Business Management plugin for osCommerce

[VadymG]

Hi All!

 

Our company is about to develop and release as an osCommerce contribution a Business Management Plugin for osCommerce and compatible shopping carts.

 

The idea is to provide small and medium businesses with a solution capable of taking care of all of their major operational activities, such as stock, order, customer management.

 

The plugin will be added to osCommerce backend but will not replace it completely.

 

Initial list of features includes:

 

- improved stock management (quantity in stock, allocated stock, free stock)

 

- improved price management (where sales price can be calculated based on the net price / cost)

 

- suppliers and stock / purchase orders

 

- quotes and manual orders

 

- various statuses for order items within quotes and orders

 

- handling of cancellations, returns and replacements

 

- customer accounts with email and live chat management

 

We would like to ask the osCommerce community to let us know if there are any particular features they would like to see implemented that will help their online businesses to become more efficient, more profitable, easier to run.

 

We will collect all the requests and include them into our TODO list. First Beta release is scheduled for Q1 2011.

 

We look forward to hearing from you!

[VadymG]

Here's the current list of features that will be included into our Business Management plugin for osCommerce (project phases have not been identified yet):

 

1. Stock Management:

 

Allocated Stock

Free Stock

Ordered Stock

Automated reorder functionality

Show Room, Should be Sold, Discontinued

Stock Order

Drop-Shipped, Cross-Docked, Stocked Products

Simple Stock Reports (TBD)

Advanced Stock Reports

Good Inwards

 

 

2. Products:

 

Suppliers

Fixed Price

Prices Based on Cost Price

Fixed Markup

Variable Markup

Pricing Bands

Predefined Descriptions

Advanced Special Prices ?

 

3. Customers CRM (Customer Relationship Managemen):

 

Multiple Emails

Mailing Module

Post Code Finder

Customer Notes

Phone Logger

 

4. Order management:

 

Drop-Shipped Column

Products Collection column

Adjustable Prices

GPR (Gross Profit Ratio)

Order History tab

Order History tab Advanced

Order Properties

 

5. Features:

 

ACL (Access Control Levels)

Dashboard Modules

Reports on Dashboard

Internal messaging

Live System/Staff messages

Staff Activity Monitor

 

6. Reports TBD

 

Any comments and especially feature suggestions are welcome in this forum!

[VadymG]

hi All and very Happy New Year!

 

Some more updates on the progress with our Business Management plugin for osCommerce.

 

We've got some demo version ready, so, interested parties are welcome to send us a private message to get links and account details to test the latest version. Once we've reached the Beta version status, the plug in will be added as an osCommerce Contribution and everyone will be allowed to download and test it.

 

In the mean time, here are some screenshots:

 

1. Dashboard:

 

2. Customer details screen:

 

3. User list management screen:

 

Comments and requests are welcome, please respond to this topic and we will take them into account!

[scandic_outlet]

hi

this is an awesome package - and if it becomes realized - it has the potential to become a great package for the serious business owner.

I am ready and interested for testing.

 

I send you an additional feature request through your website today - so wont repeat my self on that :)

 

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Regards

Mike

[VadymG]

hi Mike! Thanks, we will add you to our list of Beta testers! We hope to release the Beta in the middle of February, with the first live demo scheduled to be ready before the 10th of February 2011. Will keep you all updated on our progress!

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[Stephan (VS)]

When it's out I'm definitely making custom back-end skins for myself, I'll release them as soon as I've played around a bit with the up & coming Beta.

 

I mainly gonna be focussing on making it mobile friendly for people who like to run admin off Tablets & Mobile phones.

 

If possible could the configuration section also set a limit of the amount of records (IE. Products, Customers, etc.) per page?

 

Maybe add a Webcam plugin, to remotely view the shop's facilities via the admin section or for video staff meetings.

 

Great job on the Plugin, it can make a lot of people's lives a lot easier.

 

Regards,

Stephan

[Stephan (VS)]

When it's out I'm definitely making custom back-end skins for myself, I'll release them as soon as I've played around a bit with the up & coming Beta.

 

I mainly gonna be focussing on making it mobile friendly for people who like to run admin off Tablets & Mobile phones.

 

If possible could the configuration section also set a limit of the amount of records (IE. Products, Customers, etc.) per page?

