WebsiteBaker Support (2.8.x) > Bakery Shop
Bakery: Small Shop Module (ORIGINAL TOPIC)
DGEC:
Thanks Christoph!
--- Rewrite!
Ok, I've tried the new version. A few problems/oddities and some ideas/wishes:
1) ERROR when installing (actually, upgrading) to the new version I got a popup (in browser I.E.7, server is RHEL, PHP 4.x, soon to be PHP 5), asking me to review and okay the settings or something like that, with no settings and just an OK box. I clicked OK, the box closed and then something flashed up on the install screen and disappeared immediately. Not sure what was supposed to be going on there!
2) ERROR when trying to save the General Settings, an error message flashes up:
--- Quote ---Warning: implode() [function.implode]: Bad arguments. in /home/[nnnnnnnnnnn/wb directory]/modules/bakery/save_general_settings.php on line 50
Success
--- End quote ---
although it does seem to have saved the changes.
3) Where does the "Show State" get the state from? Or is that "state" as in country, not state as in province of a country? It *is* an essential part for some tax calcuations.
Not sure what Brent meant, but more flexibility in shipping would be good.
Changes! These are our demands! Ok... "requests" :-)
1) I see what you meant about choosing the 3 tax rates now. Unfortunately, as far as I know, North Americans must show multiple tax calculations. This stops me cold from using it in any production environment.
The taxes I'm aware of in North America are (grouped approximately by organization level):
- Federal/GST (Good & Services Tax, similar to VAT)
- Provincial/State level taxes - can vary widely depending on the type of item
- City taxes
- Excise/Levies/Fees (individual item adjustment obviously) - may add additional flat or percentage amount to individual items.
These need to be broken out, not summarized into 1 tax rate. There are also some common (but not universal) state dependent adjustments like no provincial or state tax calculated if it is shipped to another state or country. I believe some taxes are not charged for out-of-country orders too.
Hopefully, one more (4) level would be enough for most small business. An override for each item might be needed, but we definitely need the ability to be able to display separate tax calculations independently and cumulatively.
Wrinkles: Some states charge tax in the shipper's state, some charge it in the receiver's state, some in the home state of the company, etc - beyond ability to handle, I'm sure! And then there's the online tax moritorium for the USA...
Oh, and each tax may need to be calucated on either the net purchase total or the previous subtotal.
i.e. in Ontario, the tax calculation must be shown as something like:
--- Code: ---Subtotal $10.00
GST (5%) 0.50 ($10 x 5%)
PST (8%) 0.80 ($10 x 8%)
--------------------------------------
Total $11.30
--- End code ---
but in Quebec and PEI, the tax calculations are done cumulatively:
i.e. in Ontario, the tax calculation must be:
--- Code: ---Subtotal $10.00
GST (5%) 0.50 ($10 x 5%)
QST/TVQ (7.5%) 0.79 ==>($10.50 x7.5%) - effectively, 7.875%
--------------------------------------
Total $11.29
--- End code ---
2. As mentioned, being able to set the tax type terminology in General Settings to something other than VAT would avoid changing the standard language file.
3. Default value of 1 in the order quanity field. (Which isn't labelled, by the way. Doesn't meet accessiblity standards! :-o)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some more advanced ideas/thoughts and wish list:
1. SKU# - I'd like to have an auto-generated number option here, although the default of the product name works for tiny shops. Having an auto SKU would save a lot of tracking.
2. I'd love 2 or 3 levels of item grouping categories. e.g. Clothing, Men, Shirts. Electronics, Computers, Brands. Stuff like that. Should be fairly simple, I think? Maybe a slots for a "related" category or even items for cross-selling.
3. More complicated one. One nice way to standardize the product selection page is to have those "options" fields as drop-downs on the product page, rather than only on the front-end. I.e. you set them up in General Settings and you use drop-downs when editing the product. (BTW, I like how you link to the General Settings page - need a RETURN button though!) On the product edit screen, you would have a table populated with the applicable Option or Feature and Attributes and an "Add Option" button of course.
Hmmm. Eventually, maybe even have default Features for different categories! E.g. Selecting Clothing category would automatically create Size, Colour, etc :evil:
4. Multiple pictures. Of course, then we get into a whole mess of "options" there :-)
Also, Maximum size (with resize down to Max) for the full picture, not just thumbnails (which isn't labelled as Thumbnail size by the way, but excellent you've got that in there).
5. Downloadable items - link to a download gallery page, accessible by only that person when logged in, optionally with X downloads and/or X days to download.
6. Speaking of downloads - need reports - display and/or download. Orders get emailed to you now, right? To confirm you got all the email orders though, being able to view and/or download a report or spreadsheet of orders would probably be a good thing. Although, most other kinds of reports would probably better be served by a real order management system, I guess everybody will have to write the SQL to export to their order/POS system.
