products set to "Clearance" status in a site.
It works identically to the offers page, so if the defined number of products is breached, the page will split itself down into categorised groups.
General System: updated 2017-01-17 03:11:41
Steve of Caffeine Injection has come up with a great idea and it is the first of what is likely to become a number of "Widgets"

Widgets will be easy to deploy and require little admin.

The first Widget is ready to use:

GALLERY WIDGET

The gallery widget will display a panel of up to 16 images.
Simple to use, in your Media Manager you should find a *new* folder called "gallery". If not, simply create a new subfolder in the main media manager folder and call it "gallery"
Upload the images you want in your gallery into the gallery folder.

On the page you want your gallery to appear, enter the marker "{WIDGET-GALLERY}" in the position you want it.

Hey presto, your images *should* appear.

CONDITIONS:
You must upload AT LEAST FOUR images for the gallery to display.
The gallery will only display MULTIPLES OF FOUR, up to a maximum of 16
If your gallery folder contains more than 16 images, only the most recent 16 will be used.
The newest image will display top left of the gallery grid and the oldest goes bottom right.
Try to remember to set resize parameters on the images you upload. They should be no bigger that 1200px x 1000px and would be better a little smaller for page speed.
You can only have ONE gallery, however you can display the gallery on more than one page.

The gallery can be inserted into ANY standard fixed page or homepage configuration, any brand and any product page.

It will NOT work if you insert it into any of the pages in the fixed pages editor detailed as "Core Template Inserts"
General System: updated 2016-09-30 01:09:00
Product Filters Filtering for Brand and Price temporarily removed whilst conversions to HTML5/Responsive were completed.

These filters now returned, along with an additional filter for "Year".

In PREMIUM subscriptions, custom filters added.
General System: updated 2016-09-30 01:06:53
Google Taxonomy updated
Products: updated 2016-08-15 00:53:11
Any brand can now be assigned as a "parent" of any other brand.

Doing so affects a few things, depending upon setup within the child brand(s)

Each brand you assign as a child (by telling it to have a parent) has two options:
Suppress/Show Listings - which will hide or display the child brands listings on the parent brand's "brand" page
Display own/parent's name - which will govern whether the child brand's products are listed using it's own name, or the name of its parent

Deploying these options:
Can be done within the Brands Add/Edit screens
Can be done within data import/export

What it does:

Brand Page(s)
Only PARENT brands will display on the brands page

Clicking onto a brand which has children will display the categorised listing and a2z listing for that brand, along with a list of it's child brands, with or without the child brand's categorised and a2z listings (depending upon the setting for the child)

The child brand can be clicked through from the parent brand page.

Product System pages:
Any product listed against a child brand where the child brand has been told to adopt the name of it's parent will display with the parent brand's name rather than it's own.
Products: updated 2016-04-08 01:23:48
Previously, super categories were a simple grouping mechanism, grouping together a number or master categories, but with no distinct URL for the contents of a single super category.

The option to link to a supercategory has now been added. This means a supercategory may now be a menu entry in its own rights.

Details for the permalink for each super category are displayed in the super category editor screen (if you have them enabled.
General System: updated 2015-03-19 14:48:48
Content Inserts enables you to create chunks of html/content which can then be deployed to any number of pages by inserting the #TRIGGER for the content.

Examples of usage might be for section menus where the sub menu for a section is repeated on a sequence of site static pages. Deploying the menu as a content insert means future edits to that menu only need to be carried out in one place with the changes immediately being applied to all pages carrying the trigger.

Content triggers can be deployed anywhere in the site EXCEPT existing template content insert panels.
General System: updated 2015-03-14 02:02:40
New option within the Product Page Layout editor to have the finance pop-over within a TAB. **HTML5 CSS3 upgraded and new sites only.
General System: updated 2015-02-10 00:00:00
A few weeks since this was deployed but Two enhancements to the integration with Seanic Retail EPoS;

Supplier forward stock availability.
If running the "supplier" branch in Seanic, some feeds from supplier may contain next available delivery projections.
If you enable the option, the site can read these advance dates and re-enable items for sale with the projected date displayed to customers. If you have Seanic and are not running the supplier integration, talk to Sean.

Manual Order data transfers.
Until recently, data for your order was transferred at the point you complete a transaction In the website. Seanic then updated its stock levels and stored the transaction.
Now, if you enable the option, you can have control over when that data is transferred. All transactions will arrive into Seanic in the Customer Orders section.
If enabled, you will need to manually initiate the data transfer for every order (one button click when reviewing the order). Once transferred, the data cannot be transferred again (preventing duplicate transactions in your till)
General System: updated 2015-02-09 23:53:38
"Clearance" status products:
When a status of Clearance is applied to a product it will now display its pricing in an on offer style, but with a label of "To Clear"
The To Clear price will be either RRP, Normal or Offer price, whichever is the lowest.

Media Manager (HTML5/CSS3 sites only)
Media manager now has the option to apply width and float style commands to the image embed tags.
Widths are native, 100%, 50%, 33%, 25%, 20% and 12.5%
Floats are none, left and right
This will reduce the need to hand adjust image tags before embedding.
General System: updated 2014-12-19 17:51:21
I have added a new tool to the spring cleaning armoury.

When products and brands are deleted from your site, all the images that once belonged to those products are left behind. Gradually, over time, the volume increases and these old images are simply using up space on the server serving no purpose.

The new tool(s) I have added are:

Within "Media Manager"
The numbered folders are all brand folders. The number corresponds to a brand in your site. Where the brand has been deleted, no brand name is displayed with the numbered folder.
rnNow, instead, a red bold "[DELETED BRAND - KILL?] message is displayed which, if Kill is clicked will permanently delete that folder and all its contents.
As a numbered folder only contains images uploaded via product editor for that (now deleted) brand, this action is safe to undertake.

Within "Configurations & Maintenance"
New option "Remove Orphaned Product Images"
There are two selections within this area;
1) "Kill images for deleted brands"
This is the equivalent of clicking all the "KILL" links shown on individual folders within media manager at the same time.

2) "Kill images for all deleted products"
This option (not selected by default) looks at every image uploaded into the numbered brand folders and cross references the database to see if that image still belongs to a product which still exists within your database, regardless of status. If the image does not match a product entry it is deleted.
rnThis second process will take significantly longer to perform and on sites where the process has not previously occurred *may* time out. If it does, simply restart the process.
General System: updated 2014-10-28 00:45:14
Further to my last update regarding the ability to disable left or right hand blocks from displaying on the homepage...

Homepage Admin: Auto Random Products (panels 1 - 6)
Homepage Admin: Product Highlights

Both the above have been extended to take advantage of the space released by disabling blocks.
Now, when BOTH sets of blocks are disabled on the homepage, you will be able to deploy random products in a "4-Up" layout, ie four equally spaced listings per row AND the Product Highlights panel will additionally offer a fourth column, enabling up to 12 product highlights in a 3rows x 4cols layout.

Available in all subscription levels.

NOTE: This only applies to sites once they have been upgraded to the HTML5/CSS3 format
General System: updated 2014-10-20 14:01:47
As I am now 11 sites in to the site upgrades for HTML5/CSS3 and responsive layouts, a few common requirements have emerged which have led to me making some fundamental changes to the platform templating architecture:
BLOCKS ON HOMEPAGE

The left and right side panel blocks are now display controllable.

Standard homepage layout has always been LEFT BLOCKS - HOMEPAGE CONTENT - RIGHT BLOCKS
Standard page layout has always been LEFT BLOCKS - PAGE CONTENT

ie the LEFT BLOCKS were ALWAYS there on the homepage, but could be disabled on all other pages or just the product pages.
RIGHT BLOCKS were ALWAYS there on the homepage. This panel is NOT available on any other page.

NOW:
Right blocks panel can be disabled from being displayed on the homepage
Left blocks panel can be disabled from being displayed on the homepage

With both left and right blocks enabled, the primary template architecture dictates 5 equal columns (20% per column) distributed as 20% - 60% (ie 3 combined for homepage content) - 20% (right blocks)
On other pages, the 5 columns are maintained but with a split of 20% - 80% (ie 4 combined for content)

With either left or right blocks disabled, the architecture sets to a FOUR column format;
25% left blocks - 75% content
or
75% content - 25% right blocks (homepage only)
25% left blocks - 75% content (all other)

The above probably makes no sense at all!
In brief,
you can now disable left blocks from displaying on your homepage
you can now disable right blocks from displaying on your homepage
templates will adapt to utilise the space in a more practical way.

NOTE: This only applies to sites once they have been upgraded to the HTML5/CSS3 format
General System: updated 2014-10-20 11:50:49
For all sites running with Finance checkout, the examples panel/popup has been improved to now display:
a) All finance packages a product qualifies for with lowest monthly payment and lowest cost of borrowing highlighted
b) Other finance packages that the product would qualify for as part of a larger order (upsell)

I have also rebuilt the full finance examples page similarly.
General System: updated 2014-10-10 23:24:47
I've added a new option for all NEW voucher codes you create from now on.

Previously, vouchers could be redeemed even when other sales promotions had been applied.

The new option (available to Standard and Premium subscriptions where the vouchers system is available) enables you to implicitly allow OR disallow voucher usage where a sales promotion has been activated.

The option is to disallow usage by default and all existing voucher codes have been set to disallow.

Interactions with Sales promos:
Buy One Get One Free: Any product assigned to B1G1F will disable usage if added to cart
Buy 1 get one half price: Voucher will disallow if item quantity is greater than one.
Buy 2 get one free: Voucher will disallow if item quantity is greater than one.
Group Saves: Voucher will disallow if item quantity within the group is greater than one.
Multi-Buy Discounts (price decreasing at quanity break points): Voucher will disallow if any multibuy is triggered
Link Saves (Buy two related products to save x% or Â£x.xx): Voucher will disallow if both items in a link save are selected
Category Link Saves (x% off items in category X for buying item from category Y)): Voucher will disallow as soon as a linked saving is applied
Value Linked Discount (x% value of item X in other free goods) (CATEGORY Based): Voucher will disallow as soon as a linked saving is applied
Value Linked Discount (x% value of item X in other free goods) (PRODUCT Specific): Voucher will disallow as soon as a linked saving is applied
Reward Discount (Â£x.xx in other free goods) (CATEGORY Based): Voucher will disallow as soon as a linked saving is applied
Reward Discount (Â£x.xx in other free goods) (PRODUCT Specific): Voucher will disallow as soon as a linked saving is applied
Free Delivery (Item Only) (Edit System Icon): Voucher will disallow if item selected
Free Delivery (Complete Order) (Edit System Icon): Voucher will disallow if item selected

PLEASE NOTE: ONLY new voucher codes created from now onward have the option to allow them with sales promos. All existing codes have been set to the default disallow.
Products: updated 2014-08-28 00:39:38
Product Editing
Over time, many brands get too large to successfully edit in one pass.

I have added the option to load based on year such that only a limited part of a brand can be loaded.
General System: updated 2014-07-10 01:51:05
NEW Features: (ALL Subscription Levels)

Automated T&C's emailing Ability to have part or all of your terms and conditions emailed to customers with their order confirmation emails. You may select individual entries from your current terms and conditions to be included.
Inclusion of a model returns form emailed to customers with their order confirmation emails.

