OpenCart v1.4.9 RC3 Available for Public Testing!

Sorry, but I'm releasing v1.4.9-RC3 with some quick changes for postcode. I had not planned on having an RC3 but I wanted to get this change out there to resolve the postcode issue once and for all.

1.4.9 Final is still planned for Friday. I just wanted to slip this in here with the 2 quick changes.

Changes from RC2 to RC3:
- Added Postcode required field to the country table. Now you can edit the country to set the "Postcode Required" flag. The address forms will check this flag to determine if the postcode is required now on a per-country basis. This will satisfy everyone
- Fixed a bug in the new paypal regarding tax calculation on shipping and other non-product totals



Changes from 1.4.8b to 1.4.9:
FIXES:
- Fixed additional email for loop issue causing "Please Wait" and "Error Send To Required"
- Improved featured products query to make all status checks and return all pertinent data to match latest and bestseller queries.
- If no shipping, tax zone set to buyer's payment zone instead of default store zone
- Session uses full path for session to prevent session sharing
- Removed unneeded products variable from admin order.php
- Removed error on empty language file
- admin/controller/catalog/review.php double text validation cleaned up
- Admin Order Edit now supports product options & updated totals

ADDED:
- Feature Module uses category-style selector for products
- Extension install/uninstall hook. Now when you install/uninstall extensions, if they have their own install/uninstall functions, they will be triggered.
- Logout destroys session completely.
- sort by model
- Cache for featured products
- Cache for categories
- Image class supports proper extension name on resize and transparency for png and gif.
- Extensions will "self-clean" if the files are deleted without uninstalling the extension first.
- Restored "Show Out Of Stock warning" option in setting
- Parent Category pages show image next to description
- Select All / Unselect All to all checkbox lists
- Postcode required option added to countries. Now postcode can be required on a per-country basis.
- Coupon code can be entered on Payment AND Confirm page, for those payments that skip the payment page
- New Paypal Improved. Itemized products, PDT support, debug messaging and more.
- Added Northern Ireland zones to UK
- FilesMatch check in htaccess to prevent viewing of tpl and ini files


Let me know if there are any issue in either this thread or the "[RC3 ONLY] Post any OpenCart 1.4.9 RC3 Bugs here!" thread

DOWNLOAD HERE


File Changes from v1.4.9-RC2 to v1.4.9-RC3 only Also be sure to run the upgrade script to get the new postcode field

So did you include my requests:

1. logo on invoice

and

2. copy customer registration email to admin (particularly for us guys who run b2b sites that require manual authorisation to new registrations before allowing them (or not) to see prices/order.

Cheers

robster

robster wrote:So did you include my requests:

1. logo on invoice

and

2. copy customer registration email to admin (particularly for us guys who run b2b sites that require manual authorisation to new registrations before allowing them (or not) to see prices/order.

Cheers

robster

No requests. bug fixes only. logo on invoice will be 1.5.x or a mod posted on the forums
copy of create email is also easily modded with 2 lines.

Sorry to be late with this but I have been away on holiday.

For some shops (including mine), compulsory Postcode is essential because some shippers will no handle goods without it - so I applied the provided extension.

Postcode is not always required though and having a compulsory one could be equally painful - but this is nothing to do with which country they are in (eg. Downloadable Products).

In my opinion, the best solution would be a very simple 'Compulsory Postcode' YES/NO in admin. Your proposal actually suits me fine but I don't think it is the best idea.

mystifier wrote:Sorry to be late with this but I have been away on holiday.

For some shops (including mine), compulsory Postcode is essential because some shippers will no handle goods without it - so I applied the provided extension.

Postcode is not always required though and having a compulsory one could be equally painful - but this is nothing to do with which country they are in (eg. Downloadable Products).

In my opinion, the best solution would be a very simple 'Compulsory Postcode' YES/NO in admin. Your proposal actually suits me fine but I don't think it is the best idea.

You seem to have missed the point. There is no proposal. This is the definitive best idea. Period. You can now choose which countries require a postcode and which ones don't. This is how the world works. OpenCart now adheres to the world and you can choose to override that and force people to enter a post code if you wish. There is nothing to protest. This solution is the win-win for everyone. If you want compulsory postcode, then change all countries to required: yes. Done.

You seem to have missed the point. My post was intended as friendly feedback, which is the idea of having a forum, so doesn't really warrant such a heavy-handed put down.

Under your proposal:

- The registration form offers no indication that postcode is required (with the characteristic asterisk that appears on every other compulsory field) because at the point that it is entered, you have no idea yet whether it needs to be compulsory or not because of the new dependency on another field on the same form - many registrants only enter compulsory fields so will be annoyed by 'Sorry, you need to fill this one in as well' errors.

- Assuming that most store administrators expect to maintain the store through administration without having to use database management tools, to disable postcodes (eg. Downloadable products, Services etc.), their only available course will be to individually check/edit each of several hundred Localisation->Countries and set Compulsory Postcode to False in every case.

I can think of at least two more strong counter-arguments.

You are right, it is easy to hack the code as many will, if only to add a red asterisk.

the * is hardly a large deal. If people are too stupid to know that their country requires a postcode, then they don't belong touching a computer in the first place. If they forget to enter it and click continue, they will be greeting with a simple error message. The end result for the store owner is what matters. As long as they can ship the product to the correct address, the final result is satisfied.

