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After examining KonaKart for the last few days I am left extremely impressed by it. Currently its my top choice to switch to. I do have a few feature "requests" I feel would greatly improve the system.
1) Hooks/Listeners/Modules
My largest concern in using KonaKart is switching from a system that I have full source code for to a product I am, for the most part, stuck with what is provided. The concern is in no way the quality of the system, but simply the inability to meet custom business needs.
Currently it's possible to create three types of modules in KonaKart to customize its functionality; payment, shipping and order totals. It would be very useful, and extremely comforting, if more of these "modules" were available to allow users to extend KonaKart's functionality. The following are examples of areas it would be nice for us to "extend":
Account Registration & Modification - It would be nice if a number of things like this went through "filters" that allowed us to validate, modify, and use its data. An example use would be to update an external CRM or newsletter system every time a customer or administrator modified an account's contact information.
Product Creation & Modification - Having "filters" here allows us to keep other stores in sync (amazon, ebay, ...)
Order Placed or Modified - "Feature request" #5 below references this.
Adding screens to the administrative interfaces would also be nice. I would love to add some features and have them available in the administrative interface. Eg. QuickBooks integration.
This would additionally have large benefits to KonaKarts creators. It would allow for more public contributions to the system, causing it to grow in both features and awareness of the solution, while keeping the framework of the system under KonaKart's control to ensure the quality of it. (Loosing quality is something you surely see in many systems like ZenCart and OSCommerce that allow just anyone in.)
2) WYSIWYG for product detail editing.
Most WYSIWYG let you specify a number of things like styles that should be applied to the area, what file manager to use, etc. These are things users should be able to specify for the WYSIWIG under the configuration section of KonaKart.
3) Product Specifications
This is very similar to Product Options but specs don't have a price because they are included in the product. Additionally specifications are almost always grouped. (Specifics may also be able to change depending on the Product Options chosen so they should be different things. This is a small point that may make it more complex than it needs to be.)
This data would make it possible to add a number of really nice features:
Create specification charts on product detail pages.
Create advanced product search tools (Eg newegg.com)
Create product filters (Eg. Left side of pricegrabber.com and newegg.com)
Create comparison charts between products.
4) Product "Attachments"
Currently we can put images on products. We should also be able to add videos, 360 views, PDFs (eg specification charts, manuals), external links,...
This would be very nice. It wouldn't have to be that complex either. Simply upload the file, specify its type (kind of tag it) and then let the site at the view level determine how to display it based on its type/tags. This is very similar to the image tool you have now except not everything is an image and we specify tags/types on each item.
5) Gift Certificates
What is the best way to provide a gift certificate?
From what I see it seems it would be best to create a random, long, promo code when an order is placed. The code is set to only be able to be used once. The system would support the promo code as is but I am not sure how you would do the following two things:
How would you get the code to generate the new promo code to run when the order is placed? (With the a way to specify code to be ran, as specified in #1 above, when an order is placed this would be very easy.)
How would we then display the promo code on the order thank you page and within the order confirmation email? My idea... Let us register code to run when an order is placed (as stated above). These pieces of code would act like servlet filters. One runs the next one. There is a context object (like a java.util.Map object) passed between the filters (like servlet attributes). This context is a place filters could place information for other filters to use. The context would also be available to us when we create the thank you page and in the velocity context when we generate the order confirmation email.
Is there another solution that already exists?
6) Displayed Price
This might be more a question than a feature request. By creating an OrderTotal module it seems it would be easy to modify the price charged for a product. (Eg. discount based on quantity purchased, purchased with another product, repeat customer, etc.) But how do we easily display these prices to the customer on the site before they purchase? (Eg on the product detail page) What is the recommended approach?
It seems it would be nice if the OrderTotal module contained the logic not just what to charge when ordered, but also in some way what to display to the user is viewing a product.
Am I making things to complex? I am interested in knowing what others think a good approach is. Let's take "display a different price to repeat customers"
Thanks!
1) Hooks/Listeners/Modules
My largest concern in using KonaKart is switching from a system that I have full source code for to a product I am, for the most part, stuck with what is provided. The concern is in no way the quality of the system, but simply the inability to meet custom business needs.
Currently it's possible to create three types of modules in KonaKart to customize its functionality; payment, shipping and order totals. It would be very useful, and extremely comforting, if more of these "modules" were available to allow users to extend KonaKart's functionality. The following are examples of areas it would be nice for us to "extend":
Account Registration & Modification - It would be nice if a number of things like this went through "filters" that allowed us to validate, modify, and use its data. An example use would be to update an external CRM or newsletter system every time a customer or administrator modified an account's contact information.
Product Creation & Modification - Having "filters" here allows us to keep other stores in sync (amazon, ebay, ...)
Order Placed or Modified - "Feature request" #5 below references this.
Adding screens to the administrative interfaces would also be nice. I would love to add some features and have them available in the administrative interface. Eg. QuickBooks integration.
This would additionally have large benefits to KonaKarts creators. It would allow for more public contributions to the system, causing it to grow in both features and awareness of the solution, while keeping the framework of the system under KonaKart's control to ensure the quality of it. (Loosing quality is something you surely see in many systems like ZenCart and OSCommerce that allow just anyone in.)
2) WYSIWYG for product detail editing.
Most WYSIWYG let you specify a number of things like styles that should be applied to the area, what file manager to use, etc. These are things users should be able to specify for the WYSIWIG under the configuration section of KonaKart.
3) Product Specifications
This is very similar to Product Options but specs don't have a price because they are included in the product. Additionally specifications are almost always grouped. (Specifics may also be able to change depending on the Product Options chosen so they should be different things. This is a small point that may make it more complex than it needs to be.)
This data would make it possible to add a number of really nice features:
Create specification charts on product detail pages.
Create advanced product search tools (Eg newegg.com)
Create product filters (Eg. Left side of pricegrabber.com and newegg.com)
Create comparison charts between products.
4) Product "Attachments"
Currently we can put images on products. We should also be able to add videos, 360 views, PDFs (eg specification charts, manuals), external links,...
This would be very nice. It wouldn't have to be that complex either. Simply upload the file, specify its type (kind of tag it) and then let the site at the view level determine how to display it based on its type/tags. This is very similar to the image tool you have now except not everything is an image and we specify tags/types on each item.
5) Gift Certificates
What is the best way to provide a gift certificate?
From what I see it seems it would be best to create a random, long, promo code when an order is placed. The code is set to only be able to be used once. The system would support the promo code as is but I am not sure how you would do the following two things:
How would you get the code to generate the new promo code to run when the order is placed? (With the a way to specify code to be ran, as specified in #1 above, when an order is placed this would be very easy.)
How would we then display the promo code on the order thank you page and within the order confirmation email? My idea... Let us register code to run when an order is placed (as stated above). These pieces of code would act like servlet filters. One runs the next one. There is a context object (like a java.util.Map object) passed between the filters (like servlet attributes). This context is a place filters could place information for other filters to use. The context would also be available to us when we create the thank you page and in the velocity context when we generate the order confirmation email.
Is there another solution that already exists?
6) Displayed Price
This might be more a question than a feature request. By creating an OrderTotal module it seems it would be easy to modify the price charged for a product. (Eg. discount based on quantity purchased, purchased with another product, repeat customer, etc.) But how do we easily display these prices to the customer on the site before they purchase? (Eg on the product detail page) What is the recommended approach?
It seems it would be nice if the OrderTotal module contained the logic not just what to charge when ordered, but also in some way what to display to the user is viewing a product.
Am I making things to complex? I am interested in knowing what others think a good approach is. Let's take "display a different price to repeat customers"
Thanks!