kymar

Understood - I think - but I'd have to re-install Product Attributes for my heavily modified store in which they've previously played no role and were bypassed or dispensed with long ago. Not worth the work for me, unless you have something different in mind from just utilizing the PA features as they exist in a clean osCommerce install. If you've read my prior posts on the desirability of making the gift certificates more tangible both to the purchasers and the recipients, and agree, then whether or not PA are adequate for the purpose may be something for you to address if and when you think about developing this great contribution further.

Seems that re-installing and developing product attributes would be very complicated for me, since I dispensed with them very early on in the store modification process. Since I also have rather low expectations as to the number of customers (even ones from my other venues) who will avail themselves of the gift certificate option at this time, I'm going to keep with a simpler version: Gift Certificates as "regular items" at very low but not zero weight. Customers can choose to buy them virtually and receive an image file + nice e-mail + redemption #, or get a pretty piece of paper + redemption number + message. In the meantime, I'll also keep the credit option, which is potentially the most useful part of the entire contribution. I'll also take a look at the account balance option as time permits, but it's much less urgent under this plan. Still a great contribution even if not quite up to my highest hopes.

Hmmm... I hadn't even thought of attributes. I'd gotten away from using them at all - since other than possibly in this example they NEVER apply to the kinds of items I sell. But it might be the simple solution. I deleted the code from my product_info.php, but could restore them with some simple if_then_else wrap, and then figure out what else is involved. I don't really know anything about how they interact with the rest of the suite, and whether it will involve any other troublesome complications, but I'll look into it. A s for the pop-up synthetic superimposed printout, that might be easy for you - for me it's making up a new chapter or two of coding based on trial-and-error hacking of whatever contributions appear to be relatively close to what I'm trying to do. I'm not complaining or prodding - though if you know of an adaptable contribution I can look at I'd be grateful for the tip - I'm just saying don't expect to see it anytime soon, at least from me. I'd may just stick with sending the attachment on request. I agree #2 looks much easier. I may very well get around to that one today or anyway sometime soon, and will post whatever relevant snippets if they involve anything beyond the breathtakingly obvious. Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for this great contribution - especially for the work solidifying and stabilizing the confusing mess that the "non-traditional" version had become. No offense to the developers there, who've obviously done a lot of great work, but the results remain very confusing, and some of the commentary by authors reduce confidence that the laborious process of installing the contribution will be worth it. No one likes to spend a morning installing a contribution, an afternoon failing to make it work, and then have to un-install it anyway. But enough of that - except to say that I believe this contribution should become a fundamental part of the next major osCommerce release, and that contributors should consider making this version the "reference" version according to which future improvements and attempted improvements are calibrated. As for specifics, I managed to get both the discount coupons and the gift vouchers working properly (though I'll have to take care of the non-clickable link problem in the gift voucher e-mail that I've seen discussed previously without a clear indication of most desirable solution - I'll just wing it). I like the way the coupons are set up, but I'd like to see the gift vouchers (or gift certificates as we say here in the States) made more user-friendly and fun. GCs have become increasingly popular especially during the (upcoming) Holiday Season, and, even though they're obviously less of a tangible expression than a precious object, the more that they "feel" like a precious object, the better. Also, they should be extremely simple to use and to understand: Any element of confusion or any hassles at all will de-value them in the eyes both of purchasers and end recipients. So, to get the GCs as I'd really like them, I'm going to be working on two kinds of improvements, and I hope that if anyone has already done some work on these lines or has any suggestions, they'll help out. 1. Tangible gift - I want to integrate the purchase process with the delivery, virtual and/or physical, of an actual certificate. Purchasers should be able to receive a printed certificate that they can place in a nice envelope and present to a recipient. Alternatively, they should be able to receive a certificate by e-mail that they can easily print out or send on themselves. 2. User-friendliness - purchasers and redeemers should be able at all points in the checkout process to check their balance before and after purchase. The balance should appear as soon as they've logged in (not just a notice that they HAVE a balance), and the balance after purchase of items in the shopping cart should also appear prior to checkout. The congratulations-you've-redeemed-it page should also state the new balance. I'd also urge the developers to consider ways to implement them that will be cleaner and smoother than my own hackery is likely to be. It's quite possible that I simply won't have the time to implement these changes before launching my store (e-mail announcements, message board postings, etc.), so I may go with the not as friendly as I would like it set-up, and offer to provide the physical or virtual certificates along with whatever necessary customer support - i.e., just e-mail or mail the certificates to the purchasers or to whatever addresses requested, and independently track the sales to be sure I've got them straight. Since I have a 1-person/relatively low volume operation, and am just in the process of opening, I don't anticipate it being a major headache. (I'll be quite happy if I sell even just a handful of GCs this season...) Anyway - thanks again. The coupon process is EXACTLY what I needed to launch any minute/hour/day now as I perform some last-moment checks and edits (including to this contribution). If anyone wants to see how it CURRENTLY works (subject to change), feel free to visit at http://ckmac.com. If you want to test the process, let me know ahead of time - as the store is neither purely "preview/test" nor "fully launched/alive," but lodged somewhere in the birth canal while subjected to strenuous labor. Best, Colin

I was hoping that I might be able to get a good-enough-for-now send invoice function by adapting E-Mail Queue 2.0 - which creates an intermediate e-mail handler that allows the store owner to view and edit generated e-mails then send them out either immediately or on schedule. E-Mail Queue adds its own e-mail handling functions along side tep_mail, and they're enabled with switches and interface in admin and if-then-else in files that use tep_mail. The EMQ 2.0 thread includes some discussion of futher adapting the code and installation for use on the admin side (admin starting with a different mail-handler than the catalog side on osCommerce). I've hit an obstacle for now. Fancier Invoices introduces yet a third mail creation function of its own in its email_invoice.php file, and I haven't yet succeeded in adapting it adequately. Even if I succeeded on this level (getting fancy invoices diverted to the queue prior to being sended), it would still be only a one-shot deal, since order editing would take place outside of Order Editor - which isn't the idea at all. I'd still need to make edited orders appear in the e-mail queue, which amounts to "back to square one," though with a bit more familiarity with the various e-mail functions available. There must be a way to add similar e-mail functionality alongside the notification and comments code. I'm just not sure that I have time to figure it out right now.

Beautiful contribution which, like others here, I use in conjunction with Order Editor. A suggestion or issue that comes up with that also great contribution, and that no one seems to have addressed explicitly, is the question of sending out a duplicate or edited invoice via Admin. At present the only way I've found to do this is to use the SEND PAGE function on Internet Explorer, which opens up an e-mail via Outlook. E-mail addresses then have to be added manually. Firefox doesn't have a way to do this, and, anyway, it's rather cumbersome. I've looked at some other contributions and at the PHP code, and I think I see a way to go about adding this function, but, given my limited skills, I tend to think that any solution I come up with will be pure hackery. I wonder if someone has already implemented a solution for this problem which, as a seller, I know comes up frequently - either as a result of customer requests, negotiated changes in order details (discounts, shipping changes, package deals, and so on), or the need to remind tardy payers. Right now, an edited invoice has that "all dressed up, no place to go" appearance, even though, as I stated, there are some relatively cumbersome workarounds. Any code snippets or suggestions would be greatly appreciated before I set about re-inventing this little wheel. The other change I hope to implement soon is simple addition of a Paypal payment button - NOT using the Paypal IPN, but rather a piece of the Outlook wizard. Just need to get order details into the proper slots. Again, this is something I already do manually from time to time. A solution may end up involving a VBA macro rather than an addition via PHP to osCommerce, though if the time investment is too great, I may just stick to typing in or cutting and pasting manually. Again, thanks for the great contribution. With just a little bit of customization, it does indeed make for great, professional quality invoicing and packing slippery.

