ViArt Shop v.3.2 released

Multi-step registration process and custom fields for a user profile
From version 3.2 you are able to divide the registration process in several steps for the convenience of your customers. Moreover, you can add as many steps as you want as well as custom fields for these steps. To make multi-step registration active and add additional steps please go to Administration > Customers > Profile Sections:

Want to play with different custom fields? No problem. This can be done via Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Custom Fields Tab. Click the ‘Add New Custom Field’ link and fill necessary fields. When custom fields are added go and check your site. It can be something like this:

Subscription functionality
From now on you can create different subscriptions for specific types of customers. You may name each subscription and create as many different subscriptions as you like. To view this new functionality go to Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Edit Type and make subscription active. Here, how it looks.

When all the necessary fields are filled, go to your site and click the 'Sign In' link. You will see that a subscription has been added to a User profile Page. A user registers and submits the payment. When the payment is approved, a new user can access his User Home page. The subsequent recurring payments will be deducted on a monthly, daily, weekly or yearly basis automatically.

Database Management
With new database management functionality you can now easily create new dump files and work with your existing database via Admin panel. To access DB Management please go to Administration > System > DB Management. In case you want to create a new dump file click the ‘Create new dump’ link. Select the tables you want to add to the dump, as shown below:

When this is done, click the ‘Create’ button. Then select your dump file and click the ‘Apply’ link. You will see such a report:

Ability to show text and images for top menu links
CMS possibilities are updated more and more. Now you have four new options to display top menu links in the way you prefer. The options are the following:

• Don't show any links
• Image links first
• Text links first
• Image and text links together

These options are available at Administration > CMS > Site Layout > Global Settings for a particular layout.

Random image validation for reviews
Taking into account our customers’ needs we have added a random image validation for reviews as well. You have three options here: to show image validation for all users, only for unregistered users or not to show an image at all. You can select any of these options via Administration > System > Global Settings > Review Settings section.

Ability to set order restrictions for total products cost and weight
If for any reason you need to limit minimum and maximum total cost and weight per order you have such opportunity. This can be set via Administration > Orders > Order Profile Page > Order Restrictions Section.

Set birthday greeting messages to customers
Should you wish to congratulate your valued customers with their birthdays you can now do it via Birthday Greetings messages. The procedure is the same as for e-mail notifications. You can access birthday greeting messages via Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Profile Settings > Birthday Greeting Tab.

Possibility to set terms and conditions for downloadable products
From version 3.2 your customer will have to agree to your Terms and Conditions before he is allowed to download any product from your site. To activate Terms and Conditions option and to enter the text for your terms please go to Administration > Products > Products&Categories > Edit Product. Click the ‘Downloadable/Software’ tab and tick off the ‘Show Terms & Conditions’ checkbox. Finally, enter appropriate terms in the text box and save the changes.

New user fields are added, namely: Nickname, MSN Account, ICQ Number, Customer Site URL
Sometimes, your business may require some detailed information about your clients, like their ICQ number, MSN accounts, and similar. From now on you can make these fields shown or required on your site. This can be done via Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Profile Settings Link > Predefined Fields tab.

Possibility to set the number of products a merchant can submit
You may find it useful or necessary to limit the number of product a merchant can add. To set the limitation number please go to Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Products Settings and enter the appropriate number in the ‘Number of products can be added by merchant’ field.

'Contact US' block for merchants
One more block ‘Contact Merchant’ has been added to new 3.2 release. To activate the settings for the block go to Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Contact Settings. There you can set the notification message which will be sent to a merchant. When doing appropriate settings go to Administration > CMS > Site Layout > User Listing Page and add ‘Contact Merchant’ block.

Ability to hide administrators
Sometimes, the structure of your business may require creating some administrators which you do not want to show for other administrators. As the main administrator you have the right to access hidden groups or administrators and can decide whether to show or hide some administrators from other administrators. This can be done via Administration > System > Administrators > ‘Edit’ link. To activate the ability to access hidden groups/administrators you should go to Administration > Settings > Privilege Groups > ‘Edit Permissions’ link.

Option to run PHP code in the blocks
From version 3.2 you have the possibility to add php code directly to some blocks, like: Footer body, Custom block, Custom Pages, Greetings/Introduction. To activate this option for these blocks, please go to Administration > System > Global Settings and tick off the appropriate checkboxes in the ‘Allow to run PHP code in’ fields. When this is done you can try to enter any php code for mentioned blocks.

RegExp Validation settings for orders' and payment systems' custom fields are added
Now you have the possibility to use regular expressions to validate the user input for order and payment systems’ custom fields. Just enter a definite pattern string that will represent the search criteria in the ‘Validation RegExp’ field. To create a correct pattern you should use string literal characters and metacharacters, like: (^\d{5}-\d{4}$)/.
The ‘Validation RegExp’ can be found in Administration > Orders > Order Profile Page > ‘Add New Custom Field’ link (for orders) or in Administration > Orders > Payment Systems > Payment Details > ‘Add New Custom Field’ link (for payment systems).

Ability to automatically place zero orders without submitting payment details
You may want to provide some product (s) free of charge or you just use gift vouchers. In this case you do not need your customers to submit their payment details. Now it can be easily done. The scheme is very simple: a user selects a product(s) with zero price and add it to his cart. Then he enters his personal and delivery details and that’s all.

Possibility to send SMS notifications to customers by default
In case you want to notify your customers by SMS you can now turn on the option ‘Allow sending SMS for new users by default’ via Administration > Customers > Profile Settings > Edit Type.

The Protx VSP Server and the VCS payment gateways have been added
Two new payment gateways were added, namely: Protx VSP Server and VCS. They can be found in Administration > Orders > Payment Systems. We would recommend you to carefully read installation notes inside each of these payment systems in order to correctly configure them.

Enjoy new ViArt Shop v3.2 features!

With best regards,
ViArt Team.