[TYPO3-commerce] Usability

[Ingo Schmitt]

Hi Morten,


thank you for you long mail and your suggestions for commerce:-)

We do have a commerce developer meeting at the end of the month, we will 
definitely have a look at your suggestions (In the moment I'm very busy 
with other work).

Regarding stock: Did you test basic_stock?


Best regards


ingo

> Hello everybody!
> 
> For some time I've been eying this project since the extended shop we 
> are currently offering customers just aren't cutting it anymore. What 
> have kept me from pursuing it seriously has been the feel that it's just 
> not ready for use yet.
> 
> So rather than sit around and wait for it to get ready we decided to 
> jump into it and see if it would not be possibly to add  or fix what we 
> needed.
> 
> so far this means we've had to create a module to allow paymentlib 
> support(1) and with that we've managed to set up a shop that allows for 
> sale of simple products.
> While the manual(2) was of some help with this first step it is of no 
> help for the more advanced usage we wish to explore - attributes and 
> stock handling.
> 
> ( for the impatient the questions are marked with *'s )
> 
> For stock handling some searching on TER found "commerceExt", how ever 
> when using version 0.3.2 ( latest on TER ) with commerce version 0.9.6 ( 
> also latest on TER ) I do gain the ability to specify stock, but loose 
> the ability to put products in the shopping basked - no errors, I just 
> arrive on the shopping basked with no products in it and when clicking 
> the "basket" link I am sent to the "basket is empty" page
> 
> * Any one know what is up with that? or perhaps can suggest another 
> route to setting up stock handling?
> 
> Attributes handling has been quite anoying setting up, when I finally 
> found out who to at least enable drop down selection the post stated 
> said ( in reply to another who was as lost as I ) that the typo script 
> needed was explained in the wiki/manual - the wiki came up blank, but 
> searching the manual for TS variable I found this
> 
> "Defines if the output should genereate selectboxes as ArticleSelector 
> or display all articles. Set to 0 for selectboxes. Notice: Javascript is 
> needed for selectboxes"
> 
> so "plugin.tx_commerce_pi1 allArticles=0"
> Now the notice about javascript could mean either that a javascript 
> browser is needed for the select boxes to work or that I need to write 
> some java script for them to work - more on that later.
> 
> Playing around some more with the "attributes" of a "product" I finally 
> figured out that you needed to put the attributes you wanted as drop 
> downs in the "select" part ( would be nice with some kind of description 
> for what each of select/shall/can/product/filter means ), save, select 
> the article tab, producible articles subtab, and check the ones I 
> wanted. ( it automatically generated a check box for every combo of the 
> chosen variables )
> 
> now the problems arrise;
> 
> The first time I went to a product page after the changes the dropdowns 
> were populated with the attributes full names ie for color White, Black, 
> Blue - the second time and ever since only the first letter have been 
> shown. As you can imagine that makes it rather hard to differentiate.
> 
> * how do I make it display the full name again? - and how can I remove 
> the "all" option, it really does not make sence anywhere outside a multi 
> select
> 
> The drop downs aren't linked so it's possible to choose combinations 
> that does not exist ...
> 
> * this is properly related to the javascript notice - so where can I 
> find some more info about what the script needs to do / what information 
> is available to the script
> 
> When adding a product to the shopping basket the attributes are 
> completely ignored - this means it uses the price of the first article, 
> so the attributes has no meaning at all
> 
> * how can I have the basket understand the attributes ?
> 
> 
> 
> As you can see from the above there is a need for better documentation - 
> I'd offer to help but as you can read above it's painfully obvious that 
> I simply don't know enough to write it.
> Some of you who have been around since the first line was written might 
> not think that there is a need for better documentation, but without 
> better documentation you wont attract new users or contributors.
> 
> If I come across a little harsh ( I've been told I sometimes do that ;) 
> ) I apologize - this is mean as constructive criticism for we truly 
> think that commerce is the way forward and hope that in time we can even 
> replace our osCommerce shops with it.
> 
> 
> Regards
> Morten Olsen
> 
> 
> (1) see 
> http://forge.typo3.org/projects/show/extension-idefa_commerce_paymentlib
> (2) http://wiki.typo3.org/index.php/EXT/commerce/manual since the OOo 
> document is little more than a constant list.



Mit freundlichen Gruessen
-- 
Ingo Schmitt                        mailto:is at marketing-factory.de
Marketing Factory Consulting GmbH   http://typo3.marketing-factory.de/
Content Management mit Typo3: Beratung - Schulung - Realisierung