Messages

seriously... run away.  Just run away!  As you can see it has been three weeks since my post and there was no reply.  I asked several questions on this forum, and this is the first time I've gotten a notification of a response and its you asking a question, not someone answering

So that shows you the kind of "support" you can expect.

AbanteCart card is wonderfully conceived, horribly executed.  I'm sure I'll be banned for this, but that's OK.  If I can save one person from wasting the hours I did....

good luck to you.

I gather it is NOT working, despite the 1.2 directory structure.  I'm not at all clear on what any of it does yet, but as I went through with random "test" data, when I got to the XML generation part that the OP mentioned, I click Save Layout XML button and immediately it directs to a non-existent "/undefined&undefined" location

I realize you guys want us to promote the software and yes, we think its great etc etc... but that popup window is getting real annoying, real quick.

I deleted the entries from the DB.  That crashed the admin and on reload they were back (clever).  There really needs to be a "yeah, I got it - don't show again".  Am I missing it?

Is it working now?  I see there's a 1.2 in the directory structure.

What I don't see (and why I googled and ended up here) is how the heck you install it   lol   There's a tad bit of irony in there somewhere.

Edit:  N/m.  Found the manual extension installation directions (FTP upload)

1. I did.
2. I did.  I changed them all.  Uniquely.  As described.
3. n/a

I found where it is defined.  Inside a "block" (main promo or something like that) which contains HTML.  You shouldn't mix HTML and language.  I'd say "ever, but there are exceptions... I don't think this is one of them.

You really should look at it.  While not the worst way in the world to do it, it certainly isn't "ideal", and that's the tag line of your software.  If you bother to have language defines, then use them.  It is rather nonsensical to have to wonder, "now where was it that I'm supposed to define text?  Here?  Nope.  That one?  No, that's not it.  Maybe in the database?  Nooo... ok, blocks!".   It should be way more cohesive than that.  And why is "Free shipping" defined in 5 different entries and NONE of them hit that block?  Ideally (there's that word again), it would be defined exactly once, and then referenced throughout.

Oh, and I forgot to ask if the auto-update mechanism is triggered on an interval, or is it relying on Admin login?

I always amazes me how shopping cart suites ignore the spread 

Some questions:
  1) Can we change what server is used for auto-currency updates?
  2) Can we define a backup server?
  3) Can we define some limits in case the auto-update makes some nonsensical value (ie. puts the euro at 0.00001 USD)?
  4) Can we define an adjustment to account for the spread?  A simplistic mechanism is like the one Zen Cart uses, where you can take whatever value the server gives and "pad" it by a user-defined rate.  So if Yahoo says 1 USD is worth $1.25 CAD, our stores prices are shown as 1 USD = 1.25 * 1.05 = $1.31 CAD?  Otherwise a shop owner is forced to lose money each and every time a customer checks out in a foreign currency.  You can't possibly thing the banks give you the rate Yahoo says!  Zen Cart forces a one-size-fits all padding.  I would suggest a per-currency value (with a default if owner wishes) because some currencies have higher spreads than others.

I actually did a lot of currency-related extensions with Zen Cart.  If I can figure out AbanteCart's extension system I'd be happy to contribute here... but want to make sure I'm not missing something already available.  Also, extensions of this nature *probably* require core code modification... but I haven't taken a close enough look at your system to know if that's the case.  It would be nice to know that the admin would be open to changing the core on this rather than relying on extensions anyway.  Relying solely on Yahoo is... flawed.

I should know more than anyone that "tone" doesn't convey well written on a screen.  So no worries.

You make solid points.  And I am giving it a go.  I moved on from the demo and I'm now experimenting on a local server.  The language defines thing really needs addressing.  it is a common mistake in shopping cart software.  Zen suffered from it but continue to improve.  It is something best nipped in the bud, so to speak.  The sooner things are globalized, the less work there will be to do later.  Basically, any time you find yourself writing in English while coding, pretend you're writing it for a Chinese customer.  Don't know Chinese?  Good... use a placemarker instead.  Variables are good things

Is it a deal breaker?  Well, it is close.  But given that I haven't found a better alternative, I guess I don't have much choice.

I hope the admin are responsive to suggestions and help.  Once I get rolling (provided I can see a path), I'll no doubt contribute along the way.  That's the spirit of open source, or at least it should be.

After I posted, I looked again and this time noticed the little American flag to the right of the block definition. 

