Beta release of the CS-Cart Professional edition v2.1.3

Dear friends,



[SIZE=“4”]We are glad to introduce the beta release of CS-Cart 2.1.3 Professional[/SIZE], which is available for download from [url]http://2tl.dev.cs-cart.com/releases/index.php?action=beta[/url]



We believe that only CS-Cart users can estimate how convenient it is to use the shopping cart and the new improvements.

I would like to tell you about the most significant improvement introduced in this release - multi-box shipment.

This functionality is described in detail in the topic [url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=19736[/url]



[SIZE=“3”]Here I’ll briefly describe what’s been added and how you can configure this.[/SIZE]



1. The product details page in the admin area now features a new tab Shipping Properties that contains the following elements:


  • a few options moved from the General tab (like Weight, Free shipping, Shipping freight);
  • 4 brand new options “Items in a box”, “Box length”, “Box width” and “Box height”.



    The “Items in a box” option is used to determine how products are distrubuted among box (see the example below). For better understanding, please read the following post: [url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showpost.php?p=96113&postcount=35[/url] . It reveals the details of how this feature works.



    The options “Box length”, “Box width” and “Box height” are used to determine box-specific dimensions. These settings are required for a more accurate shipping cost estimation based on separate packages.



    2. Shipping methods



    Options for real-time shipping methods are no longer global and was moved to a separate tab (Configure) in the shipping method configuration page. This makes it possible to configure 2 UPS shipping methods with different accounts, for example.



    We added 4 new options to configure each real-time shipping method: “Max box weight”, “Width”, “Height” and “Length”. These settings are similar to the ones on the product details page and are used to assign products to different packages (see the example below).



    We also upgraded the following real-time shipping methods: UPS, USPS, FedEx and DHL.



    a) UPS

    Requests for shipping cost estimation now include packages that will be used when calculationg the cart total. It is also possible to enable negotiated rates.



    b) USPS

    We upgraded the API from version 3 to 4. This new version will be officially used starting from January 2, 2011 (but it works perfectly well right now). The old version will work till March 2011 and will be deprecated after that.



    The fourth version of API offers more flexible settings to configure USPS. We added new parameters to the shipping method configuration page. One of the most important parameters is “Extra services” that enables a number of extra services provided by USPS.



    c) DHL

    Like UPS, DHL now allows for packages when calculating the shipping cost.



    d) FedEx

    According to [url]FedEx | System Down, in 2010 FedEx stops supporting FedEx Ship Manager® Direct, which is used in CS-Cart. That’s why we integrated FedEx Web Services instead.

    If you use FedEx, please get you “User key” и “User key password” in addition to your “Account number” and “Meter number”. Note, the FedEx shipping method won’t work without these new parameters.

    FedEx will use packages to calculate the shipping cost.



    Another vital improvement is the ability to send concurrent requests. If your server supports cURL, you won’t have to wait 10-20 seconds to calculate 5 real-time shipping methods that would previously be sent to the shipping provider one after another. Now all requests are sent simultaneously, which takes less time.



    Here is an example of how packages are calculated.


  1. We create a shipping method and define the maximum weight equal to 2 and the default box dimensions:



    width: 6

    height: 6

    length: 5


  2. Imagine we have product A. We specify the following parameters:



    Items in a box: from 2 to 2 (there can be only two products in a box)

    width: 5

    height: 2

    length: 4

    weight: 1



    Then we order three products.



    So, we get 2 packages:



    Package 1. Size: 5 x 2 x 4

    Product A x 2 (maximum 2 products in a box as defined by the product shipping properties).



    Package 2. Size: 6 x 6 x 5 (depends on the realtime shipping settings)

    Product A x 1 (1 product goes to a separate package).



    Then we add product B without the option “Items in a box” that weights 1. And then we order 2 items of product B.



    Now we have the following packages:



    Package 1. Size: 5 x 2 x 4

    Product A x 2



    Package 2. Size: 6 x 6 x 5 (depends on the realtime shipping method settings). Weight 2 (maximum for the selected shipping)

    Product A x 1

    Product B x 1



    Package 3. Size: 6 x 6 x 5 (depends on the realtime shipping settings). Weight 1

    Product B x 1



    So, the shipping cost will be calculated based on the info about these three packages.



