SoftSlate Commerce - Newest Features

Version 2.3 | Version 2.2 | Version 2.1 | Version 2.0

What's New in Version 2.3

• New Default Templates. Version 2.3 features a new set of default JSP templates for the customer interface. Among the advantages of the new set of templates are:
  • A cleaner, simpler, and more modern look, which provides a good generic design out-of-the-box.
  • A more intuitive tabbed interface for the customer account screens.
  • Modern XHTML coding practices emphasizing conformance to standards, accessibility, and use of CSS.
  • The JSP templates themselves have been streamlined and simplified, making them easier to work with for developers and designers.
• Customizing the Look and Feel. Five built-in themes, plus several other key settings, allow even non-technical users to experiment with thousands of different looks for the store. By extending SoftSlate's built-in CSS stylesheets, designers can exert even more control, without touching the application's JSP templates. As always, the ability to modify the application's JSP templates with a minimum of disruption is also possible.
• Support for Google Checkout Level 2 Integration Features. Among the new Google Checkout feature SoftSlate now supports are:
  • Dynamic shipping rates now supported for UPS and USPS. Merchant callback support allows Google to display shipping prices dynamically as the customer alters his delivery address, based on the methods and settings defined within SoftSlate.
  • New order notifications, order state changes, and other events triggered by Google now captured by SoftSlate. When a new order is completed with Google Checkout, and when other events occur, SoftSlate will capture and record the notifications, updating the order record with the relevant information.

What's New in Version 2.2

• Advanced Search with Lucene. SoftSlate now provides the option for administrators to use Advanced Search for the product searches customers make in the store. Advanced Search employs the Lucene search engine library to index the products, categories and other database objects of the store. Searches customers make are fast, powerful, rankable, and sortable.
• UPS Integration. Administrators can now display real-time rates from UPS during checkout. After some simple steps to apply for UPS's Online Tools and configuring the UPS shipping processor in the SoftSlate Administrator (Shipping Configuration area), SoftSlate will query UPS with the weight and destination address of each order, and charge shipping based on the values returned by UPS.
• USPS Integration. Administrators can now display real-time rates from the United States Postal Service during checkout. After some preliminary steps to apply for USPS's Web Tools and configuring the USPS shipping processor in the SoftSlate Administrator (Shipping Configuration area), SoftSlate will query USPS with the weight and destination address of each order, and charge shipping based on the values returned by USPS.
• FedEx Integration. Through purchase of an add-on module, support for FedEx integration is now available, allowing store administrators to display real time shipping rates from FedEx. For more information and to purchase the add-on module, visit: SoftSlate Commerce FedEx Integration.
• Shipping Rules. A variety of business rules related to shipping may now be configured in the SoftSlate Administrator. Among the new shipping rules is the ability to define separate shipping packages for UPS based on the quantities of individual items in the cart. The packages may carry their own weights and dimensions, allowing you unsurpassed accuracy in the UPS and USPS rates that are offered to customers. In addition, shipping rules that define shipping methods that are allowed or disallowed for certain items, and shipping discounts, may also be set up.
• Google Checkout. Google Checkout is now one of the options available for payment processing. Administrators may activate the Google Checkout processor from the Administrator (Payment Configuration section). If active, the Google Checkout button will appear in the store, inviting customers to complete their checkout with Google.
• PayPal UK Integration. Administrators in the UK can now accept payments via PayPal's Website Payment's Pro package. Two checkout methods are provided. One uses PayPal Express to redirect the customer to PayPal's website, where he selects his payment and delivery information. The second method, PayPal Direct Payment, keeps the customer on your site throughout the checkout process, where he enters credit card information that is validated and charged behind the scenes through PayPal's gateway.
• PayPal ACH Integration. Stores may now accept electronic (ACH) payments via the PayPal ACH gateway. A subservice of PayPal's Payflow Pro gateway, PayPal ACH allows customers to submit their bank account information and have their payment directly withdrawn through and ACH transaction, instead of using a credit card.
• Text File Imports and Exports. New functions are now available in the Administrator to allow you to import products, categories, attributes, and options with comma-, tab- or pipe-delimited text files (Imports and Exports section). The same information may also be exported in the exact same format, allowing you to maintain the product catalog through the text files.
• Order Exports. In addition to the product catalog exports, a sophisticated order export feature is now available in the Administrator (Imports and Exports -> Text File Exports -> Order Exports). The order exports allow you to select a date range of orders to export, whether to export completed orders or all orders, and which fields to export.

