When I was setting up http://www.harrieshomes.co.za I wasn't sure how best to go about some of the options, and then I gave Suzanne from Catalook access to a copy of my site - in a few minutes she went about setting
up what I wanted (she gave me different options) and then she sent me a summary email explaining what she had done.
If you have the facility and she doesn't mind, maybe give that a try. It's faster than her writing out all the options - for you, and her, if it saves her several support emails.
I've seen the images change colour based on colour choice (that is laid out step-by-step in the word doc on the site) - but I don't know how to let the colour list be controlled by the size chosen. It sounds possible though ... I guess you'd set up the
colours for each size seperately.
to show the attribute features of the KHZ store, you would go into the control panel > settings > general settings and set the mode to "Advanced" and this will show you the traits and attributes for your categories and your products.
You need to add the traits to a particular category, and then you can select them for which products. this way, you can limit the traits available for each category, so you can have some control and ease of selection of those qualities and attributes.
Intuition without concept is blind; Concept without intuition is empty -- I. Kant : Critique of Pure Reason
In the olden days, books were burned. Now the website is shut down.
>to show the attribute features of the KHZ store, you would go into the control panel > settings > general settings and set the mode to "Advanced" and this will show you the traits and attributes for your categories and your products.
You need to add the traits to a particular category, and then you can select them for which products. this way, you can limit the traits available for each category, so you can have some control and ease of selection of those qualities and attributes.<
When I tried to add a trait to a category, I got the following error message:
"The control named 'NewTrait' has an unknown conflict: Parser Error: The ID 'cboAdd' is already used by another control."
It looks like I'll be going with Catalook. I've been able to add size and color attributes, and I see how it is possible to get images to change color based on color choice. I haven't figured out how to constrain color based on size, but I can attach a size/color
availability chart (JPG) to each product, so that will have to do.
I couldn't get KHZ Store working. Installed the trial version ok (needed some manual workarounds, and they may have caused the error that ultimately stopped me). Trying to add size/color "traits", I got the error noted in previous post.
No demo yet for Portal Store, so not a candidate.
As I've worked with Catalook, I've developed an appreciation for the power and elegance of it. I like the fact that it implements many features as DNN components, so it can be smoothly integrated with a DNN site. I think that is better than a single component
with a built in (not DNN-like) structure of links. That hasn't influenced my choice, which was a much more pragmatic "what can I get to work for my (simple) application". Had there been more than one successful candidate, I might have looked at elegance, extensibility,
etc.
Well, I spent 2 hours reading through the Catalook docs.. few areas of replication but wow, it does pack a mighty group of options together..
In a nutshell - here's some scenarios that I see Catalook working with -
- I have subscriptions - I sell 6 months of magazines.. each month - my subscribers get an email that says - 5 months , 4 months, 3 months, etc.. and on 0 month - a link to payment gateway or paypal.. It can be setup in DNN scheduler to perform these tasks
automatically therefore giving you the ability to take advantage of recurring subscriptions that keep people notified.
- I sell on ebay - There is a generator but you have to download a file that isn't part of the licensing yet, follow the instructions and then apply with the TurboLister thing that ebay people use. Makes me want to sell something on ebay !!!
- I sell things with different colours - You can display different coloured products by following the instructions - you can make a red option show up a red item when you mouse over, a green option show up a green item when you mouse over ... etc
- Some things I sell have different prices for the same product - EG.. small, medium, large... you can add options with values - eg.. price is for medium, but if you pick small, it's $ or % less, if you pick large it's $ or % more.. and it will automatically
adjust pricing
- I don't want to sell, just have an online catalogue - There are instructions on how to make your products show as an online catalogue only. Suitable for product catalogues or affiliate type of marketing.
- I sell packages of products that I want customers to be able to configure themselves, but, some parts are not able to be sold with others or it won't work. - There is a multi configurable option that allows you to link one product to another, so that
if you choose choose that item, only the options you preset will be offered in the selection process. EG. one motherboard comes with a certain brand cpu - so the other cpu's do not appear as a selection in the package process.
- I hate invoicing - That's ok - you can setup so that customers can log in and generate their own!
- I have different shipping rates - There are as many ways to configure shipping as I could think of, from manual management through to hooking into the automated products.
The only thing I have not fully explored is the SSL management - with sites running in an SSL environment but then again, after reading about the amount of fraud, and the risks/responsibilities that hosting providers take when storing credit card details
on their server, I'm not interested.. I think everyone should use a payment gateway of some sort and never hold their client's CC on their server. Then security is never going to be an issue for you to worry about.
So, I posted this here, as a point of reference for myself as well. Catalook can do a lot or a little.. just depends on how far you want to take it.. From 49 - $199 US - it's still representing good value to me.
