When setting up shipping in an online store, a merchant considers multiple factors: number of shipping carriers to offer, whether international or only local service should be provided, storage locations, etc.

Online merchants like to provide a number of options for their customers to choose from. Major shipping companies offer variety of services (expedite, international, ground, etc.) They also offer shipping quotes – an estimation of shipping charges, which is especially valuable in e-commerce business. Estimation is based on a formula, which takes into account different shipping factors (sender and delivery addresses, order weight and dimensions, etc.), though it can still differ from the actual shipping total. Rate quotes are provided to customers. Based on available options they can make a choice about shipping services.

Shop-Script shopping cart software is integrated with major shipping carriers: UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL. An account with a shipping carrier allows a store administrator to set up a corresponding shipping module. A merchant can also set up an account with InterShipper.com - this company provides real-time shipping quotes with all carriers available in a Shop-Script store. The picture shows settings for FedEx module:

Having shipping modules installed in the store’s backend area, a store administrator can set up shipping methods and associate them with modules. Shipping methods options become available to customers during checkout. When a shipping method is selected, the corresponding module is used to display real-time shipping quotes. Shop-Script does not perform services and rates calculations; it uses associated module to send order, shipping addresses, and account registration information to the carrier. All shipping rates calculations are performed by the carrier based on data provided. Services and rates are sent back to Shop-Script and are displayed in the frontend. The picture below shows services available after shipping rates calculations was performed by FedEx:

Please note that in order for real-time shipping quotes to be available in a Shop-Script store, it should satisfy system requirements.

Quick Notes allows you to create and place unlimited number of notes online. You can use it as your personal notepad, where you right down notes, appointments, and memos. You can also create an online bulletin board for posting memos, announcements, etc. – anything that you would like to share with your friends or colleagues. Every added note can have files attached to it, which will be listed along with a note in Quick Notes main window.

Displaying notes
Your notes are displayed in Quick Notes main window in one of the two views: grid or list. In a grid format you can list note subject and any number of other note properties (date, author, content, attached file). Information will be displayed in a form of a table:

List view is a good option for displaying note content along with other note properties. You can sort your note list by subject, date, content, or author name. In either list or grid view it is possible to display partial note content by setting visible content length to any number of characters. The picture below shows notes in the list view sorted by subject. The note content length is set to 50 characters:

Sharing notes
All notes in Quick Notes application are organized into folders, which can be easily shared with other users. This is done by assigning access rights for users and user groups to a folder. You might have a long list of notes; many of the notes are intended to be viewed by various groups of users and contacts. In this case you can organize your notes into folders and specify which users can access a folder and what level of access they are allowed to have. If John has “Meeting follow up items” folder in his Quick Notes, he can consider the following users access assignment:

According to the user access set up shown on the picture, Ann and Jeff are given Read access to the folder. They can view all notes and items from the last meeting and their attached files. Jack, Kim, and Sue are assigned Write access – they can use their assigned user rights to modify meeting notes and add new ones. John himself has the highest access level – Folder. He can create a new folder of notes, delete an existing one, add/modify/delete notes, and set user permissions. Thus, John has created “Project Memos” folder. This folder can be read and modified by the whole project team. He specifies team’s user group permission in the following way:

Part II of this article describes how payment is processed when an order is placed by a customer in the frontend of a Shop-Script store. (Part I describes the mechanism of credit card processing via payment gateway in an online store and payment gateways setup in a Shop-Script store)

Paying by credit card in an online store is implemented by passing credit card information between Shop-Script and payment gateway servers. Shop-Script does not process payment; it creates a connection with payment gateway according to the instructions provided by a payment gateway provider. Order information is then put together and forwarded to payment gateway, where the actual transaction is done. Once payment is processed, gateway sends transaction response (accept or decline) back Shop-Script store, where it becomes available to the customer who placed the order.

Depending on the gateway which will be processing the payment, payment is performed in one of the two following ways:

• credit card details are entered in a storefront before order is saved
• credit card details are entered on a payment gateway secure site after Shop-Script saves order information

Following is detailed description of both ways of payment:

Providing credit card details in a Shop-Script storefront
The picture below shows a Shop-Script storefront where credit card information is entered during checkout process (on the example of Authorize.Net AIM module):

Details are then collected by Shop-Script and sent to payment gateway (which was associated with this payment type in the store’s backend) for processing, along with other necessary details (merchant account, id, etc.). Once transaction is complete, the payment gateway sends its response (accept or decline) to Shop-Script server. This response becomes immediately known to customer during checkout. If his/her payment was accepted, the order is saved and he/she can then proceed with checkout.