What's New in Version 2.1

• PayPal Integration. Administrators can now accept payments via PayPal's Website Payment's Pro package. Two checkout methods are provided. One uses PayPal Express to redirect the customer to PayPal's website, where he selects his payment and delivery information. The second method, PayPal Direct Payment, keeps the customer on your site throughout the checkout process, where he enters credit card information that is validated and charged behind the scenes through PayPal's gateway. SoftSlate continues to support the other payment gateways it always has: PayPal Payflow Pro and Payflow Link (formerly by Verisign), and Authorize.net.
• Manufacturers. Store administrators may now create manufacturers to represent the companies that provide the store's products. Each product can be assigned its manufacturer easily in the administrator. Customers can view details on each manufacturer and a list of products each manufacturer provides. Manufacturer information can also be displayed on the product page, or a link may be placed there to the manufacturer's detail page.
• Export for Froogle (Google Base). A form in the adminstrator is now provided to export all the store's product data in Froogle's batch upload format. You simply have to run the export and turn around and submit the file to Froogle to have all your products' up-to-date information represented with Froogle.
• Export for Google Sitemaps. Google Sitemaps provides a way for webmasters to tell Google and other search engines about the URLs available for indexing on the website. A form in the administrator now allows you to export each of the active product and category page URLs in Google's Sitemap Protocol format, for easy upload into Google. The generated URLs are formatted according to the settings you define in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) settings. The export file can be downloaded to you directly through the browser, or placed on the server, where you can tell Google and other search engines to find it.

What's New in Version 2.0

Administrative Features

• Inventory tracking. Store administrators can now track inventory for products, and for any product/attribute/option combination. Administrators can decide to decrement inventory either as users add items to their carts, or as they complete an order. Low stock email notifications can be sent when stock levels reach certain levels. All inventory settings can be set globally, or overridden product-by-product.
• Discounting. Discounts of all types are now supported, including percentage discounts, quantity discounts, and coupons. Administrators have control over numerous settings for each discount, including:
  • Which customers the discount applies to.
  • When the discount starts and if and when it expires.
  • Which products and product/attribute/option combinations the discount applies to.
  • How many times the discount may be used.
• Cross-selling. For each product in the store, administrators can now define any number of other "related products", which are available for display on the product page. Perfect for cross-selling products that go together.
• Virtual products. SoftSlate Commerce now supports selling virtual products as downloadable files. Any number of files can be assigned to each product. Links to download these files appear in the customer's account area after completing an order.

Shopping Cart Features

• Breadcrumbing. Complete breadcrumbing is now available at the top of all product and category pages, ensuring customers will find their way around your product catalog.
• Adding multiple items to the cart. The facility to add multiple products to the cart at the same time has been improved and expanded. From a product list or category page, users can now select options and attributes for each product on the screen. Relevant inventory levels and discounts are displayed with each product as well.

Technical Features

• Integration with Hibernate. The most exciting technical improvement with version 2.0 is its integration with the Hibernate data persistence framework, which now handles all of the application's database access.
• Caching of product information. By enabling Hibernate's 2nd level cache and its query cache, all product and category pages can be browsed without any database querying. For busy stores, this caching allows for unbeatable performance. Administrative changes clear the caches automatically.
• Full Support for PostgreSQL and Oracle. One of the advantages of Hibernate is its ability to interface with multiple databases. In addition to MySQL and MS SQL Server, which SoftSlate Commerce as always worked with, it has now been fully tested with PostgreSQL 8.0 and Oracle 10g.