OUR BLOG: Yahoo Store from A to Z and RTML development "secrets".

As per April 26, we could see some important fixes and updates made in built-in Floating Cart module:

1) It looks like the DOCTYPE has not pushed to update upon Floating Cart (FC) publishing. This information has received from several websites and needs to be verified.
2) The FC layout now improved (not fixed) to work with old DOCTYPE. We believe that this issue will be resolved by Yahoo soon. You could see the progress on www.bigfitness.com (FC + old DOCTYPE). As of today there are still some layout discrepancies on top headers in IE 7-8.

1) Yahoo recently provided very important fixes to their Floating cart module and resolved system issues with the “Multiple Order” check box and “Radio Buttons” in the product options. This is good news.

2) However, as of today, April 16, publishing of the Floating cart will force the DOCTYPE of your pages to change.

If your store pages have custom page coding based on the old DOCTYPE, then publishing of the Floating Cart may cause errors to the layout of your store pages:

Changes in DOCTYPE are not reversible!

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR STORE PAGE’S LAYOUT WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BEFORE PUBLISHING THE YAHOO FLOATING CART!

How to check:

1) Save any page of your published store locally using “save as..” – In I.E. for example, click file, save as, and there will be a few options. Web page, complete (.htm, .html). Now you have saved the entire page.

2) In any text editor open the page and change the DOCTYPE line manually (see our previous post to get the source).

3) Open this page locally and observe changes. If you notice that the layout will change, do not publish the Floating cart.

4) If your pages already have affected by this issue or if you are interested in accommodating of your store HTML coding to the new DOCTYPE, call or e-mail us to get a quote

Storeowners who use flat rates, custom rate tables, or other custom methods, are able to define “Free shipping” by adding new conditions to previously defined rules. But how does one define “Free Shipping” if one is using UPS’ built-in methods (UPS Real-Time Rates)? How does one set-up rates that are followed by a statement that says: “Free ground shipping over $100 of your order”?

It’s pretty easy:

1) In the Store’s Shipping Manager go to: Store Manager > Shipping Manager > Ship Rates

Click the “Add Rule” Button, Select location, then on the next page select the UPS Ground method (or any other listed methods based on your preference). Click “Next”.

2) On the next page select the “Rate Table” radio button and proceed to the next page.

3) On this page select “TAXABLE_AMOUNT” from the first select box and then change the second line of the table with these following statements:

a) From: 100 (do not write the dollar/cents sign)

b) Add: -5000.00 (input a large negative value to override any possible shipping charges calculated by UPS)

4) Click “NEXT”. On the next page do NOT check the box “Apply ONLY this rule, even if other rules match”.

Click “Done”. Now you will see that the newly created rate table has been added to your list of Shipping Rates.

To test the new rule, go to “Shipping and Tax Test” page, select the “UPS Ground” shipping method, click “Calculate” and review the result.

Please do not forget to clearly explain a “free shipping” promotion to your store visitors. Add the appropriate notification to your store pages and to shopping cart pages.

If you would like to enhance the functionality of this option by having the ability to:

- Make it possible to show the notification text at your shopping cart pages upon different order conditions,

- Hide/show shipping methods depending on order “Ship To” address (i.e. display only “Second Day” if shipping to HI or AK),

- Exclude certain items from the “free shipping” promotion,

- Prevent placing orders with different shipping methods together in the same basket (i.e. item with the “second day” only method and item with “freight” method only),

- Display and submit a custom form at “Confirmation” page (i.e. “Prescription” form)

Please call us at 908-338-3992 or send us an e-mail to discuss your request or to talk about any other custom modifications.

In the previous “Custom Availability” post we explained how to use the Custom Availability property together with the system Availability property. This method requires basic RTML knowledge.

Next, we will show you how to implement a “Custom availability” text field instead of using the pre-defined property Availability. This method is simpler than the previous one.

First, open a list of store Templates. Then find custom Item-order template.

Click on it to open.
Find the RTML expression WHEN @availability.
Click on @availability.

Click the “New” button and create a NONEMPTY operator. Then click “Replace”. As a result, the NONEMPTY RTML operator will replace the original @availability expression.

Click the “EDIT” button and set the value of NONEMPTY operator to @custom-availability

WHEN NONEMPTY @custom-availability

Find the RTML expression STRING-APPEND:

TEXT STRING-APPEND
       GRAB
         TAG tag "em"
           TEXT "Availability: "
       @availability

We have to replace @availability property with @custom-availability. For this purpose click on the STRING-APPEND operator and then click the EDIT button. Change @availability to @custom-availability and click update:

WHEN NONEMPTY @custom-availability
  DIV class "itemavailable"
    TEXT STRING-APPEND
           GRAB
             TAG tag "em"
               TEXT "Availability: "
           @custom-availability

Finally, define the custom property @custom-availability (type text) at the item page or at the item type and fulfill it with its necessary value.