This way of checkout processing is supported by the following payment modules in a Shop-Script store: Authorize.Net AIM, PayPal Payflow Pro, CHASE Paymentech, NetRegistry, eProcessingNetwork, LinkPoint/YourPay API, SkipJack, TrustCommerce, Streamline eSolutions, and USA ePay (new modules are continuously added to the list).

NOTE: Since transaction information is passed between servers, a store requires an SSL certificate, which performs connection with additional level of security. Read more about system requirements for setting up payment modules.

Providing credit card details on the website of a payment gateway
In this case an order is saved when a customer clicks Place Order button in the storefront, and the following page is displayed: (the picture below shows Authorize.Net SIM module):

A customer is then taken to the page of a payment gateway, where he/she enters credit card data and receives the response (accept or decline). This method does not require SSL certification to be installed in a store, since credit card information is entered on the payment gateway website, which already has SSL connection. Some of the payment gateways that support this processing method are 2checkout, Authorize.Net SIM, CCAvenue, GSPay, LinkPoint/YourPay Connect.

Which of the two methods is better?
Both methods described above provide secure and quick way to perform credit card payment and do not differ in actual payment processing. The difference is visible to customers only – whether an order is saved after transaction is complete or before. It is up to a merchant to select his/her preferable way and corresponding payment gateway.

Mail Master includes a collection of over twenty message templates. Template in Mail Master is an email with preloaded message body. You can find greetings, announcements, acknowledgements, notices and many more – a variety of messages used often in business and personal communication. Templates are stored in the folder Templates, they are marked with blue and have a status Template.

A messages with Template status cannot be sent out directly. Instead you can base your message on a selected template and save it. It automatically receives Draft status and only then it can be sent out to its recipients.

Composing from a template
Click Message -> Compose from Template and select a template. A standard “Compose Message” form opens up with the template name in the subject line and the template content as the message body. Many templates also include personalization variables, which can be substituted with values (name, company name, address, etc.) from you contact database. (You can read more how to personalize your emails). Message details, which are required to be substituted manually, are written in cursive (name and description of a product, date, etc.). Following is the message body of the “New Product Release” template:

You can now add as many changes as you need to the message and save it. It will be listed in the Templates folder with the status Draft. The message can now be sent to its recipients in a standard way.

Creating a template
Mail Master offers several ways to create a template. One way to create a new template is to modify an existing one. Since every template is editable, you can simply open it, add your changes and save it under a different name. Another method is to save a message as a template. Create a new message or open one from your message list (it could be a message with any possible status - Draft, Sent, Pending) and click Message -> Save as Template. You can add image to your template and attach a file. Your newly created template receives Template status and is ready to be used for composing emails:

Most online merchants like to offer their customers a number of payment options to choose from. The most common and preferable by both customers and merchants is payment thru Internet. Merchants choose it as an alternative to cash payments, checks and money orders, though these forms of payment are still offered in online stores. Payment thru Internet is performed via a payment gateway – an e-commerce service that provides quick and secure transfer of funds between a buyer and a seller bank accounts. Such names as Authorize.Net, 2checkout, LinkPoint, CHASE Paymentech, and many more are examples of major and reliable payment gateways. Though there are certain differences in their services, all payment gateways allow debit and credit card processing similar to the mechanism depicted on the picture below:

To accept credit card payment in online store, a merchant is required to have a merchant account and be registered with some payment gateway (choose payment gateways according to your liking; one of the major differences between payment gateway companies is pricing - sign-up price and comission that they charge per transaction).

Setting up payment thru a payment gateway in Shop-Script based online store is a straight forward process and does not require any knowledge of HTML or programming skills. Shop-Script supports payment processing thru many payment gateways.
All Shop-Script payment modules are designed according to payment gateway integration specifications (each payment gateway company provide its own integration workflow). Many modules are certified by payment gateway companies, e.g. Authorize.Net, PayPal, 2checkout, CHASE Paymentech, and others.

Each payment module can be installed and configured from your store backend (listed on the Modules -> Payment Modules page). A module can be easily installed and added to the list of available payments. A store administrator only needs to enter payment gateway account details in module settings (e.g. login and password), so that payment gateway can authorize payments made by customer to merchant’s account.

