WP e-Commerce 3.7.6.9 made its appearance earlier today including a raft of fixes aligning WP e-Commerce closer with WordPress best practices and stability improvements.

If the version number (3.7.6.9) is any indication this release also marks the end of an era as the 3.8 series prepares to kick off including standards-based integration with WordPress for custom Post types, the WordPress image gallery system as well as Post Categories and Terms taxonomy.

Highlight of changes in 3.7.6.9

Without a doubt the crown of highlights in 3.7.6.9 goes to stability fixes within the Checkout process, e-Commerce Tracking comes close behind in my own priorities.

• Unclaimed Checkout cart item quantities reset hourly
• e-Commerce Tracking works with Google Analytics for WordPress
• Sale search and delete log works within Store > Sales
• More fixes to Checkout options
• You can now toggle visibility of the WP e-Commerce Product List RSS from Store > Settings > Presentation
• Updated support for the latest release of DropShop

Fixes in 3.7.6.9

Fixes that have gone into 3.7.6.9 are also being applied to WP e-Commerce 3.8.

• Unclaimed Checkout cart item quantities reset hourly
• Sale search and delete log works within Store > Sales
• Fixed presentation of Current Month widget on Store > Sales page
• More fixes to Checkout options
• Fix to force variation price to update on product page load
• Deleted categories are no longer visible within the tinyMCE Display Products panel
• Renamed “Last 30 Days” to “This Month” reflecting the behavior of the e-Commerce dashboard widget
• Fixed implode issue on products tags

New features in 3.7.6.9

A modest list of additions in this release as development priorities are obviously flowing into 3.8 and stemming off its use of custom Post types; get ready to say goodbye to wp_wpsc_products.

• You can now toggle visibility of the WP e-Commerce Product List RSS from Store > Settings > Presentation
• Updated support for the latest release of DropShop
• Added stripslashes() to the output of custom Product meta on the front-end and within Sales > Products
• Added new POT file for translations

Original changelog for 3.7.6.9

• Fixed e-Commerce Tracking integration with Google Analytics for WordPress
• Use of site_url() within the Purchase Receipt/Admin Report for correct site URL
• Fixed presentation of Current Month widget on Store > Sales page
• Added stripslashes() to the output of custom Product meta on the front-end and within Sales > Products
• Added Show Product List RSS option within Store > Settings > Presentation to toggle visibility of the Product List RSS
• Fixed hourly reset of claimed stock
• Fixed Sales search, can now seek orders based on Checkout field details as well as Transaction ID
• Fixed implode issue on products tags
• More fixes to Checkout options
• Renamed “Last 30 Days” to “This Month” reflecting the behavior of the e-Commerce dashboard widget
• Fixed Delete purchases within Sales for single and bulk purchases
• Deleted categories are no longer visible within the tinyMCE Display Products panel
• Updated support for the latest release of DropShop
• Fix to force variation price to update on product page load
• Added new POT file for translations

Download 3.7.6.9 from GetShopped.org

Its not often that I’ll do an opinion piece. But in this case…

The first time I heard mention of an e-Commerce theme I thought how daft. That was a number of years ago and I still think the same way. Although that said I’m never 100% close minded – the door should always swing both ways.

I’m not just being biased. Hear me out, from what I can tell, a lot of people seem to think that e-Commerce is merely uploading some pretty pictures, adding a price and a buy now button. I even watched John Ford make a Custom Post Type application for Products once. The whole time I just kept thinking… In one years time you might have finished the advanced shipping modules for people selling tangible goods, you might have nutted out the coupons and discount system, you might have v1 of your Taxes implementation working for some of the world, you might may have nailed a couple of payment gateways, you might even have decent security precautions to protect digital downloads, but you definitely won’t have implemented things like price & shipping matrix’s. And to be honest the list just goes on and on and on.

Until I see otherwise my thoughts are that Plugins are better for anything really big. Is BuddyPress a theme? is bbPress a theme?. No. Matt Mullenweg talks about the benefits of shortcodes and template tags in WordPress and that is exactly the way WP e-Commerce has always worked. We don’t care what theme you use, providing it doesn’t do funky Javascript and break everything that moves, than WP e-Commerce will work in any standards compliant WordPress theme.

I think it is infinitely more wise for theme developers (and companies related to themes) to focus on themes and design, otherwise they might find their whole theming business model cannibalized by the hungry hoards demanding new features and support. I believe that they should be collaborating with people like us that have spent years learning the intricacies of the e-Commerce business. Heck 5 years on we still get people asking for certain “common” features. There aint nothing “common” about e-Commerce folks. So choose wisely when using your e-Commerce platform… is it a platform designed for growth like WP e-Commerce, or is it something new and uncharted, made by people who do not necessarily know all the ins and outs of this hugely complex industry.

