Here at Cart Viper the DotNetNuke ecommerce solution we like to see innovative and creative websites developed using our product.

One recently launched website that meets that criteria is www.deplaque.com, our friends over at ITX Corp have taken the basic Cart Viper layout and through the advanced templating and token system we have, they have seamlessly incorporated the ecommerce side into Deplaque’s DotNetNuke site.

Many custom features were developed specifically for the Deplaque website – including the new 3 stage checkout and many more that are going to make up release 1.4 of Cart Viper.

The results speak for themselves and should provide the platform Deplaque need to expand their online presence and take their business to the next level. If you have anymore examples of Cart Viper being used in an innovative way drop us a line and we will be happy to give you a mention.

Here at Cart Viper the DotNetNuke ecommerce module we are happy to announce that we have just launched a partners program, the aim of this program is highlight and promote companies that have the necessary skill sets and experience to deliver turn key ecommerce solutions based on Cart Viper.

With that in mind we are looking for companies that have a proven track record in .NET programming specifically in the field of DNN and design. These companies should be able to take the Cart Viper platform and add their own value through design, SEO, marketing, etc to make a clients online presence as profitable as possible, if you think your company has what it takes please contact us.

Mark and myself are happy to welcome Pure Systems LTD to our partners program. Pure Systems are vastly experienced in the field of DotNetNuke  where they are DNN certified silver partner and have passed all DNN competency exams.

They have a proven track record in delivering DNN modules and creating custom designs for DNN sites allowing them to enhance the Cart Viper experience by building customer specific add-ons and with their expertise in SEO and email marketing they are capable of taking your online presence to the next level.

Pure Systems LTD
PO Box 90
Credition
Devon
EX17 2WA
info@puresystems.co.uk
0844 561 6046
Company No: 5991629

Pure Systems have recently been working with our ecommerce module for DotNetNuke to create an online store for a client.
You can take a look at the full review written about Cart Viper over the Pure Systems blog.

“The guys at cartviper.com have been very responsive to our comments and suggestions for the product which has meant we've been able to deliver an excellent DNN eCommerce solution for our client”

Its really good to hear positive feedback from people that use our software. If you have some comments or feedback about Cart Viper we would really like to hear from you.
We are working on the next release of Cart Viper at the moment and its going to contain even more features and improvements.

Support of Cart Viper the advanced DotNetNuke ecommerce module is something Mark and myself take very seriously. We understand when you place your faith in an ecommerce application you need to know that there is the support network behind the application to ensure that if you have any issues you can get timely answers to your questions.

With that in mind we are happy to announce we have looked at the support we offer and come up with 3 support plans to suit every budget.

Community support is completely free and allows users access to support forums, all posts will be replied to in a prompt fashion during UK business hours Monday - Friday (8am - 6pm GMT) excluding UK public holidays.

Standard support allows users access to support forums and email contact with developers, all emails and posts will be replied to in a prompt fashion during UK business hours Monday - Friday (8am - 6pm GMT) excluding UK public holidays. However priority will be given to standard support customers over community support customers. Hot fixes released for bugs.

Enterprise support allows users access to support forums and email contact with developers, all emails and posts will be replied to in a prompt fashion during UK business hours (8am - 6pm GMT) 7 days a week excluding UK public holidays. Priority will be given to enterprise support customers over community and standard support customers. Hot fixes released for bugs and discounted rates on all custom development work.

All support contracts are yearly recurring fees, the support packs can be purchased direct from our store. If you have any questions about which plan would be the best option please contact us and we would be more than happy to discuss them with you.

Following on our discussion of new features in version 1.3.1 of Cart Viper our advanced ecommerce DotNetNuke module we are going to highlight the new category image and description support.

In version 1.3.1 we have enhanced the options available to the store admin in the category management section, now it is possible to set both a category description and upload a single image for that category that can then be outputted in the store catalogue:

In order to output them in the catalogue we are going to use the advanced templating system Cart Viper employs. Each page within Cart Viper is made up of a number of .htm files that contains HTML and “tokens”, when Cart Viper makes a page it merges the HTML and replaces the tokens with data.

For example to output our category title, description and images we are going to edit the .htm file “CategoryContainer.htm”, we have added the 3 highlighted tokens in a simple HTML div:

Now when we view the store catalogue we get the current category title, description as well as any sub-category images outputted:

This templating system is used throughout Cart Viper and empowers the store admin to create advanced page layouts, a further key advantage is due to the fact each portal has its own templates it is possible to create completely unique stores for each of your portals on your DNN installation.

For more information on the token system used within Cart Viper please consult our user guide.

Its always good to see how our customers use Cart Viper in their site, Al Stoughton of www.boatinginfousa.com has implemented a great ecommerce site.

This is what Al thinks about Cart Viper.