Once a module is installed in the store, it needs to be tied to a payment type, which is done in a store’s backend area on Configuration -> Payment page. A payment type will be offered to a customer when placing an order and information on the associated payment gateway. Beside an associated module, an administrator needs to indicate shipping options, which will be offered to a customer with the payment type. Tax calculation option is enabled by default. A store administrator can turn it off if needed. There are also text fields, where payment type description and notification message can be typed in. The picture below shows three payment types setup in the store, their associated modules, available shipping choices, tax calculation option and other settings:

Part 2 of this post will appear in the blog early next week and will cover how payment options are presented to store customers in frontend.

When managing a project that includes tasks, issues, and multiple users responsible for their implementation, it is essential for a manager of a project to be able to assign access rights to team members. Project access rights define the level of visibility and access into a project for a user or user group. Project Manager allows the assignment of three levels of access rights: View, Task, and Project.

Consider the following example: John Smith is an elementary school principal and is using Project Manager to create the project “Standard testing for 4-th grade”. Before splitting project into separate tasks, he assigns access rights to his team according to the following scheme:

Assigning project access rights to users

Ann is assigned View access level to the project, which allows her to view project details and its tasks without a right to make changes.

Kim is given Task access to the project. In addition to viewing project and task details, she has a right to manage tasks (add, modify, and delete), assign tasks to users, change task details (date, cost), and complete and resume tasks.

Being a manager of the project, John automatically inherits the highest level of project and tasks access – Project. However, in practice Jeff will assume control over the project. Though he is not the project manager (not to confuse with Project Manager application), he can still be assigned Project access rights. Now both John and Jeff can modify project properties, complete it or resume, and delete it if needed.

Creating and assigning project tasks
Now that project has been created and user access rights are assigned, John splits the project into four tasks and assigns each task to a user responsible for its implementation:

As shown on the picture above, a user assigned to a task implementation may or may not have access rights to the project. Jack is assigned to “Practice test” and “Standard testing”; Sue’s assignment is “Result analysis”. They both have no access rights to the project - it is not required for their tasks. Ann is assigned to “Test preparation” task and she also has View access level to the project, as described above. This allows her to view all project details, tasks (not just her own), dates and modifications and use this information to work on her assignment.

File upload operation in Document Depot is designed to accommodate upload of any number of files of various types and size. For every uploaded file Document Depot automatically creates an icon specific to its type and a thumbnail (if uploading an image file). Uploaded files are placed in a designated folder and can be opened in a new browser window for viewing.

Document Depot offers users the flexibility of several ways of uploading files from a local computer. Depending on the number and size of uploaded files, users can choose their preferred way between the following:

• Uploading a small number of files
• Uploading ZIP archive
• Uploading large size files via FTP

Below you can find detailed description of every upload option.

Uploading a small number of files
This kind of upload is the simplest and is often used if needed to quickly upload several files, not too large in size. Document Depot lets you upload up to 4 files in one operation. This upload is invoked by simply clicking File -> Add File from Document Depot main window. For each uploaded file you can also add notes or file description:

Uploading ZIP archive
You can upload an archive saved in ZIP format from you local computer (by clicking File -> Upload Archive). This is useful if uploading large number of files, folders, and levels of subfolders. Once uploaded, you are offered to have your archive uncompressed, during which files are extracted and placed in their designated folders, leaving archive folder hierarchy intact. This makes it a great option if you wish to populate Document Depot with files and folders from another program, and preserve the familiar folder structure. During upload operation you can indicate if you don’t want to create thumbnails for image files as it may slow down upload process. The picture below displays selected options for uploaded Upgrades.zip archive:

Uploading large size files via FTP
This option is available to customers who have purchased WA source codes and installed them on their web servers. This kind of file upload makes use of FTP feature that allows quick transfer of files between servers. This upload allows you to create a special folder on your server, where you can place large size files. The folder is visible in your Document Depot. In Document -> Service you can click FTP tab and use FTP feature to transfer large files in a matter of seconds.

Affiliate program is a marketing feature that rewards store users for bringing in new customers. Online merchants often choose to set up affiliate program in their stores to increase sales. The program has obvious benefits: it increases visitors flow to their stores, turns visitors into customers, promotes products, advertises links placed on a website, etc. 

A merchant usually sets up a scheme in his/her store, according to which customers can be considered for a reward. Reasons for a reward consideration can range between merely clicking a product link to placing an order with a fixed total by a referred customer.

