Feature Ideas - CSCart

I've been having a look around a few places for good features and seems like CSCart is one that is quite feature rich and worth borrowing a few features from. It has pretty much everything one might ever want in a store and it's build much lighter than Magento. Would be good if OpenCart could get some ideas for features from CSCart. Then again I guess $285 isn't all that much to pay for such a feature rich cart, so if you're finding there's stuff you wish OpenCart had but doesn't might be worth checking out CSCart.

I did try CS among many others: it was OK, but we wanted something light, fast and user-friendly, so CS wasn't quite right for us. There were plenty of features, but there were also a few murmurings about too many mysql queries and the load on the server. For all I know, this is no longer a concern, and mightn't be anyway with a dedicated server.

The fee is quite modest really, when others are charging $1000+, or whopping monthly fees for not-that-great software!

It's a question of what you need, and the resources available (ie your skill level, access to skills of others, etc). Also, maybe there's a balance to strike between features and performance/clean design?

Still, I've arrived at Opencart after a long search, and admit I'm biased.......

All the features CS-Cart has and more will be added to OpenCart this year. Once I'm finished updating the main site both me and Qhoria will be working full time on the feature list.

I'm planning on adding affliate system, pdf invocies, etc.. to the next release.

Daniel wrote:All the features CS-Cart has and more will be added to OpenCart this year. Once I'm finished updating the main site both me and Qhoria will be working full time on the feature list.

I'm planning on adding affliate system, pdf invocies, etc.. to the next release.

I don't think I would make that claim. CS-Cart has a TON of features, but it does suffer from some bloat because of it. I agree there are some features that would be nice to pull from them, but some of their features would require quite a bit of rework to the core to make happen, and If you add them all you'll end up with a bloated cart. I would love to see more work go into a module install system to make it easy for users to install modules and more hooks/overrides so modules don't have to modify the core files as much.

Daniel wrote:All the features CS-Cart has and more will be added to OpenCart this year. Once I'm finished updating the main site both me and Qhoria will be working full time on the feature list.

I'm planning on adding affliate system, pdf invoices, etc.. to the next release.

Hi Daniel,

That's great!!

I for one came from CS-Cart and they are not without their own bugs and issues though its a good cart in terms of features.

I'll love to see the following - :

Must haves: --

Build in support for multiple weight based shipping & to be able to classify the shipping modes as for Retail Customers or for Wholesale Customers
Since we are a wholesale and retail store.. we'll need shipping configuration for wholesale & retail, and though this can be achieved by setting up GeoZones for it, but its gonna be a long list especially if the wholesale portion have several different couriers... (Fedex, EMS, and Local snail mail).

Previously in Cs-Cart, I was managing an extensive range of video gaming items from 3 different geographical region based suppliers and CS-Cart allow for multiple configurations as such (zones will just be configured as shared countries for each zone. At the moment, I've cut down the extent.. and focus on Singapore based items in the cart only, but I still have 3 different weight based configurations...

Differentiation of Retail Customers vs Wholesale customers shipping mode is a must have too... Maybe has it as a checkbox at each shipping mode, and make sure only the respective type of customers are able to see it.

Auto Email of :
Orders (invoice, pdf or otherwise) to customers and admin
New customers or users registration to admin
Payment completion via Paypal - I suppose this is taken care of by paypal?

As I'm still new to the Open cart, I'm not sure if the above is already in place? They are a necessity to have function for every cart..

Export / Import Module - in build if possible
This is a very good function to have, which I know there is already a module dealing with this. But would love to see it in build. I'm sure many of us would appreciate it.

Most importantly, also have a function to import / export customers from csv other than for products, discounts, and its categories.

Site News - CMS
I understand that there are modules for this now, but would be good to have this section in-build as well. For posting short updates of the site's promotions and others. (Currently I use myhtml module to do this, but its not very effective as tables' width are extended beyond the sidebar)

A section which acts like a wordpress where you add the content with a read more link to connect to an external blog -- if having a proper CMS would heavily cripple the speed of the cart)

OR you can think of using myhtml module and work on that so that it works somehow with a read more link. hehe

Content Management - tables
For some of the html modules in the sidebar, or even in the main content column, I understand that after adding in the table, the table doesn't seem to adhere to the width of the column, maybe a slight css coding will help to fix this? In CS-cart, this is well taken care of.. You will not see the table exceed the width of the column no matter in sidebar or the content column in the centre.

Better WYSIWYG editor - use the one that is similar to CS-CART, Open Cart's albeit good enough but too simple...

Sidebar Banner Module
This is for addition of advertising or information banners. Easily achievable by My html module, but would be good to have it inbuild. -- maybe have it combined with the CMS - Site news..

Testimonial support
Great to have, and simply a must for most shops.



Optional but good to have: --


Mailing List / Newsletter module (this could be build in the core or a separate free module)
Where a newsletter can be created in Open Cart, and have mailing list management.


Easy hooks / mods for design of cart
For addition of header image or additional links to the header / footer such as external link to a related blog site, change of colour theme, and columns width configuration.

Possibly also easy add on of a slider such as Proslider. - a must have add-on

Categories can be selected as for wholesale / retail
This would help for some of us who runs wholesale setups alongside retail. As it would be nice to show only wholesale categories to wholesale customers. - could be a separate module on your end to add on if we need.

Default dropdown menu for the top menu - if Categories / Catalog can be moved to the top, it would be a drop down menu like in my old site eshop.geekzhaus.com, where the categories will be under a main title : Catalog, then main categories, then sub categories.

This option is very well presented in CS-CART. Where we can configure the categories to go to the top of the page at the navigation -- top menu -- this might meant you'll have to do away with the tab structure design at the top?

Design : Configure what is in the sidebars & content column
Good enough in the CS-CART but a bit confusing at 1st, good to borrow from as well.

Though Open Cart is lacking in the features above, must have or not, its overall a great cart as well.. at least you win CS-CART.. you have Auto update of currency! Better community with free / paid themes & modules. CS-CART has its flaws and bugs, which I've spent quite some time trying to accommodate, but its not working, its too much of "spending and more spending" to get their bugs solved... (in fact I'm looking to sell away my license now..)

Have not used the taxes section yet, but as long as it can configure a 7% GST for Singapore users, its good enough. No need any fanciful add ons!

And I agree, having too much features will cripple the cart with bloatedness, but must haves should be there....

And lastly, thank you Daniel for making a simple to use cart, though there are still need to customise and modify it to my basic needs (I'm sure many of us will agree my must haves are not too fanciful to build in).

Regards

Ms. Faustine Tan

PssT: Maybe a road map of your next plan of added on features will give us a better idea of what you are planning for Open Cart...

thegeekz wrote: PssT: Maybe a road map of your next plan of added on features will give us a better idea of what you are planning for Open Cart...

http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=feature/roadmap

haha... sorry! Super blur me..



Thanks Qphoria!

Think I've forgot to mention a most important thing: -- which is in CS-CART as well

Contact Us form -- should have the following:
1) Subject Line (drop down box)
2) How do you hear about us: - - options with checkboxes.

Then the contact us form will be perfect for the eshop!

Thank you.

thegeekz wrote:Think I've forgot to mention a most important thing: -- which is in CS-CART as well

Contact Us form -- should have the following:
1) Subject Line (drop down box)
2) How do you hear about us: - - options with checkboxes.

Then the contact us form will be perfect for the eshop!

Thank you.

i don't think this would be the place for "how did you hear about us". That would be more of an account create step

hmm.. would be good to have "How did you hear about us? "at both forms..

Since not all that contact us will register an account..