Release Summary
9.4.0.0 continues the excellence provided by the previous 9.3.1.0/9.3.1.1 release, with updates and fixes based on popular user requests, along with a new skin to keep the software inline with our expanding range of products.
Highlights
ASP.NET v4.0 App Pool
- Websites can now be run in a 4.0 Integrated Application Pool. This manual page explains how this is done. The site is setup initially for .NET 2.0 (3.5SP1) and Classic Managed Pipeline Mode.
Add-Ins
- Add-In support has been removed due to lack of popularity and site performance considerations. This will not affect the integrated Avalara AvaTax module and should not to be confused with the Marketplace "Add-Ons"
Basic One Page Checkout
Downloadable Products
Google Ecommerce Tracking
Google Remarketing
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Support has been added for Google Dynamic Remarketing from the home page through your purchase funnel to the final order confirmation page.
MaxMind
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Updated MaxMind to use the new RiskScore field with improved fraud detection formula.
PayPal Express
PayPal Recurring Billing
New Skin
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A new and modern skin has been added to the storefront software with a more styleable and customizable menu and search box, cleaned-up css, and modernized buttons.
Smart One Page Checkout
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The option to change the billing address is now available for all payment types using the AppConfig: Vortx.OnePageCheckout.AllowAlternativePaymentBillingAddressEdit
- Smart One Page Checkout now validates expiration date in Manual Gateway mode.
- Smart One Page Checkout install instructions
Detailed Release Notes
New Design Advances
New Default Skin
- Cleaned up style.css
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Style guide for accessing & using new CSS styles (located in new topic “t-styleguide.aspx”)
- Headers (h1, h2, etc.)
- citations, strong, abbreviation
- Block quotes
- Ordered & Unordered lists
- Layout & Grid Column Page Structure (with ½, 1/3, 1/3, and ¾ column layouts)
- More modern look and feel
- Customizable menu and search box
- CSS3 buttons & styles throughout site
- Added CSS classes or ids to many places to improve styling capabilities.
- Deprecated the EntityControl menu in AspDotNetStorefrontControls
- Deprecated the SearchControl in AspDotNetStorefrontControls
- Deprecated the MiniCart.
- Tokens for ML switching are not in the new skin.
- Tokens for VAT inclusive/exclusive switching are not in the new skin.
- Tokens for currency switching are not in the new skin.
- New XML Packages script.headclose.xml.config (for head scripts) and script.bodyclose.xml.config (for just before the closing body tag)
- These xml packages ship with scripts for dynamic google ecommerce, analytics and remarketing.
-
These xml packages contain variables that can easily be used for adding other tracking scripts or pixels such as:
- What area of the site you are in
- Order Information
- Order Items
- Product Page information
- Shopping Cart information
jQuery
- The latest version of jQuery has been added to the default skin and is aliased with “adnsf$” so as to not interfere with existing versions of jQuery that upgraded sites may be using for plugins dependent on older versions.
9.4 works better than ever with the surrounding technology ...
- Website can now be run in a 4.0 Integrated Application Pool.
- Admin editing popup windows now work with IE10.
- Added new GTIN field to the product variant information for unique product identification. This new field holds up to 14 characters and can be used for EAN, UPC, ISBN, etc. This new field is included in WSI, Excel & XML Imports, and supported by DotFeed.
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MaxMind integration has been updated to use new RiskScore field with improved fraud detection formula.
- Storeowners who used the earlier integration with MaxMind will need to reconfigure their appconfigs accordingly.
- Google analytics e-commerce tracking is now supported on the mobile order confirmation page.
- Google Checkout (which remains in the cart for purposes of backwards compatibility - see lower note) has been deprecated on DotFeed Minisites.
PayPal Lightbox Checkout
AspDotNetStorefront MultiStore 9.4, along with PayPal Express Checkout, provides a checkout experience that uses an HTML lightbox that lets customers pay for goods and services without having them leave the comfort of your store. More
here.