Affiliate program in Shop-Script PREMIUM stores is set up according to the following model: a store administrator established a reward commission in a form of percentage from the total price of an order. An order has to be placed by a referred customer. If the order is processed successfully, the referrer has earned his/her reward. It is then calculated from the order’s total and is paid to him/her by the store owner.

Enabling affiliate program
In order to set up affiliate program in a Shop-Script store, store administrator just needs to enable it in his/her store’s administrative area, set the amount of commission, and enable/disable email notifications:

Now that the program is enabled, a referrer can choose one of the two following ways to bring customers to the store: providing them with his/her store login or placing a link on a website.

Bringing in customers by providing user login
When registering, a new customer indicates the login of his/her referrer right on the registration page. For example, John has joined the affiliate program and gave Ann his login (john). When Ann was registering for the store, she indicated “john” as her referrer:

Bringing in customers by placing a link on a website
John might also choose to place a link to the store on his website. In this case he does not have to give his login to Ann in order to refer her to the store. She will be redirected there by simply clicking a link on John’s website. The link’s address includes details on John’s account in the store. When Ann lands on the store’s website, these details will be used by the store administrator to fetch out information on her referrer.

Receiving a reward
Now that the store administrator knows that Ann was referred to his store by John, he/she will bring up John’s account and credit him a commission after Ann’s order is successfully processed. If email notification is turned on, he will also receive an email, notifying him about a reward. It is now up to the store administrator and John to agree on how John will receive his reward (account credit, money transfer, free store credit, etc.).

Contact Manager allows users to import/export contacts. It is often needed to copy or move contact records between applications. You can transfer (import) address book of your mail client to be used in Contact Manager. On the other hand you may export your contacts stored in Contact Manager into a file to be used in another program.

Importing from a file
Your contact list can be imported to Contact Manager in a form of a file, saved in CSV format. In a CSV file each new line is a collection of contact details separated by a character (tab, coma, semicolon, etc). You can use your text editor (e.g. Notepad) to add contacts to a file or an application with a tabular view (e.g. Microsoft Excel). A contact line can include as many details as you need to import. Here is the sample of contacts.csv file:

Creating a CSV file
There are several points to keep in minds when creating a CSV contacts file:

• Contact details are added in the same order for every contact line (i.e. Name, Last Name, Nickname, etc.)
• When omitting a detail, place and extra separator to indicate a missing field (e.g. Maria, , , mary@none.none – two extra commas are added to replace Last Name and Nickname fields) 
• Use the same separator throughout the file

Field correspondence
To import your CSV file to Contact Manager, you need to specify field correspondence; i.e. for every field name in your file assign a field from Contact Manage Contact Entry Form. For example if you assigned your file’s Name field to Contact Manager’s Nickname field, then all contact details stored under Name in your file, will be placed in Nickname field in Contact Manager. The picture below shows an example of a field correspondence:

By default Contact Manager assumes that the first line in your file contains names of fields (i.e. Name, Last Name, Nickname, etc). If for any reason you did not place field names on the top of your file, don’t go back to modify your file. Just enable “Import first line” option – this will force Contact Manager to treat the first line as contact details rather than field names.

Imported contacts appear in the indicated folder in Contact Manager:

Importing from Outlook Express or Bat!
Contact Manager allows you to import your contact books stored in Microsoft Outlook Express and Bat!. Just like with file import described above, importing Outlook Express or Bat! contact book is done via CSV file. However, in the later case a CSV file is created by the application itself (by exporting its address book into a file). There is no need to specify field correspondence manually, since it is already known to Contact Manager. Just select the corresponding template (Outlook Express or Bat!) during the import step and your contact book will be added to Contact Manager.  

Exporting from Contact Manager
You can export any number of contacts from a Contact Manager folder into a CSV file, which can be opened in another application. During export operation in Contact Manager indicate fields of the Contact Entry form to export and a field separator. The details corresponding to the indicated fields, separated by the indicated delimiter, will be exported to a file, which you can download on your local computer.

A bug was found in Quick Notes application: a user was unable to set the length of visible text of a note when displayed in “My Notes” list in Quick Notes main window. A number typed in the required field was ignored and did not affect the displayed content length of a note.
 
This error is now fixed. A user can set the visible text length of a note in a list to any non-zero number in “Limit visible text to:” field on the “Customize View” page:

If visible text length in a listing view was set to 45, the list will be displayed in the Quick Notes main window in the following way:

If a user does not want to limit displayed content length in note listing, he/she should leave “Limit visible text to:” field blank.