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[mv] Minivend Admin Interface (was Order Number vs Cybercash Order-ID)
****** message to minivend-users from "Christopher Thompson" <ct@arborinternet.com> ******
I think one thing that Minivend seems to be lacking that most other
shopping cart systems have is a non-technical Admin interface to:
- modify the products database,
- upload/download product images (and other images as well)
- review orders (possibly with link to processor if there is one),
- update order status (plus adding info for the user like shipper tracking
codes),
- do basic maintenance on the UserDB (e.g. delete records),
- take the site offline for maintenance and have a offline HTML page
displayed (this would require a change to minivend but would be so much
better than that HTML built into vlink/tlink).
These are really the basic admin functions needed to run an online shop.
Put simply: you put a product data record and picture online for people to
see, your get orders, and then you provide customer service. The products,
transaction and userdb are the three standard databases in Minivend. The
other databases (and the userdb to some extent) are really optional based
on site requirements.
Of the three standard databases, the products and userdb are pretty easy
to work with. The transaction database, however, is the one with a little
voodoo surrounding it. It should probably be split into two tables, one
for orders and another for order-items that references back to the orders
table. That would require modifying the report page. I think anyone who
has tried to modify transactions or the order status page know how weird
and inflexible those double use data fields are.
I think MiniMate can do some of these things, but is more focused on
catalog and database configuration, plus upload/download. I don't know if
MiniMate for MV4.0 adds more.
A set of pages to do the things I listed above would not be too hard to
write, and perhaps already exist. They should probably use SSL. The
changes I proposed to Minivend (offline page and splitting transactions)
would be up to Mike Heins to decide. I would be interested to hear others
thoughts. I had really only intended to reply with my first sentence of
this message and leave it a that, but once I started typing it just all
came out.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-minivend-users@minivend.com
> [mailto:owner-minivend-users@minivend.com]On Behalf Of OTR Comm
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 6:42 PM
> To: minivend-users@minivend.com
> Subject: Re: [mv] MV Order Number vs Cybercash Order-ID
>
>
> ****** message to minivend-users from OTR Comm
> <otrcomm@wildapache.net> ******
>
> Christopher Thompson wrote:
> >
> > ****** message to minivend-users from "Christopher
> Thompson" <ct@arborinternet.com> ******
> >
> > I asked about the status of the [cybercash-response] UserTag
> a while back,
> > but got no answer. Does anyone know the status if this
> UserTag? It could
> > be used to return values from the CyberCash transaction. I
> would assume
> > that you could then use the CyberCash order ID rather than the order
> > counter for the order number.
> >
> > With CyberCash, when the order is processed a hold is put on
> the customers
> > funds, but they are not charged. You need to go the the
> CyberCash site to
> > batch and submit the order to actually debit the card. I
> believe you are
> > not supposed to debit the card before the product ships.
> >
> > As to your last question, you would need to define a little
> further what
> > you mean by "order fulfillment/shipment initiation" software.
>
> Well, what I envision is a MySQL based order control system that is
> maintainable via the Web.
> Something that a shop owner can use to check the status of orders (e.g,
> availability of merchandise before batching the cybercash transactions).
>
> In the same sense, it would be nice to have a Web based tool to monitor
> the internal progress of getting merchandise to the 'loading dock' and
> on its way to the customer. Then once it is 'on its way,' to have all
> the purchase, order, cybercash, shipping information consolidated into a
> transaction specific record in MySQL.
>
> Then, from anyplace, the store owner can go to the Web and check the
> status of any transaction.
>
> Any ideas? I'll write one if it doesn't exist!
>
> Murrah Boswell
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-minivend-users@minivend.com
> > > [mailto:owner-minivend-users@minivend.com]On Behalf Of OTR Comm
> > > Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 12:38 AM
> > > To: MiniVend List
> > > Subject: [mv] MV Order Number vs Cybercash Order-ID
> > >
> > >
> > > ****** message to minivend-users from OTR Comm
> > > <otrcomm@wildapache.net> ******
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > Does anyone know how I can make the ORDER NUMBER in
> Minivend the same as
> > > the Order-ID in Cybercash? Or is there a better way of
> correlating the
> > > transactions?
> > >
> > > Also, is there an automated capability of Minivend or
> Minimate to track
> > > the status of orders and approvals from Cybercash aside from email?
> > >
> > > I am new to Minivend and am trying to figure out how you
> work the timing
> > > issues of purchase:credit card verification:transaction
> approval:product
> > > availability from warehouse:shipping confirmation:financial
> transaction.
> > >
> > > That is, I do not want to finalize the credit card transactions and
> > > debit a customer's bank account until I can confirm that product is
> > > available for shipment and that the product has been shipped.
> > >
> > > Does anyone know of any good "order fulfillment/shipment initiation"
> > > software that ties into Minivend or is opensource and will
> work? Phew!
> > >
> > > TIA,
> > > Murrah Boswell
> > > otrcomm@wildapache.net
> > > -
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> >
>
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