Support is important, as is the release of a product that have alot of errors in it. . I'd rather wait until a product was finished than in beta - believe me.. I've been beta'd out these last few months!!
I didn't know where to chime in on this discussion exactly, but wanted to give some feedback on my experience with Portal Store.
I work for an association management company and am responsible for the Websites of 3 membership-based non-profit organizations. I've been using Portal Store for almost a year now and selected it initially because it seemed to have the most flexibility and
I could configure it to continuing using our payment gateway. I use it to sell conference registrations and associated events, audio files, print and online subscriptions, and membership. I could use it to sell just about anything, but those are the key items.
Initially, I found Portal Store somewhat confusing to use, but really liked the fact that I could add product options. I can set it up to create individual products and product packages. The subscription feature is great along with the downloads as that
has allowed us to sell files from our conferences with a minimal amount of work. I also like how I can set up a different catalog for a different set of products. For example, if we have two conferences going on, I can set up a catalog for each conference,
as well as set up a complete catalog for all of our conferences so I can send the user straight to the appropriate registration page. Not to mention a complete store with all of our products in one place.
Since ByDesignWebSights has taken over the development of the product, it just keeps getting better and better. The administrative interface is now far more intuitive--I actually like to work with the store now. Also, now you can skin just about every aspect
of the store, from the catalog to the product display. I haven't worked much with this yet, but I really can't wait to spend some time with it. I'll be able to customize everything about how my store, catalogs, products, etc., appear to the user.
There are actually a lot of features that I haven't had time to work with and am looking forward to exploring. You can add any featured product to any page of your site, display top products sold, get reports, upload products and a lot more. I wish we sold
more tangible products so I could utilize more features of the store.
There were a few bumps along the road of the upgrade, but I feel confident that most of the bugs have been worked out and look forward to future releases. I've been impressed with all of the improvements over the past year and especially the past 2 months
and eagerly await to see what future releases will bring.
As far as support goes, it's always been very available and quite responsive. ROI? We may have a different set of products than most, but I would say we saw our return on investment on the first sale of a conference registration. I'm trying to get hard numbers,
but would estimate that we've seen at least a 50% increase in online sales over the past year.
In short, I would recommend Portal Store to anyone looking forward for an e-commerece solution, especially now. Its flexibility, cost, support, and capabilities make it possible for just about any business to implement an ecommerece solution.
Well, I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Yesterday I had decided to go with Catalook, and that is still my inclination based on what I know and have been able to see for myself with demo software.
The one capability I'd like to have, that I don't know if I can achieve with Catalook, is the ability to constrain color choice by size choice. The products I'm going to be selling have a size/color matrix, i.e. some colors are only available in some sizes.
So ideally, when size is selected, the colors that can be chosen are limited to those available in that size.
Can anyone tell me for certain that I can (or definitely can't) accomplish this, with Catalook, KHZ Store, or Portal Store?
I'm pretty sure everything else I want to do can be done with Catalook, but this question is still open.
I am currently using a demo from KHz. I have found it to be very well thought out and easy to navigate. The documentations was lacking, but I was told new documentation was on the way.
I will be going this this store because it offers something the others do not, the ability to generate [multiple] PO's. This is necessary for this particular implementation. The store is for instance a "buying group" entity, it has several hundred distributors
and several hundred suppliers. The entity does not actually warehouse the products, they are shipped directly from the supplier to the distributor on behalf of the entity.
In this situation, a distributor sees a catalog of hundreds of suppliers goods and can order from all, place the order on a single invoice and the PO's are generated by the store then sent to the supplier for fulfillment.
I'm pretty sure you could get Portal Store to do this with a combination of the options feature and the product and catalog listings. One example might be:
Shirt 1 - (Catalog Item)
Shirt 1 Small - (Product)
Color - (Product Option Shirt 1 Small)
- green
- blue
- purple
Shirt 1 Medium - (Product)
Color - (Product Option Shirt 1 Medium)
- red
- blue
- orange
etc.
The thing is, each size variation of each shirt type would need to be considered a product.
Either that, or you could create various product option combinations and apply them to the products. I'm not sure which would be easier because I don't know how many different variations you have.
I think you should be able to do it with the flexiblity of Portal Store. Hopefully someone will respond if I'm wrong about the above or has a better idea.
tinky_lou
Member
725 Points
145 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 28, 2005 08:08 PM|LINK
When I was setting up http://www.harrieshomes.co.za I wasn't sure how best to go about some of the options, and then I gave Suzanne from Catalook access to a copy of my site - in a few minutes she went about setting up what I wanted (she gave me different options) and then she sent me a summary email explaining what she had done.
