Understanding Release Notes

These posts represent all major and minor changes, features, fixes, and updates made to the AmeriCommerce Software.

All posts are tagged with the major version that the update applies to. For example 2012.1 or 2012.2. The date is also representative of the version of that release.

To find out if an update applies to your site you will need to check whether the major version and date matches the version of your AmeriCommerce store. This is found in the footer of your admin in the format of 201Y.X.MDD.x

A version number is broken down into the year, major release, build date, and build number. For example 2012.2.508.1 would mean it is the 2012.2 major version released on May, 8 and is the first build of that day.

If you are interested in getting a feature applied to your site ahead of the routine update schedule please enter a support ticket.

Release History

  • FEATURE: New Subscription Updates

    AmeriCommerce store owners can now sell Subscription Products, with automatically recurring billing, directly from their storefront. 

    Subscriptions Update Features:

    • New Automatic Subscriptions Features
      • Subscriptions can automatically be created when an order is placed based on Store Settings.
      • One subscription for the entire order, or a different subscription for each subscription product.
      • Entire Order level subscriptions can have a default subscription renewal frequency.
      • Subscriptions can be set to be automatically renewed.
      • Subscriptions are automatically created based on orders from the front end or Order Edit.
      • Only one Subscription per Order will be created for Entire Order level subscriptions.  Editing an order will replace the subscription.
    • New Product Settings
      • Products can be marked as Subscription products with their own frequency.
      • RequireCreditCard setting on a product means the customer may only pay via credit card and a card is required even on a free product
    • New Subscription List View
      • New columns added: SubscriptionType, IsEnabled, IsRenewalPaymentDeclined
      • Added hover tooltip to view the contents of the Subscription
      • View number of renewals
      • OrderList Create Subscriptions – load defaults
    • New “My Account” Section
      • New section added to display a customer’s Subscriptions
      • Subscriptions listed by OrderID (Order level subscriptions) or ItemName for ProductOnly subscription.
      • Edit the credit card to be used for next renewal.  If editing the credit card on a “declined” renewal, the system attempts to renew again.
      • Toggle Subscription Status between Enabled/Disabled.
      • Full custom layout available.
    • Data Retention for Billing
      • Will not purge CustomerPaymentMethods that are assigned to a Subscription.
    • New API Methods
      • Trigger “Product Of The Month” type subscription fulfillments via API by creating new orders with the new product for all subscriptions based on a specific subscription item.  For example, sell a product called “Fruit of the month Annual Subscription” and call this method each month with the Annual Subscription SKU and substitute the current month’s SKU such as an Orange Basket SKU, false for OnlyProcessSubscriptionsDue and false for ExtendRenewalDate.
        • public string[]Subscription_PlaceOrderFromSubscriptions(string psItemNr, string[] psItemNrsToSubstitute, bool pbOnlyProcessSubscriptionsDue, bool pbExtendRenewalDate)
        • Places and order from a selection of subscriptions.  psItemNr is optional, find only subscriptions that match this ItemNr, used for Product Subscription Types (send null for none).  psItemNrsToSubstitute is optional but requires psItemNr, places the new order without the Subscription Product, substituting the comma-seperated listed ItemNrs instead (sent null for none).  ExtendRenewalDate will mark the subscription as renewed and extend its next renewal date by its frequency.

    o Take PreOrders for eProduct items.  Sell a standard non-eProduct item, then at a later date convert that product to an eProduct item and execute the following method to fulfill all orders containing the SKU.  The eProduct will be emailed and show up in MyAccount as normal.

    § public string[] Order_FullfillPreOrderEproductItems(string psItemNr)

    § Modifies OrderItems for a specific ItemNr by reloading the eProductDeliveryLinkAction fiels from the original product and perform an eProduct Delivery if the OrderItem does not already have an eProductDeliveryLinkAction.  Returns a list of fullfiled OrderIDs.

    New Merge Codes:

    • Order   
      • ##PAYMENTDECLINEDREASON## - Order merge for displaying any response from the payment gateway as the declined reason.
    • Subscription
      • ##SUBSCRIPTIONID##
      • ##SUBSCRIPTIONTYPE## – None, EntireOrder, SubscriptionProductsOnly
      • ##ORIGINALORDERDATE##
      • ##SUBSCRIPTIONNAME## – OrderID: XXXX for EntireOrder type, ItemName for SubscriptionProductsOnly
      • ##NEXTDUEDATE##
      • ##PAYMENTMETHOD## - the Customer Payment Method used for a renewal. CardType: xxxx-0000 exp: 11/2011
      • ##LASTPAYMENTSTATUS## - Success/Declined, last time the subscription renewal was attempted.
      • ##ISENABLED## - Enabled/Disabled
      • ##ISACTIVE## - Active/Inactive (same as is enabled, different wording)
      • ###TOGGLEENABLED## - Enable/Disable - Opposite of current status as an action word.  Can be passed via QueryString along with SubscriptionID to MyAccount to swap status.

     

    My Account

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    Store Settings > General Tab

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    Product Editor > General Tab

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  • New Theme!

    We’ve just added the Health Store theme. If you are on version 2012.1.403 or higher you will have this theme available on your Add New Theme page. For a live preview you can view it here: https://themedesign.americommerce.com/default.aspx?sessionthemeid=154

    screenshotProductCategoryDropDown

  • UPDATE: Flyout Menus in Themes

    All Base themes will now include CSS for Vertical Flyout Menus in Addition to Horizontal Dropdowns.

    image

  • HOTFIX: Rule Engine Query String

    Fix for null reference issue when processing the ##REFERRINGURLQUERYSTRINGPARAM## merge in rule engine actions

  • HOTFIX: Gift Certificate Discounts

    Removed a restriction that caused gift certificate eProducts to not be considered for any discount rules.

  • HOTFIX: Product Cloning

    Cloning a product will now also clone its custom field values.

  • HOTFIX: Discount Methods

    When checking to see if a discount method has already been used by the customer, we will now always assume it has not been used yet if a customer is not logged in or the customer ID is not valid (customer ID <= 0). When a valid customer ID is specified it will behave normally.

  • HOTFIX: ExternalImaging Swatches

    The Variant Swatch merge code ##VARIANTPICMATRIX[...]## will now support ExternalImaging as well as DirectReference images no longer forcing the Resizer.

    If using ExternalImaging it will use the Thumb Base Reference to make the image.

    This means that it may require CSS to resize the images if using either of these Photo Handling methods such as:

    .varpicmax_img { width:50px; }

    Because the width parameter in the merge will no longer apply since not using the image sizer.

  • FEATURE: Save Sort Field

    Added the ability to save the sort field on the admin grid when the grid layout is saved.

    In response to http://vote.americommerce.com/forums/25843-feature-ideas/suggestions/1153611-default-sort-order-control

  • HOTFIX: Phantom Items URL

    Phantom items added to the cart will now display a link to the proper item url on the shopping cart if an item url was supplied via remote carting, otherwise the link will not be clickable (since the url will be invalid).

  • FEATURE: Custom Layout for the Cart Area

    Added Custom Layout ability to the Cart Area of the One Page Checkout.

    image

  • HOTFIX: Workflow Rule Engine

    Corrected an Issue using Order Custom fields in the Rule Engine that was causing timeouts.

  • HOTFIX: Product Mass Editor and Inventory Editor

    The product Mass Editor and Inventory Editor will now take into account Additional Categories that products belong to.

  • HOTFIX: Order Edit Item Link

    The link to a product from the order edit screen will now open in a new window/tab.

  • HOTFIX: External Imaging Videos

    Fixed products not showing Videos when product photo handling set to ExternalImaging

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