    If you do not want to allow for packages while calculating the shipping cost, simply leave the fields “Items in a box” and “max weight” blank.



    You can install the beta version and test how shipping cost is calculated with this new functionality.



    [COLOR=“Red”]Warning: Please do not use this version for live stores.[/COLOR]



    [SIZE=“4”]Merry Christmas and Happy New Year![/SIZE]

What other features have been added? is their a changelog?

[quote name=‘snorocket’]What other features have been added? is their a changelog?[/QUOTE]



New skin, “Jewelry”.

Nothing serious more, just bugfixes.

In the final release there will be improvements in notification message design, and possibility to upgrade from one edition to another.

Hello,

A couple of questions:

  1. Is there an online demo of this beta version that can be looked at?
  2. I would like to see a preliminary bug fix change log to make sure the bug fixes I reported from 2.1.1 (and fixessupplied by cs-cart) are Incorporated in 1.2.3.
  3. Do you have any kind of impact analysis that identifies potential problems that may occur during upgrade and that may impact any third party mods, especially those that are related to shipping.

    Thank you,

    Bob

Is UPS “dimensional weights” supported (single and multiple packages)?



How is the “beta” version distinguished from a “released” version? I.e. how can software detect the difference. What would I see from a “mystore.com/index.php?version” ??



Does this also include all the JQuery changes that Zeke said were going to be in 2.1.3 or is this just a snapshot of the progress and the final version will include more fixes, changes and features? I.e. is this a beta of 2.1.3 or the new shipment packaging? Sounds more like the latter…

I guess if we’re really bored today, we can download it and run it in a test environment…

it is strange that a minor release (non version release - i.e. 2.0.x to ver. 2.1.x ) is put out there as a beta with no test drive link.

Error right out of the chute:


[QUOTE]You don’t have permission to access /cscart/
Warning: stripos() [function.stripos]: needle is not a string or an integer in C:/wamp/www/cscart/core/fn.common.php on line 3118
admin.php on this server.[/QUOTE]



I can’t do anything in the admin section at all. I’ll put it in the bug tracker.



If shipping calculations work, this might be the version that gets us to upgrade from 2.0.15. We long ago gave up on CSC correctly calculating shipping costs based on dimensional package weights or surcharges. We use Webgility to process shipping, but that doesn’t help us if the rate CSC calculates for shipping is $10 when it actually ends up costing $15 due to dimensional weights. Goodbye $5.

[quote name=‘pbannette’]Hello,

A couple of questions:

  1. Is there an online demo of this beta version that can be looked at?
  2. I would like to see a preliminary bug fix change log to make sure the bug fixes I reported from 2.1.1 (and fixessupplied by cs-cart) are Incorporated in 1.2.3.
  3. Do you have any kind of impact analysis that identifies potential problems that may occur during upgrade and that may impact any third party mods, especially those that are related to shipping.

    Thank you,

    Bob[/QUOTE]



    I’m just curious and wondering if the Labs section represents the newest work from Cs-cart 2.1.3?



    [URL=“https://www.cs-cart.com/shopping-cart-labs.html”]https://www.cs-cart.com/shopping-cart-labs.html[/URL]



    Per the Labs link…

    CS-Cart Labs offers the current development versions of CS-Cart installed on our servers for demonstration and alpha testing. It reflects the present-day state of the two commercial CS-Cart editions Professional and Multi-Vendor, featuring the latest improvements, add-ons and corrections in the software.



    This being the case, I guess you could test the newest version without actually downloading the files. I think this is a great way to prevent what happened with 2.1.2. A big flop. Congrats to Cs for providing a beta before releasing 2.1.3.



    Stu

All previous versions have worked perfectly on our servers, but after installing the 2.1.3 beta I get this error:



Warning: stripos() [function.stripos]: needle is not a string or an integer in /home/phd/domains/paigehamiltondesign.com/public_html/core/fn.common.php on line 3118



Commenting out lines 3118, 3119, 3120 removed the error, however I’m not sure what effect that has on the rest of the site. It looks like its specific for multivendor version, so I have a feeling it won’t affect the professional version.

