Prevent customer from orderng more than available

General ShopSite user discussion

Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby NuQ » Tue Aug 23, 2005 11:57 am

Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!
NuQ
 

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby NuQ » Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:01 pm

"NuQ" <nuq@34543544.com> wrote in message
news:defrjn$ncm$1@eval.shopsite.com...
Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!

I should have mentioned that I know SS will not let the customer check out
if they are ordering more than what's available. When they try and check
out, the shopping cart gives a message at the top telling them to reduce the
quantity. I want to avoid this scenerio altogether.
NuQ
 

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby Chris » Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:11 pm

Maybe this would help...a new feature in SS8:

"Display Inventory (Pro): New Custom Template tags have been created to allow
merchants to display realtime inventory numbers in a pop-up window."

Then at least you can show them how many are available before they try to
order too many and get to the cart....

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com


NuQ wrote:

Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!
Chris
 

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby NuQ » Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:28 pm

Thanks, Chris. I should have also mentioned that I am aware of that new
feature and yes, it's better than nothing. But, unfortuately that still
relies on the customer clicking and check the current inventory before
adding the item to the cart.

All of our customers order at least 10 different items and often 50+
different items. This is why we utilized the "add multiple items to cart at
once" feature introduced in SS7. The side-effect of that is what I'm trying
to solve. When the customer has ordered too many of several items, the
shopping cart shows this message one product at a time. The customer has to
change each product's quantity, click refresh or update, then repeat for
each product that's over the limit.

"Chris" <sawdust@mlcswoodworking.com> wrote in message
news:430B82EC.FB06616D@mlcswoodworking.com...
Maybe this would help...a new feature in SS8:

"Display Inventory (Pro): New Custom Template tags have been created to
allow
merchants to display realtime inventory numbers in a pop-up window."

Then at least you can show them how many are available before they try to
order too many and get to the cart....

Chris

mlcswoodworking.com


NuQ wrote:

Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!
NuQ
 

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby NuQ » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:11 pm

"NuQ" <nuq@34543544.com> wrote in message
news:defrjn$ncm$1@eval.shopsite.com...
Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!

I see this in the tags section of SS help.

[-- ProductInventoryActual path_to_shopping_cart_cgi {optional string} --]
Display current Quantity On Hand on the page using Server Side Includes
(SSI)

Maybe this is what I need? At least they will be able to see the actual
inventory without having to click a link and show a pop-up window?

I've tried implementing this, but I'm not getting what I need. All I get is
"Inventory:" underneath the product. I'm sure it's the SSI part I'm not
getting. I looked up Server Side Includes on the SS help, but I'm not
getting an explanation.

Would someone point me to a resource of how to use SSI and what are SSI?
NuQ
 

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby loren_d_c » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:27 pm

SSI == Server Side Includes.

Turning on SSI functionality overall is a server setting, not a ShopSite
setting. Some servers (most, by default) require that any pages that you
have SSI info on have special filename extensions, for example .shtml,
so that it knows what pages it has to look for these tags in.

Since the webserver has to parse each one of these pages looking for SSI
tags, I wouldn't recommend configuring the webserver to allow SSI tags
on just .html and .htm pages, and I wouldn't recommend using this method
at all on a very large, very busy store, or a store on a slow server.

-Loren



NuQ wrote:
"NuQ" <nuq@34543544.com> wrote in message
news:defrjn$ncm$1@eval.shopsite.com...

Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!


I see this in the tags section of SS help.

[-- ProductInventoryActual path_to_shopping_cart_cgi {optional string} --]
Display current Quantity On Hand on the page using Server Side Includes
(SSI)

Maybe this is what I need? At least they will be able to see the actual
inventory without having to click a link and show a pop-up window?

I've tried implementing this, but I'm not getting what I need. All I get is
"Inventory:" underneath the product. I'm sure it's the SSI part I'm not
getting. I looked up Server Side Includes on the SS help, but I'm not
getting an explanation.