Truly a terrific contribution, which I have implemented in combination with the Fancier Invoices package by Pop the Top. I must say that, considering how sophisticated the whole package is, I'm a little surprised it wasn't designed with a "send invoice" or "re-send invoice" or "send new invoice" or "send duplicate invoice" button or buttons in Admin. In my experience as a seller, sending new or duplicate invoices is something I frequently have to do for a customer, especially if there's any negotiation involved, or just for the sake of reminding someone who's tardy in paying. Sending a notification of changes and a link to the order page isn't quite the same at all. It's not a big deal to open the invoice in Internet Explorer and use "send page" to open up an e-mail in Outlook, but it's a little clumsy and time-consuming compared to the other aspects of the contribution. My PHP knowledge is strictly "learn by doing," and is advanced enough that I can see how I might go about trying to add such a feature, but I expect it'll be pure hackery of some type - nowhere near as elegant as I suspect the designer of this package could come up with. Searching this thread, I've seen a few requests for this feature that apparently were never replied to, but maybe I missed the posts. If someone has an adequate solution ready-to-hand, or has done work on this already, I'd love to be relieved of the need to re-invent this particular wheel. The other work that I have to do "by hand" is to add a Paypal payment button. I don't want to try to implement the Paypal IPN, since I hear it's kind of buggy, but adding a Paypal button with the Paypal Outlook wizard makes for a cumbersome process. I expect I'll eventually be wanting to add a Google-Checkout button, too. Again, I'll probably work up some hack of my own - maybe even a VBA macro instead of a PHP application, but if someone has the solution ready-to-hand, I'd love to see it. I'll probably be cross-posting this to the Fancier invoice threads, too. If there's a solution there, I'll come back here with it - and I hope you'll just consider this post a long thank you for what I repeat is a terrific contribution.

Hmmmm... I guess I'll look again for examples that I might be able to adapt. I take it though that it SHOULD be quite within the capabilities of the code with RELATIVELY minor adjustments. I'm not sure what you're seeing or not seeing or expecting to see when you go to the home page. I use a mostly unmodified version of dm_categories to create the regular categories menu, then just enough code to put up the second menu (lower right quadrant) for the "links menu." Yes, it has no submenus at present, as I've intentionally set it up without submenus, since the various attempts to combine the two vertical menus on the same page was either preventing flyouts or more typically causing the submenus to fly out in the wrong place. If it's a clue to you at all, the links menu's flyouts were appearing where they would have appeared if they had been part of the initial menu - as shown in the post at http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?s=&...mp;p=931181 Anyway, I'll see if I can dig something more up - obviously I was hoping that you could say "Oh, just re-name x as y, and paste z here and it'll work just fine," but it looks like something I'll have to leave to future days, weeks, or months.

Thanks for the reply - if you page back a bit, you'll see my discussions of what I've tried - beginning with my first effort at a stripped-down install, continuing with various other experiments, including illustrative screen captures. Though the method I'm working with right now is only one of various that succeeded within the limitations I describe (no flyout on second vertical menu), and not necessarily the cleanest, I've left it as is pending a serious effort to fix the problem. I have looked athrough the PostNuke stuff and also at the developer documentation, which it least got me as far as putting up the second menu and using a text file to provide links, but which nowhere provided a precise example I could work from. I have re-named the second menu, and have tried various experiments involving the libraries and alternate naming conventions. You can view what I've done at CK MacLeod Collectibles at ckmac.com. Moved from the prior "catalog" directory to "root" in preparation for our opening any minute now. Home page has the menus centrally located, subsequent pages (still being last-min designed) will have the second menu in right or left column. Thanks in advance - and thanks again for the original contribution: if I didn't like this menu A LOT, I wouldn't be working with it at 75% effectiveness. Colin (By the way, on the off-chance you're interested in this kind of thing I'm selling, I'm very favorable to giving discounts to developers whose contributions I've used. I hope it's not improper to making the offer here. And feel free to e-mail me directly.)

I've pretty much given up on the hope that someone here would be able to help with the problem of dysfunctional flyouts with second vertical menu on same page (no flyout or flying out in wrong place), as described in my posts above. If perchance you're checking back, Nate, and you have any advice, I'd be very interested, as I'm still working with a second menu with no submenus, since my previous efforts to figure out and solve the problem have gone nowhere. I don't see how the stylesheet code would be relevant, and the dmfooter is obviously being outputted, since the menus do work to some extent - categories menu totally functional under current set-up, second menu as 1-level series of links. I still hope to sit down with the problem again some day and figure something out. For me it's lots of trial and error hacking of code I don't fully understand or in some cases hardly understand at all. Could you (or anyone) possibly point to a more likely starting point? If you're not receiving notifications from here, it may be a result of gray-listing or some other problem with your ISP. If you have a second e-mail address at a different ISP or web host, you might try using it instead. I have a friend on sbcglobal.net who can't receive e-mails through my web host server - not even a bounce back, they just disappear in the void. I instead e-mail him through my ISP. I've seen similar problems with different aspects of different e-mailers - different kinds of e-mail breakdowns with Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and so on.