[quote name=‘jgaris’]All previous versions have worked perfectly on our servers, but after installing the 2.1.3 beta I get this error:



Warning: stripos() [function.stripos]: needle is not a string or an integer in /home/phd/domains/paigehamiltondesign.com/public_html/core/fn.common.php on line 3118



Commenting out lines 3118, 3119, 3120 removed the error, however I’m not sure what effect that has on the rest of the site. It looks like its specific for multivendor version, so I have a feeling it won’t affect the professional version.[/QUOTE]



Apparently they didn’t add the fix from 2.1.2 that was reported in the bug tracker. To fix this replace line 3118 with the following:


 } elseif (!empty($vendor_index) && stripos($parced_url['path'], $vendor_index) !== FALSE) {

I’m guessing this is really a beta of the shipping changes and not a beta of the actual 2.1.3. The major change that I thought was coming in 2.1.3 was the update of JQuery and changes to it’s use in the cart. But that wasn’t even mentioned in the note above. So me thinks this is the shipping stuff only and that other changes are not in the archive.



But then this is all guess work since they put it out there and then obviously went on vacation!



Come on CS, don’t throw stuff at us and then vacate!

[URL=“What's New In Multi-Vendor”]https://www.cs-cart.com/roadmap.html[/URL]

Sorry, that link doesn’t say a thing about what the archive contains or what can be beta tested.



In fact, that link doesn’t even mention multi-package shipping which is what the original posting focused on.



Edit: I see that they do mention the multipackage shipping. But there are bugs marked fixed in bugtracker that don’t seem to be in the archive as well as the JQuery stuff that Zeke had opened a different thread on and was to the the driving force for 2.1.3… Oh well, guess it will be another wait and see. No sense trying to test something that one doesn’t know the content of…

[quote name=‘pbannette’]Hello,

A couple of questions:

  1. Is there an online demo of this beta version that can be looked at?
  2. I would like to see a preliminary bug fix change log to make sure the bug fixes I reported from 2.1.1 (and fixessupplied by cs-cart) are Incorporated in 1.2.3.
  3. Do you have any kind of impact analysis that identifies potential problems that may occur during upgrade and that may impact any third party mods, especially those that are related to shipping.

    Thank you,

    Bob[/QUOTE]


  4. It doesn’t seem reasonable to provide an online demo because you’ll need to enter valid data to test real-time shipping rates, and it’s not a good idea to have this sensitive info available to everyone.


  5. There are no changelogs available for beta versions and release candidates. If you tell me the details of the reported bug (links to forum, message number in helpdesk), I’ll let you know whether they’ve fixed or not.


  6. As I wrote before, some shipping services change their APIs. So, if your custom mods generate request or process responses, XML responses can be incompatible now.



    Or if you have a custom mod to handle negotiated rates (UPS, FedEx), it can also be a problem because now this functionality is included in the software core.



    If you use FedEx, you have to receive your “User key” and “User key password” in addition to your “Account number” and “Meter number”. Note, the FedEx shipping method won’t work without these new parameters.



    We’ll do our best so that all shipping methods return the same values after you’ll switch from an older version.


[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Is UPS “dimensional weights” supported?[/QUOTE]



Not in this beta release. But we plan to add this feature before the main release.


[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]How is the “beta” version distinguished from a “released” version? I.e. how can software detect the difference. What would I see from a “mystore.com/index.php?version” ??

[/QUOTE]



The mystore.com/index.php?version will display this text:

“CS-CART: version 2.1.3 PROFESSIONAL (beta)”


[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Does this also include all the JQuery changes that Zeke said were going to be in 2.1.3 or is this just a snapshot of the progress and the final version will include more fixes, changes and features? I.e. is this a beta of 2.1.3 or the new shipment packaging? Sounds more like the latter…[/QUOTE]



This beta version is meant for testing multi-package shipping. It include neither the new notifications’ appearance nor the speeded up product selection and reduced number of database queries.



As regards jQuery, these changes will not be included in this version either.


