New theme modules for 1.1.x

[lesley]

In 1.1.x we are looking at changing the modules up a bit. We are going to be reducing the number of modules that are used in themes by combining several modules down into single modules. An example is the block my account and the block my account footer. There is no reason to have to maintain 2 modules for this.

At the same time we are looking to introduce new front end modules as well. Things that theme developers can use to make shops prettier or more functional.

What kind of new front end modules would you like to see?

[ajensen27]

Here's a few that I can think of off the bat.

Newsletter pop-up module with the ability to only show it on certain pages when the user tries to exit the site (i.e. homepage or cart).

Google shopping module. There is a current one for Prestashop (developed by Google it says) but it pulls in all combinations and also has a few other issues. Being able to advertise our products on Google effectively is big. Right now, I'm just using the manual upload process but it came be cumbersome when having to change prices, add/delete products, etc.

Google customer reviews module.

Vastly improve the customer loyalty module. Right now I'm using Loyalty Lion but would rather not pay $70/month for this.

[alwayspaws]

Great suggestions @ajensen27

[alwayspaws]

What about combining some of the shipping options and add USPS as one of the default shipping options.

Also incorporate a checkmark to turn free shipping on or off during specific times like holidays etc.

[moy2010]

A module that thirtybees really need is one to display HTML content anywhere, with the possibility to override module hooks.

I.e., to display self-made html content on DisplayFooter or DisplayLeftColumn, dependind on the context/controller. Or to display another module's content by overriding it's hook (i.e., to display the content in displayRightColumn instead of DisplayLeftColumn).

I have a couple of modules that already do that (Leo Manage Widgets and Visual Composer), but such functionality should be added and supported to the ecommerce software for the benefit of all merchants.

[roband7]

Social media stuff like: facebook pixel tracking google adwords tracking instagram feed facebook like box addthis image sharing

short codes

I'm also hoping that we can begin thinking about a better way than the current module/hook system. Something more widget-like, where the individual widget has no knowledge at all about where it's used. Coupled with some sort of grid-based layout-system where instances of the widgets are combined. Coupled with some sort of system where these grids are connected to specific pages.

[wakabayashi]

Well we all have many dreams. But I try to stay realistic for now :D

New module ideas: - I still believe many merchants have problems to add custom content to their page. So this kind of module could help: https://contentbox.org/ - Google Adwords and Google Shopping integration

I am not sure if it's clever to add too many new modules. I would prefer to see improvements on existing modules: - Blog module - Default review module is just horrible.

[Traumflug]

Not front office, but anyways: review this large set of statistics modules. IIRC some of them require collecting traffic in the database, which virtually nobody turns on. Stuff like shown on the dashboard page is still interesting, no Google Analytics can show how many products were sold or how many purchases are waiting for being processed.

[Havouza]

I have said from beginning that the big test for tb will come the day it breaks backward compability with PS. When that happens there must be enough modules and themes, native or commercial to satisfy the merchants. If not they will not switch. To think they will have to because PS problems, well perhaps but again, there is a LOT of alternatives out there

[wakabayashi]

@Traumflug said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

Not front office, but anyways: review this large set of statistics modules. IIRC some of them require collecting traffic in the database, which virtually nobody turns on. Stuff like shown on the dashboard page is still interesting, no Google Analytics can show how many products were sold or how many purchases are waiting for being processed.

Finally somebody, who says it! I hate this widespreaded opinion, that GA can handle everything. It's helpful to improve your site, but it doesn't tell you a lot about your core business....

[roband7]

@Havouza said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

I have said from beginning that the big test for tb will come the day it breaks backward compability with PS. When that happens there must be enough modules and themes, native or commercial to satisfy the merchants. If not they will not switch. To think they will have to because PS problems, well perhaps but again, there is a LOT of alternatives out there

I just started a separate topic about this. It's important.

[roband7]

@wakabayashi said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

@Traumflug said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

Not front office, but anyways: review this large set of statistics modules. IIRC some of them require collecting traffic in the database, which virtually nobody turns on. Stuff like shown on the dashboard page is still interesting, no Google Analytics can show how many products were sold or how many purchases are waiting for being processed.

Finally somebody, who says it! I hate this widespreaded opinion, that GA can handle everything. It's helpful to improve your site, but it doesn't tell you a lot about your core business....

On the other hand this area is just too big for thirty bees to reinvent the wheel.

I'd rather see us rip all the useless builtin stat stuff out and do a kickass Piwik integration.

Piwik runs locally, so it can get a lot tighter integrated than GA, has no privacy and loss of data ownership issues, also comes with plugin support for custom integrations etc.

[wakabayashi]

@roband7 said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

@wakabayashi said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

@Traumflug said in New theme modules for 1.1.x:

Not front office, but anyways: review this large set of statistics modules. IIRC some of them require collecting traffic in the database, which virtually nobody turns on. Stuff like shown on the dashboard page is still interesting, no Google Analytics can show how many products were sold or how many purchases are waiting for being processed.