"Cycle To Work" checkout This is a clone of the standard checkout but marked as Cycle To Work in order admin screen to differentiate from normal checkout methods.

Order Status "Returned & Refunded" Addition of an additional system Order Status "Returned & Refunded". Once assigned to this status and order will disappear from back office as if completed BUT the order values will be reflected as refunded in order stats.

Stock Alert Emails Stock Alert Emails which allow your customer to request an email alert when an item is marked back into stock. Enable in Ecommerce Settings.

Cookie Regs Cookie alert (legal/regulations compliance requirement)

Product images "lightbox" Product images "lightbox" with click through from one to the next.

Image Normalisation Image "normalisation" option. This resizes product imagery (including brand, category etc) onto nominally sized white canvases to make all your product imagery the same size. Existing product images are normalized without further input if an image resizing process is initiated within Image Resize Options.

Available to ALL subscription levels once site converted to HTML5:
Image flipping: displays specific variant image when the variant is selected on product pages.

Responsive layout including a mobile/tablet specific version of site for improved campatability.

Available to PREMIUM subscription accounts immediately:
Customer Loyalty Rewards (points)

Available to PREMIUM subscription accounts once site converted to HTML5:
Complete control of product page layout within back office

Optional "Tabs" on product pages (up to 5 tabs) to reduce product page clutter

Product Enquiry/Price Match built in, with configurations (only available in tabbed layout)

Product Reviews built in, with configurations (only available in tabbed layout)
General System: updated 2014-07-10 01:51:05
HTML5 and CSS3

Core platform converted to HTML5 and CSS3.

All new sites will be developed in HTML5 and CSS3.

Existing sites are being converted FREE OF CHARGE
Products: updated 2014-03-07 11:49:21
ASCEND RMS EPoS

Semi-integration with your Ascend stock file.

We can now receive an overnight stock file which the system can automatically process for you to keep your stock levels in check. It can additionally (optional) update pricing for you and set/remove offers

As usual, there is NO CHARGE for this to be completed.

Once set up, your site will automatically update once a day, overnight to bring website stock levels in line with your till.

CAVEAT: In order for the automated updates to work, you MUST have manufacturers part numbers or EAN/UPC codes in your site against all products.
General System: updated 2014-04-28 00:09:57
You may ignore if you are not submitting your products to Google Shopping.

Custom labels are a feature within Google Shopping Campaigns.
The option to use Google Shopping labels is now included for anyone on Standard or Premium.

For more details on Google Shopping Labels and Campaigns, refer to https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3455481?hl=en-GB
General System: updated 2014-04-28 00:04:17
Custom labels are a feature within Google Shopping Campaigns.

The option to use Google Shopping labels is now included for anyone on Standard or Premium.
Shopping Cart: updated 2013-12-05 23:59:53
Rolled out v12 Finance integration to all I-Bikeshop sites.

Added customisable deposit level options for system defaults and specific finance packages.
General System: updated 2013-08-21 12:38:45
Seanic Retail EPoS Integration Enhancements
Two new features to the integration with Seanic Retail's EPoS system, available for those running their sites integrated to a Seanic till.

1) Stock information in Order Admin Screens
If the option is enabled, items within orders will be colour coded to tell you whether or not your till is showing stock availability.
Items "in stock" on the till will be colour coded green, and display a bin/stock location if one is entered along with the Branch name where the stock exists.
Items out of stock on the till, or unrecognised will be colour coded yellow and display N/A

2) Supplier stock level automation
This one isn't something that you can just switch on. It involves creating a Branch within Seanic and storing supplier stock levels within it (recommended settings for stock are 0 for supplier has stock and -1 for supplier has no stock)
If your internal branches show no stock, the supplier "branch" is queried.
If the supplier branch carries -1 stock, the variant record will be automatically set to "N" within the website and the item taken of sale.
If the supplier branch carries 0 stock, the variant record will be left alone.
Supplier stock "branch" is also queried in order admin, items out of stock with supplier colour coded red, in stock colour coded orange, both labelled "Supplier Stock"

To use this second feature, you'll need to talk to Sean @ Seanic to discover what you need to do at the till end.
General System: updated 2013-08-21 12:35:13
System split into three service levels, LITE, STANDARD & PREMIUM

LITE is a scaled down feature set suitable for smaller retailers who wish to keep costs in check and who do not wish to use Google Shopping or be able to import/export data in bulk. Still no limits on product quantity or categorisation.

STANDARD is suitable for most with an almost full feature set.

PREMIUM service levels now have exclusive access to all new features as they are released, for at least one year from release (after which time some features will be made available to STANDARD. Additionally, there are a number of PREMIUM ONLY features;
Product Upgrades, allowing charged for options to be added to any product
Advanced homepage layout tools, enabling considerably greater freedom and control over homepage content and layout.
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2013-04-11 14:41:48
New Google Shopping policies coming in on 17th April require me to add two additional data fields to data feeds;

gender
age_group

In theory, these fields/attributes are only required for product being submitted in to [Google taxonomy] "Apparel & Accessories" product groups

To meet the new requirements we've added two new fields into the productRecords table;
gsProductGender
gsProductAgeGroup

gsProductGender can be one of four values: n [not applicable], u [unisex], m [male/mens] or f [female/womens]
gsProductAgeGroup can be one of three values: n [not applicable], a [adults] or k [kids]

All existing product records have been set to "n" for both values.
New products generated through the back office will default to "n" unless set to one of the other options.

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WHAT DOES AFFECT YOU IF YOU SUBMIT YOUR PRODUCTS TO GOOGLE SHOPPING
If you do not submit your portfolio to Google Shopping (Froogle) you may ignore this section.

Google's policy changes affect ONLY products which are submitted to any section of the Taxonomy below "Apparel & Accessories" therefore you do not currently need to do anything to products in your site submitted outside this area.

Colour - Colour is now a REQUIRED ATTRIBUTE for all products submitted in "Apparel & Accessories"
Gender - Gender is now a REQUIRED ATTRIBUTE for all products submitted in "Apparel & Accessories" and may be one of the three; Male, Female or Unisex
Age Group - Age Group is now a REQUIRED ATTRIBUTE for all products submitted in "Apparel & Accessories" and may be one of the two; Adult or Kids

======================================================================

WHAT DOES AFFECT YOU IF YOU USE THE DATA IMPORT/EXPORT SYSTEMS
The two new fields have been added in to the data export import tools.
Thus, a complete fields import or export will have two additional columns, positioned immediately before "productCondition" at the end of each row, so if you rely on complete imports or exports, you'll need to revise your files to reflect the two new fields.

======================================================================

gender and age_group have been added in to the google feed file as part of the upgrade, though the fields will be empty/unpopulated for anything carrying the "n" value. After 17th April, these products may cause a Critical Warning in your merchant centre account if not updated to carry the correct updated information.
General System: updated 2013-02-06 23:48:25
Added Social Networking buttons for;
Facebook "Like"
Twitter "Share"
Google "+1"
Shopping Cart: updated 2012-10-01 23:16:26
Added facilities for consumers to track ordder status real time.

Tracking does not require customers to register with the site or provide a password.
General System: updated 2012-09-13 23:03:51
Following a user request, the number of Automated Random Product panels has been increased from 2 to 6.

As previously, you can place each of the six panels in any position within the homepage flow that you wish, plus each panel has four display options: Default, Super Highlights (big listings) or Highlights in either 2up or 3up (2 per row or 3 per row).
General System: updated 2012-08-29 00:54:20
Brand and Category drop down selectors have now been set to not display initially when editing a product. They are displayed as text only, and with an "Enable Editing" link below which will allow the two settings to be altered.

This is designed to speed up page load time, especially on sites with high numbers of brands and categories, since it is a relatively uncommon event that category or brand would be editied for an existing product.

Second update is to the homepage system.
New optiond to deploy the following systems into a 2 column format, in addition to the existing 3 column format:
Auto Random Products Panel 1 (when running in HIGHLIGHTS mode)
Auto Random Products Panel 2 (when running in HIGHLIGHTS mode)
Product Highlights (previously only available as a 3x3 layout).
Shopping Cart: updated 2012-08-16 09:13:48
SAVED CARTS: Enable admin to create a shopping cart to pass to a customer via a link, prefilling the customers basket with the selected items.
Shopping Cart: updated 2012-07-06 00:13:22
Upgrade to the existing "Voucher Promotions" system.

In future, create a voucher which may only be used a single time.

Examples of usage;
Perhaps you want to sell gift vouchers? Create a code unique to your customer and send it to them. If bought as a gift, the buyer just needs to give the code to their recipient.
Perhaps you want to use vouchers to enable Price Match reductions. Send your price match customer a code with a time limit.

Any voucher set up as single use will automatically expire once an order has been completed where that code has been used.
Product Editor: updated 2012-06-26 15:03:40
New options to set automated resizing parameters (width and height) for product system images added.
General System: updated 2012-06-19 23:13:58
Two new options added to the list of possible sales promotions:

1) Group Saves
======================

A group save is a collection of products (specified by productID) which are tied together to offer a discount when purchasing multiple products from the group.

Discounts may be a percentage of the price of the goods or a fixed rate monetary discount.
Specify how may products the customer needs to purchase to qualify for the discount. (The customer may choose to buy multiple of the same product to receive the discount, or spread their purchases across a number of the items in the group).
Specify how the discount is applied, whether solely to the cheapest item selected or to the group as a whole.

2) Category Link Saves
======================

A Category Link Save enables the offer of discounts off product in subcategory Y when a customer selects product from subcategory X.

This promotion type would, for example, enable an offer like 20% off any item in a helmets subcategory when buying any item from the BMX bike subcategory.

Each link save can be created with multiple "trigger" categories (eg all the different types of bike subcategory) and, the discount can apply to multiple "target" subcategories (eg helmets, lights locks and pumps).

A subcategory can only be a target of one category link save.

Offer items may be excluded from the discount AND offer items may be prevented from triggering the discount. Additionally, a minimum item price to trigger the discount can be set.

Discounts may only be percentage based
Discounts will be applied to ALL product selected from a target (assuming offers have not been disallowed)
Shopping Cart: updated 2012-06-05 00:08:48
Pay4Later or the Moneyway Lite (using Secure Hosting) finance integrations have have been upgraded to allow variable deposits.

Existing minimum deposits set by admin in the configuration area are honoured, however customers may select a higher deposit level up to a maximum 50%.
General System: updated 2012-05-29 17:27:11
Just rolled out three seperate upgrades;

UPGRADE 1: Additional Product Status Options
=================================================================

Three NEW product status setting added bringing the total to 8. Status settings available are:

Inactive
Active
Active Special Order
Active Sale Disabled
Clearance **NEW**
Delivery Restricted (Group 1) **NEW**
Delivery Restricted (Group 2) **NEW**
Archived

"Clearance" is aimed at trying to stop the abuse of the offers system by placing end of line / closeout product on offer and it sitting there for months, chogging up the offers page and effectively removing any useful function the offers page might serve for consumers. Each product assigned as Clearance will be labelled (the label being configurable).

The two "Delivery Restricted" statuses are designed to limit the delivery regions certain products are made available to. So, for example, where you have ranges which they cannot mail order, they can set one group to only allow a "Collect From Store" delivery region meaning they no longer have to list products as active sale disabled. Customers can still buy trough the site but would only be able to select "collect from store" at checkout. By having two seperate groups, you could also have UK only delivery products. This esentially allows you to create a perfect click and collect service onsite.