[quote name=‘derbytown502’]I’m just curious and wondering if the Labs section represents the newest work from Cs-cart 2.1.3?



[URL=“https://www.cs-cart.com/shopping-cart-labs.html”]https://www.cs-cart.com/shopping-cart-labs.html[/URL]



CS-Cart Labs is the current development versions of CS-Cart installed on our servers for demonstration and alpha testing. It reflects the present-day state of the two commercial CS-Cart editions Professional and Multi-Vendor, featuring the latest improvements, add-ons and corrections in the software.



This being the case, I guess you could test the newest version without actually downloading the files. I think this is a great way to prevent what happened with 2.1.2. A big flop. Congrats to Cs for providing a beta before releasing 2.1.3.



[/QUOTE]



Yes, sure, you can use Labs to see and test the latest changes. Yet, please be careful: as I mentioned before, your shipping access information will be available for anyone.




[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Sorry, that link doesn’t say a thing about what the archive contains or what can be beta tested. [/QUOTE]



This Beta version is meant for testing the most significant improvement in CS-Cart 2.1.3 - multi-package shipping and updated APIs.



We don’t want your configured shipping methods that have been working correctly for many years to suddenly start delivering wrong shipping cost. We do our best to avoid this, and we also ask for your help.


[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]But there are bugs marked fixed in bugtracker that don’t seem to be in the archive[/QUOTE]



This archive contains all the bug that are marked “fixed”. If you’re aware of some bugs that are marked as “fixed”, but are not really fixed (or are not in the archive), please provide links to the bug tracker tickets (or some source). I will check it if there was such situation.


[quote name=‘tbirnseth’] as well as the JQuery stuff that Zeke had opened a different thread on and was to the the driving force for 2.1.3[/QUOTE]



As I mentioned before, new jQuery with jQuery UI will not be included into this version (it will be available in the next version).


[quote name=‘ChrisW’]Error right out of the chute:

I can’t do anything in the admin section at all. I’ll put it in the bug tracker.

[/QUOTE]



Thank you for the information. This issue has been fixed.

The archive was updated (download link remains the same).



[COLOR=“Green”]Also: the new archive contains the new notifications’ appearance. And we’re curious to know your opinion.[/COLOR]




Thank you for all your comments. We’re work for you and we do our best to make CS-Cart more user-friendly.



Happy holidays!

[quote]

This archive contains all the bug that are marked “fixed”. If you’re aware of some bugs that are marked as “fixed”, but are not really fixed (or are not in the archive), please provide links to the bug tracker tickets (or some source). I will check it if there was such situation.

[/quote]

Now it’s magically marked closed with no explanation and is not include in 2.1.3.beta

[url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/vbugs.php?do=view&vbug_id=2130[/url]

So simply put, this is not a beta of 2.1.3 it is an archive that contains some of the new shipping functionality (but not all) that you want people to load, install and test?

Well, at least they are releasing this as a beta for us to test instead of just releasing a new version as usual and then having us work out all the bugs.



Brandon

[quote name=‘brandonvd’]Well, at least they are releasing this as a beta for us to test instead of just releasing a new version as usual and then having us work out all the bugs.



Brandon[/QUOTE]



I think that is what Tony’s complaint is.? If it was a beta of everything included thus far in 2.1.3 (bug fixes, shipping, jquery, etc…) instead of shipping alone, then it would be worth testing.

[quote name=‘2tl’]New skin, “Jewelry”.[/QUOTE]

The label for “Jewelry” in the skin drop-down menu is shown as “Basic skin”.

[quote name=‘The Tool’]I think that is what Tony’s complaint is.? If it was a beta of everything included thus far in 2.1.3 (bug fixes, shipping, jquery, etc…) instead of shipping alone, then it would be worth testing.[/QUOTE]



jquery isn’t in 2.1.3, it’s scheduled for 2.1.4 according the jquery thread. As far as I can tell Dimensional Weights and some bug fixes are what we are missing from this beta compared to what 2.1.3 will have once it’s fully released. I think giving us the opportunity to test the shipping piece since it is a major change is a good idea.