Google Trusted Stores
Google allows merchants who meet certain shipping and customer service performance metrics to participate in this free program.
As partners for the Trusted Stores program, Google has shared with us that the qualifications have recently been updated. Now, merchants processing at least 200 orders a month may apply to join Trusted Stores.
Participating merchants display the Google Trusted Store badge on their web sites. Our Google Trusted Stores Data Feed allows you to send this shipping and customer service data to Google using the powerful automation of DotFeed.
Helping you to help your shoppers ...
- Added Customer Name to "Purchased By Customer" on the editing gift card page to make it easier to identify the customer.
- Added gift registry ship-to address to the admin order screen.
- Kit Products have improved functionality in VB version.
- Fixed issue with configuration for AddToCart.UseImage button in combination with Minicart.UseAjaxAddToCart causing mobile errors.
- Fixed stock status on variants in dropdown xmlpackage when switching variants.
- DotFeed is inventory-aware and does not extract products/variants with low stock-levels
- Xml Package product.variantsindropdown.xml.config now displays the stock status for all variants, depending on the selection by the customer.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing new promotions from being added if ShowGiftRegistryButtons was true.
- Shipping promotions are no longer counted toward usage on orders that selected a shipping method the promotion did not qualify for.
- Auto-applied promotions are now properly omitted for customers belonging to a customer level which does not allow promotions.
- Promotions can now be configured to apply before or after quantity discounts. Default has been changed to apply promotions after any product quantity discounts have been applied.
- Fixed issue with free shipping products being charged shipping when combined with non free shipping products with Real Time Shipping configuration.
- Customer levels configured for free shipping now correctly receive free shipping methods when fixed rate calculation is used.
- Quantity box updating issue in minicart has been fixed.
- Upsell products will now honor extended prices for customer levels.
- Upsell Products with multiple variants now correctly add to cart with default variant selected.
- Out of stock products can now be added to the Wishlist. If out of stock, and LimitCartToQuantityOnHand is configured, product cannot be moved from wishlist to cart.
On November 20, 2013, Google will deprecate Google Checkout in favor of Google Wallet. We have made the decision to leave Google Checkout as a supported function until the end of its life and we continue to move the value for "GoogleCheckoutAllowed" into DotFeed until that time. We will not, of course, develop any functionality around this. It in 'in statis'.
New, improved workflow for Digital Downloads
Until now, downloadable products have been delivered as an email link - making it easy for "buy-once, share-many" behavior to happen. In AspDotNetStorefront 9.4 that has changed, as follows:
With download products, the setup for the download item is on the variant level. This way, if you want to create a product that has an option of a digital download and a real shippable item you can.
You can optionally set “Download is Valid for Number of Days” to limit the number of days the customer has access to the download.
You can optionally leave the download location blank and set the download location manually after the order has been placed.
Download items have three states that are visible to the customer on the https://yourstorename.com/downloads.aspx page: Available, Pending & Expired. Before an item is released, it shows up in the “Pending” tab of the page, so the customer can see that their order went through but their download is in a pending state. Once it is released, it shows up in their “Available” tab and they are able to download the item. They also receive an email when their download item is released.
You have three options for how a download will be released and it can be configured via the appconfig: Download.ReleaseOnAction: Valid configurations are (MANUAL, CAPTURE, AUTO). Manual will require admin to release on the order page. CAPTURE will release on payment capture status. AUTO will release the download without any requirements.
If the configuration is set to “CAPTURE” and the payment type is not a credit card, the download will be placed in the pending status and need to be released manually on the order after payment is received.
Appconfig Download.StreamFile (Boolean): If true, the file will be streamed and delivered on a button click instead of providing a URL to the file location. Otherwise, a link to the file will be displayed.
Appconfig Download.CopyFileForEachOrder(Boolean) – If true, the software will create a separate copy of each file that is purchased a subfolder of {root}/orderdownloads.
Appconfig Download.ShowRelatedProducts: If true, the product downloads page will display related items based on the download items the customer has purchased. This configuration will honor the DynamicRelatedProducts.Enabled appconfig.
