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

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.

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.

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.

Just to let you all know we have just released version 1.3.1 of Cart Viper our DotNetNuke ecommerce module the full list of new features are:

• Real time shipping calculations provided by UPS. 
• Category image support.
• Category description support.
• Improved store admin menu layout.
• Support for Thailand Baht currency.
• Improve product management filter product selectors.

As ever we will be doing follow up blogs highlighting each new feature.

Here are Cart Viper we are pleased to announce version 1.3 of our DotNetNuke ecommerce module has just been released, this release is packed full of new features:

• Display accepted credit card icons for each payment gateway at point of checkout.
• Optionally display a text box where user can enter notes to store admin relating to order.
• Enhance product import so variants can also be imported via .CSV format.
• In store pickup shipping option.
• Admin search orders by customer name.
• New manage store role.
• Admin ability to edit order shipping / billing addresses.
• Enhanced shipping so now allows lower 48 support.
• Express checkout - only show billing and payment page if cart contains digital downloads only.
• Product visualizer - allow user to see a mockup of how there product will look with their custom options.
• Product variant control type - image uploader.
• Product variant control type - multi line text box.
• Store wide promotions.
• DNN role specific categories.

If you feel there is something that is missing please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your requirements.

Here at Cart Viper we like to work closely with our customers and it is always nice to get great feedback on our DotNetNuke eCommerce solution, we are pleased to announce we have just began working with C 2 Internet Solutions and they are more than happy with how the relationship is progressing:

“This is by far the best cart I have used for a DNN site. It is simple to setup, uploading products is a breeze and the developers actually support there product unlike the big name carts like Smith Cart. This cart does not have the constant bugs that other carts have and management is a breeze.”

Chuck Chapman

C 2 Internet Solutions

Recently Robb Bryn over at DotNetNuke fool took the time to review several eCommerce modules for DotNetNuke, we are pleased to say his review put Cart Viper top overall with an average score of 3.6 from a possible 5. We are obviously very pleased about this as we have only be developing Cart Viper for 6 months, and were in a strong line-up that included all our more established competitors.

We have taken Robb’s comments onboard and are looking to address a number of his concerns with our forthcoming 1.2.4 release with a view to making an even better product!

You can read the full review here.

Cart Viper is available for a free 14 day trial here.

Here at Cart Viper we are happy to announce we have released version 1.2.3 of Cart Viper and it is now available to download and take a free 14 day trial.

New features for this release:

• Remove all unmanaged code so Cart Viper is now fully compatible for running in a medium trust environment.
• Google analytics ecommerce and event tracking supported.
• If a product is a digital download you can specify an unlimited number of files to be downloaded by the user once order has been placed.
• Ability to import SEO keywords for a product during the product import routine.
• Add ability to disable product comparison feature via admin settings.
• Bug fix when viewing an order as an anonymous customer.

If you think there is a feature missing from Cart Viper or there is anything we can improve please contact us