“When we began our search for a DotNetNuke e-commerce solution, we weren’t sure what to expect.  It was our first effort in this area and we were working with a drop ship distributor with 10,000 products in a dozen or more categories with their own file format, codes and standards.  How to seamlessly marry them to our e-commerce front end?  We chose CartViper and couldn’t be more pleased!  The product works as advertised and is reasonably priced.  But most impressive is their technical support.  We had to write bridge software in VB.NET to marry Cart Viper’s interface with our distributor’s specs and formats.  We needed some Cart Viper changes and yes, even asked some silly questions.  The Cart Viper staff was always there with the answers – friendly, prompt, courteous and accurate.  If you need a shopping solution, we suggest that you give Cart Viper serious consideration. Good product; great support. We will be glad to answer any inquiries.”

Why not test drive Cart Viper for yourself with the free 14 day trial.

Another major improvement to Cart Viper our DotNetNuke ecommerce module is the integration into the UPS shipping calculations API, allowing real time calculations of shipping costs based on the items in the customers cart.

In order to use this service you must sign up for an account with UPS, once you have received your access information you are now ready to use this shipping provider:

UPS calculates the cost of the shipment based upon the size and weight of the items being sent, as you can see above we have defined defaults for package size and weight. In the event that a product does not have a length, width, height or weight defined we will use the above defaults.

Furthermore the address you enter above must be the address UPS will collect your packages from, as all shipping costs are calculated from the above address to the customers shipping address.

Once the UPS shipping provider has been configured at the point of checkout Cart Viper will contact UPS and request a quote for shipping the items in the customers cart, all available options will be returned along with their prices allowing the customer to pick the option they wish:

By implementing the UPS shipping provider Cart Viper now offers a wide range of methods of calculating shipping costs that should suit any business model:

• Enable / disable shipping to be calculated on an order.
• Real time shipping calculating via FedEx, USPS and UPS.
• Define a standard shipping rate on all orders.
• Define an unlimited amount of shipping rates by cart weight, speed of delivery and shipping destination.
• Define an unlimited amount of shipping rates by cart subtotal, speed of delivery and shipping destination.
• Define an unlimited amount of standards of shipping for each country e.g. saver, super saver, next day, etc.
• Define the shipping charge as a percentage of the cart sub-total.
• If no shipping rates are defined for a users country, customers are prompted to contact the store for a quote.
• Optionally charge VAT or tax on shipping costs.
• Optionally define a product as "free shipping" so regardless of the shipping rules in place, this product will not incur a shipping cost.
• In store pick up option.

Feel free to contact us if you have a shipping model that is not covered by Cart Viper.

To help celebrate the 4 July we have a special offer for any one that purchases Cart Viper our ecommerce module for DotNetNuke. Between now and Tuesday the 5th July 2011 you can save 20% at SnowCovered.com simply use this promotion code at the checkout CV4JULY

We hope you have a great Independence Day!

Within the Store Admin pages of Cart Viper we’ve made it easier for the store owner to find particular types of products.

In additional to limiting the product list to just display items within a given category you can also just display

• Archived Products – Products which are marked as archived and not available in the store front.
• Products on Special Offer – Display only products which are on special offer within the store.
• Featured Products – Limits the product list to display products which have been marked as featured.
• Out of Stock Products – Shows products that are currently out of stock
• Low Stock Products – Shows products with stock levels running low.

We are already working on the next release of Cart Viper with even more features and improves. If you have an idea for a feature that you would like to see included in the next release please get in contact.

One of the more advanced features we have added to Cart Viper the DotNetNuke ecommerce module is the product visualizer. This feature allows your customers to see a mock-up of what their product will look like once they have made their own selections. For example this feature would allow a customer to see what a t-shirt would look like once they have entered their own custom text and images.

Configuring the product visualizer is straight forward, the 1st step is to add each option for your product as a product variant, following on from our t-shirt example we are going to define 3 variants:

Once we have defined the variants we can then select the product visualizer link.

The 1st step is to upload a “base image”, the base image is used in the mock-up and the customers selections are then inserted into the base image to let them see what the product would look like with their selections.

Once your base image has been uploaded you must then create a new marker for each product variant you would like to appear on the mock-up. In the below example we are creating a marker for the “T-Shirt Image” variant, by using the image selection tool it is possible to define where the marker should appear on the base image – the users content will then be inserted into the marker.

In the above example we are expecting a user to upload an image, as the variant “T-Shirt Image” has a control type of “ImageUploader”, however if the control type expected text as the input you can also set the maximum number of characters the user can input, along with the font size, colour and alignment.

It is also worth noting that each marker that has been previously been added is outlined in red to allow you to easily arrange your markers on the base image as you wish, as you can see the “T-Shirt Message” marker has already been added.

Once the product visualizer has been configured for a product the option “View Personalized Product” is outputted on the product details page:

When clicked upon the user will be able to view the mock-up of their product in a modal popup window:

If an order is placed for a product the customer and store admin will be able to view the mock-up at anytime by logging in and viewing their order management sections.

Cart Viper is available for a free 14 day trial, if you have any questions please contact us.