Google's Dynamic Remarketing
Google has made 're-marketing' smart and affordable, and we've hooked up MultiStore 9.4 with DotFeed to allow you to fully benefit.
It works like this...
When a shopper lands on your store and looks at a product, the 9.4 store (which has already passed details of this product to DotFeed ...which has passed it to Google's merchant center) signals to Google "I have a shopper looking at this product." Google, since DotFeed went ahead and set up the product, can easily match it in the merchant center. That triggers an ad for the same product, and Google follows the shopper and inserts the ad respectfully in his/her path. A click on the ad brings the shopper back to place an order.
This is a beta instance of re-marketing in your storefront. We will be using the feature forum (available to all subscribers to
our Year-Round program) to learn of new innovations you would like us to deliver via the 'hook' that joins AspDotNetStorefront to the cloud.
Improvements to the mobile shopping cart
- When browsing the site on a mobile device, an option to switch between the mobile skin and desktop skin is displayed.
- "mobilego" & "mobile leave" can be used successfully from a desktop.
- Form validation on mobile account creation is now invisible to the shopper.
- Improved caching.
- Inventory variations for size/color now display on the mobile cart.
- The option to force defined pages to display using the mobile skin has been revised.
- The mobile user agent list has been updated.
Changes and Improvements to Payment Gateways
- Ad-hoc transactions now honor the Transaction Mode setting.
- Authorize .NET and CIM has improved error handling with invalid credit card numbers.
- Improved workflow for Checkout By Amazon transactions where addresses do not require a State or Providence.
- Checkout by Amazon obliges payment details to be selected.
- Improved customer billing address display on admin order screen for Checkout by Amazon Orders.
- Improved error handling for failed creation of recurring billing subscription.
- PayLeap gateway has been deprecated.
- PlugNPlay payment gateway has improved handling for country code
- USAePay payment gateway integration now supports recurring billing.
- PayPal's Bill Me Later button now shows up on the shopping cart page, giving the service higher visibility.
- Recurring Billing now supported in an advanced way in the whole family of PayPal products (Express, Payments Standard, Payments Advanced, Payments Pro,Payflow Link, Payflow Pro)
Smart One Page Checkout
This much-loved checkout is an optional add-on (list price $300) for all releases. In this latest version of storefront we have made the following changes:
- Performance Improvements and Cache Fixes in Smart One Page Checkout.
- Fixed an issue where customers registering through SOPC were not having their new passwords saved properly.
- First and Last Name are now bold on the Smart One Page Checkout static billing and shipping addresses.
- Fixed issues in Smart One Page Checkout with Billing same as shipping set to "no."
- Smart One Page Checkout has improved p.o. box address validation.
- Zip code lookup handles non-US addresses more effectively.
- Added phone number field to Billing address entry form.
- Added validation to the postal code on the edit address area.
- Option to change billing address is now available for all payment types.
- Stronger support for anonymous checkout.
- Smart One Page Checkout adopts same trust level as the rest of the site.
- Smoother tabbing and back-tabbing.
- Smoother animation for scrolling.
- Section title for breadcrumb display.
- Gift Cards and Promotions can now be manipulated by the customer in Smart One Page Checkout.
- Smart One Page Checkout now displays a line item for gift card usage.
- Improved workflow when creating a password.
- Adjusted cart summary layout to align size/color options with regular price.
- Changed size/color display format including formatted currency.
- Displays a product variant image if available.
- Honors minimum quantity settings on products.
- Displays the free shipping threshold reminder.
- Displays order notes in checkout.
- PayPal Express Checkout - improved usability for customers.
- Works even without credit card payment being accepted.
- Honors the CardExtraCodeIsOptional appconfig.
- Credit card field disallows auto-complete.
- Added support for eChecks.
- Added a dropdown list for custom credit card types, allowing for support of credit cards beyond Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover, Maestro.
- Supports 2Checkout payments.
- Validates against invalid card number for all customers, including anonymous.
