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Greater possibilities are now available for product options. Products can be in more than one category.
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The EZ-Catalog tools have been updated so that the product options have been enriched. E-Commerce accounts with medium to large catalog will likely find these new features very useful. Managing products with options such as size and color should be much easier. Also, the interface the shopper sees will be much cleaner and simpler. The new features are outlined below in more detail.
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Only accounts that are e-commerce enabled will be affected by this update.
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EZ-Order Merged with EZ-Catalog
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The EZ-Order link on the Construction tool page has been eliminated and the associated options have been merged with the EZ-Catalog pages.
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New features for product options.
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In the original design of the EZ-Catalog, there was an elective provision for having one or two options for products. These options applied to all products, universally. Examples of some options would be color and size. The original options were limited to two and all products had the same options. The new options for products have many more features and flexibility.
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- Each product can have a different set of options.
- The number of options per product can vary from none to many.
- Options can have a list of valid values. For example the option could be color and the valid values could be blue, red, white, and black.
- Options can be open ended, allowing for shopper input. For example, a shopper could put in their name for a customizable product.
- The image displayed with the product can reflect the option selected. For example the image could show a sample of a blue product when blue is selected
- The price charged for a product can be modified based on the option selected. For example, if extra large is selected, the price could be increased by $2.00.
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Products can be in more than one Category.
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Products can now be included in more than one category. For example, a product could be included in a “Sales” category along with the normal category. Another example would be to have shirts in a “Mens” category and the “Shirts” category. This feature will provide multiple ways for your customers to find the product they are looking for. In the future, we will also provide for subcategories as well.
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Changes to each of the three shopper interfaces.
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Each of the three shopper interfaces have been modified to accommodate options. Previously, the order form was the only one of the three interfaces where the options were available. Now all will reflect the options that are available. Changes to each shopper interface are covered below.
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Secure Order Form. The secure order form will display all the options configured for each product with the default values displayed. Previously, the options were displayed side by side. Now, they will be displayed below the product title and description. If a product does not have an option, then none will be shown on the order form. (Previously, the options were listed on all products.)
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Catalog Display. The catalog display will look very much the same, but with the addition of the configured options with any default values. If the values are configured with different images, then the image will change as the options are changed.
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EZ-PageBuilder shopping cart block. This page builder block now has more advanced options that will provide you numerous ways to display your products. Now with this block, you may find it much easier to build custom pages for your products.
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The shopping cart will also list the options that have been selected. Each product in the shopping cart will also have a "Modify" link. This link will take the shopper to a page that will look a lot like the catalog display except only the product of interest will be displayed. Here the shopper can update the quantity and options.
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New maintenance interface.
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The EZ-Catalog and EZ-Order links on the Construction Menu have been combined into one subsidiary menu. From that menu you can access all of the options previously available under the two separately. There are also more explanations of what the links do. You now have the choice to access the product maintenance pages directly rather than through the categories. There is a product search feature on the maintenance pages.
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Import and Export Issues.
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Maintaining the simplicity of the import and export tools has been one of the thorny issues in developing this latest updates. Options and valid values increase the complexity of the catalog data structure. In fact, initially, the option features cannot be imported nor exported. We are currently testing an import and export tool that will correctly handle these near features. We anticipate the new import and export will be available within a few weeks after these updates become available. Review the Updates pages regularly for more information.
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Until the new import and export are available, we suggest that you do not import or export if you use the new options and valid values. Afterwards, you will have to carefully examine the file structure of the import/export files. The new file structure will not be vastly different, just more rows per product to list the options and valid values.
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Sometime in the future, we will provide a more advance import and export that will give you even more control over what data is imported.
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PageBuilder Files will be Converted
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We will convert all EZ-PageBuilder files to the new blocks. However, only the basic options will be selected. Consequently, the pages should look the same. If you want the more advanced features now available in the page builder blocks, you will need to make the changes yourself.
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We will also convert the existing options into the new format. After the conversion, the options must be modified for each individual product. In other wards, there are no longer any universal product options.
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