I was getting similar but not identical warnings (may also be using a different version of EP). I recently moved all of my files to a new server, and was able to get rid of some permissions warnings by adjusting file attributes to 777, but was still getting the critical problem - until I deleted all of the old files produced during previous splits. I think I could also have just re-set permissions to 777 on each of them, but it was easier to delete them and let the software re-create them. In short, when I re-uploaded ALL of my folders and files to the new server, all of the permissions appear to have been re-set. I think this is normal behavior under my set-up. So, I'd suggest you try deleting everything in your temp directory (back up anything that for one reason or another you need, of course), then try again. If that doesn't work, check folder-level permissions and anything else that may be relevant in configure.php and elsewhere. Please note that I'm just winging it here - trial and erroring. And please let me know how it turns out or if you solved the problem in some other way. I'm curious.

There's a setImgdir function/method in the layersmenu-common.inc file. One thing I find useful when trying to track down error messages and file relationships is to do a search for the critical string among possible files. That's how I found this one. Still haven't solved the 2 vertical dyna-menus on same page flyout problem, by the way. May make another assault on it soon. Best I've been able to achieve is to get the categories submenus to fly out correctly, and have the second menu only with top levels.

I wonder if it's an FTP error, since the only way I can get a blank page without an error message is to upload a completely empty file. Have you checked to be sure that the file's contents are really there? Firewall conflicts and other problems can sometimes make it look like you've uploaded a file when they've actually stripped the contents away. My ISP distributed a free anti-virus/firewall package that conflicted with Filezilla in approximately that way.

Great contribution! I've modified it a bit for my own purposes, of course, and (this is the main reason I'm posting here), I also ran into the problem with the manufacturers_id number not being generated in the URL, with clicks leading to a no-such-product page. Jack posted a fix, but he transposed his code snippets, exchanging the replacement code with the to-be-replaced code. You need to use the following code: $listing_sql = "select p.products_id, p.products_model, pd.products_name, pd.products_description, p.products_image, p.products_price, p.products_tax_class_id, IF(s.status, s.specials_new_products_price, NULL) as specials_new_products_price, p.products_date_added, m.manufacturers_name, m.manufacturers_id from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p left join " . TABLE_MANUFACTURERS . " m on p.manufacturers_id = m.manufacturers_id left join " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd on p.products_id = pd.products_id and pd.language_id = '" . $languages_id . "' left join " . TABLE_SPECIALS . " s on p.products_id = s.products_id $where order by pd.products_name"; instead of the $listing_sql query (ca. line 298 - my mods may have shifted it a bit) in catalog/allprods.php. You may then want to fiddle with some formatting/layout details. In developing my own store - where I will be selling movie memorabilia like posters - I early on replaced "manufacturers" with "genres," as well as "products" with "items" or "titles." Which brings me to a MINOR request. Can someone point me to the proper code for adding a numerical definition for "fl" (first letter)? Some titles - 2001, 10, 1941, 48 HOURS, etc. - begin with numbers, to state the obvious. These will appear at the top of the list as currently generated anyway, which is why this is such a minor point. Still, it would make for more complete code if the user, when clicking on a # link, restricted the results exclusively to items that begin with a #. Hacking away in blithe ignorance, I tried variations on fl=0 or fl=1, etc., but I'm just poking around in the dark here. Thanks again for this great contribution - which can work as a very nice catalog option for users well beyond whatever use it does for SEs.