 

Maybe add a Webcam plugin, to remotely view the shop's facilities via the admin section or for video staff meetings.

 

Great job on the Plugin, it can make a lot of people's lives a lot easier.

 

Regards,

Stephan

[VadymG]

Thanks Stephan!

 

Actually special skins for smart phones is on our TODO list. I'm not sure if we will be able to release them in the first version but hopefully before September / October this year. After all it seems to be a very important feature and we want to allow our customers to be able to manage their online businesses from anywhere in the World.

 

The number of lines per page is currently set in each listing, you can choose from 10, 15, 20, 50, 100 or so. The setting then gets automatically saved and used on all other pages. The setting is per user, so each user can have their own number of lines per page.

 

Webcam - interesting idea, thanks! Will think about this one, should be quite easy to implement but need to think about design aspects too.

 

Could you please send me a message with your email address so that we could add you to the list of Beta testers?

 

Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[VadymG]

Hi All!

 

Some more screenshots from our development version here today. Comments and requests from Beta testers will be highly appreciated!

 

Product listing with filters:

 

 

Product listing category view:

 

 

Category edit screen:

 

[scandic_outlet]

looks good :)

 

waiting with anticipation

[VadymG]

looks good :)

 

waiting with anticipation

 

 

:) ahh wait until we have product edit and quote/order screens ready to be posted here!

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[spoofy]

Hey,

 

I will be happy to beta test.

 

I have a few ideas for features and possibly help you guys out too with some development. Let me know your email info and I can send you some more information on it.

 

Thanks and looking great so far!

[VadymG]

Hi Spoofy!

 

Thanks, please PM me your email address and I will add you to the list of registered Beta testers.

 

In the mean time, here are some more screenshots of the new plugin. Please note: current version has been customized for a particular industry, further versions will be made much more generic and flexible:

 

Product general info screen:

 

Product supplier information and cost:

 

Product price management:

 

Product stock management:

 

Your comments and suggestions are welcome, as always!

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[VadymG]

Here we go with some more screenshots of the current version of our Business Management plugin for osCommerce:

 

Product listing page:

 

1) advanced filters allow users to refine their searches and find exactly what they are looking for

 

2) auto-suggest quickens the process and improves general user experience

 

3) product listing refreshes as soon as new filters are applied, no need for extra clicks anymore

 

Product categories (tree view):

 

Category edit screen:

 

Your comments and suggestions are welcome, as always!

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[scandic_outlet]

hi guys

its starting to look good.

I have a side question - will this be a web based acpplication/skin for the osc admin?

If yes - how have you considered we will be able to adapt to the various contributions installed in the webstores?

in you examples today, im thinking attriubutes etc etc..

 

Are you coding this for a 2.3.1 install of the osc system?

 

Just general thinkings.

 

Besides this - screen shots look great, but a test site.. yehaaa... that will be much better for feedback guys:)

[grytsenko]

hi guys

its starting to look good.

I have a side question - will this be a web based acpplication/skin for the osc admin?

If yes - how have you considered we will be able to adapt to the various contributions installed in the webstores?

in you examples today, im thinking attriubutes etc etc..

 

Are you coding this for a 2.3.1 install of the osc system?

 

Just general thinkings.

 

Besides this - screen shots look great, but a test site.. yehaaa... that will be much better for feedback guys:)

Michael, thank you for your post,

I lead the XPprojectX development team. Let me address all your questions :

1) I have a side question - will this be a web based acpplication/skin for the osc admin?

It will be a web based application, it will work alongside the osCommerce admin

2) If yes - how have you considered we will be able to adapt to the various contributions installed in the webstores?

It is a really tricky question. Unfortunately we won’t be able to move all the add-ons and contributions made for osCommerce to our solution. XProjectX itself will have a lot of nice features which you would definitely like, and if you need to use your customized backend, you will have to switch between the two systems. We are planning to add the support for the most popular community add-ons, such as attributes, multiple images, inventory etc

3)Are you coding this for a 2.3.1 install of the osc system

Yes, we made our solution to be compatible with 2.3.1 version of osCommerce.

 

You are welcome to ask me any questions related with the development of the solution,

 

Alex, XProjectX.com

Edited January 20, 2011 by grytsenko

[VadymG]

I will continue posting screenshots of the current version until the first demo is available in the beginning of February.

