Sneak Peek: OpenCart 1.5.0 *ALPHA*

xds wrote:The checkout system revision to Q's suggestion is nice, but why not plan that for 1.5.2+?

It is planned for 1.5.2

so its you preffer it and there is no thought about how pages would be structured to keep all the exsiting functionality.

Don't forget that the current system allows you to choose different addresses for shipping and billing. also you can store different addresses and create new ones. this sort of thing goes out of the window with one page checkouts or the suggestion you have put above.

whats more important? one page checkout or address books? i would say address books for all the repeat customers.

I'm not saying its impossible to do with onepage checkout but it makes it ugly and confusing as hell for some much information cramed into onepage.

i know some people want this features but again the people who want this feature seem to lack experience, reffer to made up statics.

Qphoria wrote:oh ye of little faith... when have we ever misstated a date before?

Well you're not as bad as Zen where there is a post still at the top about What's New in the Upcoming 1.4 release (from Aug 2008) - they are up to 1.3.9h - they have probably re-roadmapped since just looks funny whenever I visit their forum.

Anyhoo - if I install 1.4.9.3 for a couple new stores will there be an easy upgrade to 1.5 when it comes out or could it get messy!

lemongrass wrote:...

Anyhoo - if I install 1.4.9.3 for a couple new stores will there be an easy upgrade to 1.5 when it comes out or could it get messy!

yeah... i'm also interested in that... can somebody please tell us? thanks

Daniel wrote:Don't forget that the current system allows you to choose different addresses for shipping and billing. also you can store different addresses and create new ones. this sort of thing goes out of the window with one page checkouts or the suggestion you have put above.

The common path diagram above keeps all the same features as the current system.. just combines the controllers and makes the password field optional for guests.. all the address features and storage is the same. The problem is that the guest checkout was retrofitted into the existing cart and at the time it was easier to add it as a separate path, but now it is time to properly integrate it all.

One page checkout is a different story.

so its you preffer it and there is no thought about how pages would be structured to keep all the exsiting functionality.

Don't forget that the current system allows you to choose different addresses for shipping and billing. also you can store different addresses and create new ones. this sort of thing goes out of the window with one page checkouts or the suggestion you have put above.

whats more important? one page checkout or address books? i would say address books for all the repeat customers.

I'm not saying its impossible to do with onepage checkout but it makes it ugly and confusing as hell for some much information cramed into onepage.

i know some people want this features but again the people who want this feature seem to lack experience, reffer to made up statics.

I wouldn't use a one-page checkout if you paid me, I understand it's okay for some for sure.

The multi-page checkout gives you control points for fraud control and any other kinds of customization related to allowed/unallowed shipping and payment details.

I'd love ways to fine tune payment and shipping options down to individual customers as well as customer groups as well as zip codes (i know about geo-zones but I'm not sure if you can do zip-zones with geo-zones). For instance, a particular customer might require UPS signature confirmation for each order. We'll then it would be most cool if there could be checkboxes in admin to limit that customer to that exact shipping option so that you eliminate the chance that they might choose the incorrect option and then a multi-hundred dollar order gets declined or lost, ouch. Another scenario is where certain zip codes have a history of undelivered packages (like when using regular first class mail in a big city). You could limit that zip code to just signature confirmation or something so that you increase the delivery success rate. And lots of other payment/shipping issues. I'd fine grain both shipping and payment down to a gnat's butt hair.

HTH

albx wrote:

lemongrass wrote:...

Anyhoo - if I install 1.4.9.3 for a couple new stores will there be an easy upgrade to 1.5 when it comes out or could it get messy!

yeah... i'm also interested in that... can somebody please tell us? thanks

I think the upgrade path to 1.5 is going to be rather messy. Theme's will be very different, and at this point it looks like you will lose all your options, though someone has said they are going to come out with a script that attempts to convert them to the new structure.

Qphoria wrote:I'd much rather spend time improving the checkout process as it is now as a precursor to a one step checkout.

Proposal:
Once the normal checkout for reg and guest is combined into a common path, then we can focus on a single page checkout. Until then we will have to 2 paths for guest and 2 paths for registered. It's a mess that needs to be cleaned first IMO

The only difference between guest checkout and registered checkout is the password and password confirm fields. In the example above I have the option for the 2 password fields on the success page. But this could be moved to the Enter Address page all the same.
- If guest checkout is allowed then the password fields would be optional.
- if guest checkout is disabled, the password fields would be required.
Simple!

I like this idea a lot. It's better for customers, it's better for developers. No real downside to switching that I can see, other than the time invested in making it happen.

I, too, wondered whether the shipping/payment pages should be combined, but Q's explanation (limiting payment or shipping based on the other) is a good one.

Johnathan wrote: I, too, wondered whether the shipping/payment pages should be combined, but Q's explanation (limiting payment or shipping based on the other) is a good one.

perhaps that can be another option.. if you don't have any ship-to-pay dependencies... it combines them..
baby steps

I first started off my shop with Prestashop, eventually move to CS-Cart (mistake) and have now discovered OpenCart. Prestashop did not have a short/guest checkout solution at all so I jimmy-rigged the checkout with a semi-single page checkout and made it seem like the customer did not have to register..it actually unbelievably increased my conversions on the Prestashop site at the time.