If you have the facility and she doesn't mind, maybe give that a try. It's faster than her writing out all the options - for you, and her, if it saves her several support emails.
I've seen the images change colour based on colour choice (that is laid out step-by-step in the word doc on the site) - but I don't know how to let the colour list be controlled by the size chosen. It sounds possible though ... I guess you'd set up the colours for each size seperately.
xpdit
Contributor
5421 Points
1086 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 28, 2005 09:42 PM|LINK
to show the attribute features of the KHZ store, you would go into the control panel > settings > general settings and set the mode to "Advanced" and this will show you the traits and attributes for your categories and your products.
You need to add the traits to a particular category, and then you can select them for which products. this way, you can limit the traits available for each category, so you can have some control and ease of selection of those qualities and attributes.
In the olden days, books were burned. Now the website is shut down.
KodHedZ Software Development
wr@macoun.co...
Member
225 Points
45 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 29, 2005 11:24 AM|LINK
>to show the attribute features of the KHZ store, you would go into the control panel > settings > general settings and set the mode to "Advanced" and this will show you the traits and attributes for your categories and your products.
You need to add the traits to a particular category, and then you can select them for which products. this way, you can limit the traits available for each category, so you can have some control and ease of selection of those qualities and attributes.<
When I tried to add a trait to a category, I got the following error message:
"The control named 'NewTrait' has an unknown conflict: Parser Error: The ID 'cboAdd' is already used by another control."
wr@macoun.co...
Member
225 Points
45 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 30, 2005 09:32 AM|LINK
It looks like I'll be going with Catalook. I've been able to add size and color attributes, and I see how it is possible to get images to change color based on color choice. I haven't figured out how to constrain color based on size, but I can attach a size/color availability chart (JPG) to each product, so that will have to do.
I couldn't get KHZ Store working. Installed the trial version ok (needed some manual workarounds, and they may have caused the error that ultimately stopped me). Trying to add size/color "traits", I got the error noted in previous post.
No demo yet for Portal Store, so not a candidate.
As I've worked with Catalook, I've developed an appreciation for the power and elegance of it. I like the fact that it implements many features as DNN components, so it can be smoothly integrated with a DNN site. I think that is better than a single component with a built in (not DNN-like) structure of links. That hasn't influenced my choice, which was a much more pragmatic "what can I get to work for my (simple) application". Had there been more than one successful candidate, I might have looked at elegance, extensibility, etc.
xpdit
Contributor
5421 Points
1086 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 30, 2005 10:03 PM|LINK
In the olden days, books were burned. Now the website is shut down.
KodHedZ Software Development
xddg
Star
9364 Points
1874 Posts
MVP
Re: Stores
Mar 31, 2005 12:17 AM|LINK
Well, I spent 2 hours reading through the Catalook docs.. few areas of replication but wow, it does pack a mighty group of options together..
In a nutshell - here's some scenarios that I see Catalook working with -
- I have subscriptions - I sell 6 months of magazines.. each month - my subscribers get an email that says - 5 months , 4 months, 3 months, etc.. and on 0 month - a link to payment gateway or paypal.. It can be setup in DNN scheduler to perform these tasks automatically therefore giving you the ability to take advantage of recurring subscriptions that keep people notified.
- I sell on ebay - There is a generator but you have to download a file that isn't part of the licensing yet, follow the instructions and then apply with the TurboLister thing that ebay people use. Makes me want to sell something on ebay !!!
- I sell things with different colours - You can display different coloured products by following the instructions - you can make a red option show up a red item when you mouse over, a green option show up a green item when you mouse over ... etc
- Some things I sell have different prices for the same product - EG.. small, medium, large... you can add options with values - eg.. price is for medium, but if you pick small, it's $ or % less, if you pick large it's $ or % more.. and it will automatically adjust pricing
- I don't want to sell, just have an online catalogue - There are instructions on how to make your products show as an online catalogue only. Suitable for product catalogues or affiliate type of marketing.
- I sell packages of products that I want customers to be able to configure themselves, but, some parts are not able to be sold with others or it won't work. - There is a multi configurable option that allows you to link one product to another, so that if you choose choose that item, only the options you preset will be offered in the selection process. EG. one motherboard comes with a certain brand cpu - so the other cpu's do not appear as a selection in the package process.
- I hate invoicing - That's ok - you can setup so that customers can log in and generate their own!
- I have different shipping rates - There are as many ways to configure shipping as I could think of, from manual management through to hooking into the automated products.
The only thing I have not fully explored is the SSL management - with sites running in an SSL environment but then again, after reading about the amount of fraud, and the risks/responsibilities that hosting providers take when storing credit card details on their server, I'm not interested.. I think everyone should use a payment gateway of some sort and never hold their client's CC on their server. Then security is never going to be an issue for you to worry about.
