Order Processing > Advance Search for Coupons and/or Discounts

[William Davis]

Order Processing > Advance Search for Coupons and/or Discounts

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

If this is really necessary:

1) Create a custom ORDER field called Discount
2) On the OPAY screen, wrap the 'charges' and 'discount' array loops (foreach) with a test for the coupon / discounts. (Charges should be easy as there is a 'type' field, Discount's would be harder as you'd have to go off their description field.)
3) If the condition is met, create a Write_Basket() function to populate the Discount field.

Now you can use the Advanced search feature to find the orders with the custom field "discount".

[William Davis]

If this is really necessary:

1) Create a custom ORDER field called Discount
2) On the OPAY screen, wrap the 'charges' and 'discount' array loops (foreach) with a test for the coupon / discounts. (Charges should be easy as there is a 'type' field, Discount's would be harder as you'd have to go off their description field.)
3) If the condition is met, create a Write_Basket() function to populate the Discount field.

Now you can use the Advanced search feature to find the orders with the custom field "discount".

Bruce, I have no doubt your suggestion is better than mine, unfortunately I like most Miva merchants do not possess the technical knowledge (...at least at this time) to execute same. Nevertheless, I thank you for same and will try to look into it.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Understand.

But here's the thing. Miva has built a very versatile system that can be used to build in almost ANY functionality you want/need as a store owner. They cannot "build in" specific features for every user. While many store owners need to search for specific things in the order, accommodating them all would create a nightmare. (Also, I provided this as a general concept -- to you and others -- that we use all the time for many different reasons. (For example, we did it to mark an order where the customer also posted a message through our Easy Contact module.)

And while this requires a bit of knowledge to execute, there are several integrators around here that could probably write this for you in less than 30 minutes at reasonable rates.

[William Davis]

Understand.

But here's the thing. Miva has built a very versatile system that can be used to build in almost ANY functionality you want/need as a store owner. They cannot "build in" specific features for every user. While many store owners need to search for specific things in the order, accommodating them all would create a nightmare. (Also, I provided this as a general concept -- to you and others -- that we use all the time for many different reasons. (For example, we did it to mark an order where the customer also posted a message through our Easy Contact module.)

And while this requires a bit of knowledge to execute, there are several integrators around here that could probably write this for you in less than 30 minutes at reasonable rates.

Bruce, we've always agreed on every point you made every time this same issue has come up in the past. I was just expressing my "dream feature" and that I currently do not possess the necessary knowledge to execute same and you were kind enough to offer me a suggestion (which as always its greatly appreciated). Currently I have know way of measuring within Miva how effective each holiday campaign was.

These "workarounds" are great and fortunately the Miva platform has the flexibility to support such solutions, unlike other platforms wherein that's not even an option. The problem is that these workarounds as you know are not without any drawbacks, as I learned first hand when we migrated from MM4.24c to M9 with extensive front-end customization made over the years. Over time these workarounds adds countless hours in development resources when it comes time to update/change front-end (e.g.: from Levels to Shadows ReadyTheme as we are contemplating), and many things always gets "lost in the shuffle". But the biggest disadvantage is that it makes it almost impossible for anyone in and/or out-of-house to properly evaluate, quote and/or budget resources for such "update/change" projects due to countless workarounds made to front-end over time resulting in more than double the amount of resources originally allocated for a project (e.g.: from $15k to $30k, or $100k to $200k, etc...).

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

The reason for my 'after note' wasn't a critique of your suggestion, just to point out the realities of 'dreams' :)

As for the cost of updating and maintaining an ecommerce web site, yes, its getting more and more expensive because the competition keeps rising. This may be a bit 'cow out of the barn' already, but one thing that can help future updates is to keep a log, journal, whatever of your store's processes. Note, I did not say specific features. For example, in the original case, instead of recording something like: Find a way to locate orders with coupons, record the business process of 'Need to track source of Orders'. The reason to do this, is that when you upgrade, instead of upgrading the specific feature, you look at the features of the new platform to accomplish what you need.

And here's another idea for the 'time-being' and would work retroactively....A custom Template Based Batch Reports could be modified to make a report of orders with coupons.

[GDesigns]

Great suggestion, Bruce. We generally do the same when we scope projects and/or re-builds.
I ask for internal process/business requirements and MUST have features, not so much for ‘please list any existing customization on your current store’.

The idea of a rebuild should be to improve functionality and lessen current pain points and hopefully come up with a better, simpler way of doing things – the less complicated the better in our experience.

Try to accomplish as much as possible with build-in features and set things up so store owners can make their own modifications when needed without breaking anything (I know that’s not always possible, but in many cases it is).

In essence look at the big picture of what needs/should happen and then drill down to the path of least resistance J

[William Davis]

Bruce, after countless years of knowing and doing business with each other, I could never take any your comments and/or suggestions as a critique and I don't believe anyone on this forum would either, it's simply not your nature. But even if it were a critique (which it was not), I don't have a problem with that either. I sincerely appreciate your countless invaluable advise over the years and your reasoning for same, please keep them coming in the same manner you did in this case and in the past and please do not retire before I do.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

...please do not retire before I do.

LOL, this is my retirement.

[William Davis]

LOL, this is my retirement.

Then please do not leave this earth before I do. lol