UPGRADE 2: Bulk Setting of Product Alerts
=================================================================

I've added a "Globbally Add Product Alerts" option to the global modification panel. Selecting it will reveal a product alert field and anything entered will then be applied to any selected products. Useful if you want the same alert applying to a number of products and wish to do so in one process.

UPGRADE 3: Product Category Custom Value Heading Display Controls
=================================================================

Display of each of the Custom Value Headings associated with Master Categories may now be controlled.
Each heading in the master category editor now has a three option drop down selector: Auto Display, Always Display and Never Display.
In Auto Display mode, the heading will only display if there is a corresponding product data value against it.
In Always Display mode, the heading will always be displayed, regardless of whether corresponding data exists or not.
In Never Display mode,the heading (and corresponding data) will never be displayed to site visitors. However, the data is indexed by the product search engine.
Products: updated 2012-05-02 02:16:01
Offer expiry countdown timers
Further to the scheduling of offers... for offers with a scheduled end date/time;

If the scheduled expiry date is MORE than 99hrs, 59mins and 59seconds in the future, the offer will display "Offer ends DD/MM/YYYY @ HH/mm"

If the scheduled expiry date is LESS than 99hrs, 59mins and 59seconds in the future, the offer will display "Time Remaining: HH:MM:SS" where HH:MM:SS is a visual, counting down green lcd effect clock.

Once expiry time has been reached, the scheduled termination of the offer is paused for 5 minutes and 15 seconds; enough time for the customer to checkout, during which time the offer will display "OFFER ENDED 00:0M:SS You have MAX 5 minutes to complete checkout." where the text has turned red and 00:0M:SS is a visual, counting UP red lcd effect clock, counting up to maximum 5 minutes at which time...

After 5 minutes, the clock will stop at 00:05:00 and commence flashing and the message "You have MAX 5 minutes to complete checkout." is replaced by "Time's Up!"

This final stage should coincide with the offer status being reset to end the offer. Thus, if anyone takes too much time checking out after the end of an offer, it is entirely likely that it will be in their order at full price. 5 minutes is plenty of time to complete checkout. They need to have completed the customer details screen and submitted (thus generating the order and fixing prices against that order) within the allocated 5:15. Any longer and the non offer prices will be read from the database and applied to the order.

Countdown timers appear on:

Offers page
Subcategory pages
Branded subcategory pages
Search result pages
Product Page (any route)
Products: updated 2012-04-29 13:58:13
Added three scheduling options:

Terminate Offer Scheduling
Commence Offer Scheduling
Product Deactivation scheduling
General System: updated 2012-04-25 22:52:40
Added additional configuration options into the slide system which now release a whole lot more customisation that was previously available...

Slide Direction
===============
Choose whether slides should play from Left to Right (Default) or from Right to Left (as pretty much every other slider displayed on "other" websites works.

Slide Control Tabs (New Options)
================================
Location of tabs: By default, the control tabs occupy the very top left corner of the slide window. New configurations allow you to move the controllers from left to right and top to bottom (ie four possible locations).
Additionally, you may define a margin: how close the tab controls are to the edge of the slide window. There are two settings, one margin for the distance from the vertical edge and a second for the distance from the horizontal edge. The vertical margin would also allow the slide controls to be moved out of view (effectively removing them) by setting a sufficient negative margin).

Appearance of tabs: By default, the tab controls are grey numbers on white rectangles (for inactive slides) and white text on grey rectangles (for the active slide). You may now control these colours to tailor their appearance to the colour scheme for your site.
As an extension to this colour customisation, you may also upload and use background images for the controls and if required, set the text to invisible, giving a purely visual prompt. If "IMAGE" is set as the control type and the necessary two images have been uploaded, these image tabs will appear in place of the current text/rectangle ones.
General System: updated 2012-02-07 02:27:45
Further enhansements to the integration with Seanic Retail's EPoS system have been included.

A full suite of synchronisation tools allows an i-BikeShop to discover products with matching SKU codes within the till system and offer the opportunity to create products within the till where the product exists on the website but no matching SKU ios found in the till.
News: updated 2012-02-07 02:24:54
Headline Images
===============
Each article published may now have an (optiona;l) headline image which is resized and placed alongside the article heading in the articles list. The headline image is independent of any other images uploaded into the article directly.

News Configurations
===================
Previously, the settings for the news panel were all contained within the Core Site Texts area of Configurations. A new "News Options" area has been created.

New Configuration Options
=========================
New options for;
Headline image resize dimensions.

New Options for News Enabled
Previously, the news could ONLY be displayed at the bottom of the homepage central content panel.
Added two new "locations";
1) Block deployment; ie display news within a side panel block
2) Custom location; You choose exactly where you want it. This is achieved by inserting a trigger or content marker "#SYSTEMNEWS" in the place where you want the news headlines to appear

Display "View Archives" link. Previously, at the foot of every page within news was a View the Archives link. You may now disable this link.

Added Article Types.
====================

In standard homepage bottom panel deployment and sidepanel block deployment; Article Type will be prefixed to the article title; eg
PRODUCT NEWS: article title

In "CUSTOM" deployment, additional opportunity to limit the deployment panel to just articles of a given type. Each type has its own deployment trigger. As an example, a new article type "PRODUCT NEWS" with a database assigned ID of 2, insert trigger #SYSTEMTYPE2NEWS to just display articles which have been assigned to Product News.

Each article within the article editor has a new drop down selector for type. "General" will be selected by default.
Products: updated 2012-01-03 16:21:17
BRAND NAME AUTO CAPITALISATION
==============================

By default, the system CAPITALISES brand names when you create/edit brands. This behaviour is only applied to the Brand Name field (it is not applied to the brand real or google name fields)

A new configuration option to prevent the system from doing this has been added.

ORDER VALUE LIMITS FOR ALTERNATE DELIVERY ADDRESSES
===================================================

Allowing your customers to provide alternate delivery addresses is not uncommon (though it does carry risk). The second new option is to allow an order value limit to be imposed, above which alternate delivery addresses will not be allowed.
Product Editor: updated 2011-10-28 13:51:45
Stock level indicators inproved.

Basic stock level management now has three possible settings:
Y - intended to denote a product is in stock in-store
O - intended to denote a product is NOT in stock in-store but IS available at the supplier
N - intended to denote a product is NOT in stock in-store NOR available at the supplier

Items set to N level indicator can not be added to baskets.
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2011-10-28 13:49:31
i-BikeShop Google Shopping data feeds are FULLY COMPLIANT with all Google's feed specification updates.

A large amount of work has been done to the system to tailor the data structure and data fields to accommodate the revisions required by Google for both the May 2011 and September 2011 updates.

To assist in entering missing MPN and EAN/UPC data, additional tools have been added to highlight affected products and enable faster bulk updating.

Feeds will only now include items which have product identifier data, thus reducing the chance of rejected feeds.
Data Importer: updated 2011-07-20 01:11:12
Data import/export system updated to allow Google Taxonomy to be mapped against subcategories via the subcategory import function.

To assist mapping via the importer, a taxonomy cribsheet has been added to the cribsheets area.
General System: updated 2011-07-19 02:29:17
Admin Users system upgraded to allow individual permissions for "limited access" users.

This allows a specific set of editors to be enabled for specific admin users.
Products: updated 2011-07-18 23:56:14
Added a new product variant stock level setting of "O" into basic stock control to allow greater definition between products where pysical stock is held and products where you are working from supplier held stock.
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2011-07-04 01:55:22
A new set of configuration options added into the main configurations area.

These new settings will enable tweaking data is formatted for submission to Google Base / Froogle / Google Merchant Centre.

The new options are:

Include "Active Sale Disabled" Products. DEFAULT: YES
Set this option to NO if you do not wish to submit items which are set to Active Sale Disabled.

Include Product Year in Title. DEFAULT: NO
This determines whether to submit the productYear field content as part of the product title.

Include VARIANT DETAILS in product Title. DEFUALT: YES
This determines whether to submit the Variant Detail, eg 'Red', 'White', 'Small' etc content as part of the product title.

Include Carriage Charges. DEFAULT: YES
This determines whether to submit carriage charges for each product. Carriage is a recommended field for Google data submissions. It is NOT a required field however. Depending upon the complexity of your carriage setup, it may be worth removing the values from the feed.
Where a product has an SSID rate, it will be submitted.
Where the product's parent category has two carriage rates (above and below threshold), the product price is used to determine which rate to submit.

MPN Field DEFAULT: NO SUBMISSION
This determines which of the (up to) four SKU fields contains the MPN.
MPN is "Manufacturers Part Number.
Google REQUIRE the submission of 2 of the following three values:
Brand
UPC/EAN
MPN
Brand is already submitted.
UPC/EAN codes are entered into the variant EAN field. A UPC is a 12 digit number, EAN's are 13 digits.
Not all products have an EAN or UPC code and in these circumstances, you should endeavour to submit a MPN in it's place.
Where large numbers of your product range have no EAN/UPC codes, it is advisable to enable submission of MPN codes. These codes should be entered into one of the SKU fields, and they should be entered consistently into the SAME SKU field.
Sites using the i-BikeShop central database should note that any available MPN codes will have been transferred into the variantSKU2 field.
General System: updated 2011-06-27 01:53:40
Added a javascript driven feature "slider" to the centre of the homepage panel with full backend systems to add up to 8 seperate slides.
Products: updated 2011-06-24 22:38:41
Configuration option added to allow switch to keyword based product URL's instead of the default query string based URL's.
Products: updated 2011-06-13 01:32:05
Added the option to alter the sort order for specification headings and values on a per master category level without the need to re-enter data.

This allows for new headings to be added and moved into a more appropriate display position.
Products: updated 2011-06-11 01:29:28
Display of products set to "Active Sale Disabled" can now be delayed until after in-stock products have been displayed. This may mean that the top of the product lists are not dominated by products which cannot be bought via the site.
Products: updated 2011-06-03 01:27:26
2 new fields added to "Brands";

brandRealName and brandGoogleName

brandRealName is submitted to Google Base in the mandatory "brand" field and allows sites to run with extended, keyword rich brand names on-site without the additionaly keywords being submitted to Google Base.

brandGoogleName is submitted to Google Base in the mandatory "title" field.

If either field carries a value, it will be submitted in place of the standard brand name.
Order Admin: updated 2011-05-08 01:24:23
The Create Manual Order system in the back office has been upgraded to allow quicker entry of customer data for repeat customers.

Type in the postcode (or partial postcode) and the system will now look through existing orders for matching postcodes and present you with a list of up to 10 possibilities. Click the one required in the presented list and the data supplied for that previous order will be inserted into the customer details fields (Name, Email, Address and Telephone).

The list of 10 possibilities will alter, the more of the postcode typed in.
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2011-04-29 01:22:56
Froogle / Google Base feeds updated to include now mandatory MPN/GTIN values; submitted as EAN or UPC codes where present.
Order Admin: updated 2011-03-28 01:42:34
Within Order Admin you can define shipping/carrier methods to assign against your orders as you complete them, entering tracking info for your customers, this detail then forming part of the final email sent.

