OpenCart 1.6.0 Roadmap

Xsecrets wrote:

Qphoria wrote:- Option for Externally hosted images (per-product)

How exactly would you go about this though? not only would you have to allow for a url to be entered then you would have to have some way to keep them from being run through the resize and caching systems, and of course once you do that then you would have to allow for 3-4 different sizes to be entered for each image.

I'm aware... didn't say it would be easy.. thats why its not a 1.5.1 feature but a 1.6.0 feature
But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested. The resize option would have to be bypassed for externally loaded images.

I'd also like to see the ability to use animated gifs which also need to bypass the resize.

So step one of adding external hosting is to add a checkbox "Use automatic image resizing" on a per-product basis.The image resize function just needs to check the flag and return the file back untouched.

Qphoria wrote: I'm aware... didn't say it would be easy.. thats why its not a 1.5.1 feature but a 1.6.0 feature
But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested. The resize option would have to be bypassed for externally loaded images.

I'd also like to see the ability to use animated gifs which also need to bypass the resize.

So step one of adding external hosting is to add a checkbox "Use automatic image resizing" on a per-product basis.The image resize function just needs to check the flag and return the file back untouched.

Yeah I wasn't attempting to say it couldn't be done or would be too hard. I guess I was basically asking if you had any ideas how the admin interface would work for it. I suppose a checkbox would be easy enough to keep it from running through the internal systems, but then the question would be does anyone have a good idea how to then handle 3-4 image sizes. Definitely something that will need some thought and testing, because I wouldn't really want to complicate the process for users (most of them) that don't want to use a CDN.

1.) Better plugin system is needed. Haven't used SMF forums, but MyBB forums plugin system is really nice. Would be awesome to have that kind of plugin system in OpenCart. Also I like vQmod, so that should be apart of the core too I think.

2.) I'd like some kind of form creator where we could create custom forms from within the admin. Like for example I could create a custom contact form, or a customer questionnaire form, etc. I'd also really like to be able to place one of those forms in the checkout process, so as to capture more customer input before they can checkout.

3.) m-commerce is really starting to gather some buzz around it. I think a default mobile template for OpenCart should come with the base install. So we can have one default template and one mobile default template. Also would be great if we could have a mobile admin app for the more popular mobile devices (blackberry, iPhone, android, etc)

Xsecrets wrote:

Qphoria wrote: I'm aware... didn't say it would be easy.. thats why its not a 1.5.1 feature but a 1.6.0 feature
But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested. The resize option would have to be bypassed for externally loaded images.

I'd also like to see the ability to use animated gifs which also need to bypass the resize.

So step one of adding external hosting is to add a checkbox "Use automatic image resizing" on a per-product basis.The image resize function just needs to check the flag and return the file back untouched.

Yeah I wasn't attempting to say it couldn't be done or would be too hard. I guess I was basically asking if you had any ideas how the admin interface would work for it. I suppose a checkbox would be easy enough to keep it from running through the internal systems, but then the question would be does anyone have a good idea how to then handle 3-4 image sizes. Definitely something that will need some thought and testing, because I wouldn't really want to complicate the process for users (most of them) that don't want to use a CDN.

Perhaps in the admin interface, the sizes of images used by the store can be entered somewhere.Whenever an image is uploaded from the admin, it should be resized for all these sizes, and should get transferred to the CDN.
I tried coding my current store to work with Rackspace cloud files, but the time it would take to write the images into the CDN on the fly is too much. So this definitely can't be done on the fly but needs to be managed at the admin level.

atulagarwal56 wrote:

Xsecrets wrote:

Qphoria wrote: I'm aware... didn't say it would be easy.. thats why its not a 1.5.1 feature but a 1.6.0 feature
But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested. The resize option would have to be bypassed for externally loaded images.

I'd also like to see the ability to use animated gifs which also need to bypass the resize.

So step one of adding external hosting is to add a checkbox "Use automatic image resizing" on a per-product basis.The image resize function just needs to check the flag and return the file back untouched.

Yeah I wasn't attempting to say it couldn't be done or would be too hard. I guess I was basically asking if you had any ideas how the admin interface would work for it. I suppose a checkbox would be easy enough to keep it from running through the internal systems, but then the question would be does anyone have a good idea how to then handle 3-4 image sizes. Definitely something that will need some thought and testing, because I wouldn't really want to complicate the process for users (most of them) that don't want to use a CDN.

Perhaps in the admin interface, the sizes of images used by the store can be entered somewhere.Whenever an image is uploaded from the admin, it should be resized for all these sizes, and should get transferred to the CDN.
I tried coding my current store to work with Rackspace cloud files, but the time it would take to write the images into the CDN on the fly is too much. So this definitely can't be done on the fly but needs to be managed at the admin level.

the system already has a place to enter all your sizes and it resizes images, but it stores them locally. I would say that 90% of the people who are using a cdn are not wanting to enter their images through the admin they are just wanting to be able to enter the cdn location for their previously uploaded and sized images, as most cdn users are more advanced anyways.

1. Adding the Language Fall-back back into OC.

2. Adding the cost field back.

But this would be true for existing images. What about the images which are uploaded for newly added products? How will they get into the CDN directory? Are we expecting the admin to copy all the images each time a new product is created?

What I would like to see is CDN support for existing files and images along with that for any new image created.

Qphoria wrote:
I'd also like to see the ability to use animated gifs which also need to bypass the resize.

This would be brilliant.....