Gak. Enough from me! :-P
brent:
DGEC,
just a couple of comments
Not sure what Brent meant, but more flexibility in shipping would be good.
To my knowledge this is supposed to be a simple cart for a small shop. In the US a simple summary or total for the shipping charge under where the subtotal is would be adequate. If the customer already knows what the shipping rate is, a simple total is all that is necessary.
Changes! These are our demands! Ok... "requests"
1) I see what you meant about choosing the 3 tax rates now. Unfortunately, as far as I know, North Americans must show multiple tax calculations. This stops me cold from using it in any production environment.
Americans do not need to show multiple tax calculations on an order request such as this. If for example this was a small shop for selling t-shirts, you would show the cost per item, the cost for shipping, and a single state tax rate if applicable. Other taxes such as Good & Services, and city are usually not seen or even charged to the customers. For services you may have other taxes, but again if you take a look at the mass majority of American ecommerce sites you will not see taxes other than state taxes apllied to the cost. State taxes are variable and usually only applied when a customer purchases an item online from the from the same state that he resides in. I agree, it would be nice to have several options for shipping, UPS, FedEx, USMail, etc. My suggestions were stricktly for American ecommerce so what may apply in Ontario or elsewhere may not be applicable here.
But this is supposed to be a simple shopping cart for small businesses. This is starting to sound like you need a solution like Zen cart to handle most of those advanced options.
freeSbee:
@ DGEC
Thanks DGEC for testing and your feedback.
1) The JavaScript alert says «Please check and click OK». I intended to stop the upgrading script to give you a glance over the database changings and let you check up on the displayed success, warning or error messages. Maybe you're right, it is rather confusing than informative. I will comment it in the next version.
2) Thanks for the hint; fixed this bug.
3) Thanks for all the writing about taxes but take it with a pinch of salt. I am at one with brent though I am not at all into Canadien or US taxes.
Bakery was never intended to either turn WB into a shopping center nor compete with full featured e-commerce software. There is already a wide enough range to satisfy all needs and wishes.
@brent
Many thanks for your comments!
Best,
Christoph
DGEC:
Say, are you implying I'm long-winded? :-o Well, I guess you could say I got carried away. Ahem. :roll: Sorry!
(re: OSC/Zen - I like OSS and checked them out for awhile, but they are huge, ungainly, ugly, unsightly messes. I like CubeCart, it's is much nicer, and although only the older version can be used freely now, it's still not very expensive for an operating business. But templating seems much harder than WB for all of them. Somebody here tried to integrate CC and gave up and duplicated the template instead)
I rarely, if ever, get receipts that don't break out the taxes. I tried to do some research it and it seems very small businesses wouldn't have to break out some taxes but provincial or retail taxes... I can't tell. For ease of tracking and avoid legal complications, I would want to be able to offer both. I hate when people lump things together, anyway, makes me suspicious! (My business is exempt anyway)
- True, most small businesses are unlikely to have a lot of tax lines, but I know some of the small businesses I deal with do use 2. For those that want/need it, probably adding one more tax field would be enough. (those with funny calculations could probably use an effective rate)
- the English on page 3, payment option buttons is improper. You should say "I will pay with PayPal" for example.
I would suggest something like... "Pay in Advance" and "Use PayPal" for the buttons.
- I've never used PayPal - I assume they send a copy of the invoice to the buyer's email?
- also, are you doing anything with the Quantity field, a bunch of Javascript perhaps? Sometimes there is no visible cursor there. I was trying to click on it, and it looked like it wasn't "taking". But when I typed a number, it showed up, but still with no cursor.
freeSbee:
Hi DGEC
--- Quote from: DGEC on January 10, 2008, 05:02:02 PM ---- the English on page 3, payment option buttons is improper. You should say "I will pay with PayPal" for example.
I would suggest something like... "Pay in Advance" and "Use PayPal" for the buttons.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the hint and your suggestion. Made corrections to the EN.php file.
--- Quote from: DGEC on January 10, 2008, 05:02:02 PM ---- I've never used PayPal - I assume they send a copy of the invoice to the buyer's email?
--- End quote ---
Yes, they do.
--- Quote from: DGEC on January 10, 2008, 05:02:02 PM ---- also, are you doing anything with the Quantity field, a bunch of Javascript perhaps? Sometimes there is no visible cursor there. I was trying to click on it, and it looked like it wasn't "taking". But when I typed a number, it showed up, but still with no cursor.
--- End quote ---
No, no JS at all. Couldn't reproduce it either. Could anybody else?
Best,
Christoph
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