top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

[leslienord]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Cool! Sounds like I'll be submitting some requests for the latest and great version. :)

[papi34]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

NICE! Where on the INVC (invoice) page should we put the logbackin token log customers back in automatically after checkout?

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Anywhere on the page template, e.g. at the bottom. Don't forget to assign the toolkit to the items list of the INVC page template.

[JoeVodkaSauce]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

AMAZING! Tackling 3 of our biggest problems (log back in, clear cart, and update on a single click) in a simple Toolkit upgrade! you're the best Bill! I'll submit my request asap for the new release! Thanks again!

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

It makes more sense to put all these little utilities in one library rather than making dozens of separate modules to do it. Course the store owner saves a bundle of money at the same time. I think each of those features are in $30 or $40 modules as the main feature. When it takes 15 or 20 minutes to write the feature, I can't see charging big money for it. For example:
log back in - 19 lines of code
clear all - 11 lines of code
one click - 45 lines of code
As separate modules you would have many more lines of code for all the functions that have to be put in to make a functional module that can be loaded into merchant and run with specific actions. A simple, do almost nothing module takes 300 lines of code just to run the required functions. You also gain in processing because instead of having to load and maintain 3 different modules (for those 3 features) as Merchant runs through its steps, it loads just one module.

[papi34]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Just used toolkit's random function on our homepage to cycle through:
1) random promotional banners
2) random manufacturer logos and company info/profile

<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="random|nrandom|1" />
<mvt:if expr="nrandom EQ 1">
display this
<mvt:else>
display that
</mvt:if>

As Bill points out, dynamically changing content keeps your pages fresh, keeps search engines interested, improves your search engine optimization (SEO). Gotta love the Tool Kit!

A bunch of new Tool Kit Functions were added since the last time this thread was bumped. Any creative new uses (with sample code) to be shared?

[Brandon MUS]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

1) Render external page (vcallurl): Including php pages is a must have for our site

2) Shipping calulator (shipcalc)

3) Render another Miva screen (render):

<mvt:if expr="l.settings:basket:empty">
	<mvt:comment>Basket is empty, render BSKE instead</mvt:comment>
	<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="render|BSKE" />
	<mvt:exit />
</mvt:if>

4) Lookup product (vproduct_find): On ADPR, get the product name.

5) Toss up between math functions and price group lookup (pgroup): Both are very useful for us.

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Speaking of Toolkit, in my MerchantTutorials.com Advanced subscription I have a bunch of Toolkit tutorials. Bill even uses one on his site to show how to upgrade Toolkit.

If anyone provides me with tricks, tips or code about using Toolkit (or anything else, for that matter) that I use in my site, I'll add a credit and link to their site. So, if you have posted here, please let me know at [email protected] if I can use your code and what you'd like for the credit and link.

To keep this post not 100% self promotion, here is a tutorial, with code, on how to use Toolkit to create an easy-to-update featured product category header (which can be used anywhere):

Click to view tutorial

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Here's a complex, but quite fast routine. As you know, the Power Search can bold and highlight the search words in the product names and brief descriptions that are displayed on the search results screen. Using the Emporium Plus Tool Kit you can do the same effect on the product screen when called from the search screen. Course the "search" variable has to be in the url, which it is with Power Search. Below is the css for the head tag and the code for the product layout section of the PROD page. You can see how it works by going here http://www.pinemporium.com/mm5/merch...&priceranges=1 Then click on any of the product codes listed which have a brief description next to them.

<style type="text/css">
.psmarkname
{
background-color:#FFFF00
}
</style>

<mvt:if expr="g.search">
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="vassign|markdescrip|l.all_settings:product:descrip" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|searchwords|glosub(encodeentities(g.search),' ',',')" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="vacreate|subsearch|g.searchwords|," />
<mvt:foreach iterator="searchword" array="subsearch">
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="vlength|word_length|l.all_settings:searchword" />
<mvt:if expr="g.word_length GT 2">
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="vassign|oneword|l.all_settings:searchword" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.oneword$'</b></span>')" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|oneword|tolower(g.oneword)" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.oneword$'</b></span>')" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|oneword|toupper(g.oneword)" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.oneword$'</b></span>')" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|oneword|substring(g.oneword,1,1) $ tolower(substring(g.oneword,2,len(g.oneword)))" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.oneword$'</b></span>')" />
</mvt:if>
</mvt:foreach>
&mvt:global:markdescrip;
<mvt:else>
&mvt:product:descrip;
</mvt:if>

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Hey there, Bill, et al.,

I've added many new functions since I last posted to this thread...

Other recently added functions include:
Suggested products - customers who bought this product also bought these products

so, does that mean that it can work similar to the Related Products History module by viking Coders (which I have in my 4.24 merchant store)??? Where it calls the related products dynamically from the data base? Or do they have to come from a static list (created by the owner / admin)?

Thanks,

mark

Can the order the related products appear be modifed in the admin?

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

I don't know anything about the viking related products so can't comment.

The toolkit suggested products is based on the purchases that customers make that also bought that product. So it is dynamically added to and subtracted from as it gets too many. You don't create/edit the list unless you want to. You have the ability to change it because the data is in a custom product field so you have access to it. But normally it is updated automatically as purchases are made.

How would you control the order in admin? Items are added every day without your intervention after each purchase. They then appear in the list immediately as they are added. You would have to go in and manipulate the list after each purchase if you wanted to change the order. That would not be practical.

[d_host]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Can the list be displayed in a fashion similar to Amazom.com:

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
94% buy the item featured on this page
72% buy Item A
44% buy Item B
8% buy Item C

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

No percentages. It shows a list of products that customers also purchased when they purchased the product you are currently on. Example: Customer is on Sony Netbook page. If some of the customers who bought the Sony also bought a bag, additional memory and a mouse; those items would be listed on the suggested products based on prior purchase history. Amazon calls this "Frequently Bought Together".

It has nothing to do with simply viewing a product page. Your example is something totally different and is also on Amazon's pages.

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Hey there, Bill:

I don't know anything about the viking related products so can't comment.

For anyone who might be wondering, the VC module uses customer purchase history, so it does look up the products that were purchased along with the main product.

It does allow you to go into each product admin tab and "modify" the quantity of items that have been purchased along with the main item.

You would have to go in and manipulate the list after each purchase if you wanted to change the order. That would not be practical.

Right, that would not be practical for every item on an every day basis.

But suppose you have item ABC and it is a best seller, and there a lot of items that have already been purchased with ABC. Then you start carrying a new item XYZ, which you just KNOW your customers are going to love.

Because it is a NEW item, no one who has purchased ABC has yet to purchase XYZ. So you want to make item XYZ appear at the TOP of the related items purchased list for item ABC.

In the VC module, there is a field in the product admin that allows you to type in the code of the related product (in this case, XYZ), and either increment or decrement by an arbitrary amount (say, +25, for example).

So then it would appear on the product page that 25 customers who had purchased product ABC had also purchased product XYZ as well.

From what it sounds like, your module has a way of doing more or less the same thing, right???

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Right. It does not tabulate how many bought the other product. It works more like Amazon's. It just lists the other products bought with this product. With this method you would simply add it to the beginning of the list in the custom product field. If it is truly hot, it will stay at the beginning. If they don't buy it and buy other stuff instead, it will slip back down the list unless you move it again.

I assume you already have the tool kit. Try it out and you will see what you can do and how you can modify the outcome.