Still no luck getting two vertical menus on the same page to function together correctly. The top levels work alright, but the submenus either fail to fly out or fly out in the wrong places. I'm going to go back to the PHP Layers material to see if I can cobble together something that works. One possibility might be to embed the full code for both menus on whatever page or column, rather than relying on a php include, since Javascript does sometimes seem to function differently in such instances on some browsers, and since the two separate menus employ redundant code that may also be implicated. Other alternatives might include junking one or both menus in favor of another solution entirely. Again, if anyone's had any luck combining a vertical categories dynamenu with another vertical dynamenu I'd be very interested, as right now this is the major obstacle in the way of opening my store with my desired design.

New pitfall for adding second menu to same page. Though I was going to wait until I had done more with my re-design (it's still in very rough draft form), I'll give you a peek at a screenshot, so you can see what I'm dealing with: In words: The submenu flyouts on my second vertical menu (at lower right) don't fly out next to the new menu, but rather in an odd intermediate position (in the upper right area near the current genres/titles etc. drop down boxes). Here's a fly-out working: When I place all links in the new menu below the lowest level of the categories menu (original dm_categories.php menu, at upper left starting with "large movie posters"), the flyouts take place where they're supposed to. In other words, if the first flyout on the links menu is fourth from the top or lower (.e., at least 1 level lower than the lowest category), then it works fine. So, looks like an unwanted interaction with the original menu, possibly related to the simplism of the approach I outlined above. Anyone feel like solving the problem for me?

Stellar! Exactly what I needed while working on my home page re-design. Am teaching myself PHP and whatever else I need on the fly (often on the crawl), so a lot of things that are obvious to advanced users I'm having to figure out for myself as the hours go by, and I thought I'd share some notes just to help whoever comes here after me. After getting the categories menu to work from inside the main body - that part was very easy - then checking through some formatting issues (still not solved, but I now know where to look), my next goal was to get a links menu in a similar style for a different position on the page. People like me may encounter a few problems that some of the clues arleady give on this thread do not make fully clear. All you need to do to get a functioning 2nd menu is 1) come up with an identifier - I called my 2nd menu linksmenu so I'll use it in the following 2) globally replace "catmenu" with "linksmenu" 3) select style "switch" (e.g., vertical vs. horizontal vs. tree etc.) 4) create the new MenuStructure... Here's where a beginner has to figure something out - that is, what's the proper syntax for making multiple menu-items. Nate gave one example using ".|Home|index.php|Home|||\n" - a link to the home page (as index.php). But he didn't tell us how to do multiple items (no doubt the syntax is second nature for him and anyone else who, unlike me, knows what he's doing and isn't just code-hacking). To do two items, a full working example of a line can look like this: $mid->setMenuStructureString(".|Home|index.php|Home|||\n" . ".|Condition Grading|condition_grading.php|Condition Grading|||\n"); There are alternative ways, of course, of writing it, and also of calling the string from another file. This is just a VERY simple version that you can try. If experienced code-writers have a more elegant solution they'd like to propose, please feel free to do so! I'll be looking more deeply into the PHP Layers Menu materials I just downloaded this afternoon. 5) Get rid of stuff in the file that pertains only to the more complicated, database-querying version in the original categories contribution. This serves two purposes: It makes for a cleaner, more compact file, but, more important, it prevents a fatal error from occurring (re-declaring of already-declared functions). (Interestingly, even with this fatal error, the menu will still work - it'll just leave an ugly message on your page - so it's really more of a "majorly disfiguring error.") It's elementary, but I'll say it for the sake of completeness: Unless you're planning on having a second categories menu (in which case apparently you'll need some other more advanced workaround), you can and should delete everything that concerns categories, starting after line 218 that begins with "if" and ends with a closing curly bracket ("}") at the extreme left, while keeping the "?>" at the end of course. There's much more that can be deleted, especially if youv'e decided there's a particular version of the menu you're going to stick with, though naturally you have to be careful. 6) Save the file under a new name - I'm using dm_links.php - and leave it in the boxes folder, even if you're not planning to use it as a box. You could and someday probably should put it somewhere else, but this way you don't have to worry about other relative file relationships or ,making other changes. 7) Link to the menu as you did to the previous menu, though under the new filename of course. Naturally, when you fiddle with the CSS, it will change the appearance of both menus - which is OK for me for now, since I'm happy to have them match. Maybe at some later point, I'll define unique styles for each menu. Anyway that's all that you HAVE to do to get up and walking. You can move on to running later. When I've advanced my work a little further, I'll try to come back with a link to my store page. Thanks, Nate!

