Adding functionality to uStore

[brooks...@gmail.com]

I've been a part of this group for a few months now and have found it
to be a great resource, so thanks to all the great people who take the
time to help others out!

I've been using uStore for several months now, and i've ran into some
road blocks where customers are asking for functionality that just
isn't there. Has anyone ever implemented the following functions
successfully in uStore, or would someone be able to point me in the
right direction?

1. Add one or more blank fields that a user could fill out and have
the input data be attached to an order (for example we have a customer
that would like to input a PO Number during the order process). My
thought is that a new clearing method could be created that had fields
to collect information when an order is being placed, but i'm not
really a full on programmer, so adding this type of functionality
myself is beyond the scope of my current abilities.

2. Implementing an inventory system into uStore, so that customers
could order fulfillment items, and the inventory on hand would be
reduced. When the inventory gets below a predetermined limit, an email
would be sent out warning that inventory is low. If this pulled
inventory from our existing MIS (Hagen OA) that would be great, but
that is not mandatory as i assume that would be far more complex.

3. The ability to have multiple ship to addresses for a single order,
with the ability to designate which items go to which addresses.

4. Has there been any implementation with a 3rd party vendor for
inline postal verification, production of mail tags etc. for a
customer uploaded list when a mail item is being ordered?

I've been using XMPie products since late 2005, and am well versed in
all things print, and am also an experienced web designer, but when it
comes to "web development", i'm a bit wet behind the ears. I came at
this whole thing from a design background. I've been trying to teach
myself asp.net, but it's been somewhat slow going. There is just such
a large body of things to learn that sometimes i don't even know where
to start! Any help or input would be greatly appreciated!

[Igor Vorobeychik]

1. Adding anotations to the Order is one of feature request I know of.
It is possible to add product anotation using product properties and
make this property visible in the cart/ history.
2. uStore is not fulfillment system , but it can be integrated with
one. uStore alreeady have several integrations in place lilke
Promail ... I belive there will be more announced very soon.
3. Nice feature request
4.inline postal verification , ustore does not offer such feature
today , but it allows customer place an order and than uStore
administrator can aggregate product order and download list and use
any third party system to verify and import it back. Not the cleanest
way but doable. It is possible to write pecipient list plug-in that
has such integration as well but this will require .Net skills.
Igor.

On Apr 13, 10:41 am, "brooksbal...@gmail.com" <brooksbal...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Dan Sideen]

We have encountered some of the same shortcomings. Here is what we
did/considered.

1. Order- level reference number. We have asked for this as a feature in
future releases. In the meantime, we are considering using the Fax
number field on the Ship To screen as a reference number (who uses faxes
any more!). You can use localization to change the prompt.

2. We have semi-integrated uStore with our existing Inventory/Order
Processing/Billing systems (Macola, supplied by EFI). You can easily add
"static" products to uStore, but maintenance is a pain. We have an SQL
script that updates the weight, description and price of uStore items
every night from our main Inventory system. We also turned on uStore's
Order export function, and have a routine that reads the xml file, and
creates an order in our Order Processing system, with the uStore order
number as a reference number. This generates a Picking slip which causes
static items to be picked from the warehouse, and dynamic items to be
printed. (The order creation routine also moves dynamic or static pdf
files to the appropriate printer, and embeds a job ticket containing the
quantity, stock and finishing instructions). Not sure about Hagen, but
other EFI product can read external xml files and automatically create
orders. Also, EFI is an xmpie reseller, so they may have something that
might help you.

3. We do not need, and do not want to have multiple shipping addresses
for one order.
4. Not aware of any 3rd party mail verification routines, but we are
considering having our clients upload their data files using some custom
aspx code on the main page. We would then clean it up offline and either
sent it back to them to upload in the product, or load the file into
ustore as a recipient list. I think there are too many variables that
require knowledge of local postal rules to make this work automatically.
We would charge for that service.

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[Brooks]

Igor,

do you know if the ability to add annotations to an order is a feature
that will be available sometime in the near future? I'd hate to either
have to have something developed or find some work around when the
feature is going to be implemented right around the corner.

[Brooks]

Dan,

If you use the ship to fax number as you mentioned, would this make it
so that the customer would have to edit they're "shipping info" each
and every time they are placing an order?

In regard to your "semi-integration" with Macola, when you talk about
having an SQL script that updates the weight, description and price of
uStore items, would you mind going into more detail of exactly how
this was accomplished? Also, the "routine" you have written which
reads the xml file output from ustore, are you doing this with an
asp.net web service? I'm not really a true programmer myself, so i'm
just trying to get a feel for what technologies it would be beneficial
to either attempt to learn myself, or look for when hiring on someone
to assist with these types of projects.

> On Behalf Of brooksbal...@gmail.com

> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/xmpie-users?hl=en.

[Dan Sideen]

Regarding the fax number, the client would have to edit the ship to every time. That's one of the reasons that we haven't yet implemented it. You could do this yourself without too much trouble

The automatic updating of the store from or Warehousing system was accomplished with an SQL
Server Agent package that we had written by a third party. Essentially, it runs SQL scripts that extract information from one SQL database, and updates information in the uStore database. The key (pardon the pun) is to set the store product external id to be the same as the product code in your warehousing system. You would need experience in Visual Studio and SQL commands to do this. I don't know of a way to do this using the uStore SDK.

The order integration application "watches" the folder where ustore writes xml files. It then parses that file, creates an order in our order processing system, adds some Xerox job ticket stuff to the front of the xmpie-created pdf file, and sends the file to the appropriate printer. Again, you need some serious programming experience, including SQL and xml to do this. It could be a web service, but we used vb.net because we have lots of experience with vb, and very little with web apps.

Dan,

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