Order History for Actinic

[Andy@codepath]

I just wanted to poll opinion on the Order History question after reading many threads bemoaning the omission of this feature in Actinic.

As some of you are already aware, our Actinic Order Tracking product (http://www.codepath.co.uk/actinic_pl...#ordertracking) provides a web-based interface for customers to see the details and current status of a single order. This could quite easily be expanded to show all orders for the same customer and also provide a html link back to the catalog page (contingent on the urls of the site remaining constant) to aid re-ordering.

Access to the orders could be via a buyer log-in (as already defined in "Business" versions), or by the entry of any valid Actinic order number providing visibility to all other orders placed by the same customer (be that an account customer or a non-account customer from the same order address / email etc).

Comments welcome. If there is a reasonable interest in this I will put a 'beta' version up for evaluation.

[gabrielcrowe]

Demo!

Screenshots!

[RuralWeb]

I would be interested - sign me up for beta testing if you need a crash test dummy.

[Goz]

I'd be interested as well.

[Ginnys Attic]

count me very much in, i did actually mention that i wondered if you could expand the order tracking facility to allow customers to log in and check current orders status, order history and tracking etc.

My only concern would be that i would personally require the facility to run on our own server and to be an area within my own site (domain) rather than the current system which is hosted by yourselves which tbh completely put me off purchasing the product.

[Andy@codepath]

I would be interested - sign me up for beta testing if you need a crash test dummy.

Many thanks Mal. I'd be grateful for someone prepared to hurl themselves at the World-Wide-Windscreen if this goes ahead All the data sync. logic is already in place with the Order Tracking so it would just be a new UI.

My only concern would be that i would personally require the facility to run on our own server and to be an area within my own site (domain) rather than the current system which is hosted by yourselves which tbh completely put me off purchasing the product.

We offer hosting of both data and application to make life easier for the majority (imho) who don't want to install server databases and such like but I am not averse to this if that's your preference. Allowing you to host the data would just require you to install MySQL. The actual program, to get techy, is an ISAPI dll application so you would need the facility to run such services enabling on your server to actually run the program on your domain. If you run your own Windows server then it's just a switch in IIS. If you rent hosting however this may cost you or require you to change hosts but I have no problem with it in principle. Please feel free to contact me off-forum if you wish to discuss this further.

[Andy@codepath]

Demo!

Screenshots!

Gimme chance to write it Gabe

[Ginnys Attic]

Gimme chance to write it Gabe

Any chance of beta testing this tomorrow (27-02-08) by 5pm?

Just a quick question regarding hosting the order tracking, order history etc ourselves. Can this run on a UNIX server and if so what would i require my hosts to switch on or do if anything and is there a way i can run a test or anything to see if it would run on the server?

[Andy@codepath]

Unix

Can this run on a UNIX server and if so what would i require my hosts to switch on or do if anything and is there a way i can run a test or anything to see if it would run on the server?

ISAPI was designed for a Microsoft Windows platform but Apache (the most popular web server for UNIX) can also run it in version v1.3 onwards (not certain of the exact build).

I'm not sure about configuration though Adrian. Speak to your server poeple and check if you can run "ISAPI extensions" (as opposed to "ISAPI Filters"). If they say you're ok then I can provide you with a 'Hello World' application to test compatability.

[Ginnys Attic]

Cheers for that Andy, i will check with our server people and make see what's what.

I was just thinking about this additional functionality and would think that a customers area where they can login and check order history, current order status, order tracking etc would also be an ideal area in which to include and utilise the product rating system.

Would it be possible from within the customer area to integrate the product rating mod to allow and encourage customers to review and rate the products they have purchased rather than or as well as just letting anyone rate anything?

A further tweak to the rating mod i would personally like to see is for customers to rate and review the site and service they receive, basically the same as with products but they are rating and reviewing the site and service similar to eBay feedback.

[RuralWeb]

I would simply like to get the order history working rather than adding more on at this stage

[Andy@codepath]

Would it be possible from within the customer area to integrate the product rating mod to allow and encourage customers to review and rate the products they have purchased rather than or as well as just letting anyone rate anything?

Almost definitely a future feature if this is developed Adrian but I need to produce a working version and make sure there is sufficient interest first.

A further tweak to the rating mod i would personally like to see is for customers to rate and review the site and service they receive, basically the same as with products but they are rating and reviewing the site and service similar to eBay feedback.

This has been requested before and is already on the to do list. I'll keep you posted.

[Goz]

I've just asked my host about ISAPI for Apache for Unix and they sent me this URL :

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_isapi.html

which seems to indicate that ISAPI is for Apache for Windows only.

Unless someone else knows any different....

[Andy@codepath]

I've just asked my host about ISAPI for Apache for Unix and they sent me this URL :

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_isapi.html

which seems to indicate that ISAPI is for Apache for Windows only.

Unless someone else knows any different....

Looked into this further and unfortunately it is only the Windows flavour of Apache that runs ISAPI.

I'd be interested to know your, Adrian's and anyone else's main motivations for wanting to host the plug-ins yourself.

1) Single point of failure for stability reasons.
2) Data privacy
3) SEO benefits.
4) Other?

I'm interested in what the key motivations are and how/if I can address them but I'm still happy to make the applications available for hosting on compatible servers if required.

[RuralWeb]

anyone else's main motivations for wanting to host the plug-ins yourself

Im not bothered and I suspect most people will not be if the price is right - its enough for most people getting and maintaining Actinic working without another thing to think about. Im interested in selling it to clients who generally want it as simple as possible.