- Validates expiration date in Manual Gateway mode for all gateways (if enabled).
- Smart One Page formats the credit card number as the user types it in preventing users from entering characters such as dashes that are not permitted.
- Automatically selects the free shipping method when customer is not allowed to choose an alternate method and cart contents are all eligible for free shipping.
- Compatible with In-Store Pickup.
- Added Configuration to allow pre-selection of shipping method.
- Support for currencies that use a comma.
Making the administrator's life easier ...
- Create account and account page now have an option for Date of Birth (DOB) field.
- New addresses are defaulting to residential and are effectively stored.
- USPS Address Validation Service works even for anonymous customers .
- The product names in Admin "Browse by Category" product tab are now linked to improve navigating products in the Admin.
- Inventory tracking with size and color has improved compatibility with price modifiers.
- Billing tab on Order screen now includes detailed promotion usage: Promotion Code, Shipping Discount, Line Item Discount, Order Level Discount, Total Discount
- Administrator can filter on coupon codes.
- Administrator can filter orders by CustomerID.
- Order reports honor date range radio options outside of Start & End Date fields
- Topic Manager now includes a store filter dropdown.
- Topic Manager now has a feature to filter out infrequently used topics.
- Weight modifier on product variants works with locales that use periods as the thousands separator.
- The "Also Bought" feature works whether or not store mappings are in use.
- Increased the character limit for AppConfigs to support larger lists of shipping methods within the RTShipping.ShippingMethodsToPrevent appconfig.
- Improved validation while managing accounts so users are warned if the email address was not successfully changed on account update.
- Added a new AppConfig called RequireEmailConfirmation, which when set to true will require that customers re-enter email addresses to verify they are spelled correctly during account creation/edit and also during checkout.
- Distributor notification can now optionally include order total (AppConfig controlled)
- Admin Monthly Maintenance now includes SearchLog table.
- Now easier to display multiple shipping address shipping methods in the admin console.
- News articles can be mapped to store-id.
- The Admin Mailing Manager now includes an export for the newsletter list.
- Receipt regeneration displays accurate store identifier.
- Receipt correctly displays line items in locales that use commas for the decimal indicator.
- Phone orders honor the customer level setting for no tax.
- Improvements to admin interface with Poll creation/editing.
- Images tab on the product editing screen does not show the image map unless there are colors associated with the product.
- Excel Product Import handles categories without duplication.
- When a product goes out of stock, nobody wants a 404 error because the product is just unpublished. We have added a feature to choose whether an out of stock product will be visible on a site.
- In-Store Pickup restrictions - workflow has been improved.
- Call for Shipping Prompt works with Canada Post.
- VAT Rate Service has been updated.
- Monthly Maintenance now has an option to clear out old Real Time Shipping Requests and Responses from customer data.
- Store admins can now choose whether or not to show the 'In Store Pickup' shipping option in the shipping estimator.
- Improved error handling for incorrect addresses sent to Avalara.
... and finally, a few things that didn't really fit anywhere else.
- Support for the Microsoft Add-In framework has been completely removed. It is expected that DotFeed Cloud and the REST API that is part of it, will completely supersede interest in the Add-In framework.
- BasicOPC, which was deprecated in 9.1, has been completely removed from the application.
- Default Visual Studio Project settings have been changed in order to optimized build time.
- Security audit admin section has updated notifications regarding meta tags, DotFeed, Checkout by Amazon, PayPal, and BillMeLater. These new notifications are dynamic and heuristic.
- Sitemap removes deleted entities.
- Gift Card header in shopping cart no longer says "Coupon or Gift Card" but just "Gift Card".
- Require Terms & Conditions at checkout is now supported for all payment methods.
- New controls for setting whether basic search uses product description field
- Search results include/exclude out-of-stock products (filter available).
- Smart One Page Checkout now bases Shipping VAT calculation only on shipping charges.
- Receipt now reflects VAT Inclusive.
- Smart One Page Checkout now displays "inc VAT" when VAT is enabled and set to VAT Inclusive.