Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

[Capt'n Morgan]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

I can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet.

AUTO THUMBNAILS!!

I'm really surprised none of the developers have come up with a module for this yet. Other carts do this automatically, that saves teaching our customers how to resize images!

There's more discussion on this topic here.


... really it would be nice if it sized BOTH images, that way the customer might not need to fuss with size at all.

[tbogus]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

I would second the related items import - something built-in to MM would be nice. Also the auto-thumbnail solution would be great, although it comes in handy for us when you have to reference a thumbnail image path in an affiliate feed, etc.

Tim

[KCSVEN]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

Auto Thumbnails,
I would love this and have implemented it on my own for now, though in a less than optimum way, however, in my search to accomplish this I learned a few things. I found that being a costume business the google image search can be just as lucrative as the regular search and sites that autosize have an easier time ranking, it seems, which makes sense as the same image is linked from different pages instead of 2 different images. What I did was set a fixed image size for the category page template
(e.g.: img src="&mvte:product:image;" width="92" height="150)
, of course I had not optimized the full size images as the same size width-wise so this has caused some distortion for the thumbnails which i will have to fix manually by re-editing the larger photos but going forward that should not be an issue. However, you do need the thumbnails uploaded as well as different pages use it, like my search page, for example. I'm sure several other places the thumbnail may get used and if you remember where they all are and change them not a problem but adds some complexity to any module.

The negative is possibly slightly slower page loads though in this day and age of broadband I have not noticed any slowness by doing this using a cable connection and also a slower DSL connection.

I will post this on the thread related to this as well and any follow-ups there, don't want to turn the dream features request page into a discussion thread

[arch]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

Roll over photo feature for product page.

[aammhh1]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

A simple hyperlink insert field for the Category Title Image so that the image is clickable and can take you automatically to a sub-category (or anywhere else on the website).

[hughvia]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

Compare Products Module

A module that would allow a customer to compare the features of 2 or more products within a category. The module would provide a check box for each product in a category that when checked would include those products in a comparison matrix on a separate page. This feature is available on many retail sites. X-cart as well as a few other shopping carts applications offer this feature either built in or as an optional module.

The module would have a database that would give the store owner the ability to create and store a standardized table of features for each product to be used for the comparison.

Ideally the module would have an export/import capability for external addition/editing of stored data.

The module would extract basic information from to product itself like the weight, price, thumbnail image, product custom fields etc.

The module should limit the number of products to compare to 3 or 4 at a time to allow for a less cluttered display.

The module should be set up to be enabled on a category by category basis. Not every category would need to use this capability.

In the bells and whistles category, a means of tracking the compares done on the site.

[Birdman]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

We are in the process of upgrading from M4 to M5. I was very glad to see M5 added a numbering option in the product sort (this was my biggest complaint with M4), but here are a few I would like to see (let me know if there is already something available - many thanks)

- A tool for resizing photos (we imported our photos (thousands) from our M4 store, but now want to layout products in columns in the categories - so the photos now need to be smaller, but Miva tells me there is no option to resize the images - it will be a royal pain for us to have to resize and reload all the photos!

- Go back from the Shipping/Billing info page (or beyond) and lose all the info you just entered - yes logging into your account first solves this problem, but many do not want to have to create an account to purchase from us (we removed that as a requirement). Customers gets very frustrated being forced to re enter everything and I understand.

- If the billing address is different on only one line (PO Box,etc.), why have to fill the whole thing in when the info is already under shipping? Very annoying.

So far I love M5!!!

[Gilbert]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

Just done a product import with the new enhanced Import Products From Flat File.

The Log File is a great feature. However it would be even better if Enable could default permanently to the user selection (on or off)

Another needed improvement and timesaver is to have the Fields Row permanently saved as per user selection.

(this is also true for the Delimiter and the – though I do not use it – First Line of File is a Header Row)

[griggs]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

merchant email notification - html capable
hidden categories
more choices with category tree template

[RayYates]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

This feature request is listed prioritized. The first one I desperately want, the others I just badly want.