Would someone point me to a resource of how to use SSI and what are SSI?


loren_d_c
 
Posts: 2569
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:02 pm
Location: Anywhere

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby NuQ » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:33 pm

Thanks, Loren. That explains why it's not working. Do you know of any way
that I can display the actual current inventory to my customers other than
the pop-up window? I would like to display it in a drop down form box, but
alternately, if I could just have it show somewhere in the product cell,
that might work also.


"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:deg4bu$tj5$1@eval.shopsite.com...
SSI == Server Side Includes.

Turning on SSI functionality overall is a server setting, not a ShopSite
setting. Some servers (most, by default) require that any pages that you
have SSI info on have special filename extensions, for example .shtml, so
that it knows what pages it has to look for these tags in.

Since the webserver has to parse each one of these pages looking for SSI
tags, I wouldn't recommend configuring the webserver to allow SSI tags on
just .html and .htm pages, and I wouldn't recommend using this method at
all on a very large, very busy store, or a store on a slow server.

-Loren



NuQ wrote:
"NuQ" <nuq@34543544.com> wrote in message
news:defrjn$ncm$1@eval.shopsite.com...

Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!


I see this in the tags section of SS help.

[-- ProductInventoryActual path_to_shopping_cart_cgi {optional
string} --]
Display current Quantity On Hand on the page using Server Side Includes
(SSI)

Maybe this is what I need? At least they will be able to see the actual
inventory without having to click a link and show a pop-up window?

I've tried implementing this, but I'm not getting what I need. All I get
is "Inventory:" underneath the product. I'm sure it's the SSI part I'm
not getting. I looked up Server Side Includes on the SS help, but I'm
not getting an explanation.

Would someone point me to a resource of how to use SSI and what are SSI?

NuQ
 

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby loren_d_c » Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:03 pm

Real-time inventory requires a dynamic aspect to it, so no it cannot
just be embedded in the HTML of your product on a static HTML page
without SSI.

You can include the inventory numbers that are current as of the time of
the page generation via a custom product template (there is a [--
PRODUCT.QuantityOnHand --] tag for product templates), however once a
product has been ordered and therefore the quantity on hand reduced,
that number will be outdated until you publish again.

-Loren


NuQ wrote:
Thanks, Loren. That explains why it's not working. Do you know of any way
that I can display the actual current inventory to my customers other than
the pop-up window? I would like to display it in a drop down form box, but
alternately, if I could just have it show somewhere in the product cell,
that might work also.


"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:deg4bu$tj5$1@eval.shopsite.com...

SSI == Server Side Includes.

Turning on SSI functionality overall is a server setting, not a ShopSite
setting. Some servers (most, by default) require that any pages that you
have SSI info on have special filename extensions, for example .shtml, so
that it knows what pages it has to look for these tags in.

Since the webserver has to parse each one of these pages looking for SSI
tags, I wouldn't recommend configuring the webserver to allow SSI tags on
just .html and .htm pages, and I wouldn't recommend using this method at
all on a very large, very busy store, or a store on a slow server.

-Loren



NuQ wrote:

"NuQ" <nuq@34543544.com> wrote in message
news:defrjn$ncm$1@eval.shopsite.com...


Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering more
than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where the
maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!


I see this in the tags section of SS help.

[-- ProductInventoryActual path_to_shopping_cart_cgi {optional
string} --]
Display current Quantity On Hand on the page using Server Side Includes
(SSI)

Maybe this is what I need? At least they will be able to see the actual
inventory without having to click a link and show a pop-up window?

I've tried implementing this, but I'm not getting what I need. All I get
is "Inventory:" underneath the product. I'm sure it's the SSI part I'm
not getting. I looked up Server Side Includes on the SS help, but I'm
not getting an explanation.

Would someone point me to a resource of how to use SSI and what are SSI?



loren_d_c
 
Posts: 2569
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:02 pm
Location: Anywhere

Re: Prevent customer from orderng more than available

Postby NuQ » Tue Aug 23, 2005 4:22 pm

Yeah, I guess that would take some major database power. Although, I have
seen sites that do that.


