pcampbell.me.uk

Tag: module

  • Writing your own PrestaShop Module – Part 1

    So you want to write a module?

    There has always been a little bit of Voodoo associated Prestashop modules. This has been mainly down to a lack of documentation available, but never fear — this series of tutorials aim to introduce module writing to the PHP programming masses. This series will look at building our very own fully functional module which will provide all the standard functionality that is the basis for many of the most common modules. It will also provide a basic framework that you can use as a  template for your own code. Later articles will look at creating Payment Modules and extending the Administration interface, but initially we’ll look at the class of modules which deal mainly with inserting content into your pages, as this best demonstrates the fundamental basic concepts of developing for PrestaShop.

    Updated for Prestashop version 1.4 onwards.

    (more…)

  • Yet another Google Base update 0.6.3

    Get noticed in Google Product Search

    It’s been a busy week here but I’ve still found time for the Google Base module which has jumped another few revisions to 0.6.3.

    As usual I strongly recommend you test this before use in a production environment

    Changes

    Version 0.6.3

    • File IO modified again to reduce risk of timeouts
    • Added g:weight attribute when weight is non-zero for product
    • Added g:product_type attribute based on product categories
    • Changed description input to textarea
    • Added config entry for output filename on server
    • Added advanced settings to allow a feed to be generated for another site
    • Added compatibility with 1.2beta (provisional)
    • Improved error checking for permissions issues

    Why not check it out via our Free Prestashop Modules Page

  • Adverts and Callouts module updated to version 1.2

    In an ongoing effort to keep all our modules up to date, a new version of of advertising module has been created to address differences in the admin tab architecture in PrestaShop 1.1. The older version was displaying view and edit links against each of the adverts, rather than edit and delete links.

    An updated version of the PrestaShop Random adverts and Callouts module is now available.

  • HSBC CPI Card Payment Module

    This was developed originally for a client. The original brief was to update the existing module (provided by a member on the PrestaShop forum) to work in version 1.1 of PrestaShop and tie up any loose ends, but ended up being a complete re-write almost entirely from scratch (some of the third-party code in the original was re-used).

    (more…)

  • Randomly Displayed Adverts and Callouts

    Another useful tool for conversions is being able to attract the attention of your visitors and guide them to the parts of your site you really want them to see. We’ve come up with yet another great little PrestaShop module to do precisely that!

    (more…)

  • Live Support to Improve Conversions

    A common theme in small business forums and newsgroups when discussing eCommerce sites are posts that start with “I’ve had x,000 visitors to my site but haven’t sold anything, what am I doing wrong?”.

    Sadly, selling on-line isn’t (just) about visitors, but conversions. Getting a customer to look at a product is one hurdle, but by far the more important one is getting them to actually part with their cash! This is where many come unstuck.

    (more…)

  • BETA Version 2 Paypal Module for PrestaShop

    We’re pleased to release BETA 1 of our modified version of the PrestaShop Paypal Payment module that will hopefully address a few more of the shortcomings of the original 1.0.0.8 version.

    This latest version provides tighter integration with IPN notifications, and supports all the current message combinations for both instant and eCheck payments. Refunds and cancellations are also supported, although only as far as this functionality is supported by PrestaShop itself.

    (more…)

  • eCartService Paypal Changes rolled into PrestaShop 1.1 Release

    We’re pleased to announce that the initial changes we proposed for the Paypal Payment module for PrestaShop have been incorporated into the official 1.1 release which is due in autumn 2008.

    We appreciate the PrestaShop’s team recognition of our efforts and look forward to working with them even more in the future. We are committed to making PrestaShop an even better eCommerce platform for forward-thinking companies, and wish their up-coming release every success.

  • Improving PayPal Support in PrestaShop

    When I first came across PrestaShop I was utterly astonished at how it looked and operated. Having spent years working with the likes of osCommerce, ZenCart et al. PrestaShop was a breath of fresh air, which reminded me greatly of another Open Source favourite of mine – Vanilla.

    Having now spent some time working with PrestaShop and it’s underlying code, some of the shine has dulled a little, but there’s nothing that I can find that can’t be buffed back up to the stunning product that it surely will be.

    The first challenge was getting simple custom design elements on the page like ssl cert images with java/html links etc. without requiring users to modify the template. PrestaShop’s intuitive module system is great for this, but these are trivial bits of code that don’t really justify the overhead of full modules of their own. AddStuff was born. Well that was easy!

    Next it was the Paypal Payment Module which seemed to have issues. Initially the main problems were orders being “lost” due to lack of fsockopen support on their hosting platforms (the only connection method supported in the default module), but others were reporting issues with being unable to run multiple shop installations from a single PayPal account. The latter issue impacted my customers and to be honest would be a major deficiency.

    A few weeks ago I posted a stop-gap solution which corrected a bug in the PayPal payment module which enabled multiple shop support, and yet another a little later to improve connectivity for IPN validation by adding support for fsockopen over https (the standard version surprisingly used only an insecure http connection) plus support for cURL as an alternative should the fsockopen method fail.

    Over the past week work has progressed on a major overhaul of the module, to hopefully start addressing some of the more underlying problems with poor integration, and failure to capture carts abandoned at the payment stage.

    The new version is nearing completion, and I’m currently looking for some volunteers to provide language translations, assuming I’ve got the internationalisation correct, plus some brave souls willing to BETA test on their sites. Anyone interested can post on here, or contact me at the PrestaShop forum: user Paul C.

  • Paypal IPN Validation update

    We had an issue recently where there was some difficulty contacting the paypal server to verify an IPN passed back to a PrestaShop store.

    The v1 Final version of the paypal validation.php file only uses fsockopen to establish an http connection to paypal (production or sandbox) to verify, so we’ve added a little code to ours to:

    1) Use a secure connection if possible (using fsockopen)
    2) Use cURL if the above fails to connect, and
    3) Use an insecure http connection if the above fails.

    The patched files can be downloaded here: Paypal module update for Version 1.0 Final