Backend Order Entry

I dread to think how slow the order page is going to load with a dropdown. We have over 12,000 products in our database! No offence but I think a re-think maybe required... why not just a box where we can type the model number in or product id! Or at least the option to disable the dropdown and just have a textbox...

airetechit wrote:I dread to think how slow the order page is going to load with a dropdown. We have over 12,000 products in our database! No offence but I think a re-think maybe required... why not just a box where we can type the model number in or product id! Or at least the option to disable the dropdown and just have a textbox...

You do bring up a good point. Congrats on delaying the release even further!

Qphoria wrote:

airetechit wrote:I dread to think how slow the order page is going to load with a dropdown. We have over 12,000 products in our database! No offence but I think a re-think maybe required... why not just a box where we can type the model number in or product id! Or at least the option to disable the dropdown and just have a textbox...

You do bring up a good point. Congrats on delaying the release even further!

Why not use the method that is used in the store-front, like the category module.
That is the way it is done in osCommerce Order Edit.
First select the category, then the product, then the amount, then it is added to the order.

Qphoria wrote:

airetechit wrote:I dread to think how slow the order page is going to load with a dropdown. We have over 12,000 products in our database! No offence but I think a re-think maybe required... why not just a box where we can type the model number in or product id! Or at least the option to disable the dropdown and just have a textbox...

You do bring up a good point. Congrats on delaying the release even further!

To be honest I'd rather have a delay of a few days and end up with a system that is usable rather than one that is rushed and is as much use as a chocolate fireguard on release! Well done on all the hard work so far btw

airetechit wrote:

Qphoria wrote:

airetechit wrote:I dread to think how slow the order page is going to load with a dropdown. We have over 12,000 products in our database! No offence but I think a re-think maybe required... why not just a box where we can type the model number in or product id! Or at least the option to disable the dropdown and just have a textbox...

You do bring up a good point. Congrats on delaying the release even further!

To be honest I'd rather have a delay of a few days and end up with a system that is usable rather than one that is rushed and is as much use as a chocolate fireguard on release! Well done on all the hard work so far btw

well to be honest you are probably one of a very small handfull of people with over 10,000 products.

Ok.. I've finalized all I can do with the order edits at this point.
I'll come right out with it...
Backend order "ENTRY" will NOT be in 1.4.8. There is just too much to try to handle because most of the order fields were meant to be informational and are text-based instead of id mapped. Not to say that free-form fields can't be used place, but I had all these visions of dropdown options and I pretty much started over 3 times trying to find the best way but was unhappy with all the kluging that has to be done.

However....

Backend order "EDIT" will be in 1.4.8. I've completely redesigned it again, and after some creative magic, it is working quite good. As I said in the last post, the totals and stuff are not using any sort of javascript calculations at this time. All totals are free-form based so if you add products or change totals, it can all be done asynchronously.

I did address the issue of having a lot of products, so that is no problem. I've even managed to allow multiple-adds at once. It works pretty good. I will upload it to the demo shortly.

The quest for Backend "ENTRY" is not over. And actually, using the method that I finally chose for "EDIT" might be mostly applicable to entry. But it has help up 1.4.8 enough and I think Edit is more of a prime feature anyway.

Screenshot attached.

The edit is far more important than the create functionality

Great work so far Q

Looks quite good Q!

Great that at least something is done, but it's still quite problematic:
1) Why keep order total separately from order products in database. It could easily be calculated from from 'order_product' table.
2) It would be nice if the product's name could be changed - shouldn't be very hard, as database stores the product name for each order separately
3) Default sums should be loaded when product is added
4) Adding could use a search box, but it's not that necessary
5) Save should take back to the same order, not the whole order list
6) Adding/removing products or changing quantities from order should update the stock count. If order editing doesn't update the stock count, it would create a huge mess and all who plan to use order editing should disable automatic subtracting.

Keep up the good work!
Any ideas when order entry will be added?

Not 100% on it but I think the orders having the product names saved with them is for continuity, so that if a product gets deleted, then viewing an order with a product that's been deleted is still usable for checking old orders and the likes

indre1 wrote:1) Why keep order total separately from order products in database. It could easily be calculated from

that's for simplicity. An order can have any number of products. If you wanted to try to cram them into the same table you would have to set a limit, and then you would have extra empty fields most of the time and you wouldn't be able to have someone buy more products than you have fields, unless you did a continuation field, and that's just a big pain.

Backend Order Entry is very hard to do. I'm thinking about adding some sort of api system to add build up orders that will communicae with the from of the site.

Xsecrets wrote:

indre1 wrote:1) Why keep order total separately from order products in database. It could easily be calculated from

that's for simplicity. An order can have any number of products. If you wanted to try to cram them into the same table you would have to set a limit, and then you would have extra empty fields most of the time and you wouldn't be able to have someone buy more products than you have fields, unless you did a continuation field, and that's just a big pain.