The new upgrades further extend this functionality, allowing you to now over-ride the order completion email template with one specific to each carrier if required. If a customised email template does not exist, the standard order completed email will be used.

Additionally, if you use carriers who allow you to use your own internal references for tracking numbers, you can also set up tracking number auto generation, again specific to each carrier / shipping method.
Shopping Cart: updated 2011-02-27 01:30:07
Sequential Milestone Discount Voucher

This voucher enables you to offer a preset discount amount for each multiple "milestone" spend... eg Â£5 off for every Â£50 spent;
Â£0-Â£49.99 -> Â£0 discount
Â£50-Â£99.99 -> Â£5 discount
Â£100-Â£149.99 -> Â£10 discount
etc etc

This voucher may be applied with or without the following limits:
Offers included/excluded
Master category limited (apply only to items from specified master categories)
Brand limited (apply only to items from specified brands)
Product Editor: updated 2010-12-21 01:55:06
Addition of optional EAN code field.

Addition of optional minimum stock level field for products when system is configured in advanced stock control mode.

Addition of a quick stock amendment system, driven by SKU/EAN codes with runtime options.

Addition of a low stock levels / reorder report for sites running in advanced stock control with minimum stock levels enabled.
Order Admin: updated 2010-12-21 01:54:59
Manual Order system upgraded to enable fetching of product data by entering a SKU/EAN code.
Shopping Cart: updated 2010-12-21 01:53:31
Finance checkout options added:

Basic: Consumers alerted to availability of finance via fixed content page from checkout.

Lite: Consumer offered finance (based on configurations) and transferred to a secure environment where required details are left. This data is then used by the retailer to manually complete the Moneyway (or other lender) application process in the absense of the consumer, then informing the consumer of the outcome.

Fully Integrated: Using Pay4Later, as above, but the consumer is taken through an entirely paperless application process with an instant decision. Pay4Later uses Moneyway as the lender.
Order Admin: updated 2010-06-26 00:35:49
System added to enable order creation from within back office. Option to transfer items from shopping cart, or freehand addition.
Products: updated 2010-06-15 01:33:12
New configuration options to allow control of the structure and content for each of the 8 product type pages, allowing you to customise the titles to better suit your needs
General System: updated 2010-06-09 16:13:06
New option for the two automated product listing panels within the homepage editor.

It is now possible to select to have the panel(s) display newly added product rather than just randomised products.

This effectively gives the option for the content of the current "latest additions" block to feature in the centre of the homepage.

The system may also be instructed to limit to new products from a defined category.
Media Browser: updated 2010-05-30 02:08:47
New Media Manager deployed

The new system gives you new tools to help keep your image library in order. It allows you to upload and resize images into ANY folder, delete unused images, rename images, delete empty folders and create new folders.

Additionally, and for the first time, the media manager now allows the upload of files other than images. You may now upload WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT, ZIP, PDF and a number of audio and video formats.

The Media Manager is split into two sections. The left panel contains a directory tree view where the numbered folders which correspond to brands will have their relevant brand name displayed alongside, and the right (main) panel will display folder contents and file details including file URL, relative path and html tags to embed the content into the vaious editors.

Whilst this new tool is standalone, media usage is reported. Indeed, used files cannot be edited to prevent the inadvertent breaking of sections of a site where the file may be in use. Every section of the database which could contain embedded html is checked for references to the file being viewed.

Functions:
Add new sub-directories (up to 5 levels)
Upload new image (resized to user specified dimensions); GIF, JPEG or PNG
Retrieve image from any website (excluding password protected images) by specifying the image URL
Upload new document/file; DOC, XLS, PPT, PPS, PDF, ZIP, MP3, MPEG, AVI, WMV
View file usage.
Download file.
Copy releative file path, URL or html tag
Rename file (only if unused)
Delete file (only if unused)
Delete Folder (Only if empty)
Product Editor: updated 2010-05-25 01:51:38
New field to the Brands Editor screens (Add and Update) which allows specification of the URL of an image (logo) to remotely retrieve.
General System: updated 2010-05-15 01:54:29
Option to enable an embedded "WYSIWYG" html editor.

Once enabled, the advanced WYSIWYG editor will be embedded for editing of the main page body in the fixed pages editor, the main article body within the news editor and both of the open text panels within the homepage editor.

For those with less skill in HTML, a WYSIWYG editor allows you to work in a word processor style environment, but clickable buttons to add links, set text bold etc.

The embedded editor is an open source product called "FCK Editor" and you can google it if you want to find out more.
Product Editor: updated 2010-05-04 01:33:56
The global price updates panel has been amended to enable the Offer Price to be amended as a standalone value in the same way that RRP and Our Price can be amended.

Please note however that any current 0 value will be unaffected.
Order Admin: updated 2010-04-28 22:41:46
New system to enable you to:
1) edit the names of any of the predefined system order statuses to make them more relevant to your operation
2) create any number of new order status options, each of which you can define the name for.
3) control the sorting order so that you can place specific order statuses into your own selected order

The only exceptions are that you cannot modify or control the labelling for the following three status settings as they are defined for system purposes:
NEW
COMPLETED
DECLINED
Product Editor: updated 2010-04-26 16:55:11
Clicking in to any of the four pricing fields within the editor subcategory, brand or sku results list views will now preselect the relevant product as one to include in an en-masse update.
Product Editor: updated 2010-04-26 16:53:54
Auto Product Alert system added;

As with Order Comments, Product Alerts are often used repetitively, ie the same message(s) is deployed regularly.

A mechanism to predfine a list of product alerts has now been added which is displayed with the product editor at subcategory, brand and SKU result list level and the specific product editor screen.

In list views, revealing the alert field or alert options drop down will present the item as one to be modified.
Order Admin: updated 2010-04-19 23:11:49
Anti Fraud measures imporved.

All orders are now cross checked against a list of some 140000+ known UK call boxes / public telephones.
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2010-03-31 19:54:30
Configuration field added to insert Google Base / Google Merchant Center / Google Webmaster tools verification META TAG
Products: updated 2010-03-18 23:05:53
Sales promotions systems upgrade:

Value Linked Discount (x% value of item X in other free goods) (PRODUCT Specific)
AND
Reward Discount (Â£x.xx in other free goods) (PRODUCT Specific)

Both now have an option to create these promotions en-masse, by selecting a brand of product and all the categories where products appear that you might wish to add product specific rewards to.
This might not seem particularly practical until we explain why this feature has been added.

In both category based versions of the above, there is no mechanism to exclude any products from the global reward scheme. So for example, if you were to create a reward scheme worth 10% of the value of any purchased bike in free accessories, there would be no way of limiting which bikes the promo was applied to (with the exception of existing offers). Product specific versions allowed you to create different levels of reward on different products, but if you wanted to offer 10% against all specialized, but 15% against all Giant, this could not be done EXCEPT by creating each bike reward manually.
The second benefit is that I have also amended the system such that if it finds a product specific reward with a value of 0, it removes that product from any category based offerings.

So now, to have all bikes EXCEPT Marin, for example, you create the category based reward on bikes, then use the product specific reward, specifying all bikes from marin and assigning a reward value of 0. Now, your site will display the reward offering on all bikes except marin.
Shopping Cart: updated 2010-03-06 00:03:43
Item order quantity fields now configurable in back office.

Default selection quantities may now be set at the product level (current 5) up to 200.
Default selection quantities may now be set at the checkout level (current 20) up to 200.
Product Editor: updated 2010-02-07 14:57:15
Addition of 2 further 2 SKU fields (total 4) plus configuration options to show either 1,2,3 or 4 in editors.
Product Editor: updated 2010-02-01 02:40:23
Global updates system improved

Alter status per product, set pricing, set stock levels against variants AND enter/edit product alert values in one process, moreover, product status can be different for different products in the same action.

Altering the product status dropdown (new) for any product will tick it's modify? selector box, as will altering any one of it's variant stock values.

This multiple event global modification is now the DEFAULT in brand list view, subcategory list view AND in SKU search view
Order Admin: updated 2010-02-01 01:14:14
Anti Fraud measure improved.

All orders now cross referenced against previous orders placed in the preceding 28 days looking for repeated data, eg email addresses, telephone numbers, IP addreses etc.

Many fraudsters "test" a site with a small level order prior to going for the kill.

They will often submit a small value order to see whether it gets through undetected using the stolen credit card. If it does, they will then often place a sequence of orders for other items within a short period of time. It would be 4-6 weeks before you'd get the chargebacks and as such you would carry on blindly, often believing that as it's a previous customer, you can let your guard down a little.

Where the same details have been used on previous orders (within the month) you will be alerted, giving you the opportunity to check those other orders to see if there might be anything suspicious.

The checked data fields are:

Telephone number: checked against telephone, landline and delivery telephone fields.
Landline number: checked against telephone, landline and delivery telephone fields.
Deleivery Telephone number (if applicable): checked against telephone, landline and delivery telephone fields.
Billing Postcode; checked against both billing and delivery postcodes
Delivery postcode (if applicable); checked against both billing and delivery postcodes
Email address
IP address
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2010-01-16 02:41:58
Exemptions added, anabling admin to prevent specific sub-categories and brands of product from being submitted to Google Base / Google Merchant Centre
Order Admin: updated 2009-12-21 14:43:42
Auto Comments system added. Many comments added to customer orders by admins are of a repetative format, ie the same message with just small tweaks.

A system to predefine and subsequently select comments and add them as admin comments has now been deployed.

Auto comments are defined as one of two types: internal or customer and appear in the relevant list in order admin.
Intro Editor: updated 2009-12-02 20:57:57
Homepage (Intro) editor amended to allow automated random products to be displayed in a highlight (block) format or super highlight (full width block) format.
Mailing List: updated 2009-11-24 01:23:04
System sending modified to cater for larger databases and prevent browser timeout causing partial sends.
Products: updated 2009-11-09 02:36:29
Configuration option added to allow override of default behaviour for initial price entry where one or other of Our Price and RRP was left set to 0.
Default behaviour is that the price is duplicated across both fields. Configuration now allows this to not occur.
Products: updated 2009-10-30 15:33:49
Option to view all current Special Offer items added to product editor allowing quicker editing access and bulk editing options.
Shopping Cart: updated 2009-09-11 01:15:50
Added options for Trade to Trade EC Sales with VAT Number collection requirements. VAT Exempt orders
Order Admin: updated 2009-08-19 23:33:30
Order admin has been upgraded to allow the editing of ordered products:

VOID an item in an order to remove it: use this where a customer rings to change their mind.

UNVOID an item you have previously VOIDED to reinstate it in an order.

CLONE an order item: use this method where you need to alter the ordered quantity OR the price of an item. The original item will be auto-voided, the clone taking its place.

Add any number of items from the site by using the public shopping basket and then "converting" the basket into an order.

Add a single item "freehand": use this to add an item which does not exist in the website OR where you are entering a special discretionary comment or discount or similar. The price for this "item" may be positive OR negative.

Change the carriage levvied for the order, either by manually typing in a value OR by allowing the system to auto-calculate based on the revised order items. You may also alter the stored carriage/delivery region.
General System: updated 2009-08-12 02:20:57
Added user admin to CMS to allow multiple access users, on two permission levels. PRIMARY users have access to all admin systems, LIMITED users have access to most admin systems.
Product Editor: updated 2009-07-28 14:26:45
Added the option to set a default product display sorting order on a category specific basis.
Data Importer: updated 2009-07-06 22:21:30
The data importer has beeen amended to impose a lock when the system is run. This is to prevent multiple users from inadvertently importing or exporting at the same time.

