VERSION 2.0 NOW AVAILABLE



Just in time for the holidays, the Develisys BVC 5 Toolkit is our gift to the BV community. The toolkit includes a collection of add-ons that we’ve developed over the years working with BV 5. We decided to release this to the community for no charge (and with very simple licensing terms) in hopes of fostering greater collaboration and code sharing. Below is a summary of the add-ons:


Develisys One Page Checkout v1.0 (v2.0 now available HERE)
This is the one I’ve been discussing on the forum. It is based on Cliff’s ‘Quick Checkout’ (which is in turn based on BV’s ‘One Page Checkout’). The email address field performs a lookup (via AJAX) to make sure that the customer doesn’t already have an account. If they do, they are directed to login. The ability to add and remove coupon codes was added to the page. Account creation happens as the final step in the checkout. The checkout is configurable via the ‘Plug-ins’ tab in the admin. From there you can configure behavior like requiring account creation or prompting customers to login page prior to entering checkout (they can bypass this page if they do not have an account). You can also enter instructional content for each step of the checkout process.

Sites using it:
Modern Bathroom
BizTools
PromoManagers

Develisys Menu (Content Block)
This is a super-configurable menu. It supports infinite levels and improved performance over the stock menu controls. In addition to determining active states for category pages it also supports custom pages and custom links. This control can be used for any menu on the site (e.g. top-level, left-nav, etc) based on its settings. It supports dropdown menu functionality as well. The one caveat to this menu is that to get the most out of it you need to really know your CSS. Take a look at the CSS of the sites below to get a handle on how to style against it. Also, for the dropdown menus, they are a pure CSS implementation (with a small amount of JS to help older versions of IE along) based on the Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns.

Sites using it:
BMI Educational Services
KD Analytical
Modern Bathroom
BizTools

Develisys Scheduled Content (Content Block)
Allows you to specify a date range (and time) to display content. There is also a field provided to optionally supply default content to display when the scheduled content is not being displayed. This is great for displaying sale banner ads; you can time it to be displayed when your sale starts.

Develisys Top Sellers (Content Block)
This is an upgraded version of the out-of-the-box top seller controls. You can choose the display mode (list or grid), number of items to display, and what category (if any) and date range to use for the data. One of the most important improvements is that it is significantly faster than the out-of-the-box best seller controls.

Sites using it:
Modern Bathroom
BMI Educational Services

(new) Develisys Product Reviews List (Content Block)
This highly configurable content block, similar in function to our Top Sellers content block, allows you to show the latest product reviews on the site

(new) Develisys Dynamic HTML (Content Block)
Allows you to add HTML to a Content Column, like BV’s built-in HTML Content Block, but with the added flexibility of using tags. The standard BV ‘site’ and ‘user’ tags are available as well as two special tags which enable you to add a single product (using our DevelisysSingleProductDisplay control) or product grid (using our DevelisysProductGridDisplay control) to the page. Here is the syntax:

Single Product: [[Product:SKU]]
Product Grid: [[ProductGrid:SKU1,SKU2,SKU3|SKU4,SKU5,SKU6]] – the “|” would represent a new row of products

(new) Order Status
Allows customers to lookup their orders to check their status, tracking numbers, etc even if they do not have an account. Just navigate to the page, /OrderStatus.aspx. Customers can look up their order by entering the order number and their billing postal code. Also, since the page uses a query string to pass this information, you can add an order lookup link to your customer emails using the existing BV email tags/tokens like this:



(new) Tracking Number import
This allows you to import a text file of tracking numbers. When a tracking number is imported, the order is marked 'shipped' and an email is sent to the customer with the tracking number. Below is a sample file for your reference. The import page also gives you a fair amount of flexibility in specifying the format of the file. For example, you do not need to include the ship date & time (it will use the current date & time instead). To use this feature, go to the Plugins tab in the Admin and select the Develisys plugin. From here you can click the "Import Tracking #'s" link in the left column.



(new) Sales by Product Type report
As you might have guess from the name, this report shows the sales by Product Type.

(new) TinyMCE editor
Adds the TinyMCE rich text editor, a much better alternative than the included Free Text Box. Ironically this is the same editor that is included with BV 6. To enable the editor go to Options tab in the admin and click Display from the left-column menu (/BVAdmin/Configuration/AdminDisplay.aspx). Select TinyMCE from the WYSIWYG Editor dropdown.

Develisys Product Review system
This is an upgraded version of the out-of-the-box product review functionality. Product reviews and the entry form are now on the product page rather than being in a pop-up window, increasing the likelihood that users will read the reviews and post their own review as well as potentially improving your page's ranking through this user-generated content. The review form has been redesigned to use a radio button list with graphical stars for the rating rather than a dropdown box. In addition, the form also captures the user's name and email address, allowing you to follow up with a user that posts a negative review. Finally, when the review is posted, it generates an email (using an admin-editable email template) that is sent to you at your store contact address. You can change this email address by going to the Site Terms page in the admin and changing the "ProductReviewEmail" term.