Finally somebody, who says it! I hate this widespreaded opinion, that GA can handle everything. It's helpful to improve your site, but it doesn't tell you a lot about your core business....

On the other hand this area is just too big for thirty bees to reinvent the wheel.

I'd rather see us rip all the useless builtin stat stuff out and do a kickass Piwik integration.

Piwik runs locally, so it can get a lot tighter integrated than GA, has no privacy and loss of data ownership issues, also comes with plugin support for custom integrations etc.

I have no problem with an external solution. But GA is just not good in the key numbers: returns, margins, revenue and stuff

[lesley]

The stat system needs a revamping too. One thing I have planned is to turn all 20 something modules into one module and just have a standard configuration where you can set whatever stats you want. I think this would be a lot less confusing than 26 or so different modules. It would also make it easier on us to keep up with as well.

[vzex]

Switch to remove condition/manufacturer without messing with files for the non coding types! Would seem odd next to a food product, nah I'll take the used or refurbished :) Seems my biggest search after installing TB or PS is how to remove (whatever) from prestashop :) Once solution goes to open file and comment out/change/add....things can go really wrong!

[Traumflug]

Switch to remove condition

Contributed by Nobodaddy just last week: https://github.com/thirtybees/thirtybees/pull/260 :-)

Once solution goes to open file and comment out/change/add…things can go really wrong!

Make a backup. Like simply making a copy of the file right where it is. This on the shell (or by some other means): none cp -p product.tpl product.tpl-2017-06-28 Unknown templates get ignored. If something goes wrong, simply copy the file back and start over.

[vzex]

THANK YOU! @Traumflug I now have the switch but the product page still shows condition.

Do I need to edit more than: controllers/admin/AdminPPreferencesController.php ?

My prior solution was to use . . on the translation page, adding dots to the product in place of condition :(

Not really sure how github works or your command line code so I edited this file in cpanel: controllers/admin/AdminPPreferencesController.php

When I edit a file using cpanel I rename with an x in front of the original name so they all fall to the bottom for easy backup retrieval if needed then make a new file with the original name then edit or copy code. As a non coder this works for me! I'd love to learn better ways though!

Adding lines 228-235 as show here gave me a page error. https://github.com/thirtybees/thirtybees/pull/260/files

So I clicked "view" then "raw" copied/saved all the text into a blank AdminPPreferencesController.php file

Halfway there! Worked as a switchable option but not on the item page I have performance/cache turned off :(

After this is sorted can we have the option to switch off gender title and birthday for registration? :) :) :)

[Traumflug]

Do I need to edit more than: controllers/admin/AdminPPreferencesController.php ?

Yes. You also have to forward this flag to the template: https://github.com/thirtybees/thirtybees/commit/a92b49b75802426443d4d21c67476eee886390a7

And you have to change the template to recognize this flag: https://github.com/thirtybees/community-theme-default/commit/6dfd9d025c5c4b012a79287f56fff2d7a0bd5f11

I think that's it.

[Traumflug]

When I edit a file using cpanel I rename with an x in front of the original name

Didn't think about adding something in front. I'd also change the suffix, at least for PHP files. There's an autoloader which picks up everything having a .php suffix so keeping the suffix might end up in duplicate code.

As a non coder this works for me!

Excellent!

I’d love to learn better ways though!

Even better? Make this whole shop installation a Git repository. Then you can apply patches even without editor and roll back and forth such changes in seconds. If you manage to do this as well, you're no longer a non coder :-)

When maintaining servers (general ones, not shop installations), adding the date as suffix has served me pretty well, though.

[Guest]

A module for providing AMP and schema markup would be handy, ideally on CMS pages and the blog. I also like the idea of @moy2010 for html anywhere blocks to put widgets where you want. I loved this in Magento, it was so easy to install a new self-contained block of code on the product page, I did it on one website for a finance auto calculation.

[Havouza]

I just read something reaaly funny that can apply to this "There is nothing fishy. Google has a huge monopoly on Search and they do whatever they want."

[Havouza]

There is modules for the html part. Nemops has a tb compatible one

[lesley]

@DavidP We are planning on releasing a module soon that will handle json+ld data for shops. We just want it to integrate correctly with everything, so it is taking some time.

[unica e-shop]

I would like to see this module as a native part of thirty bees instead of the normal slider module, this module is free and really powerful, so it would be nice if it could be a part of thirty bees: !Sliders Everywhere! by Syncrea

Another module i really love to see, is a module that allow you to customize --> invoice document sent as a pdf to the costumer, i really dont like (visually) the standard invoice pdf file that is sent to the customer.

[Havouza]

I would like all modules free and native but then the tb will go under because no one can make any money to ssurvive on