If you see the lock, you need to check who is running an import or export before clearing the lock manually.
General System: updated 2009-07-06 22:20:11
I have amended Google Base and Google Adwords tracking to now exclude orders which you subsequently decline.

Please note, this may affect the reported figures.
General System: updated 2009-07-06 17:31:37
I have amended the Google Base (Froogle) tracking reporting so it now removes any declined orders from it's reporting.
Shopping Cart: updated 2009-06-26 01:35:08
11 automated sales promotion types added to product editor.

Buy One Get One Free (The BOGOF!)
Buy Two Get One Free
Buy One Get One 1/2 Price
Multi-Buy Discounts
Link Saves (Buy two related products to save x% or Â£x.xx)
Value Linked Discount (x% value of item X in other free goods) (CATEGORY Based)
Value Linked Discount (x% value of item X in other free goods) (PRODUCT Specific)
Reward Discount (Â£x.xx in other free goods) (CATEGORY Based)
Reward Discount (Â£x.xx in other free goods) (PRODUCT Specific)
Free Delivery (Item Only) (Edit System Icon)
Free Delivery (Complete Order) (Edit System Icon)

Each with customisable templates.
Data Importer: updated 2009-06-26 01:32:48
Product Condition field added to data import / export tools.
Product Editor: updated 2009-06-26 01:31:19
New product condition field added to meet the revised Google Base feed requirements
Google Base (Froogle): updated 2009-06-26 01:30:41
Google Base Feed updated to include new required product condition field.
Shopping Cart: updated 2009-06-26 01:23:44
Added a new admin option to create a minimum order value if required. Message shown to customers who do not fulfil the minimum order is customisable.
General System: updated 2009-06-26 01:21:21
Order Admin Order search extended to allow keyword searching against all name and address data fields.
General System: updated 2009-06-26 01:20:09
Order Admin
Three new order status settings have been added:

Awaiting Payment
Awaiting Despatch
Goods need ordering
General System: updated 2009-06-26 01:19:19
Fraud Recorder
The fraud recorder has been extended to allow the entry of wildcard email addresses.

Each recorded data field is matched now against both customer and delivery data regardless of whether entered as customer or delivery data..
Shopping Cart: updated 2009-06-26 01:15:41
Added options to alter labels and descriptions for checkout methods.
Shopping Cart: updated 2009-04-27 14:08:30
Checkout Option labels can now be edited within the back office.
Shopping Cart: updated 2009-03-09 00:56:30
Fraudulent transactions are the worth nightmare of any online retailer. To try to help, a new fraud checker has been added into the order admin system which cross references order details against data previously recorded after being identified as fraudulent.

Field check parameters are:
Customer Name
Customer Email
Telephone Number (Landline and normal)
Address fields (A1, A2, A3 City County)
Postcode
Delivery FAO name
Delivery address (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, City County)
Delivery Postcode
Delivery Telephone
Customer IP address

The fraud panel appears at the bottom of each view order screen, inside the "Security Entries:" box...
Clicking "Show Anti-Fraud Recorder" reveals the system panel.

Once the system panel is revealed, it will contain (prefilled) the 10 fraud data fields which relevant ones are ticked/checked to record them as fraudulent transaction filters.

Where an order is viewed that has data matching previously recorded fraud data, this fact will be highlighted at the top of the order, along with the data field names which was matched.

Matches against Email addresses, Telephone numbers, postcodes and IP addresses are classed as HIGH RISK
Matches against names and addresses (excluding postcode) are classed as medium risk
Intro Editor: updated 2008-12-13 00:44:46
Homepage editing facilites have been expanded to introduce a second free text panel and 6 page highlights, each of which adopts a uniform "block" appearance using a heading and free text. These can be used to deploay ANY form of content, whether it be ordinary unformatted text or complete HTML, YouTube/Vimeo type videos or other embedded content.

A new feature has also been deployed which enabled admin to select the exact order in which the 8 homepage elements will appear.

Additionally, admin options to deploy META description and META keywords tags have been deployed into the homepage and static pages editors.
Products: updated 2008-11-04 02:59:09
We have just completed two significant modifications of the product admin system.

The first modification is a standardisation of the product lists and editing options when you edit by Brand or Category/Subcategory AND the list of search results when searching by SKU code. Primarily, the changes affect the SKU search screen, in which you can now perform all the global modifications previously only available via Brand or Category/Subcategory route product editing.

We have also added the cost price as an editiable into the editor global modification control panels.

The second significant upgrade is the addition of the option to export the complete data for ANY product selection from the product editor screens... including the SKU search tool. This exported data can then be worked on outside your site and re-imported using the data importing tools. Find the data export option in the Global Modification Control Panel (select EXPORT DATA from the drop down options), and don't forget to select the products you want to export!
General System: updated 2008-09-03 14:52:32
Bandwidth Allocations
Monthly bandwidth allocations have just been doubled from 5GB per month to 10GB
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-07-25 13:32:44
Order Administration
Editing order details has now been extended to enable the editing of both the Order comments and Delivery comments left by the customer.
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-07-23 01:48:30
Order Administration
The internal order search options have been amended to add extra search methods to help locate orders.

It is now possible to search for an order based on any one or more of the following:

Customer Name
Customer Email
Customer Telephone
Order Reference
Order Date
Ordered Item SKU
Ordered Item Web ID (***NEW***)
Item Keywords (***NEW***)

Limiting results to orders which are:
ALL ORDERS
NEW
ACCEPTED
AWAITING STOCK
AWAITING CUSTOMER RESPONSE
BACKORDERED
COMPLETED
DECLINED
PENDING RETURN
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-07-23 01:26:50
Order administration
Within order admin it is now possible to edit all customer details, including (where enabled in ecommerce settings) the delivery address details.

This is potentially useful where a customer has mistyped details and the invoice needs to be corrected.
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-07-06 00:56:35
Inidividual shipping countries/regions can now be enabled and disabled without needing to delete them permanently and recreate at a later date.
Products: updated 2008-07-06 00:21:35
Google Base (Froogle)
The option to auto FTP your Google Base feed file over to Google has now been added. Previously, Google Base files needed to be manually uploaded, either via a Google account or via the optional FTP account.

This option requires registering the feed with Google AND requesting an FTP access account
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-06-18 01:42:25
Delivery countries has been upgraded to allow a notes/message field for each selectable shipping region.

This message (if it holds a value) is displayed if a shopper selects the country/region at the basket review screen.
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-04-22 03:00:13
Order admin:

The internal order search options have been updated.

The search panel for orders has been added to the order admin menu.

When searching orders, where only a single matching order is identified, it will be loaded automatically.

It is also now possible to search for an order based on an ordered item SKU code. Example of usage would be a part arriving in-store which has been ordered for a customer who ordered online: search for the SKU code and the relevant order(s) should be returned. The SKU can be limited to just a check on SKU1 or it defaults to both SKU1 and SKU2.

Searching by order dates has also been amended. You can now have the results include all orders from the specified date to present.
Products: updated 2008-03-18 10:50:54
Following a request, a new field has been inserted into the product system.

This field is PRIVATE and its contents can only be seen in the back office... ie it is NOT a public field
How you might choose to use this field depends, but the requestor wanted a way of leaving additional supplier part numbers or pricing detail such that the information could remain private.

To access the new field, it appears at the bottom of the product editor, only in full product editing mode.
General System: updated 2008-01-17 17:27:59
Google Sitemaps
We have been watching the situation with Google Sitemaps for some time, waiting to see if there was any negative impact to submitting your site to Google in this way.

We have long held that sites should never be submitted to search engines directly, since there was some evidence that sites could be penalised for doing so. Google far prefers to find your site for itself rather than having to be told of it's existence.

We still recommend that you wait for google to find your site, but most of the time, this has already happened by the time a new site launches since we create links to all sites from the main i-BikeShop system site.

Getting your pages listed in Google can take a number of months and it is possible that the Google sitemap system might speed up this process, even if it will not affect where your site appears in the results
We have just deployed a valid dynamic Google Sitemap into every site. To get Google to use it you access the NEW Google Sitemap Submission system and follow the instructions. If you already have a Google account, because you use Froogle or similar, you should get going faster, but if necessary, set up a Google account and follow the [simple] instructions.

Once you've registered you, your site and the feed with Google, resubmitting the feed is as simple as accessing the Submit Google Sitemap system once you've finished big editing sessions... and your new pages will be automatically submitted for spidering.
Shopping Cart: updated 2008-01-15 18:47:31
Checkout Feedback
It is now possible to ask site visitors how they found the site [or a similar question] as they pass through the checkout system.

Each site can have a specific question to ask AND supply the answers that the visitors can choose from.

Suitable questions might be "How did you find our website?" or similar.

Suitable answers might be
Google
Yahoo
Other Search Engine
What MTB advert
Cycling Weekly advert
etc etc

The list generates a set of selectors and it is also possible to choose whether to add a "Other" option with an open text field.
Blocks: updated 2007-12-07 00:48:44
NEW Search Block

Up to present, the internal site search engine has only been available within the product areas of the sites.

This is historical since updates and upgrades to the system may have left sites which had the search engine built into their template out of the upgrade tree.

Whilst it has been an option to turn off the product area based search form, it could only occur if the form was manually provided by alternative means, ie by either making a custom block OR by having the search form embedded into the site template.

We have just added an automated block to take care of this such that it is now possible to have the search form displayed wherever blocks are used/displayed.
General System: updated 2007-12-07 00:45:11
Ecommerce Button Labels

I have just completed upgrading the shopping cart system to allow you to control the text that appears on two of the buttons used in the Cart Review page.

RE-CALCULATE
is used on the button prompting your visitor to update/recalculate their shopping cart when they alter quantities, change delivery regions, select carriage extras, apply vouchers etc.

SELECT OPTION
appears when your visitor has selected a product where options (variants) exist, but where they have not made a choise from the option selections. Your customer cannot progress through the order system UNTIL they have made a selection.

Both of the above snippets of text can now be edited/updated by you through the Ecommerce settings screen and are listed as Re-Calculate Button Text and Select Product Option Button text respectively. They are currently set to RE-CALCULATE and SELECT OPTION.
Shopping Cart: updated 2007-11-29 01:14:28
Vouchers
The vouchers system has been upgraded to allow % based vouchers to be applied to restricted brands in addition to restricted Categories.
Products: updated 2007-11-27 23:06:49
Product Editing Enhansement
The option to update the Product Alert field en-masse by either Brand or Subcategory has been added.
Products: updated 2007-10-23 01:01:52
Internal Template Upgrades: Upgrade #2
The pricing Matrix template has now been removed from the scripting layer and resides in configuration files. These templates have been deployed so as to be customisable on a per-site basis as required. This change has been deployed as hard configuration and can not be adjusted via the back office of a site.
Products: updated 2007-10-23 00:56:23
BUG FIXES
Sorting Anomoly Cured
An issue whereby products which were marked as offers remained in the order dictated by their normal selling price, and a combined anomoly caused by an offer product having no set selling price has now been resolved.

A hidden field in the database carries a value for actualPrice which now forms the core of any sorting patterns.