I notice the blocks include hardcoded html (yuk).  I attempted to manually fix this, but I guess I'm not understanding how they are parsed.

This is a default block:

<!-- Section Start-->
   <section class="container otherddetails">
   <div class="otherddetailspart">
      <div class="innerclass free">
         <h2>FREE SHIPPING</h2>
         All over in world over $200</div>
   </div>
   <div class="otherddetailspart">
      <div class="innerclass payment">
         <h2>
            Easy Payment</h2>
         Payment Gatway support</div>
   </div>
   <div class="otherddetailspart">
      <div class="innerclass shipping">
         <h2>
            24hrs Shipping</h2>
         For All US States</div>
   </div>
   <div class="otherddetailspart">
      <div class="innerclass choice">
         <h2>
            Large Variety</h2>
         50,000+ Products</div>
   </div>
   </section> <!-- Section End-->

[note I should be using the "code" formatting instead of "quote" above, but this forum complains I'm trying to post an external link!

Obviously all the English language in that html shouldn't be there.  It should be generic reference to language defines.  And that really should be a goal of the people that manage this software, but in the meantime how do I do this on my own?  I tried putting in a simple <?php echo "hello world"; ?> in there but it doesn't get translated.  is there some mechanism for putting dynamic content in those blocks?  Or some other way to actually make use of the language system?

It sounds like it should be helpful, but more info required.

And yes I'm "precise"... are you suggesting that is a bad thing?

I found where that particular FREE SHIPPING is located and I hope I'm missing something fundamental about the design here, because I fail to see the point of language definitions if the language of some elements have to be individually coded!

Design -> Blocks -> Main Page Promo... in there is HTML with no reference to language at all.

(and - sorry for being "precise" - it is written as "All over in world over $200".  So if we're going to presume English-only, shouldn't it at least be reasonable English???)


Look, I think this is fantastic LOOKING software.  It needs to be functional as well.  I'm spending a bit of time playing with it, but I'd like to (hopefully quickly) find some evidence that it is a software that can be reasonably managed in the long term.  I suffered through years of Zen Cart and I'm looking for something better, not just prettier.  I'd really like this to work. The responses to concerns/suggestions contribute to that, and attempted shaming me for being too "precise" (what was up with the air quotes) isn't a great start



It is pretty basic coding practice that html code should NEVER contain language in an environment that supposedly uses localization.  The fact this block says anything like: I had to remove this because this forum thinks I'm trying to post external links when I'm just trying to show you YOUR OWN CODE.


is a bad sign.  In that case, "Free shipping" should be a heading language define and "All over [the] world [for orders] over $200" should be a body define.  And furthermore, the use of "h2" is suspect because it should probably have its own class.

I know, I know... new guy is full of complaints.  Its just a shame that it is viewed that way instead of taking the opportunity to do things right.

Immediately after posting, I thought "hmm... cache".  So I found and cleared the cache.  No change.  Maybe it is browser vs. server cache so I used a fresh browser... no change.

I'm brand new here.  First thing I did was test what happens when I set up Russian and view the store.  I see SOME, but not all text is translated.  OK, fine so I have to do some work.  That's OK (although, really, out-of-the-box language + out-of-the-box template should = out-of-the-box complete!)

I find language definitions, cool.

I love the sorting/searching.

I notice FREE SHIPPING is in English, so I type "FREE SHIPPING" into "Translation" and see, supposedly, all the instances.  Why there is more than one is beyond me, but whatever... I'm sure there's a reason.  So I change each one to things like:

FREE SHIPPING1
FREE SHIPPING2

and so on.  That way I'll know for sure which one it is.

Refresh the page, it still says "FREE SHIPPING".  Now I have to wonder if that is hardcoded somewhere?  That would be extremely poor coding practice so I'm sure that's not the case.

Someone enlighten me please

I just found AbanteCart and I haven't even installed it.  I'm operating off the demo provided.  I'm in the admin and I clicked on Reports then sales then orders.

I see:

06/29/2015   06/29/2015   12   $3,759.77

I change the dates, select "Years" (with no explanation of what that does) and... well, I still see

06/29/2015   06/29/2015   12   $3,759.77

.  Change some more things, click some buttons... nothing... ever... changes.

Now, that could be a limitation of the demo and its data.  So can someone tell me if the reporting really is as useless as it appears, or?

I have another question while I have you:  I see I can add currencies and define them.  Is there any mechanism for keeping them current?

Thanks!  Beautiful looking back end (hehe) but it needs to be functional too.