The demo store is now up and running with the following information:

Main Store: http://www.openmindcommerce.co.uk/demo/
Admin Area: http://www.openmindcommerce.co.uk/demo/admin/

The login for the demo area is:

Username: demo
Password: demo

A year in development, 1,415 files, 283,000 lines of code and we are now at Release Candidate stage!

This is a very important stage to reach for the project simply as we are now in a situation where we flatten any final bugs that may pop-up and release the system as all of the core elements are now completed.

To say we’re excited would be the understatement of the year and we will shortly be upgrading the site in order to sell the final release. Here’s what’s changed:

[ADDED] – Links directory and management
[ADDED] – Latest news display and management
[ADDED] – Delivery cost display
[ADDED] – Contact page information drawn from comp info in admin area
[ADDED] – Newsletter management
[ADDED] – Site map coding
[ADDED] – eProduct download management for customer accounts
[ADDED] – Post sale tasks.
[CHANGE] – Updated skin/skinstyles/elements.css with new id “links” for links directory styling
[CHANGE] – Updated skin/skinstyles/elements.css with new id “latestnews” for news headline styling
[CHANGE] – Moved delivery calculations to genconfig.cfm as weights were being calculated after the first item was added.
[CHANGE] – Added last ten orders to admin area dashboard.
[CHANGE] – Added checks on checkout that if customer is subscribed to the news letter then the subscribe option will not appear
[FIX] – Sales graph was causing an error when no orders in the database
[FIX] – Sales graph was not calculating month range correctly
[FIX] – Coupon discount not being correctly calculated on order review section and basket module
[FIX] – Product variants not being saved within the order description
[FIX] – Min. delivery charge was being applied if item in basket was an eProduct.

The end is finally in sight! This will be the last beta release before our first Release Candidate next week. There’s not a great deal left to do, just a few tweaks here and there and final bug testing.

This is what’s new in this release…

[ADDED] – ColdFusion Verity search facility
[ADDED] – Added the ability to hard/soft close the store
[ADDED] – Basic sales graph to admin home page
[ADDED] – Added FAQs system
[ADDED] – Added SecureTrading Xpay gateway
[ADDED] – Customer management
[ADDED] – Customer group management for discounts
[ADDED] – Order Management
[ADDED] – Customer group discounting throughout store.
[CHANGE] – Changed the method for generating coupons so users can add their own code rather than auto-generating
[CHANGE] – Added search styles to skin/skinstyles/elements.css
[CHANGE] – Added FAQ content styling to skin/skinstyles/elements.css
[CHANGE] – Updated licensing to whois protected domain
[CHANGE] – Added product name and code when editing product in admin for clarity
[FIX] – Fixed issue with sort orders within admin area for departments, payment gateways and FAQs
[FIX] – Fixed issue with order weights not being calculated correctly
[FIX] – Fixed issue with vat on delivery charges being added twice

Work has continued at a steaming pace and we have now released the latest beta to our beta team!

The majority of the gateways are now complete with bugs and fixes being deployed along the way. Here’s what’s changed…

[ADDED] – WorldPay Select gateway
[ADDED] – PayPal Standard gateway
[ADDED] – SecureTrading Payment pages
[ADDED] – Google Checkout gateway
[ADDED] – Purchase Order gateway
[ADDED] – Protx VSPDirect gateway
[ADDED] – PDF invoices
[ADDED] – Customer account areas
[CHANGE] – Added config setting to allow a choice between drop down or radio buttons for the payment type select page.
[CHANGE] – Added all new configuration values to admin back end
[FIX] – Customer address not being added to default profile for first order.
[FIX] – Page title bar not updating in all areas
[FIX] – Default weights not calculating correctly in genconfig.cfm
[FIX] – product weight not beeing added to the basket array
[FIX] – Terms of business check was not being applied at payment stage
[FIX] – Miscellaneous spelling mistakes
[FIX] – Fixed delete product errors
[FIX] – Fixed delete zone cost
[FIX] – Copy delievery address function

Crumbs that was a bit of gap wasn’t it! There are good reasons for this though.

First up, as with all applications of this size, we had a bit of feature creep where new features kept trying to sneak their way in. The feature set is now locked for release.

Secondly, we reworked some of the core elements of the system after initial feedback from the beat team. These elements can (and did) have a knock on effect on the development.

So what’s left to do? Not a huge amount really:

Front End

• Customer account area
• Search Facility
• Gateways (Protx VSPForm, cheque and BACS are done)
• Newsletter sign-up
• Miscellaneous bits n bobs such as the site map, 404 page etc.

Admin Area

• Order management
• New config vars
• Stock management
• Customer management
• Newsletter management
• Documentation updates

So all in all we’re pretty confident of an August release in which case the summer is not going to be wash out after all!

We have today released v1.0.1 to our beta development team. This release fixes some known bugs and is also the first step towards the structure of the main store code.

The store structure is now set-up and we have also completed work on a major part of the store namely the department and product listings. Over the coming weeks we shall be working on completing the order process which is an integral part of the system.

Initial Pricing Details Confirmed!

We have also confirmed the initial pricing details for the system. You can find out more information on our pricing page.

Discussion forum goes live!

We have also introduced a new discussion forum dedicated to the OMC project! Why not come along and post any features you would like to see in the system or simply the project?

The forum is located here, http://www.openmindedsolutions.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15, so feel free to pop along and make yourself heard!

Well today saw the first alpha release to our development team who have been champing at the bit to get their hands on the very first release of the OMC system! The core elements of the administration area have now been completed and the following features released for testing: