top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

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

Hi again, Bill:

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.

Ummm... I admit that I am something of a Luddite and am still using Merchant 4.24.

But since the cost of buying updated modules is the main factor in stopping me from moving up to Merchant 5.5, I am excited by the possibility that the tool kit will allow me to forgo many modules.

[Rick Wilson]

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

If it's been a while since you've looked, version 5.5 requires a lot less modules than version 4. You need to do a detailed analysis to see exactly what you'll need but the template system in version 5.5 (especially when combined with ToolKit) gets you very far.

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

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

Hi there, Rick:

If it's been a while since you've looked, version 5.5 requires a lot less modules than version 4. You need to do a detailed analysis to see exactly what you'll need but the template system in version 5.5 (especially when combined with ToolKit) gets you very far.

Thanks for the input.

The other drawback for me is that for Merchant 5.5 there doesn't seem to be a payment module for RBS (formerly LYNK) who is my credit card processor, and with whom I get GREAT rates.

[Rick Wilson]

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

You can download that module from the support suite. It exists for 5.x but we no longer have an active relationship with Lynk and don't proactively support it, so we removed it from the distribution.

I'm also sure we can match their rates, beat their service and get you all the new functionality we're bringing out. Email me offline and I'll work with you on that.

[wcw]

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

Here is a correction to #54 in this thread. There are certain words which can wreak havoc if you don't control for them. Three words that came to mind are table, span and font. I'm sure there are others and you can see how you can add to them in the code below. This correction adds a space at the beginning of the word so that something like <table would not be replaced. There are probably some other words that you would want to skip altogether in this highlighting exercise.

<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:if expr="g.oneword CIN 'table|span|font'">
 <mvt:item name="toolkit" param="sassign|space| " />
<mvt:else>
 <mvt:item name="toolkit" param="sassign|space|" />
</mvt:if>
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.space$g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.space$g.oneword$'</b></span>')" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|oneword|tolower(g.oneword)" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.space$g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.space$g.oneword$'</b></span>')" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|oneword|toupper(g.oneword)" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="mvassign|markdescrip|glosub(g.markdescrip,g.space$g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.space$g.oneword$'</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.space$g.oneword,'<span class='$asciichar(34)$'psmarkname'$asciichar(34)$'><b>'$g.space$g.oneword$'</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 again, Rick and everyone else.

Rick had mentioned that when switching from version 4 compiled to version 5.5 that:

If it's been a while since you've looked, version 5.5 requires a lot less modules than version 4. You need to do a detailed analysis to see exactly what you'll need

Here is a list of the modules that I am currently using. Would anyone like to take a stab and let me know which modules I WOULDN'T need if I do eventually upgrade to 5.5 AND get the toolkit, and which modules I WILL still need to get?

(Note that I have already deleted a lot of the Look and Feel modules from the list below since I understand that 5.5 lets you do most of the look and feel using the built in templates system).

My current Merchant 4 compiled modules list:

Addendum [addendum]
Affiliate Manager [BROK_AFFILIATES]
Affiliate Manager [BROK_AFFILIATES]
Affiliate Manager-Affiliate Login [BROK_AFFILIATELOGIN]
Attribute Prompt vs Code [prvscode]
Attribute Weights Pro [SS_ATTRWT_PRO]
Attribute Weights Pro [SS_ATTRWT_PRO]
Basket Price Combination [SS_BASKPRICE]
Batch Page Break [batpgbrk]
Best Seller Display [bestsell]
Category Page Templates [BROK_CTGYTEMPLATES]
CBS - MetaTag Generator [CBS-OUIMETA]
CBS - Search Friendly Links [CBS-OUISFL]
CBS - Search-Friendly Store Map [CBS-UTILMAP]
CIM Activity Log [cim_log]
CIM Auxiliary System Extension [cim_aux]
CIM Coupon Extension Module [cim_coup]
CIM System Addendum [cim_add]
CIM System Module for New Screens [cim_new]
Coupon Reports [couponrp]
Custom Fields [customfields]
Easy Inventory Update [DEN_INVUPDATE]
EZ Batch Report [ezbatch]
Fast Data Feed [fastfeed]
Fatal Error Plus! [SS_CFES_C]
Follow-on Contact [followon]
Hidden Categories OUIX [SB21_OPENUIEXT_HC]
Inventory Manager [BROK_INVENTORY]
Inventory Manager [BROK_INVENTORY]
Lost and Found Orders [lost_fnd]
Mail Generator [mailgen]
Mini-basket Display [minibask]
Move Continue OUIX [SB21_OPENUIEXT_MC]
NetBlazon's Page Title Manager [NBTITLES]
No Cookies [DEN_NOCOOKIES]
No Price OUIX [SB21_OPENUIEXT_NP]
Order Status Import: Orders [BROK_ORDERSTATUS_ORDIMPT]
Order Status Login [BROK_ORDERLOGIN]
Order Status Manager [BROK_ORDERSTATUS]
Payment via PayPal-R [paypalr]
PayPal Reports [paypalrp]
Power Search [powrsrch]
Related Products From Purchase History [DEN_RPPH]
Restrict Export [restrict]
Reveal [LC_REVEAL]
Shipping Calculator [shipcalc]
Shipping List [shiplist]
Show Baskets [showbask]
Sort Categories [SORTCAT]
Sort Products by Category [SORTPROD]
Subscribe2 OUI Checkbox [Subscribe2OUI]
Template Data Feed [exprodf]
USPS Advanced [VC_USPSADVANCED]
Volume Pricing [cim_vol]
Wait List Manager [waitlist]

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to weigh in on which modules I wouldn't need to get.