Food for thought.

Not only is it our goal to make the best and most clever e-Commerce Plugin ever for WordPress developers and designers, but it is also our goal to make solutions and features that are accessible and usable by everybody. You shouldn’t need to be a rocket scientist to start selling with style!

I have a vision and that vision it to make e-Commerce as interesting and as profitable for you as possible. We want to make software that you can use on your site that makes your customers go “wow”.

I’m pleased to announce (unleash) upon you the new Product Slider Plugin. Its like the old Product Slider module but this time we collaborated with WordPress Designer & Guru, Roy Ho, who with us has created a new stunning e-Commerce Plugin that is more stable, that is designed to work with WordPress 3.0, and that comes with a few nice options to let you control how the Product Slider looks on your site.

Check out the following images and if you like what you see then you can buy the Plugin from our shop.

New Settings Options & Style

Hi Team. Just a quick update to let you know that we have updated the Fedex Plugin. But only slightly, we’ve included some inline documentation, a readme file (sorry for not including it sooner), and I’m pleased to say that now it is a proper WordPress Plugin.

» Get the Fedex Plugin now

Hey Chaps. I’m sitting here thinking about all the good things to come. It occured to me that while know about all these cool things to come you probably dont. So here are some things outside of the Roadmap to look forward to;

Magento Store Importer
We have commissioned a Magento developer to create an importer tool for shop owners. Obviously WP e-Commerce is a lot younger the Magento, so people coming over won’t get “all” the crazy features (and sometimes bloat) that come with Magento but they will be back in their favorite Open Source CMS, WordPress, using WP e-Commerce. Its going to be nice to get to know you

Facebook Products Plugin
This Plugin  is going to be the be all and end all of Facebook Plugins for your WordPress powered shop. Not only will be able to “like” products and “FB share” them but you’ll be able to display your products in your Facebook profile. This is being developed by some of our friends that we met at WordCamp UK. Can’t say who yet – We can’t have you poaching their time off us

New Members / Subscribers Plugin
Our new Members Plugin is getting an overhaul. New features include integration with WordPress Roles and Capabilities, a flashy new interface, localization, and improved user management. We know you’re going to like it!

Rooms Available Plugin
We have commissioned a developer to make us a Plugin that lets you sell your rooms and beds online. Its essentially a booking system and its coming your way soon. Sheesh is there anything WordPress can’t be used for?!?

Ticketing Plugin – TikiPress
The TikiPress Plugin is going to get an update really soon. When running an event like WordCamp its important that the system handles attendees in the most modern way possible. In the old / present version if you are buying tickets you have to enter all the details for each attendee, which you might not know, so we’re creating a new system where the buy only needs to enter other attendees email address – invites are sent to the other attendee email addresses with a link to your site whereby they are prompted to enter in all their own details. This relies on WordPress users and BuddyPress profiles. Its going to be “hot”!

We’re also going to add a waiting list option and tidy up the UI. And should there be demand a couple of styles i.e. eventbrite theme etc we’ll do that. What else do you want us to put on the RoadMap for this bad boy?

BuddyPress e-Commerce
The BuddyPress e-Commerce Plugin is ‘almost’ ready. This Plugin requires both BuddyPress and WP e-Commerce to be installed. The general idea behind this Plugin is to allow you to see what your friends are selling, to setup product listings within Groups, automated checkout completion via BP profiles. More to come on this one.

Drop Shop 2010 pack
We have recently commissioned a brand new Drop Shop 2010 pack. This update comes with a range of new styles, it now utilizes widgets and it requires less theme hacking. It’ll be ready soon.. actually within days.

If any of these new additions excite you let us know your thoughts. Meanwhile we’ve got about 20 bugs to fix in Google Code before we announce a public Beta of WP e-Commerce Plugin 3.8, stay tuned!

Gold Cart 2.4 comes packed with payment gateway/merchant updates for Authorize.net 2.0, BluePay, Sage Pay and My Virtual Merchant, also under the hood is support for 3.8 as we get closer to release.

Changes to payment gateways in this release of Gold Cart include:

Authorize.net (2.0)
Increased timeout on transaction response to resolve failed purchases on slower web servers, added x_relay_response and x_delim_data options to adhere to AIM (Advanced Integration Method) guidelines

BluePay
Added Credit Card Code (CCV) to the available credit card fields at Checkout

Sage Pay
Overhauled transaction response process, sends state name instead of integer for Delivery State

My Virtual Merchant
Added delivery address details

Jump over to the Premium Plugin Updates page to download the latest release of Gold Cart.

Gold Cart 2.4 marks the first update since adding automatic Plugin update notification, this feature will be cooked into all Premium Plugins on GetShopped.org to empower store owners to stay up to date with Plugin releases. What can we do to make this even better?