1. Add Attribute Template: Copy From [ drop down list ] {go}

2. Add Page Template: Copy From [ drop down list ] {go}

3. Add Category: Copy From [ drop down list ] {go}

4. Add Product: Copy From [ drop down list ] {go}

Once I or a client has set up a complex atribute template, they often need variations on that template for various classes of products. Setting these up one by one is repetative, tedious and prone to mistakes.

If the ability to clone them were available a "master template" could be created, then copied, and un-needed attributes or options simply deleted; dramaticly reducing the amount of work required to use attribute templates.

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

In-admin apps/helpers?

Are any developers working on in-admin modules, or are they blocked? Here are some features I have been asked about that I believe would be helpful and popular, and maybe Miva is the one to do them.

1. Custom Product Field drop downs, checkboxes, etc. Many users have employees that enter product data. In Custom Product Fields, often they must enter from a key of choices, like Yes or No, or D for Dog, C for Cat, etc., for conditionally shown content on product pages. If they don't enter the exact code, it doesn't work. Allowing drop downs and check boxes would help them always choose from the available options.

2. FTP-type system. To add a graphic to, say, the Global Header, user must use an FTP program to upload the graphic. I have a tutorial on using the Button section to upload graphics, but that's a hack. An FTP feature for graphics, and maybe even for PDFs and the like (not sure if this would make hosts unhappy) would be great.

4. Ability to see which products are using each Attribute Template.

5. "Duplicate product" and "duplicate category" functions, where it does a complete dupe, with all settings, but adds a 2 to the code (or something similar). This is probably one of the most requested features I hear about.

6. A basic email system to email all customers. This would require some complexity (opt in, opt out, etc.), but having this in admin, directly connected to the customer database, would be very powerful. aMember, Post Affiliate Pro, other systems have this and I use them regularly.

I probably should have posted each of these separately, one per day or something, because I just know this is going to move down this thread so fast most of these will get lost!

[harmonicalessons]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

I'd like to be able to view/edit passwords in Admin. I would like to have the password available for troubleshooting login problems. And, viewing the password is another clue for me to help detect potential credit card fraud.

Thanks,
Dave

[Brandon MUS]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

I'd like to be able to view/edit passwords in Admin. I would like to have the password available for troubleshooting login problems. And, viewing the password is another clue for me to help detect potential credit card fraud.

Thanks,
Dave

I would like to have the passwords encrypted so that they are unrecoverable. An automated password recovery system would also be very nice so that the customer can have a new password emailed to them -- or even better -- a one-use token that logs them in but requires them to change their password. Almost NO system out there in this day in age stores or emails the account password in a plain text.

[kayakbabe]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

Ditto on what chuck just said

1. Custom Product Field drop downs, checkboxes, etc. Many users have employees that enter product data. In Custom Product Fields, often they must enter from a key of choices, like Yes or No, or D for Dog, C for Cat, etc., for conditionally shown content on product pages. If they don't enter the exact code, it doesn't work. Allowing drop downs and check boxes would help them always choose from the available options.

However I want this available on customer custom fields too!

We have a field we use to designate if a customer sent us their "sales and use tax certificates" I want that field to either have a TRUE or FALSE in it. different employees 'forget' and put all kinds of things in there. I'm hoarse from explaining it.

Anyway, it's used to affect the checkout process... like the customer simple can not checkout until they fax in the stuff and we flag their account.
Having the right data is key to making it all work right.

Same on the product custom fields. It would be nice to have a little regex type pattern for those fields. then we could restrict data entry to fit the criteria we need for those fields.. like when we ask for a number value then can't put in something non numeric. or when we ask for a date.. I want to check for a date. And it should work from the customer AND admin sides of the store.

[kayakbabe]

Re: Miva Merchant 5.5 Dream Features

A MS smartquotes stripper.

Not a cute girl with an intelligent mouth.. but a feature whereby when an employee pastes text copied in from MS Word or MS Outlook, that those pesky ISO or whatever they are non standard ASCII curly quotes and the like will be converted to their standard ASCII equivalents.