BV Commerce 2013 release details

It’s almost here! Our goal with BV Commerce 2013 was to quickly release a new version that added lots of new features and fixed a lot of bugs, while maintaining a simple and painless upgrade process. We will be releasing a beta version to BV partners next month with a public release date of May 31^st August 30^th. For pricing information and a special offer, please see the end of this post.

BV Commerce 2013 feature list

There are so many new features, enhancements, and bug fixes listed below that there wasn’t enough space to explain them in detail. I’ve posted this list on the forum, along with a few screen shots, where you can ask questions and give me your feedback. You can also view the screen shots on Facebook. Without further ado, here is what is included with BV Commerce 2013!

New Features

• Admin interface makeover
• Loyalty Points
• Image Viewer/Zoomer for product page
• Social Sharing (Facebook Like, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc)
• Facebook Open Graph integration
• Data Feed Engine w/Google Merchant Center, Bing Shopping & The Find integration
• Google Trusted Stores integration
• Google rich snippets integration
• Google sitemap generator
• URL Redirector
• Shipping Estimator on cart page
• Web-based product import/export tool
• Tracking Number import
• Order Status viewer (securely see order details and tracking number without logging in or even having an account)
• Duplicate User Account merge tool
• Anonymous Order merge tool
• Custom Pages support templates, meta title, and pre & post content columns
• TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor (better than Free Text Box)
• Content Blocks: Category Menu Plus, Product Reviews List, Top Sellers
• Sales by Manufacturer admin report
• Sales by Product Type admin report
• Offers: Products by Category, Free Shipping on Products, and Product(s) Fixed Price
• Manually run credit card number cleanup from admin
• File Upload product input
• Shipping Rate Rule Providers
• First Data Global Gateway

Enhancements

• Site Search – faster and more accurate
• One-Page Checkout
• Product Reviews (redesigned UI, record reviewer name & email, optional admin notification email, moderation screen now shows reviewer name & email, approve all pending reviews with one click)
• HTML Content Block can be scheduled and now supports template tags
• Added [[Product]] template tags for gift certificates
• Display modifier price adjustment for [[LineItem.InputsAndModifiers]] template tag
• Display actual credit card used (e.g. Visa, MC, AMEX) rather than “Credit Card” for [[Order.PaymentMethod]] template tag
• Store Closed page automatically redirects to the homepage when the store is open, even if the store is opened after loading the closed page
• Search Box displays pre-filled message which is automatically cleared when a user clicks into the box
• Dropdown modifiers show price adjustment in the dropdown
• Latest FedEx API updates
• Authorize.Net passes customer IP address for use with Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS)
• Set default template to use when creating new products and categories
• Ability to change category source type via admin
• Improved Gift Certificate process
• Category sort by “Newest”
• Category short description
• Shipping message “Contact Store for Details” now an admin-editable Site Term and no longer displays $0.00 rate
• Display modifier price adjustments in cart
• Highlight last viewed or edited product in admin
• Add coupon code via query string
• Added “Yesterday” option to date selector
• Added [[Order.PrivateNotes]] and [[Order.SystemNotes]] template tags
• Admin list products that use a given shared choice, input or modifier

Performance Improvement

• Admin Dashboard
• Order Manager – default date range changed from “All Dates” to “This Week”
• Suggested Items on product page (Customers who purchased this item also purchased these items)
• Top Sellers
• Cart Cleanup
• Reduce the number of unnecessary empty carts that are created
• Site Search & elsewhere – eliminated needless workflow queries
• Affiliate Sales report
• Change jQuery CDN from Microsoft to Google

Bug Fixes

• Disabled offers sometimes still apply
• Products(s) offer admin page throws error if one or more products included in an offer is deleted from the database
• Shipping discounts sometimes cause shipping amount to go below zero creating a credit
• Exclude gift certificates from offers & sales (prevents double-dipping)
• Hidden categories display in category dropdown on search page
• Regenerate Dynamic Categories never runs automatically
• Gift Certificate number generated has more letters and/or numbers than the pattern defined in the admin
• Cloning a product includes the RewriteUrl field
• Cloning a product including images does not include additional images
• Product InventoryStatus property sometimes results in an object reference error
• Product class missing CustomPropertyRemove method
• Affiliate GetCurrentAffiliateID method results in an object reference error when calling it from a context-less thread
• Site Terms cannot be retrieved from a context-less thread
• SessionManager SetSessionObject method results in an object reference error when calling it from a context-less thread
• Security vulnerability in web services
• Shipping rates don’t always sort by lowest rate when shipping methods are discounted
• Shipping offers can cause a negative shipping rate to be displayed in the shipping estimator or checkout(though a value of zero will be used if the order is placed)
• Free Shipping items aren’t excluded from By Order Total method
• By Order Total and By Order Total Mixed don’t exclude non-shipping items
• DefaultDimensionCalculator GenerateDimensions method sometimes results in an object reference error
• If order consists solely of free shipping items a shipping rate cannot be determined
• A negative sales tax (i.e. a credit) can occur when one or more sales tax rules exist and at least one item in the order is non-taxable
• Inventory report email shows many zero decimal places for item quantities rather than displaying as an integer
• URL auto-rewriter creates a rewritten URL for Custom Page categories when no RewriteUrl is specified rather than creating a rewritten URL from the Custom Page it links to. This results in a Custom Page having two different URLs.
• URL auto-rewriter creates URLs with more than one sequential dash in certain scenarios
• FedEx API integration incorrectly sets shipper address rather than recipient address
• Quick Add to Cart Multi feature does not support adding child SKUs to the cart
• Category Menu content block shows incorrect menu when editing a child SKU item that has been added to the cart
• Add to Cart button on product page displays when editing an item from the cart
• Admin edit panel behaves like you’re on the homepage when a category URL has the same page name as the homepage (e.g. default.aspx)
• Mini Cart says “0 Product” rather than “0 Products”
• USPS First-Class Mail method doesn’t work properly
• Category edit admin page allows duplicate Rewrite Urls
• Negative shipping rates are shown during checkout in certain scenarios
• HTML Area input does not save name/display name when used as a shared choice
• Entering a blank value in a currency Type Property field results in an error when calling the ProductProperty.GetProductTypePropertyValue function
• CrossSellDisplay always uses CrossSellTitle Site Term, even if the control’s Title property is set
• Line item shipping status (and consequently the order shipping status) do not show as ‘shipped’ if a product corresponding to a line item is removed from the catalog
• Inventory is depleted each time a credit card authorization/charge fails during checkout
• Editing a user account in the admin forces you to create a new password
• Shipping update emails are sent for non-shipping items
• In checkout states/regions are not sorted 100% alphabetically
• Free Promo Item by Amount sometimes causes an infinite loop that crashes the site
• Ensure that WebAppSettings are loaded correctly – when this doesn’t happen the site will default to the Bvc5 theme (among other oddities)

Developer

• ASP.NET 4.0 (not 4.5 to ensure Win2k3 support)
• Anthem 1.5.3.2 update—fixes IE-related issues
• Receipt page Order public property for easier conversion tracking implementation
• Added CustomProperty collection to UserAccount and Category objects
• SessionManager now supports HttpContext-less use (e.g. separate thread)

 

Pricing

Customers with an active maintenance plan at the time of release will get the 2013 upgrade for free. Pricing for new licenses of BV Commerce 2013 is $995.