A gift registry where a customer can send via email a "restricted" access/password for viewing of the products the customer has selected and being able to purchase through that view.

Have each product that is "sold" via the registry reflected in the product inventory (ie reduced by the number purchased).

Cheers

atulagarwal56 wrote:But this would be true for existing images. What about the images which are uploaded for newly added products? How will they get into the CDN directory? Are we expecting the admin to copy all the images each time a new product is created?

What I would like to see is CDN support for existing files and images along with that for any new image created.

Well like I said 90% of the users of CDN have the images already in the CDN. In order to support it for adding products through the admin which CDN would you want, and why would yours be better than any other one? I think that sort of integration should be left as third party modifications since there's no way you could cover them all.

amazon payments?

viewtopic.php?f=113&t=17649

Xsecrets wrote: Yeah I wasn't attempting to say it couldn't be done or would be too hard. I guess I was basically asking if you had any ideas how the admin interface would work for it. I suppose a checkbox would be easy enough to keep it from running through the internal systems, but then the question would be does anyone have a good idea how to then handle 3-4 image sizes. Definitely something that will need some thought and testing, because I wouldn't really want to complicate the process for users (most of them) that don't want to use a CDN.

Well, according to google sitespeed tips, you are technically always supposed to use the img width and height tags to speed up the process. So if those tags are always enabled using the values from the setting area, then the image will always be scaled. Granted this will likely make it look terrible.

Qphoria wrote:
Well, according to google sitespeed tips, you are technically always supposed to use the img width and height tags to speed up the process. So if those tags are always enabled using the values from the setting area, then the image will always be scaled. Granted this will likely make it look terrible.

Well I personally would not even think about putting anything in the core that would wind up with scaled images, and I would think most people using a CDN wouldn't dream of it either.

Qphoria wrote:But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested.

People request bad ideas all the time. Just think of all the fun support threads when an external web host goes down or changes images to something they don't like or blocks hot-linking.

If this feature had to be implemented it's probably best to just set a reference link then download the image as needed/it's updated and use it locally like normal.

rph wrote:

Qphoria wrote:But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested.

People request bad ideas all the time. Just think of all the fun support threads when an external web host goes down or changes images to something they don't like or blocks hot-linking.

If this feature had to be implemented it's probably best to just set a reference link then download the image as needed/it's updated and use it locally like normal.

I don't know that it's a bad idea tho.. a lot of sites like ebay use a separate image domain (sometimes subdomain). And some would like to use amazon's s3 storage. It just adds a level of complexity of course

I have to agree adding CDN support is not a bad idea. Amazon S3 or Rackspace Cloud Files is going to go down much less often than your host whatever it may be is. They have multiple datacenters and serve the files from the closest one to the visitor, so it can have a big impact on the site speed. My only concern is that I would not want to see things get more complicated for people who do not wish to use a CDN.

Amen to Amazon! Is there any discussion about individual product shipping options? I really need this feature.

Can we have Invoice Prefix like this topic? Let us have the option for the way we need?
http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=29099

Hey guys,
I'm kind of a heavy user, ship a few hundred packages per month, I use open cart, as a large volume package handler, here is the features I feel are extremely important to me... I know you guys are always wanting to think up some cool new features, but how about some to simple features that make everyday tasks in opencart less daunting? (no offense intended, I think you guys do a great job)

1) Ability to bulk update tracking numbers, and have opencart parse tracking numbers, and figure out appropriate hyperlinks to email the customers, with custom email message. http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php?f=110&t=35584

2) Printable invoices for customers, similar to how we print invoices in the admin, it does not have to be PDF, in fact it would be best if it was not, just plain HTML would be fine, just something they can click "print invoice" and it looks like the one we print.

3) Ability to track profit loss, as a business, the ability to enter my cost for an item, and the cost it sells for, and have a chart or graph I can view monthly, weekly, quarterly, yearly, stats for that would be extremely beneficial.
Also more detailed stat's in the Reports section would be nice. At a minimum Products purchased needs to have date sorting and grouping like the sales report has, currently 'products purchased' is kind of useless (no offense). I'd much rather know how many of a product I sold in a month, week, quarter, or year, not since I installed open cart.

4) My code for flate rate box calculating would be nice to have already added in to open cart, a lot of people like this feature: http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=11096

5) A quick button from the dashboard to view pending orders that need packaged and shipped, instead of having to click "sales->orders" select the pending order filter, and click the filter button.

6) Force customers to only be able to select the lowest cost shipping option when a 'Free Shipping' coupon is used.


....some other features which would be userful....
5) Ability to make only specific items visible to specific customer groups, or all customer groups. Reason is, you may have a ReSeller for some of your products, and when that reseller log's in, you only want them to see the item's they can buy from you at their reseller discount rate (aka wholesale rate)

5) Under "sales->orders" in the Action column, have [Print] [View], so you can print the invoice without having to click view first.

Qphoria wrote:

rph wrote:

Qphoria wrote:But on the topic of CDN above, externally hosted images are often requested.

People request bad ideas all the time. Just think of all the fun support threads when an external web host goes down or changes images to something they don't like or blocks hot-linking.

If this feature had to be implemented it's probably best to just set a reference link then download the image as needed/it's updated and use it locally like normal.

I don't know that it's a bad idea tho.. a lot of sites like ebay use a separate image domain (sometimes subdomain).

OpenCart can already handle subdomains so that's not really an issue. And big companies using high volume media cache servers doesn't really compare either. What most people who bring the issue up seem to want to do is use manufacturers like an image feed.