So, I posted this here, as a point of reference for myself as well. Catalook can do a lot or a little.. just depends on how far you want to take it.. From 49 - $199 US - it's still representing good value to me.
Support is important, as is the release of a product that have alot of errors in it. . I'd rather wait until a product was finished than in beta - believe me.. I've been beta'd out these last few months!!
Cheers [:D]
Nina Meiers
jagordon05
Member
75 Points
15 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 31, 2005 01:08 PM|LINK
I didn't know where to chime in on this discussion exactly, but wanted to give some feedback on my experience with Portal Store.
I work for an association management company and am responsible for the Websites of 3 membership-based non-profit organizations. I've been using Portal Store for almost a year now and selected it initially because it seemed to have the most flexibility and I could configure it to continuing using our payment gateway. I use it to sell conference registrations and associated events, audio files, print and online subscriptions, and membership. I could use it to sell just about anything, but those are the key items.
Initially, I found Portal Store somewhat confusing to use, but really liked the fact that I could add product options. I can set it up to create individual products and product packages. The subscription feature is great along with the downloads as that has allowed us to sell files from our conferences with a minimal amount of work. I also like how I can set up a different catalog for a different set of products. For example, if we have two conferences going on, I can set up a catalog for each conference, as well as set up a complete catalog for all of our conferences so I can send the user straight to the appropriate registration page. Not to mention a complete store with all of our products in one place.
Since ByDesignWebSights has taken over the development of the product, it just keeps getting better and better. The administrative interface is now far more intuitive--I actually like to work with the store now. Also, now you can skin just about every aspect of the store, from the catalog to the product display. I haven't worked much with this yet, but I really can't wait to spend some time with it. I'll be able to customize everything about how my store, catalogs, products, etc., appear to the user.
There are actually a lot of features that I haven't had time to work with and am looking forward to exploring. You can add any featured product to any page of your site, display top products sold, get reports, upload products and a lot more. I wish we sold more tangible products so I could utilize more features of the store.
There were a few bumps along the road of the upgrade, but I feel confident that most of the bugs have been worked out and look forward to future releases. I've been impressed with all of the improvements over the past year and especially the past 2 months and eagerly await to see what future releases will bring.
As far as support goes, it's always been very available and quite responsive. ROI? We may have a different set of products than most, but I would say we saw our return on investment on the first sale of a conference registration. I'm trying to get hard numbers, but would estimate that we've seen at least a 50% increase in online sales over the past year.
In short, I would recommend Portal Store to anyone looking forward for an e-commerece solution, especially now. Its flexibility, cost, support, and capabilities make it possible for just about any business to implement an ecommerece solution.
Jean
wr@macoun.co...
Member
225 Points
45 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 31, 2005 04:17 PM|LINK
Well, I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Yesterday I had decided to go with Catalook, and that is still my inclination based on what I know and have been able to see for myself with demo software.
The one capability I'd like to have, that I don't know if I can achieve with Catalook, is the ability to constrain color choice by size choice. The products I'm going to be selling have a size/color matrix, i.e. some colors are only available in some sizes. So ideally, when size is selected, the colors that can be chosen are limited to those available in that size.
Can anyone tell me for certain that I can (or definitely can't) accomplish this, with Catalook, KHZ Store, or Portal Store?
I'm pretty sure everything else I want to do can be done with Catalook, but this question is still open.
Worth
cjsmitty
Star
8010 Points
1600 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 31, 2005 05:21 PM|LINK
I will be going this this store because it offers something the others do not, the ability to generate [multiple] PO's. This is necessary for this particular implementation. The store is for instance a "buying group" entity, it has several hundred distributors and several hundred suppliers. The entity does not actually warehouse the products, they are shipped directly from the supplier to the distributor on behalf of the entity.
In this situation, a distributor sees a catalog of hundreds of suppliers goods and can order from all, place the order on a single invoice and the PO's are generated by the store then sent to the supplier for fulfillment.
So far the demo is working well...
Net Data Design
706Horsman.us
jagordon05
Member
75 Points
15 Posts
Re: Stores
Mar 31, 2005 06:17 PM|LINK
I'm pretty sure you could get Portal Store to do this with a combination of the options feature and the product and catalog listings. One example might be:
Shirt 1 - (Catalog Item)
The thing is, each size variation of each shirt type would need to be considered a product.
Either that, or you could create various product option combinations and apply them to the products. I'm not sure which would be easier because I don't know how many different variations you have.
I think you should be able to do it with the flexiblity of Portal Store. Hopefully someone will respond if I'm wrong about the above or has a better idea.
Jean