WHAT!?
Why can you do: SELECT SUM(product_price * product_quantity) AS order_total FROM order_products WHERE order_id=...
...not an actual query, but you get the point. The only reason for not doing this is to optimize the system, but keeping them in sync might be a good job for a database trigger, which would eliminate the bug that changing prices doesn't update order total. Of course it can also be done in the program.

indre1 wrote: which would eliminate the bug that changing prices doesn't update order total. Of course it can also be done in the program.

Thats not a bug.. note it says "ORIGINAL ORDER TOTAL".. it was by design... granted its a bad design as it would be better to update the total for sales reports.. but still by design. Either way, that is hardly an issue, a simple update to the db table would fix that. There are other things like product options that have higher priority

indre1 wrote:

Xsecrets wrote:

indre1 wrote:1) Why keep order total separately from order products in database. It could easily be calculated from

that's for simplicity. An order can have any number of products. If you wanted to try to cram them into the same table you would have to set a limit, and then you would have extra empty fields most of the time and you wouldn't be able to have someone buy more products than you have fields, unless you did a continuation field, and that's just a big pain.

WHAT!?
Why can you do: SELECT SUM(product_price * product_quantity) AS order_total FROM order_products WHERE order_id=...
...not an actual query, but you get the point. The only reason for not doing this is to optimize the system, but keeping them in sync might be a good job for a database trigger, which would eliminate the bug that changing prices doesn't update order total. Of course it can also be done in the program.

ok so you are talking about the sub-total then not the total, because the total includes all taxes/shipping/discounts/etc.
And why not use the one extra field in the database if it allows you to eliminate an order_id lookup and a sum operation when you don't need to list the products like on the orders list page etc?

Xsecrets wrote: ok so you are talking about the sub-total then not the total, because the total includes all taxes/shipping/discounts/etc.
And why not use the one extra field in the database if it allows you to eliminate an order_id lookup and a sum operation when you don't need to list the products like on the orders list page etc?

Yeah, I didn't say it's wrong - it's probably very useful, we just didn't understand each-other correctly

I hope the order changing/entry gets improved soon, big hopes on all your work! The features of opencart are really amazing!

Daniel wrote:Backend Order Entry is very hard to do. I'm thinking about adding some sort of api system to add build up orders that will communicae with the from of the site.

I think the backend order entry edits should be restricted to product prices and quantities, possibly having an entry for the shipping quote, and then have the subtotal being calculated automatically. I am currently developing a quote system, where the store owner enters the final product and shipping quotes for submitted orders, and where the customers then only does the final online payment after he had a chance to review the final price quotes.

There are some useful applications for the backend's order edit facility, but I don't think it should be a main focus of the OpenCart software.

JNeuhoff wrote:I think the backend order entry edits should be restricted to product prices and quantities, possibly having an entry for the shipping quote, and then have the subtotal being calculated automatically.

That should do, I agree.

There are some useful applications for the backend's order edit facility, but I don't think it should be a main focus of the OpenCart software.

You mean separate applications?
This has been discussed before and is not workable as you need to stick to a Admin Pc that runs that app. which kills the flexibility for the shop owner.
Manual Order Entry and Order Edit are key features.

shoo002 wrote:Q, would it be possible to add a search function to find and add products when using the manual order entry/edit rather than just a drop down box. Its only as i have far too many products to scroll through.

Thanks
Stewart

meybe take something out of invoicejournal's book
http://www.invoicejournal.com/
meybe skip the drop down and just do a search like invoicejournal,that pops out the products when you search after them

and on due payment, you can send the customer a link a page on store where they can pay the amount they owe you, meybe use the front store?

i2Paq wrote:

JNeuhoff wrote:I think the backend order entry edits should be restricted to product prices and quantities, possibly having an entry for the shipping quote, and then have the subtotal being calculated automatically.

That should do, I agree.

There are some useful applications for the backend's order edit facility, but I don't think it should be a main focus of the OpenCart software.

You mean separate applications?
This has been discussed before and is not workable as you need to stick to a Admin Pc that runs that app. which kills the flexibility for the shop owner.
Manual Order Entry and Order Edit are key features.

i agree with what JNeuhoff said to, dont make it to complicated
this is what 99% of us need
New Order > add product(s), change quantity, change shipping metod, change customer shipping information > Save

i would love to see this in a upcoming version
keep up the good work!

Any updates on this?

Is it still a work in progress? I really need this function and will pay someone to do it for me if it isnt going to be added in the near future, on the other hand if it is going to be added to 1.5.0 then I may hang on and just upgrade