Your option of yes/no flag is rudimentary and is black and white. Only 117 of the 190 countries in the world use a postcode. If people are worried that the Irish won't be able to figure out how to add "none" to the postcode field, you can bet that the third world countries would be equally confused. This solves it for everyone.

If you are the rare case that wants to always have a compulsory postcode, then run a simple sql in phpmyadmin to mass update the postcode flag. In 1.5.x we will be implementing this type of functionality at the list level so you can quickly mass update via the admin. But this is a one time setting that so far only you seem to think you need. And in this case you can also add the * quite easily to your tpl page if you are worried the customer is too stupid (which is not too rare actually).

I could add another ajax load to load the * or not.. but it seems a waste of time and bandwidth to make a secondary httprequest for a passive *

I am not enjoying this exchange Q, because despite your occasional arrogance, I very much appreciate the work that you do.

You are right, online shoppers probably are generally "too stupid and don't belong in front of a computer", but unfortunately, that is who the website is designed for.

Neither am I speaking for myself. I am with the vast majority of not caring less about shipping to other countries and whether they use postcodes or not and I would have no difficulty in running an update query to set all postcode_required to false, however:
a) Most store administrators wouldn't have a clue what phpmyadmin was.
b) You know as well as I do that those that did would be straight back saying it reported "No such table oc_country" because no pre-fix was specified during install.

You are reading too much into it. I'm not trying to be a dick, and this isn't arrogance. I'm just taken back by your protest of this implementation. This is like arguing a square wheel is better than a round wheel because it would work better on the one road shaped like a staircase. You are describing a special case that most people will not have. You are the only one that has some unknown reason to require postcode for ALL addresses, which will just result in customers contacting you saying "I don't have a postcode in my country, how do I checkout?" or simply lost sales because people leave. Much more preferred to have a message that says "hey moron, you live in a country with a postcode. why didn't you enter it?".

In airplanes, each seat has the option to turn on their own personal light. They can choose to have it on or off individually. Some people can sleep and some can read. You would argue that you don't want this and want only a single switch.. ALL LIGHTS ON or ALL LIGHTS OFF??


Most store admins won't even realize that the cart is handling the postcodes for them and now they don't need to think twice about it. The cart is now smart enough to handle it all for you based on the rules of the world. You want some special case to be coded in just for you which makes no sense. The only valid point is the asterisk and that is such a minor point to even be bothered with as you can simply add it yourself if it bothers you that much.

While all this debate is great, when one DOES enter a zip (post) code, it's throwing errors... here are screen shots to prove it.

Boxerworks wrote:While all this debate is great, when one DOES enter a zip (post) code, it's throwing errors... here are screen shots to prove it.

Is this an upgrade from RC2? You need to run the upgrade script

Hey,
Just played around with the rc.
Looks good...but one thing that confuses me is you removed the invoice edit...You now can't change the price of products like you could in 1.4.8. The tax % also doesn't seem to work. I need to be able to change the shipping rate. This coming back in 1.5 or something?
Thanks

Edit: Oh...Nevermind about the tax thing. My bad. I didn't notice the way it was.

ncc50446@hotmail.com wrote:Hey,
Just played around with the rc.
Looks good...but one thing that confuses me is you removed the invoice edit...You now can't change the price of products like you could in 1.4.8. The tax % also doesn't seem to work. I need to be able to change the shipping rate. This coming back in 1.5 or something?
Thanks

Edit: Oh...Nevermind about the tax thing. My bad. I didn't notice the way it was.

The 1.4.8 order edit was too much to control and had issues with total updating and product options. I decided to simplify it a bit while focusing on the products and options more than the other stuff.

in 1.5.x it will be redesigned once again.

Hey,
Yes, it did look like a lot to trouble.
Just wondering, but which version of 1.5.x would it hopefully be in? An early version? Being able to edit quantity, and shipping is important for my shop.
Thanks

ncc50446@hotmail.com wrote:Hey,
Yes, it did look like a lot to trouble.
Just wondering, but which version of 1.5.x would it hopefully be in? An early version? Being able to edit quantity, and shipping is important for my shop.
Thanks

You can edit quantity already by removing and readding the product
It will be in whichever version it makes it in I guess. We have lots of other things we'd like to work on first.

Hey,
I thought of doing it that way, but still need to be able to edit the shipping.
I'll just do an upgrades, except leaving that out, and continue to use the one from 1.4.8. No big deal.
Thanks for the answers

I appreciate your hard work Q and can't wait for the final!

I just have a question on when MSRP pricing will be implemented? Are you planning a future release or maybe even a plugin we can purchase through your site? Thanks.

Quick question. Is version 1.4.9 just a beta 'test bed' with a view to jumping from 1.4.8.b straight up to 1.50, or is the idea for it to be a formal release within its own right?

I know the original plan was to bring 1.50 out around the end of August and so appreciate that timescale will probably be significantly altered now, due to all the extra stuff being put into version 1.50.

CUSTOM_UK wrote:Quick question. Is version 1.4.9 just a beta 'test bed' with a view to jumping from 1.4.8.b straight up to 1.50, or is the idea for it to be a formal release within its own right?

I know the original plan was to bring 1.50 out around the end of August and so appreciate that timescale will probably be significantly altered now, due to all the extra stuff being put into version 1.50.

I actually had the same question. I'm still running 1.48b and since my store won't be required to officially open till Sept 1 I was wondering if I could launch with 1.49

1.4.9 Final will be the last in the 1.4.x releases.

1.5.0 will be a completely different version with a lot of changes to the core and to the template system.