(new) Search form
This is a replacement for the BV 'search criteria' control (/BVModules/Controls/SearchCriteria.ascx) that is used on the search page. We've simplified the sorting by combining the 'sort by' and 'order by' fields into a single option. This control also supports our site search engine. Here's how you install it:

At the top of the /search.aspx page replace this line:

with this:


In the /search.aspx.vb file replace this line (around line 50):

with these lines:


and replace this line (around line 64):

with this line:


(new) Cart Cleanup
We’ve had so many problems with BV’s cart cleanup process that we wrote our own. This one is significantly faster and only requires changing two lines of code (and no recompiling). If you’re experiencing site slowdowns during the cart cleanup process, give this a shot.

/Global.asax – around line 134
Replace:

With:


/BVAdmin/Configuration/Orders.aspx.vb – around line 112
Replace:

With:


(new) Fix: Auto-URL Rewriting problem with product images
This fixes the issue explained in the thread below. The problem typically occurs when you are using auto-rewriting with a Product URL prefix of "Products" and you have your product images stored in the /images/products/ folder (or a sub-folder of this folder). The result is that product images will not be displayed.

http://www.bvcommerce.com/forum...ages-not-showing-up.aspx

To implement this fix, add the line of code below, denoted with the "<DEVELISYS/>" comment, to the /App_Code/TaskLoader.Custom.vb file. The line of code must be inside the LoadCustomUrlRewritingRules function (this should be near the bottom of the file around line 50).



Installation
Officially this toolkit only supports BVC 5.6 and 5.7 (make sure you download the correct zip file), though I suspect it will work with older versions. [UPDATE: will not work with SP3 and older...5.4 and 5.5 have not been tested]
Version 2.0 supports BVC 5.7.1 and above. The old version of the toolkit is still available in versions for BVC 5.6 and 5.7.

1. Download the file attached to this post for your version of BV. Then change the .txt file extension to .zip (the forum wouldn't allow me to upload a zip -- e.g. rename Develisys.Bvc5.zip.txt to Develisys.Bvc5.zip), and then unzip it.
2. Read the license file, Develisys-license.txt, found in the root
3. Backup your website and database
4. Merge your Web.config file with the one included in the zip file.
5. Copy the files to your website
6. Stored procedures are automatically added to the database the first time you use one of the components. If your SQL user does not have permissions to create stored procedures, you will need to manually execute the SQL script \BVAdmin\BVSql\Develisys\Develisys.Bvc5.sql. You will see an error in the BV Event Log if this happens.
7. To use the Develisys Product Review system, edit your product templates and change this line at near the top of the page:
to this:

Edited by user Thursday, August 4, 2016 4:11:15 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yes, it is a great set of addons, we're very happy with all the work Develisys did on our stores especially the checkout. Everything they did was easy to implement and they provided great support when we needed it.

<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU">John Power
<FONT style="COLOR: #008b8b">CEO - BizTools
www.biztoolsanalytics.com</FONT>

Very much appreciated! Coming from Miva originally, in my opinion, the lack of community/addin/plugins is BV biggest drawback :(

Update -- forum member Matt@9BallDesign found a bug where the edit page for the Develisys Top Sellers content block throws an error when the page is loaded. This does not occur in all installations. If you are experiencing this bug, please re-download the file from the original post; it has been updated with the latest version.

Forum member Bede asked me a question today about how to add the Develisys Menu to the header of the site (rather than as a left-column menu). Here are the instructions:

1. In the admin, go to the Content tab and click “Columns” in the sub-menu (/BVAdmin/Content/Columns.aspx)

2. Create a new column by typing “Header Menu” in the textbox and click the “New” button

3. Add the Develisys Menu control to this new Content Column

4. Open your Header.ascx control (in your Theme folder) and add this to the top of the page


5. Then add this to your Header control wherever you want the Content Column to appear

CRITICAL UPDATE -- the toolkit has been updated with bug fixes & enhancements for the one-page checkout and the addition of a new product review system.


Develisys One-Page Checkout
Bug fixes -- we found that in certain scenarios when using product choices (variations & modifiers) that they would not show up on the checkout page. Depending on the scenario the total price might be correct while the line total would be incorrect because it wasn't showing the choices. Only the Checkout.aspx.vb file was updated.

Enhancements -- when using the address fields that cause an AJAX postback (i.e. the Anthem controls), the cursor is automatically moved to the next field. For example, if you select a state from the dropdown list, the cursor will then move to the zip field.

[New] Develisys Product Review system
This is an upgraded version of the out-of-the-box product review functionality. Product reviews and the entry form are now on the product page rather than being in a pop-up window, increasing the likelihood that users will read the reviews and post their own review as well as potentially improving your page's ranking through this user-generated content. The review form has been redesigned to use a radio button list with graphical stars for the rating rather than a dropdown box. In addition, the form also captures the user's name and email address, allowing you to follow up with a user that posts a negative review. Finally, when the review is posted, it generates an email (using an admin-editable email template) that is sent to you at your store contact address. You can change this email address by going to the Site Terms page in the admin and changing the "ProductReviewEmail" term.

Edited by user Monday, September 15, 2014 4:34:34 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Steve,

We have a 5.7 version in testing right now so it should be ready later this week. I'll be posting it on this thread, so keep checking back.

Will this work on IIS 6? If so, would you be so kind as to post an example web.config for IIS6? Thank you in advance.

So far working really nice with 5.7. I've only tested the one page checkout and reviews. Really nice. Thanks Aaron!

Aaron,

I just got an order from a customer who did not enter in a first name or last name for the billing address...