Zen Cart custom software development, Zen Cart modules, Zen Cart Expert eCommerce with Zen Cart!

2013 July to December

Zen Cart 1.5.2 is coming!

Posted December, 2013

In case you didn't see the announcement, Zen Cart 1.5.2 is coming soon!
With every new update, some (but not all) of my mods are updated, because of changes either in core files or in template files. Here's a preliminary list of mods which are expected to be re-released due to 1.5.2 changes:

Zen Cart Big Chooser and osCommerce Big Chooser new feature

Posted December, 2013

Zen Cart Big Chooser and osCommerce Big Chooser have both been updated to include the condition_price_gte feature. This feature allows you to specify that a discount only trigger when condition prices are greater than the prices of the items to be discounted. (This can be an issue when the condition and discounted items are selected from different groups of items.)
For example, if your discount is "Buy 2 category 12 items, get 1 manufacturer 17 item free," you can use condition_price_gte to indicate that the price of the least expensive category 12 item must be greater than or equal to the price of the manufacturer 17 item. (In general, this is what people want, unless they are doing a closeout of manufacturer 17.)

Mod Updates

Posted December, 2013

The following mods have had minor updates:

Zen Cart Edit Orders 4.1 and my Discount Mods

Posted November, 2013

People ask why Better Together and friends don't work with Edit Orders 4.x for Zen Cart 1.5.x, since this mod does work with coupons. The reason is simple: Edit Orders (as of version 4.1.2) does not present a filled out $_SESSION->cart object. (Unlike my mods, coupon calculations generally don't require access to the shopping cart; they just work off the subtotal.) I have asked the Edit Orders maintainers to fix this issue at their earliest convenience.

Numinix Fast and Easy Checkout and Gift Wrapping

Posted November, 2013

A client asked me to install my Gift Wrapping module on his site, which already had Fast and Easy Checkout. In doing so, I found and fixed some bugs in FEC integration of Zen Cart Gift Wrapping from Numinix.

New Site Design

Posted November, 2013

Goodbye, old friend. My old site served me well, but it was created before the iPhone was a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. So I used Bootstrap 3 to create the responsive, mobile friendly site which you see now!
Old Site

Old Site

Discount Date Ranges for Zen Cart Better Together Admin and Combination Discounts Admin

Posted November, 2013

Zen Cart Better Together Admin Panel and Zen Cart Combination Discounts Admin Panel now both allow you to set start and/or end dates for offers. The date feature is only available with the admin panel - if you're still configuring using the setup() function, you miss out.

Marketing Text for Table Discounts

Posted October, 2013

Zen Cart Table Discounts now has marketing text that is built into sentences instead of just tables of figures. You can see it in the description of alternate marketing text for Zen Cart Table Discounts.

osCommerce 2.3.3.3 Discounting Mods Updates

Posted September, 2013

osCommerce 2.3.3.3 has been released, with changes to the MySQL layer. If you are getting messages like:
PHP Warning:  mysql_num_rows() expects parameter 1 to be resource, object given in ... 
or
Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource
then simply change the call mysql_num_rows to tep_db_num_rows in the following places:

osCommerce Better Together includes/modules/order_total/ot_better_together.php line 418
osCommerce Quantity Discounts includes/modules/order_total/ot_quantity_discount.php line 547
osCommerce Big Chooser includes/modules/order_total/ot_big_chooser.php lines 55 and 1220
osCommerce Big Spender includes/modules/order_total/ot_bigspender_discount.php lines 48 and 716
osCommerce Table Discounts includes/modules/order_total/ot_table_discounts.php lines 131 and 566


So the old code looked like this:
        $this->_check = mysql_num_rows($check_query); 
the new code will look like this:
 
        $this->_check = tep_db_num_rows($check_query); 

Table Discounts Universal Match

Posted September, 2013

Zen Cart Table Discounts now has a universal match (CAT, '*') which can be used to provide a default discount.

Big Upsell now displays Free Gift Chooser offers

Posted September, 2013

The marketing text for Zen Cart Free Gift Chooser Mega Module can be shown on the Product Info page of your Zen Cart; it may also be shown on the Shopping Cart (and Checkout Shipping) page by Big Upsell.

Save for Later Report

Posted September, 2013

Do you love Save for Later? Of course you do! It's awesome!

But wouldn't it be even better if you could see which items are most frequently saved, and see who's saving what?

Well now you can! Take a look at Save for Later Report.

Running CKEditor with Firefox 23

Posted September, 2013

If you use CKEditor to edit your Zen Cart HTML, and browse using Firefox 23 (or higher), you'll need to make the change described in this post. (Note: This bug is fixed in CKEditor 3.7g but exists in prior versions.)

Ten Years!

Posted August, 2013

That Software Guy, Inc. was founded 10 years ago. I am honored that so many of you have trusted me to help you build your businesses. Thank you.

Now let's get to work to make the next ten years even more exciting, profitable and fun!

More Videos

Posted August, 2013

There are now videos for Better Together Admin, Combination Discounts Admin and Free Gift Chooser (for Zen Cart). These can all be seen on That Software Guy's Video Channel.

BOGO Bonanza!

Posted August, 2013

People ask me all the time how to get started with BOGO in Zen Cart. I have options for you. Take a look at my List of Zen Cart BOGO Options, and choose the right option for your shop.

Zen Cart Big Chooser Update

Posted August, 2013

Zen Cart Big Chooser has been updated to handle creating a discount for a product from a specific category where the condition is the purchase of other products from that category (excluding the discounted product). It's exciting to watch how the ever-more-complex discounting requirements of my users are pushing the boundaries of my software!

New discount selection features for Big Chooser, Big Spender

Posted July, 2013

Zen Cart Big Spender and Zen Cart Big Chooser have been updated with a new command called "one_discount_only." This allows you to stop after the first discount, which is useful for shops with several tiers of discounting (it's less work that specifying deal ids and using no_double_dip). It's new in Big Chooser 1.2.18 and Big Spender 1.2.15.

Video: osCommerce Better Together Admin

Posted July, 2013

If you'd like to see it in action, you can watch a YouTube video of creating a discount using osCommerce Better Together Admin.

New discount selection features for ZenCart Big Chooser, Big Spender

Posted July, 2013

Zen Cart Big Spender and Zen Cart Big Chooser have been updated with a new command called "one_discount_only." This allows you to stop after the first discount, which is useful for shops with several tiers of discounting (it's less work that specifying deal ids and using no_double_dip). It's new in Big Chooser 1.2.18 and Big Spender 1.2.15.