"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:deg6fn$vcg$1@eval.shopsite.com...
Real-time inventory requires a dynamic aspect to it, so no it cannot just
be embedded in the HTML of your product on a static HTML page without SSI.

You can include the inventory numbers that are current as of the time of
the page generation via a custom product template (there is a [--
PRODUCT.QuantityOnHand --] tag for product templates), however once a
product has been ordered and therefore the quantity on hand reduced, that
number will be outdated until you publish again.

-Loren


NuQ wrote:
Thanks, Loren. That explains why it's not working. Do you know of any
way that I can display the actual current inventory to my customers other
than the pop-up window? I would like to display it in a drop down form
box, but alternately, if I could just have it show somewhere in the
product cell, that might work also.


"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:deg4bu$tj5$1@eval.shopsite.com...

SSI == Server Side Includes.

Turning on SSI functionality overall is a server setting, not a ShopSite
setting. Some servers (most, by default) require that any pages that you
have SSI info on have special filename extensions, for example .shtml, so
that it knows what pages it has to look for these tags in.

Since the webserver has to parse each one of these pages looking for SSI
tags, I wouldn't recommend configuring the webserver to allow SSI tags on
just .html and .htm pages, and I wouldn't recommend using this method at
all on a very large, very busy store, or a store on a slow server.

-Loren



NuQ wrote:

"NuQ" <nuq@34543544.com> wrote in message
news:defrjn$ncm$1@eval.shopsite.com...


Has anyone come up with a way to prevent the customer from ordering
more than what the current inventory shows? I am using ShopSite 8 Pro.

Ideally, I'd like each product to have a pull down quantity box where
the maximum value equals the current "quantity on hand".

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!


I see this in the tags section of SS help.

[-- ProductInventoryActual path_to_shopping_cart_cgi {optional
string} --]
Display current Quantity On Hand on the page using Server Side Includes
(SSI)

Maybe this is what I need? At least they will be able to see the actual
inventory without having to click a link and show a pop-up window?

I've tried implementing this, but I'm not getting what I need. All I
get is "Inventory:" underneath the product. I'm sure it's the SSI part
I'm not getting. I looked up Server Side Includes on the SS help, but
I'm not getting an explanation.

Would someone point me to a resource of how to use SSI and what are SSI?


NuQ
 

customer registration api?

Postby Don Lundell » Wed Aug 24, 2005 6:22 pm

Hi,

Is there an API for registering / logging-in a customer?

I'd like to be able to collect customer information outside of the
shopping cart process for my own purposes, then register or log the
person in and let them continue to checkout.

Related to that, is there an API for populating a shopping cart?

The reason I ask is that I read in another forum thread, that it isn't
possible to add custom fields to the customer registration record. If
it were possible to add and extract custom fields, the API that I'm
asking about wouldn't be required.

Adding custom fields to the shopping cart (saved with the order) doesn't
solve the problem, as those are not re-populated when a customer logs in..

Actually, even if there were custom fields available for customer regisration,
the API for logging in would still be useful.

Thanks,

- dc
Don Lundell
 

Re: customer registration api?

Postby jim » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:27 am

There is no API for registering / logging-in a customer. The only
fields that are available in registration are those that show using the
default templates and the default fields from an order. It is not
possible to add any other fields to the customer information or to
include the custom fields from the shopping cart.

Jim


Don Lundell wrote:
Hi,

Is there an API for registering / logging-in a customer?

I'd like to be able to collect customer information outside of the
shopping cart process for my own purposes, then register or log the
person in and let them continue to checkout.

Related to that, is there an API for populating a shopping cart?

The reason I ask is that I read in another forum thread, that it isn't
possible to add custom fields to the customer registration record. If
it were possible to add and extract custom fields, the API that I'm
asking about wouldn't be required.

Adding custom fields to the shopping cart (saved with the order) doesn't
solve the problem, as those are not re-populated when a customer logs in.

Actually, even if there were custom fields available for customer
regisration,
the API for logging in would still be useful.

Thanks,

- dc
jim
 


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