**Current Offer** tag anomoly cured
Another anomoly, whereby products with a zero offer price but with an offer status set would be displayed in some listings as current offers has also been resolved.
General System: updated 2007-10-18 22:33:49
Commencement of internal template upgrades.

Presently, all system generated pages are defined by the same template across all iBS sites. We have recently commenced the restructuring of these intrenal templates to allow greater customisation across individual sites. Work will continue to centralise the templates into configuration files allowing even greater per site customisation.

The increase in breadth of the types of product some of our newer clients are starting to bring into the system calls for greater scope in, particularly, the product system delivery. This includes the templates right the way through each step in the product selection sequence.

Additionally, we have undertaken amendments to the system to make it deal more intelligently with smaller ranges.

Previously, a single product, in a single subcategory in a single master category would require 3 clicks to reach the product despite there being only one possible end outcome. The revised system *can* now be configured to shortcutthe subcategory selection and/or product selection steps.

For example, a Master category containing 1 subcategory containing 10 products can now jump directly to the choice of 10 products, skipping the subcategory selection step.
OR
a Master category containing 1 subcategory containing 1 product can now jump directly to the 1 product, skipping the subcategory selection and the product selection steps.

This has been deployed as a setup configuration.
Shopping Cart: updated 2007-05-21 01:18:20
Facilities have been added to allow more accurate shipping costs to be applied for overseas and regional deliveries.

At the same time, a new option to offer Carriage Extras, eg Next Day bfore 10am etc type delivery upgrades has been added.
Shopping Cart: updated 2007-05-14 00:14:24
Currency conversion rates have now been automated
Shopping Cart: updated 2007-04-12 01:10:07
The PayPal option has been extended to allow sites to limit the upper value of order that can be paid for using PayPal.
Shopping Cart: updated 2007-04-10 12:46:22
PRODUCT "Small Single Item Delivery" Option
Just added.
Some of the items you sell may not justify the carriage charge you woiuld typically levy. Particularly, when an order is placed just for one of that item.
This refers to items which it is feasable to chuck in a Jiffy Bag and take down the post office rather than calling out the couriers!

We have just completed a system which will allow you to accomodate these very products. It will now allow you to specify carriage on a per product basis BUT it will only apply that overriding carriage figure IF the product is the only item in an order AND someone does not order more than one of it.

An S.S.I.D. value of 0 means that the system will always use the standard carriage calculation method.

An S.S.I.D. carriage charge is only applied if only one of a single product is ordered. As soon as other products are ordered, or the quantity is increased, the stadard calculators will kick in.
Shopping Cart: updated 2007-04-08 16:34:42
A checkout with PayPal option has just been added to enable site owners to offer PayPal as a payment option.
General System: updated 2007-01-17 04:05:22
The order stats section of order admin has been completely rewritten in order to display a complete break down of a sites performance as month by month totals.

Details are given for each ordering method, along with Average order values and total order values.

It is hoped the revised stats will give site owners greater ability to assess the performance of their site.
Blocks: updated 2006-11-25 20:12:58
The option to have product images displayed within the following three auto-generated blocks has been added;
Popular Products
Top Selling Products
Latest Additions.
Products: updated 2006-10-20 00:26:28
Product prices are now displayed within the product page titles. This serves to show pricing details within search engine results for given products.
General System: updated 2005-07-12 15:34:26

Work is currently under way on a complete rebuild of the entire system.

This rebuild will additionally see the introduction of a large number of new features and customisation/configuration options.
Products: updated 2004-07-01 16:06:33
Further enhansements to the back office features for product administration:

This is a further upgrade to those announced on 30-5-2004

Pricing is now editable en-masse from the sub-category viewer and brand viewers. Each product is displayed with the three pricing variables, RRP, our price and offer price as editable entities.

Offers can be enabled and disabled as part of a pricing update, by setting an offer price to turn an offer on, or setting the price to 0 to turn the offer off.
Shopping Cart: updated 2004-06-28 01:19:45
CHECKOUT REMINDERS enable a site admin to place a number of specially selected products onto the checkout page. These products can be restricted such that they only appear if products have been selected from a specified master category or they can be allowed to appear without any limits.

If a product from the same sub-category as a reminder is already selected, the reminder will not be displayed.
Products: updated 2004-06-27 12:09:36
The first 2 related products are now displayed with thumbnail images (if available)
Shopping Cart: updated 2004-06-27 11:21:39
The preferred delivery day options have now been tweaked to allow sites to restrict which weekdays are available as delivery days - usefull if a shop closes on a weekday and therefore cannot despatch items on that day.
Shopping Cart: updated 2004-06-25 01:24:17
PREFERRED DELIVERY DATES

If enabled in the back office, customers can now be displayed a set of delivery days from which they may select their preferred delivery day.

Site admin may specify the first possible delivery day (expressed in number terms and calculated from the day of the order being placed) eg 7 would show the first possible delivery day as being 7 days from order day.

Site admin may also specify how many days to make available.

The system will automatically ignore all Saturdays and Sundays, listing only valid dates which are weekdays.

Site admin may also specify the message which explains the preferred delivery day scheme.
Shopping Cart: updated 2004-06-22 01:02:08
VOUCHERS / PROMOTION CODES

Unique voucher codes can be created, each with a set of unique rules regarding how the voucher is applied.

This facilitates the granting of specific targetted discounts etc which can only be redeemed by those who have knowledge of the relevant code.
Products: updated 2004-06-22 00:59:51
Selectable product templates have been introduced.

12 individual templates have been added from which individual sites may select the one they wish to use. There is a preview facility in the back office such that site admins can pick the preferred template (a random product is loaded into the template for preview purposes).
Products: updated 2004-05-30 16:33:10
A number of major upgrades;

Product Status:
Previously, each product could only be assigned one of two possible status settings - ACTIVE or INACTIVE. Inactive products were hidden from visitors.
This has now been upgraded to allow 3 additional settings -

SPECIAL ORDER
SALE DISABLED
ARCHIVED

Special Order items are listed with an extra message informing visitors that the item is **Ordered Upon Request** (this message may be changed in the products settings area of the master site configuration).

Sale Disabled items are listed with a message informing visitors that the item is **Available In-Store ONLY** (this message may be changed in the products settings area of the master site configuration) AND the shopping elements are removed preventing the item from being displayed.

Archived items are hidden from both visitors and admin. Admin can select to view archived items but they are not visible by default on the product editor screens.

In addition to the above, the listings pages within the product editor have been updated to allow mass changes -

Set selected products to:
Active
Inactive
Sale Disabled (In-store only)
Special Order (Ordered upon request)

AND

Remove offers
Archive

AND

Delete

The listings pages additionally have a new colour coding to show which products are assigned which status.

To speed up delivery of the listings pages within the product editor, all listings pages are delivered without thumbnail images by default. Admin may override this setting AND if required, the site will remember the selection for the duration of the editing session.
General System: updated 2004-04-15 23:24:48
The latest MAJOR UPGRADE is the addition of an optional SMALL ADS system.

This allows visitors who register with the site to place FOR SALE or WANTED ads within the self contained small ads area. Vistors can edit and delete their own ads, edit their own account details or delete their account entirely.

The small ads system automatically deletes adverts after a time set by the site administrator.

Each advert placed is emailed to the site administrator and a quick link to either delete the advert or the user and their adverts is provided in the alert email.
General System: updated 2004-03-29 01:10:40
BRAND > CATEGORY ASSIGNMENT:
Within the brand editor, and when a brand is created, it is possible assign individual brands to specific showrooms (master categories). This enables the display of the brand logo etc on the main showroom page even if there are no products available within it from that brand.
When this feature was originally added, this only allowed for a maximum of 15 master categories to be created. This has now been changed to remove the upper limit of 15 on Master Categories.
We have added a new tool which will allow you to build those associations all in one go. This is now listed in the new & revised product management sub-menu as "Category Placement" adjacent to the other brand functions. These placements are still possible within the brand editor and within the add new brand function.

Whilst upgrading the brands management area, the ease of adding/modifying brand logos as been improved, such that this can now be completed from within the edit brand page, avoiding the extra click.

ORDER MANAGEMENT:
We have aded the facility to change the status of pending (viewed) orders en masse. You can select individually orders which you wish to process in this way and then set them to either;
COMPLETED
AWAITING STOCK
DECLINED
OR
DELETE -> Be aware that this deletes the marked orders from the database and is irreversible!

LAYOUT TWEAKS:
The product admin submenu has been revamped, primarily to better accomodate the recent additions for associations.
The main admin menu which appears throughout the back-office has been revamped such that it takes up less space on the page.
Products: updated 2004-02-18 14:26:15
Products basic and advanced search tools have now been added.
Products: updated 2004-02-10 23:10:36
PRODUCT RELATIONSHIPS.
Newly introduced is the facilty to create links directly between related products.
This takes the form of FOUR options:

1) Category Relationship.
Lets say you wanted an easy way to direct visitors who look at products within your Dirt Jump BMX category to your Freestyle BMX category.
Creating a relationship between the 2 categories adds a link to BOTH of the relevant subcategory pages AND and individual product pages when a product from within one of the related categories is viewed.

2) Product Relationship. (Two Way)
Lets say you wanted an easy way to direct visitors who look at a particular gents bike model to the ladies model of the same bike (where the ladies model is listed seperately).
A two way product relationship will place a link to Product B from Product A AND a link to Product A from Product B. These links appear on the full product pages ONLY.

3) Product Relationship. (One Way)
Lets say you wanted an easy way to direct visitors who look at a particular bike model to a specific accessory for that bike. BUT you dont want the bike to be listed on the accessory page. As an example, you might wish to link to a suspension shock pump from a bike fitted with an air rear shock.
A one-way relationship will place a link to Product B from Product A BUT NOT a link to Product A from Product B. This link appear on the full product pages ONLY.

4) Product Relationship (Global One-Way)
Lets say you wanted an easy way to direct visitors who look at a range of bike models to a specific accessory for those bike. BUT you dont want the bikes to be listed on the accessory page. As an example, you might wish to link to a set of stabilisers from ALL your 16 inch wheel junior bikes.
A one-way global relationship will place a link to Product B from all Products in a sub-category BUT NOT a link to any of those products from Product B. This link appear on the full product pages ONLY.
Shopping Cart: updated 2004-01-25 23:01:53
The order management side of the shopping cart has received a sequence of major upgrades.

Revised Order Statistics Panel:
Panel now reports values and quanities of:
Completed Orders (non-secure)
Completed Orders (secure)
Pending Orders (non-secure)
Pending Orders (secure)
Declined Orders
Abandoned orders
Fax generated orders.

Introduction of carriers and tracking references for orders. As many carriers as required may be entered into the system.

Introduction of Admin Staff. As many staff as required may be entered into the system.

Customisable order emails. The system sends different automated email messages for a variety of reasons. The content of these messages is now fully customisable.

Order staging. Previously, any order placed was archived immedately after viewing for the first time, and there was no mechanism to allow site admins to reject an order or mark it as pending (awaiting stock etc).

Orders now sit in a variety of progress stages:
New orders (as yet unviewed)
Pending orders (viewed but not yet actioned)
Accepted Orders (order process commenced)
Declined Orders (where store has decided NOT to supply)
Completed orders (where all processes have been completed and the goods despatched)

Orders automatically move from New to Pending once they are viewed the first time.
Order Admins may change the progress of any order by selecting the new stage from a drop down menu. They may, at this time, choose to send their customer a "Progress Email" as part of that process. They may add their own comments to that email.
Alternatively, order admins may leave an internal message against the order, such that any other order admin dealing with the order at a later time can be immediately informed of any relevant information pertaining to that order. Each comment is owned by an admin from a pre-defined list of order admins.

When completing an order, the admin may select a carrier (from a pre-defined list) and enter a parcel tracking number, this information being emailed to the customer as part of the "Order Completed" email along with a tracking URL if it has been provided.

Orders may now be deleted from the system. Orders which are "declined" are not deleted and are therefore available to view through the enhanced order search facility which now allows admins to filter on order status.
Deleting irrelevant orders (for example test transactions or duplicates) and archiving declined orders will enable the order statistics panel to be far more informative.
Blocks: updated 2004-01-08 01:10:15
BRANDS BLOCK ADDED

Location: Left blocks panel
Content: List of brands in the site complete with link to the relevant brand page

Options:
Block On or Off
Border On or Off
Block Heading (title)
Shopping Cart: updated 2004-01-07 01:07:01
Following a number of customers who fail to give complete contact information when placing orders, and those who cannot type their email address correctly, the customer address details section of the shopping cart has been updated such that it now requires ALL elements of the customers address AND they are required to enter their email address twice.
General System: updated 2003-12-02 02:23:39
The Order statistics panel has been expanded to allow the purging of abondoned and fax placed orders from the database.

It additionally reports the quantity of orders for each type.
General System: updated 2003-12-02 02:21:04
2 New features, both to do with the shopping cart system.

Each of the following 2 setup systems are available within the Master Site COnfiguration

COUNTRIES -
It is now possible to select which countries exist within the order form page. A message is now carried on the customer page which states that if their country is not listed that you do not have facilities to deliver there.

CARRIAGE OPTIONS -
Several users have, at one time or another, asked about having over-rides for carriage based on individual products.
We have opted away from installing this on a per product basis, HOWEVER we have added a surcharge facility that will enable you to charge a surcharge on all items selected from defined sub-categories. For example, you may wish to charge more than your standard accessory rate for turbo trainers or childrens trailers.
You can select whether to surcharge on a per item or per order basis. If you select per item, more than one of the same item will reult in a surcharge for EACH.
SURCHARGES ARE ADDED TO THE STANDARD CALCULATION FOR CARRIAGE AND OVER-RIDES ALL DEFAULT SETTINGS.
General System: updated 2003-11-30 01:07:22
Delayed Notice:

i-BikeShop is BikeHub friendly. Automated block features have been added to display a bikehub logo on the homepage of each site supporting the bikehub levy scheme.
General System: updated 2003-11-30 01:05:40
Within the Order Admin area, a new order statistics panel has been added.
Intro Editor: updated 2003-10-10 14:44:48
It is now possible to restrict the products which the random product intro generator selects from.
You can leave it set to the default "All products" or specify "Offers Only" which will only pull out items on offer. You may even restrict either of the above 2 choices to any given master category, ie you may select that it only display bikes which are on offer, or accessories etc
General System: updated 2003-08-17 01:16:39
Newly added is a product registration system.

Site visitors may create themselves an account and subsequently store the details of their product purchases online for later retrieval.

This system is fully optional on a per site basis with site admin having the ability to custom configure the form which visitors use to register their products.

Customers agree to receive direct marketing from the site in return for the facility.
General System: updated 2003-08-06 20:09:57
i-BikeShop is now Ultimate Pursuits ready.

As part of major reworkings to some of the underlying systems, an iBS site can now automate the process of linking to an Ultimate Pursuits site operated by the same site client.

The automated features include:
Homepage block
Ultimate Pursuits Brand and Brand page
Link tracking to count how many visitors click through from your main site to your UP site.
UP brands - brands can be flagged as UP brands and the UP banner displayed on the info page for that brand.
Products: updated 2003-08-06 20:03:43
There is a new link at the bottom of the showrooms page which now takes you visitors to the Brands page.
http://demo.i-bikeshop.com/brand.php

This reworked brands system will list all a site's brands complete with logos (if supplied) and when a brand is selected the categories and subcategories containing products from that brand will be displayed along with the entries made within the brand editor section of product admin. If a URL is provided for the manufacturer, this is also provided to end users.
Products: updated 2003-08-06 20:02:19
The product adressing regime within the system has been totally reworked. This will have no direct impact upon clients, or customers, however it is designed to increase search engine compatability.
Where previously a product was referenced like this:
http://demo.i-bikeshop.com/products.php?mcat=4&brand=25&scat=144&prodid=100
it is now referenced like this:
http://demo.i-bikeshop.com/products.php?plid=4-25-144-100

Any links previously placed into systems which link directly to products WILL NOT BE AFFECTED. The old addressing system still works, however it has been totally replaced throughout the system for system generated pages.
Intro Editor: updated 2003-07-19 02:08:17
Newest addition is the option to do away with the standard intro panel and replace it with a sequence of up to 20 products, complete with thumbnails, shopping cart functions, and links into the respective showroom, showroom + subcategory and showroom + brand.
Products: updated 2003-06-30 01:10:31
Sizing and Colour option fields have now been modified within the back office. Admin may enter individual size and colour options on seperate lines within the product editor.
Where sizes and colours are entered as above, these are converted into drop down selection boxes within the shopping cart review srceens.
General System: updated 2003-06-03 14:58:36
Recent changes to the server i-BikeShops are hosted on, has led to the implementation of a new login system for site owners.

This new login system means that they may now change their own passwords in real time.

Additionally, a new "Updates Messaging" system has been initiated which announces new developments to site owners via their back office but is only displayed on their first login after it is published.
General System: updated 2003-05-11 15:00:43
SECURE SERVER facilities have now been completed.

Secure server allows payment details to be collected as part of the visitor checkout process. Although not included as standard within the standard monthly subscription, secure server can be added for a small annual fee (see pricing page for details).
General System: updated 2003-04-30 23:09:38
A new database backup tool has been added to the back office.

This creates a pure data sql dump of the database for the site for backup purposes. Backups should be taken at regular intervals.
General System: updated 2003-04-27 00:26:57
All uploaded images are now placed into relevant subfolders. Thus all images for the manufacturer with ID 1 will save product images into a subfolder "1", images uploaded and resized via the upload tool will be saved to "uploads" and news program images to "news".The aim of this update is to speed up server response times for larger sites where a large number of images have been uploaded.All existing client sites have had an admin version of this script run to modify existing images.
Blocks: updated 2003-04-17 20:01:28
Latest Product Additions:You may now select the heading/title for this system block in the back office.Most Viewed Items (New system block)For now, I've placed this block into the right hand blocks panel (below any blocks you've created yourself)It pulls out of the database the most commonly viewed products and displays their manufacturer and model name as per the latest additions block, along with a direct link to that product. You may select how many (from 0 to 20 with 0 turning the system block off) products you'd like it to display. You may determine whether the block appears with or without its border/box AND what the heading for the block is.
Products: updated 2003-03-04 23:53:41
Perhaps not as big a problem as it might sound, but one which needed fixing anyway:

The Dollar currency conversion works on the basis that the price should be converted from an ex-vat price. Therefore, the calculation automatically subtracted the vat amount from each product prior to displaying the converted price. This is fine in 95% of cases but had neglected to take into consideration the existence of "0" rated products eg helmets and books.

This ommission has now been remedied. In the product addition and editing areas there is now an additional field above the pricing block labelled as:
"Price includes VAT @ ..... %"

All products are set to 17.5% by default but any amount can be entered.
Products: updated 2003-02-18 13:09:28
The Offers area has now been modified to split items on offer into their respective showroom groups.

This only takes place if there are more than a predefined total number of individual items on offer (this quantity being set in the back office and ranges from 1 to 100).
Products: updated 2003-02-07 21:55:00
Product comparison facilities have been added to the system.

Visitors may now select up to 4 products from within the sub category lists which are then displayed with full spec details side by side for direct comparison purposes.

Products can be added to the shopping cart from the comparator screen and additionally, printable page mode has been added to this portion of the system.
Products: updated 2003-02-01 22:53:58
Each product viewed is now incremented in the database to allow site owners to see which are the most popular products.
General System: updated 2003-02-01 22:53:06
The long awaited shopping basket has now been added.

Phase One was activated on Friday 31st Jan. All products now feature an add to basket button with quantity selection. Ordering for consumers is provided with 2 possible payment methods:
Complete order and have retailer contact them for payment details.
Fax in a site generated order form into which they may place their payment details.

Phase 2 will add secure server ordering to the system for the collection of credit card details via the web.
Products: updated 2003-01-10 16:31:25
All product pages now have a "PRINTABLE PAGE" link which loads (in a new window) a printer compatible version of the page.

The offers page has similary been modified to allow successful printing.
Products: updated 2003-01-07 22:06:06
Site admin may now select the order in which the showrooms (master categories) are displayed.
Products: updated 2003-01-07 22:05:05
Added to complement the Previous and Next product links within product pages is a "FIRST" and LAST" link.

It is also now possible for each site admin to label these links to suit their own sites.
Products: updated 2003-01-04 12:25:54
Each product page now features a "previous product" and "next product" link.
This should assist visitors in traversing the subcategory selections without needing to return to the subcategory pages.
General System: updated 2003-01-02 15:23:39
In preparation for the introduction of a shopping trolley system to i-BikeShop, a number of major structural changes have been made.

Whilst these changes were taking place, it made sense to hand over greater control to individual site admins.

As a result, it is now possible for each site admin to edit the contents of the following pages (previously hard coded by SiWIS):
ABOUT US
WORKSHOP
PRIVACY POLICY
LOCATION
TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The control applications for each of these pages has been added to the main site configuration tool, which has additionally been restructured to make more sense to end users.

Additionally, the foundations for the shopping cart options matrix has been placed into the system configuration tool although it currently remains invisible to individual site admins.
Blocks: updated 2002-12-23 09:26:09
The Hot offer block now links to the position on the offers page where the randomly picked offer product resides.
Products: updated 2002-12-23 09:25:21
Products placed on offer are now clearly identifiable within the product editor. This should assist in "finding" the products you've previously placed on offer.
Products: updated 2002-12-05 00:01:34
A number of small updates over the past 2 weeks....

Within the Product Editor, it is now possible to view an entire brand of products on one screen rather than having to navigate multiple subcategories. This will prove useful if you need to disable an entire brand quickly. It also allows easier maintenance of branded lines when those ranges are updated.

The Offers area has been modestly reworked to group products from the same subcategory together. A link is now provided straight into that subcategory.

Subcategory pages have now been updated to display more extended pricing information, including better marking of items on offer. This pricing display works intelligently according to how much or how little information has been supplied for an individual item.
Items on offer display the original selling price, the offer price plus the saving amount.
If an item additionally has an RRP which is higher than your price, the saving is displayed as a total saving (from the RRP).

All products are now displayed using the same intelligent template. This improves consistency and allows the system to be used for non bike specific applications.
Products: updated 2002-10-29 21:50:04
Minor upgrade to the products system.

Search engine results are a key factor when building a successful website. i-BikeShop already has several features which assist in producing high quality and high ranking search results for quality search criteria, BUT we can make it better, so we have!