 

It will be possible to see how XProjectX links to osCommerce and try most of the functions we promised to deliver earlier.

 

Here is how the order list screen will look like:

 

This is how the order / quote screen will look like (see it has many additional tabs too):

 

Finally for today, this is how the Delivery address tab of the Order screen will look like (it is possible to get Google Maps opened with the specified post code):

 

That's all for today, more updates coming soon!

 

Best regards,

Vadym

[VadymG]

Online demo of the Alpha version of the new osCommerce plugin will be available in less than a week!

[VadymG]

I'm happy to announce the release of the Alpha version (demo) of XProjectX - Business Management Plugin for osCommerce.

 

The demo is not available for download, but is hosted on one of our servers (Beta version will be available for download and will be submitted into the Add ons / Contributions section of osCommerce.com).

 

Link to the front end: http://www.xprojectx.com/demo/

Link to the back end: http://www.xprojectx.com/demo/admin/

 

All comments and questions will be answered in this forum.

 

Happy looking and testing!

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[gorddevries]

This looks like a very important add-on.

Will it be implemented in V2.3.1?

[VadymG]

Thanks Gord!

 

I do not think it will be implemented as a part of the core osCommerce code as it is developed directly by the osCommerce development team. But our plugin is compatible with 2.3 and will be with further versions too.

 

We've got the Beta version rc 1 ready, going to upload some source code before next Wednesday.

 

Kind regards,

Vadym

[VadymG]

XProjectX Beta rc 1 is now available!

 

We have tried to submit the source files to the Contributions section of osCommerce.com web site, but it didn't work because of the file size (12mb). You can download the source file from http://www.xprojectx.com/files/adminxpx.zip but we would be delighted to actually submit XProjectX as a contribution if it is technically possible.

 

As promised in the past this is an open source plug in for osCommerce 2.3.x.

 

The archive contains the XProjectX plug in itself and supporting libraries (smarty, zend, etc).

 

We have implemented a special installation wizard that can be found in the /install sub-folder. The wizard installs the XProjectX files and connects to the osCommerce database.

 

Please NOTE: this is not even a full Beta version as such, but its first release candidate. This version should NOT be used or linked to live working osCommerce web sites. This version should ONLY be used for testing and demonstration purposes.

 

You are welcome to submit your ideas or bug reports to this forum or PM them to me.

 

We keep working on the next version of XProjectX for osCommerce and look forward to hearing from you!

 

P.S. Installation instructions will be posted into this forum in the next several minutes.

[VadymG]

How to install XProjectX Beta rc 1 Business Management Plugin for osCommerce v. 2.3.x:

 

Copy the "adminxpx" folder to be at the same level where the "admin" folder of your osCommerce installation is located.

 

Make sure the following list of files and folders are writable+readable:

 

adminxpx/.htaccess

adminxpx/index.php

adminxpx/application/config/tiny_mce.ini

adminxpx/application/config/app.ini

adminxpx/cache

adminxpx/cache/smarty_c

 

You can run "chmod.sh" before the installation to change file/folder permissions at once.

 

To start the installation navigate to the www.[pathtoyourdomain.com]/adminxpx/install and follow the installation instructions.

 

After the installation is complete remove the "install" folder and run "chmod_after_install.sh" to revert file permissions back to where they were.

 

Enjoy your XProjectX experience!

[jhaugen]

This should be a great addon when fully realized.

 

I tried the demo site to see if I could find a couple of features. The credit limit process attached to each customer looks good. I was also looking for a way to assign separate pricing structures to individual customers. I saw the Catalog>List Bands, but I'm not sure how that works. I didn't see anywhere in the customer info where a customer can be assigned an individual discount. Is there such a feature? Maybe it has something to do with the different types of customers?

 

More importantly, when will user documentation be available?

 

Thanks for all the effort!!

 

-Jerry-

[VadymG]

Hi Jerry! Thanks for your comments!

 

We are going to implement full support for different customer groups, including individual prices, discounts, tax options. I hope it will be provided in about a month or so.

 

Documentation - we are working on it :)

 

We have described several features already, and our technical writers are working hard to provide descriptions of everything we have put into XProjectX for osCommerce.

 

You can access the documentation online at http://www.xprojectx.com/wiki/index.php/XprojectX_Wiki

 

Kind regards,

Vadym