You need to explain your problem more clearly. On the face of it, it sounds like you need to delete 15,500 products from your 17,000 line file - or copy 1,500 of them to another file. Since this looks too obvious and simple, I have to presume there's some other obstacle in the way, but I haven't the foggiest idea what it is.

Sorry if I got your hopes up, but, maybe by bumping this to the top, we'll attract attention. The error I'm getting is different. It appears when I access from the admin panel: Fatal error: Call to undefined function: tep_cfg_pull_down_available_shipping_method() in /home/ckmaccom/public_html/osCommerce/catalog/admin/configuration.php(125) : eval()'d code on line 1 Wondering if there might not be a syntax error somewhere in the mysql file, I tried various manual edits of the configuration table, but merely produced a range of alternative, varyingly similar error messages. I suspect that there was some typos or other errors in the base files, but I'm not sure, as I haven't gone over it all with a fine tooth comb as yet. Instead, I just commented out the whole "cheapest method" section in checkout_shipping.php, and will get by without recommending ANY option until I have time to figure this one out. Good luck!

Congratulations. If you'd rather take offense than suggestions, that's your choice, and you can continue to choose to read my initial and subsequent remarks as "b1tch"-ing. On the other hand, since you've already made it clear that you "couldn't care less," why do you continue to reply at all? For the benefit of others in my predicament, I'll say that I think I've gotten a little better than half of the way to fixing the CSS button problem, but have encountered further dysfunctionality around the add-to-cart and delete buttons and functions in wishlist.php. I feel lucky to have run across some snippets of code and some oblique discussion that seem to have helped (concerning apparently required additions of "_x" to "delete_prod" and "add_prod" in the button html area) - though am still dealing with formatting and clean-up complications. If only I weren't completely clueless, I'd think about adding something to the contribution page tailored to other people who have (oh so foolishly) adopted the (infinitely inferior) CSS buttons contribution. Maybe someone who has a clue will do it for me, since I'm rather likely to forget how to use my bookmarks, or possibly even how to boot up my computer. I suspect that in addition to adding a warning about these particular problem areas, and suggested/possible fixes, this at least minimally competent contributor may also want to add some notes about proper obeisances and offerings required at the so-called support thread - not that anyone should suppose that the programmer might be a tad touchy.

IF the contribution couldn't work with CSS buttons generally, then it would be kind of brittle, considering how commonly that style of button is employed. If, however, as you suggest, the problem is with the substandard way that another popular contribution was written, then it isn't the Wishlist writer's fault. However, considering how frequently the problem is encountered - and considering how much time will be wasted by people (beginners especially but even moderately experienced users) trying to figure out why their wish list isn't working - it would still be good practice to include some kind of warning or notice with the installation packages. Even better, of course, would be the specific lines of code that must be included to enable the button properly. If you'd rather nurture a snit, then that's your choice, but getting snippy about a problem with one's contributions is another kind of brittleness whose practical import can be as bad or worse than poor code-writing.

OK - after some more searching, I see now that this is or has been a common problem - so common that finding a definitive solution is even more difficult than if it was just a simple bug that had been simply fixed in a simple update... After repeated attempts to work with application_top, I then ran across the discussion of buttons. Has it been definitively concluded that the contribution will not work with CSS buttons? If so, that would make the contribution rather brittle IMO. Still, did someone develop a workaround? A little time-saving guidance would be greatly appreciated. Is it worth sorting through all of the discussion and possible fixes or not?

Am having the exact same problem. Also, I was hoping that the new (Aug 21) fix package might happen to address this problem, but the zip does not unpack - instead I get a program-crashing "insert first disk of backup" error. I suspect that if I trial-and-error for a few hours struggling to improve my grasp of PHP on the fly, I MIGHT discover the simple error. Then again, I might just waste more time after having gone through the semi-lengthy install. Or maybe the answer is somewhere in the 30 pages of this support forum. I'm not sure how to take the failure of anyone to reply to Shmuel at this point.