Many dynamic websites (ie those driven by databases) fall foul of some search engines because the spiders (the electronic robots which scour the internet looking for web pages) often restrict the number of levels within a single web application that they will go to. 2 levels deep is supported by virtually all engines, however the third and any subsequent levels may be effectively ignored. But herin lies the dilemma. From a navigation and speed point of view, it is essential that the path to a product be mapped in a clear and logical fashion which inevitably means multiple levels within a single application. The products script within i-BikeShop has a maximum of 4 levels to get to an end product:

products.php?mcat=1&scat=1&brand=1&prodid=1

products.php is the application.
mcat=1 is level 1 defining the master category
brand=1 is level 2 defining the manufacturer
scat=1 is level 3 defining the subcategory
prodid=1 is the 4th (and final) level singling out an individual product record

Because of the restrictions of the search engines, a new "A to Z" listing has been added. This link is displayed beneath all the showrooms at the top level of the products application. In simple terms it allows access to an individual product within just 1 level (stage 1 level 1 is discarded) and as a result, all the individual product pages will now find their way into search engines. The A to Z listing is exactly that, all products are displayes as a list in alphabetical order or Manufacturer/Brand : Model Name, with a link to that specific product. That link takes a different format to those which are used in normal browsing but the page the visitor sees (if they choose tobrowse via this method) will be exactly the same.
Products: updated 2002-10-25 11:53:07
Image resizing-
previously an image was only resized automatically if the width of the supplied image exceeded the defined size. This has now been updated to also resize if the height exceeds the maximum. ie images are now resized if their width OR their height exceeds the defined sizing.

This update has been applied to:
Brand Logos
Product Images
News Program Images
Blocks: updated 2002-10-25 11:48:08
New system block:-

Just added is the "Hot Offer Block" which looks for items marked as "on offer" within the database. It then picks one at random and displays it inside a block in the left hand side blocks panel.

If no offers are found OR if offers are only using the default "sorry no image available" images, the block disappears automatically.

Site admin can choose whether to enable this feature, the heading for the block plus whether the block will displayed with its borders or not.

This is yet another option which produces a constantly changing homepage, one of the key features of a successful website.
Blocks: updated 2002-10-06 00:05:02
New system block:-

Just added is the "Hot Product Block" which pulls a product out from the database at random and displays the product thumnail image plus a link to the product within a typical block on the left hand side of the home page.

Site admin can choose whether to enable this feature, the heading for the block plus whether the block will displayed with its borders or not.
Products: updated 2002-09-28 23:53:36
It is now possible to "update" the images set for any individual product. Therefore if you have saved a product either with no images OR with inferior quality images, you may now update them without having to use the image upload tool or cloning/deleting.
Once you have browsed to the product you wish to edit, you will now see 2 extra links placed to the right hand side of the existing product images "UPDATE THESE IMAGES (Supply new image)" which, when clicked, will take you to an image selector form (select image from your PC or reset to default "sorry no image available" images). Images will be correctly resized and thumbnails created.

It is now possible to activate and deactivate a number of products within a single sub-category in one process. Once you have selected the sub-category containing products you wish to edit, you will now notice that there is a drop down selector with the options "Active" and "Inactive" available for each listed product. Initially, these display the current setting for each individual product. You may change the setting for any number of products and then press either of the buttons marked "RESET STATUS" and ALL products within the subcategory will be updated to reflect the status you selected for each.
This should come in useful when you come to either the end of a product range year or if you relinquish a particular brand of products and wish to remove them from public display.

As with individual products, it is now possible to update the image associated to the brand (ie the logo). This works in a very similar fashion to that within the product editor although the link to update the image is immediately beneath the heading "Brand Logo" and is marked "(Change Logo Image)".
Blocks: updated 2002-09-06 10:58:46
Latest Product Additions -

The optional preconfigured block will sit in the left hand blocks panel, therefore making it available for display on multiple pages.

The number of products displayed, complete with link to the relevant product page, is determined by site owner. If the setting is 0 (Zero) this turns the block off, but the range is 1 to 20 if the block is required.

The basic idea is to draw attention to the newest product additions, as these can often be lost within the site, particularly if you have a large range, unless you highlight their existence via other means.
General System: updated 2002-08-28 12:44:37
A guestbook has now been added to the i-BikeShop system. This feature is entirely optional for each site and can be turned on and off by the site owner as and when they see fit.

Site owner may choose how many entries are displayed on each page, and may also select to receive email notification whenever a visitor submits a guestbook entry.

All entries can be edited by the site owner and in addition they may also provide additional comments as a reply if necessary.
General System: updated 2002-08-26 22:32:33
Latest upgrade is one of additional flexibilty for the site owner in determining certain aspects of layout.
Layout possibilities-
You may now choose whether to display products to your visitors in cheapest>dearest OR dearest>cheapest order.
You may select how many products you wish to display per row (most sites are currently set to either 3 or 4)
You may now alter the number of blocks which are allowed to appear on the homepage (left and right are controlled individually)
You may now choose to have the left hand blocks panel displayed upon "sitepages" and (from a little later this evening) on news articles.
You may choose to enable the use of any future "guestbook" program as soon as I make it (still had no feedback on this one)!

Text content changes.
You may edit the text for any of the following items -
Site title, Business name, business address etc details, the message displayed on the order form plus a fair few more.
General System: updated 2002-08-26 22:30:47
i-BikeShop has now been made fully compliant with the regulations set down by the following guidelines relating to ecommerce activities on the internet:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/docs/ecommerce/smallbusinessguidance.doc
In most instances, i-BikeShop already complied with the requirements, however there were a small number of issues raised within the above document which have now been made compliant.
Products: updated 2002-08-19 01:06:17
Subcategory descriptions have now been enabled.
If a subcategory has a description entered against it in the database, this description is now displayed beneath the sub category at the relevant points within product navigation. This should enable admin to better describe what that subcategory of products contains to reduce any potential confusion.
Products: updated 2002-08-15 01:04:20
Major Update:Empty Brands are now displayed.A brand may now be entered and it will be displayed against selected master categories even if there are no products assigned to that brand. A new page (brands.php) has been added to the system to handle these empty brands and admin has the option now of specifying additional text and a URL for each brand entered into the system.
Products: updated 2002-08-13 16:07:05
2 Modifications, both to Products and respective admin sections:

1) Owing to the dificulty in reading a character 8 when a line is struck through it (as was the case when products were placed on offer, or sold at below a declared RRP, the strikethrough has now been removed and the old price has been set to a pale grey to denote that it is no longer the active price.

2) Intelligent Custom Value headings have now been added to all master categories of product. It is now possible to specify up to 25 different Custom Value headings within a single master category. Only if a corresponding value is entered into a product against that heading will the heading be displayed, but this will hopefully make the system more flexible for more diverse retailers. These headings may be added to existing categories and subsequently products by using the master category editor and subsequently the product editor.
Products: updated 2002-08-13 01:21:10
Major Modification.

Following a user request, an additional field has been added to the products database table to allow site admin to include additional comments about a product when that product is placed on offer. These comments are only displayed upon the offers page.
Products: updated 2002-08-12 19:11:06
2 minor bugs fixed:

Images containg NT generated space fillers (%20) were found to foul the upload/resize scripts, and as such this has now been remedied.

Product prices ending in a 0 (zero, eg ?2.50) were being displayed as ?2.5
This has now been fully rectified both within product admin and display areas , plus additionally within the offers area.
Products: updated 2002-08-01 01:31:20
Main showrooms have now been modified to display a total number of featured roducts that they contain. Thanks to one eagle eyed user for spotting that the total was reporting ALL products whether set active or inactive. This error has now been rectified across all sites.

The product admin area has also been modifed to allow better control over the display features for accessory lines. Subsequent editings of product descriptions was causing extra line breaks to be added. This has now been fixed.
Products: updated 2002-07-28 12:41:06
Automatic image sizing has now been implemented when new brands are added. Previously, the upload system would need to be used in advance of creating a new brand, and the images manually set to the correct size using that system. It was then necessary to complete the relevant details within the brand creation area. This process has now been simplified and the system now takes full control of uploading the specified logo, and sizing it correctly for use within the system.
Mailing List: updated 2002-07-05 23:01:30
It is now possible to unsubscribe multiple addresses via the View/Remove Addresses" link (previously, it was only possible to remove one at a time)There are two methods for multiple removal, the first being to "tick" the boxes next to the addresses you wish to remove, and then press da big button! Alternatively, you may use the scrolling list on the rhs of the page. Click an address to select it and hold down the "Ctrl" key to select more than one address.The relevance of this update may not be immediately obvious, but as your lists increase in size, you will find the facility useful.
News: updated 2002-07-05 23:01:30
It has always been possible to link a block into a news article by specifying the article ID# within the blocks editor. BUT what if you do not wish the extended "story" to be viewed as an article of news, ie you don't want the full headline on the homepage or the item available through the archives?It is now possible (Within the news add and edit functions) to specify the purpose for your article, thus if it is a full news artice, leave the "Article Usage" set to the default "Full news article", BUT if you wish to make the article ONLY accessible via blocks (or any other hard coded link within the other areas of the site) change the setting to "Site Page (Blocks Usage ONLY)"If not calling your article from within a block, the hyperlink address you will need will be "/sitepage.php?id=X" where X is the number of the id for your created article. (You may create your hyperlinks within the html'izer.
Products: updated 2002-07-05 23:01:30
It was suggested that each individual product needs the facility to have the RRP listed, in addition to "Your price" and any relevant offer price. This negates the need to place an item on offer if you wish to show a discounted price (Heaven forbid ;-) ).There is no need to panic yourself into believing that you suddenly need to go into your back office and edit every product you've already loaded.If RRP is listed and is greater than your price, the product page will display "?RRP OUR PRICE ?XXX" with RRP struck through.If RRP is listed and your price is NOT listed, the product page will display "?RRP".If RRP is NOT listed and your price is listed, the product page will display "?XXX".If RRP is NOT listed and your price is NOT listed, the product page will display "? Ring for details". (Update from yesterday)
Products: updated 2002-07-04 17:09:43
Items with no price entered into the database now reportt "Ring for Details" in place of the ?0 they would previously have been given.
HTMLizer: updated 2002-07-03 18:26:21
HTML'izer has now been completed with new tools added over the originals.Format paragraphs, create hyperlinks, create tables, control images, create bulleted lists and perform simple text markups.
SEK Stuffa: updated 2002-06-28 23:27:38
Another back office tool has been added to the i-BS armoury. Search Engine Keyword Stuffa.Whilst not immediately visible within the public side of the site, the tool is designed to make it easier to gain higher search engine results (assuming it is used correctly!)
Products: updated 2002-06-22 01:27:10
Each item flagged as "on offer" is now displayed with its' thumbnail image on the offers page.
Media Browser: updated 2002-06-22 01:27:10
In addition to the media browser displaying the image tag for each image viewed, it additionally now provides the individual pieces of information required for use within the product areas. These being the filename only and the dimension parameters.
Blocks: updated 2002-06-22 01:27:10
It is now possible to specify, on an individual basis, which of 2 possible templates a block should use.
The simple block is text only, whereas the default template is a boxed layout.

For more information you can contact us on: info@i-bikeshop.com

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