Planned Improvements

There is a competitor on the horizon Magento .  A lot of potential but the installation is kind of tricky. I like the direction of its development. Worth watching. I checked out the forum there were 200 people on-line.

This is not intended as a review but as a work in-progress checklist for getting wp-ecomerece working the way we want it and as a wish list for future shopping cart development/selection.

SEO issues

Ok to  put products in more than one category. product url defaults to first category

http://www.painrelief101.com/products-page/shoulder-and-neck-heat-packs/ultimate-body-vest-microwavable-067

NOT ok

content under more details in part of the page. Duplicating the information in the single product page. The issue may be a percentage of page issue.

Product Title should be wrapped in an h1 or h2 tag controlled by the shop.css  or maybe even better by the themes css files.

PAYPAL SETTINGS

IPN must be set

Gold Module Problems

CVV not being pass in default configuration

           Shayne has the FIX - check for fix in latest release version

Cart Limitations:

1. BreadCrumb Navigation Fixed in iTheme & Marketplace Theme  ( 12/07/08 by instinct Not Tested Tested  7-20-08 in massagers101 did not work ) Not included in ishop theme which is the one currently in use here. 10/10/08 I am usingd wp-ecom 3.6.8 RC1 and it now works.
    
2. Most recently added products show first in products page ( 12/07/08 by instinct Not Tested Tested 7-20-08 in massagers101 did not work )Now working 11/01/08
   
3. No useful import / export function for product data
4. Need a checkbox to have shipping same as billing so that buyers do not have to enter the same address information twice.  Code hack to allow this feature proposed 3 months ago. Not included in subsequent updates. code hack can be found in forum
5. Make purchase input button on checkout page an image file not the default submit.
6. Empty cart error page should have a visit shop button or link on it to "continue shopping"
7. No ability to get Inventory Report - Each Product must be examined in the cart individually to determine product availability - Real Problem for larger stores
8. Products set with availability limits
9. No way to uniquely identify products with SKU or Product Code number - add custom field ? 11/1/08 3.6.8 RC1 on a test site the SKU field is now there but it is not used anywhere useful it needs to be displayed in the product description and in the purchase log.
10. coupon option is causing a database error
11. No printed invoice or packing slip - currently cutting and pasting from purchase log.
12. Shipping cost options too limited to be of much use in USA - preferred fix table based shipping cost based on total cost of order
13. Here is an example for hacking the code to add UPS features from Shayne  NOTE: The "shopping_cart.php" file is from the 3.6 RC1 release I believe, so I would not use it, but only look at it and take the integration that is inside of it and apply it to your current file.  Here’s the download link:  http://www.stasticdesigns.com/files/shopping_cart.zip
14. Purchase log is poorly formatted requiring scrolling to see critical information
15. Can not rearrange product order within categories. Only displays in order entered
16. No wysiwyg editor for product description - html entry is inconsistent see below.
17. Updates and modifications by developers to language files are not dated or commented making maintenance of customization very difficult and time consuming. - Need to identify software or system for maintaining changes during updates.
18. Photo Resizing: does not handle proportional resizing well - original image 800px by 574 px - resizing cut off outside edges of picture, 11/-1/-8 I am using  3.6.8 RC1 Still a problem, the 
19. Inconsistent styling in product description boxes

1st product description <p class="wpsc_description">
allows <b>, <u> ,<strong>
displays but Mishandles <center>, <ol>, <ul><h1 ….h4>,
<h2> tags inside the first product description breaks the htlm generation if tags are inside the wpsc_descripton block the block leaves out the text.

Works

<p class="wpsc_description">
Versatile neck and body heat and cold wrap.
  <br>
</p> does not work <p class="wpsc_description">
</p>

Continuing Problems with wp ecommerce cart

Cusor does not take focus ie change to hand when hovering submit/input buttons - fixed in ishop theme on site

Should have at least breadcrumb navigation back to a category overview page - Maybe just a static link at the top of each page

Browser title still only reflects main page title so every page in the cart is the same, is not picking up categories, url is by cagetory. - fixed with header modification.

Upgrading still a royal pain; auto upgrade put the files in a subdirectory that was not recognized by the plugin manager - seems to be fixed when updating currently

Still no way to have custom theme that are not over ridden by each up date - Need to be able to save changes to a custom theme name - the marketplace theme css file says you can just save as a new file name and it can be used as a custom theme, it did not work for me.

Phase I Improvements

When on individual product pages no navigation back to category page or main product page.

Larger font on the product name on the product page, - done

When displaying category page I do not want the category thumbnail or at least make it smaller or relocate it. - No category page currently -

Need to get rid of bullet point on categories and menu items on product page and category page. - got rid of categories on individual product pages and category pages. - but still need on page navigation

Activate wysiwyg editor for product input - ????

Pictures not formatting right, cutting off right and left edges. When photo fits the space available the background is black - should be white or better it should be transparent. When clicking on a picture to enlarge it, the picture opens in a new page instead of a lightbox type overlay.  - Maybe fixed in current releases

1. The issue with the black borders around certain thumbnail images issue is now fixed  ( 12/07/08 by instinct Not Tested )

Notes:

Category Brands Widget

Also the show_cats_brands.php function formatting over rides  the sidebar formatting. - but currently looks Ok.  Fixed this issue in the current implementation - check to see that fix is maintained when updates are applied.

Current changes

Hard coded top menu - CSS in style.css moved to current scheme - /themes/dkret3/schemes/Fluidelity-JRedit.css

With the hard coded menu - would like access to the orginal category display page. It presented a fully expanded list of all categories/subcateories and individual product pages in an indented list with bullets.  That would be a separate top menu selection - Complete Product List or just Product Listing

This would be the original product_page.  Additionally, it is needed for the shopping cart plug-in continue shopping link. that is the page that it defaults to.

Verify that none of the pre-existing code was removed - Only commenting out is acceptable. - Done I think

Top menu label for all should just be a label like "Products" - (except Home ) Add a page listing to dropdown to cover the page content currently linked to by the top menu label. - Done

Not sure that fixed width menu fields are the way to go. A commented out example of css for variable width would be helpful for future. - Made smaller, might be good for now

Loss of the menu sub-layers by hard coding.

Product titles in individual pages should be larger - Done iShop css.

Phase II Improvements

Need Cart modified or something for SKU entry

Page Titles - They always render as Product Page - Bad for SEO and for Search results click through - They should render as category or Product Title.  - [ DONE - modified header to fix this pretty complicated php search and select ]

Thickbox / Light box not working - need back posts rel= " " updated when fixed. - probably a conflict with js in theme. Does work in blog crash theme.

Page # Navigation - should standout more, - changed style sheet ishop div.wpsc_page_numbers  need to add comma’s between numbers - done but needs updating with each version

Phase III Improvements

Add side bar navigation of product pages - Products only not all cart pages

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