You can check out how it flows here:

http://174.36.213.248/1.2/

Just add something to the cart then choose Express checkout. I am not a huge fan of One Page checkouts as far as being better conversion wise necessarily but when I implemented the express checkout, my sales did increase. It basically reduced two page changes. It was more of a hiding the page changes as Daniel said. Maybe we could work towards something like this with OpenCart?

-IC

Do we have any updates on 1.5.0 ETA? I know I must sound like an annoying user but I have a client that requires the 1.5.0 functionality and I'm recommending we hold for 1.5.0 as opposed to invest time and money into modding 1.4.x but if the estimate of at least a BETA by the end of February was not the case I'm putting the project at risk =S

So would really appreciate a serious idea of release timeframes.

Cheers

Hello,

There is one add-on feature which i have been looking for long time in open source ecommerce's that's having a super admin kind of a thing, where i can restrict the admin from adding x number of products and also restrict him on the features point of view. This is will basically help designers to provide hosted solutions something like what www.bigcommerce.com provides.

Also there is good demand in the market for mobile versions of ecommerce, this can be the future of ecommerce. this can be considered as one future prospects for opencart.

I first started off my shop with Prestashop, eventually move to CS-Cart (mistake) and have now discovered OpenCart. Prestashop did not have a short/guest checkout solution at all so I jimmy-rigged the checkout with a semi-single page checkout and made it seem like the customer did not have to register..it actually unbelievably increased my conversions on the Prestashop site at the time.

One page checkout for PS:

http://www.canin.sk/prestashop/presta-m ... ckout.html

crusin316 wrote:Hello,

There is one add-on feature which i have been looking for long time in open source ecommerce's that's having a super admin kind of a thing, where i can restrict the admin from adding x number of products and also restrict him on the features point of view. This is will basically help designers to provide hosted solutions something like what http://www.bigcommerce.com provides.

Also there is good demand in the market for mobile versions of ecommerce, this can be the future of ecommerce. this can be considered as one future prospects for opencart.

why do people keep coming up with feature requests. this is not the thread. after 1.5.0 comes out then i'm going to start with stuff like this.

I can't log in to admin in test site

why do people keep coming up with feature requests. this is not the thread. after 1.5.0 comes out then i'm going to start with stuff like this.

About time to take it under consideration, you can only wonder when it will be?
PS is going strong, can you really match their resources when it comes to development and new releases?

QNAP wrote:

why do people keep coming up with feature requests. this is not the thread. after 1.5.0 comes out then i'm going to start with stuff like this.

About time to take it under consideration, you can only wonder when it will be?
PS is going strong, can you really match their resources when it comes to development and new releases?

I wasn't aware that we where competing with PS?

Did I miss something?

If you like PS so much, why not head over-there, you weren't pleased with OpenCart anyway......

QNAP wrote:

why do people keep coming up with feature requests. this is not the thread. after 1.5.0 comes out then i'm going to start with stuff like this.

About time to take it under consideration, you can only wonder when it will be?
PS is going strong, can you really match their resources when it comes to development and new releases?

actually opencarts traffic is about 1/2 of theres but opencart is still growing. i think PS peaked a few months ago.

once 1.5.0 is released i'm going back to to doing weekly releases. that should speed things up.

I'm also thinking of hiring someone once i get my finances sorted after moving to hong kong. it should help having some one to help with improving the extension section and doing other odd bits of code. Only problem is not being able to afford a office.

Also sdon;t forget 1.5.0 has loads of features PS does not have. Its actually at the level of magento but a lot easier for people to understand the code.

Daniel wrote:

QNAP wrote:

why do people keep coming up with feature requests. this is not the thread. after 1.5.0 comes out then i'm going to start with stuff like this.

About time to take it under consideration, you can only wonder when it will be?
PS is going strong, can you really match their resources when it comes to development and new releases?

actually opencarts traffic is about 1/2 of theres but opencart is still growing. i think PS peaked a few months ago.

once 1.5.0 is released i'm going back to to doing weekly releases. that should speed things up.

I'm also thinking of hiring someone once i get my finances sorted after moving to hong kong. it should help having some one to help with improving the extension section and doing other odd bits of code. Only problem is not being able to afford a office.

Also sdon;t forget 1.5.0 has loads of features PS does not have. Its actually at the level of magento but a lot easier for people to understand the code.

I agree daniel, i switched from magento to opencart and found it very fast and very easy to manage the code... magento is too heavy

Daniel wrote:Also sdon;t forget 1.5.0 has loads of features PS does not have. Its actually at the level of magento but a lot easier for people to understand the code.

Speaking of PS.
In their latest RC release the now have the possibility for Guest buyers to check their order or, when they want, convert their guest-account into a full account with one click. That is because guest accounts are actually full account with a twist.