[wcw]

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

A lot of those modules are not needed in 5x. But this thread is about Tool Kit usage so I won't comment on those. You should start another thread for that subject. The Emporium Plus Tool Kit will do the following.

Attribute Prompt vs Code [prvscode] yes
Best Seller Display [bestsell] yes
Custom Fields [customfields] built in but tool kit extends some of this
Mail Generator [mailgen] there is a different tell a friend in tool kit, it sends screen shots
Mini-basket Display [minibask] most of it but not the recent visit history
Related Products From Purchase History [DEN_RPPH] yes
Shipping Calculator [shipcalc] yes

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

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

Thank You Bill;

I thought it would be more beneficial for other viewers / users to have both those modules that would be replaced by standard 5.5 and by the toolkit together in one thread for easy viewing. It just seems like a lot of the people in the Merchant 5.5 community think that toolkit is so helpful, that it should almost be lumped in as part of Merchant 5.5

Thanks again!

[kayakbabe]

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

Bill was being nice to you, he wasn't trying to be rude at all. Read the link below, it will explain why he asked you to post elsewhere. I also agree with you about toolkit and tool belt and the other things like latu's storehelper. awesome add on's. storemorph is no slouch though - thanks miva for giving us that!

http://extranet.mivamerchant.com/for...207#post104207

[kayakbabe]

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

My top uses for toolkit are:

I have a wholesales store.

displaying the number of items and subtotal amount in the navigation bar as part of my basket link - didn't wnat to take up screen space with a minibasket in a column, and this uses minibasket just in a more compact way.

pastorders so customers in their account screen see thier past orders and can reorder quickly

breadcrumbs

creating new variables to use in if-then conditionals

modifying variables using differnet globsub types

random

update basket - to add some info to their basket that I grab out of a custom field or cookie value I set

customer - to obtain data from a custom customer field so I can use it in checkout (tax id numbers) to insert into addendum or acd pro, so when I download orders, I will have their TIN and not have to go to my files for it to confirm they are eligible for wholesale.

bestsellers to display on the NTFD screen, so there is something to guide people and the bots to more of my store

last to display on the NTFD screen, so there is something to guide people and the bots to more of my store


fyi I love the list at the bottom of the utility toolkit screen that shows what storemorph pages it is assigned to. I don't use it much, but when something isn't working right, I can speed check that toolkit is there by just looking at that list.

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

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

Hi there, Kayakbabe:

Thanks for the note.

Bill was being nice to you, he wasn't trying to be rude at all.

Of course, Bill is ALWAYS NICE! It is in his nature :)

Seriously, I remember I had a problem with one of his modules, and sent him an email. Even though he was out of his office, he took the time to email me back from his road trip with his family at Disney World to help me out. Now that is customer service!

So I apologize if I came off as snarky in any way.

I just thought that my list would help others that might be in a similar situation, thinking about upgrading to Merchant 5.5 but worried about the costs...

Thanks again,

Mark

[anythingformycel.com]

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

we use it to:

• in the basket, show how much more a customer needs to buy to qualify for free shipping

What function did you use for this? You don't have a code example do you?

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

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

Ok, this is TOTALLY off topic, but...

I have an issue with the quote that anythingformycel has in his / her signature:

It is rare to find innovation internally. Workers simply follow the trend to become "better" workers.

I disagree 100% with that. Workers are are at the forefront of innovation, but it is management that often can't recognize or won't promote that innovation.

An excellent book on this is: Corporate creativity: how innovation and improvement actually happen By Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern

http://books.google.com/books?id=7E-...age&q=&f=false

It explains why the most creative companies are mammoth "dinosaur" companies while companies that "outsource their creativity" are less creative and innovative.

[anythingformycel.com]

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

The workers I was referring to, when referring to the Peter Principle theory, is the bureaucracy of the business. Of course, AT&T said it best: the system is the key to success. So you have to think how best to have the best of both worlds.

That is really off-topic though. Anyone have any other ideas for using toolkit.

Had a unique question the tookit has the ability to shipcalc function and bill also has a mini-basket, shipping calculator module. Can you tell me which one you recommend to use?

[wcw]

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

If you don't want/need the recent visit history, get the tool kit. That said, the recent visit history is a great way to get customers back to product pages they had visited without them having to do a search or drill down through categories. Just one more way to make shopping easier and boost sales.