As a team we’re obviously very passionate about WordPress. And as many of you know we’ve been working hard on the upcoming WP e-Commerce Plugin 3.8 which now utilizes Custom Post Types as means for storing Products in the Database – this is much much tidier then the old solution we “had no choice but to use” in the past.

During that process we have learnt quite a lot about Custom Post Types and as part of our ongoing commitment to WordPress (and to learning in general) we’ve been embarking on what we call an “industry leadership” initiative. What we’ve done is create a new Plugin that lets you import a list of countries into your WordPress site as Custom Post Types. These bad boys have a ton of Custom Meta associated with them ranging from Country Code to Flag Icon. America and Canada have their respective cities included as Custom Meta too (however we’re open to suggestion).

Essentially the goal for a Plugin like this is for it to become a core Plugin that can be used by other Plugins / Plugin developers to wrangle and manage country related information. So for instance for the WP e-Commerce Plugin we can remove tables in the database that store country related information. And we can rely on WordPress to store that data instead. For BuddyPress we would like to see this Plugin being used to enhance BuddyPress Profiles – everybody comes from somewhere!!

Its early days yet but we think it makes a mean proof of concept. If there is any interest in this Plugin let me know. If you can think of a use for this Plugin blog about it or leave a comment. We’re keen to explore all the possibilites with you.

» Download Countries Custom Post Type Plugin V0.1

Update New Download Link
» http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/countries/

Just yesterday our friends over at 9seeds launched a new Affiliate Plugin that is available immediately (right now) from our site.

An affiliate Plugin has one purpose. No it’s not to make you attractive to the opposite sex, nope it’s not going to give you wings. The Affiliate Plugin is there to help make you sales. Here’s what the creators have to say:

The Affiliate Plugin makes it simple to sign up and manage affiliates for your online store. You can easily set the payout amount (flat rate or % of sale) per affiliate, add custom banners and text links with unique tracking codes, view stats and more.

Internally we feel that this Plugin along with the many other community made Plugins goes to show that we’re doing something right, it shows us that experienced WP developers (veterans) can see where the WordPress e-Commerce market is at. It shows us that WP e-Commerce is going to be here for the long haul and that we’re going down the right path.

So what are you waiting for? Head over now and gets yours today!

Hi Team.

I’m feeling really excited about e-Commerce + WordPress at the moment and today I decided it was about time to share with you why that is. All sorts of things have changed for the better – not ONLY does the 3.8 release of WP e-Commerce utilize Custom Post Types and have half as many database tables (less than BuddyPress even?), but it looks and feels fantastic too. Here are some pics to get your juices flowing.

Manage Products Page

The new Manage Products page is simply the best. I love it and you will too. My favorite feature here is the quick edit links we designed so that you can quickly tab through important details and quickly make changes. My second favorite feature is the new navigation system that lets you toggle between “Managing your entire catalog” and “Adding New Products”. Thanks to Jane Wells from Automattic for giving us the tip.

Manage Categories

The manage Categories page has had a visual overhaul. Groups have been replaced by Parent Categories (years ago there was a reason we did groups) but now we’ve retrofitted back to a more normal Category management system. Not only does this look better but it now uses built in WordPress taxonomies which means your shop will run faster and it’ll be easier for WordPress theme developers to customize WP e-Commerce.

Variations – Hot Damn!!

Pre 3.8 we had to make additional tables in the database to handle Variations. In fact that reminds me, we had to add additional tables for Products as well, but not anymore. Not now that Products are Custom Post Types and Variations are Child Products. Its about as stream lined and WordPress-esque as you can get.

Not only  have Variations been majorly optimized but they are easier to use and manage. You arent going to find a better way. I’m serious.

Tax Settings

In the beginning, there was WP e-Commerce Plugin V1, and there were very few tax settings. Essentially that was because we were based in New Zealand, and well, we like to keep things simple down under. However the keep it simple approach wasnt the best or most suitable approach for our customers based in the USA and/or Europe.

The old system has gone. The new system is here. We believe the new Tax system being built into WP e-Commerce right now will be enough to cater for 99% of our users.

In Conclusion

I think that’s a fair sneak peak of whats to come. Over the next few weeks we’ll start writing more in depth about other new features and benefits and how you can personally take advantage – we’ll look into how the new theming system works. We’ll explain how you can benefit by using Custom Post types coupled with WordPress 3.0 Custom Menus. We’ll look at the new Affiliates Plugin being developed by 9 Seeds. We’ll take a look at the Ticketing Engine and how its going to integrate with BuddyPress and User profiles and thus why its going to be the ultimate solution for wordcamp.org and much much more.

Stay tuned! It’s exciting times…