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Started by unleash.it, January 31, 2008, 04:12:46 AM

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unleash.it

First off, I don't want to seem ungrateful or demanding in any way. I know the developers and moderators are working EXCEPTIONALLY hard and you're producing a great tool. However, there are a few important issues with the beta that I haven't seen in the tracker and I'm not sure are getting the attention they should. I myself have been able to hack the code to mostly solve 2 out of 3 of them, but I believe these are important problems to address in the core for a large number of people:

1. Tax options. There is currently no way to specify more than one tax in a particular state/provence that seems to work. For example in the US, if you sell both food items (non-taxable) and taxable items in a particular state, the system will only honor one or the other...even with "multiple taxes" checked. I've checked around on the forum and MANY others are having this same problem. There is a fix by Brian Cockle, which allows a "product taxable" status. It overrides the VAT and fixed the problem for me. I would never compare VM to Paypal IPN in a thousand years...other than to mention than Paypal can do this without a hitch.

2.  Search. I posted about this in another topic, but it was never answered. If you do a search though VM's search function from a browse page, it lists results incorrectly under the browse page header you were just on and its accompanying description (if there's one result, not a problem it goes to the flypage). This is a big problem IMHO. What if the search doesn't relate in any way to the category? What if your category description/images are large...the results will be on the bottom of the page, possibly invisible w/o scrolling. Ex: http://www.tomanddaves.com/shop.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=10&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=106. Try searching for "half caf" which is in a different category (coffee). This also happens with a current nightly and default installs.

Perhaps it's a simple fix? When I clear my browser Cache (or start from a non-VM page), and do a search...it acts properly with your search terms displayed, and no category description.

3. Live UPS quotes problem. This has been discussed in several large threads. Right now even in VM 1.1, any weight after 75 lbs. is charged $0...that's free shipping folks (in 1.013a an error is returned). Thomas Freeman has a fix (sent him a PM, but haven't heard back yet) that brings it up to 150 lbs., but a UPS error is returned if the package is over 150 lbs. I believe the reason for this is only one box is supported by the plugin. UPS has a limit of 150 lbs. per box (but not per shipment). You may consider this as more of a wish list item, but I think as a minimum...better error handling is needed. While would be nice to add support for multiple boxes (my items are up to 75 lbs. each), one could at least use Standard Shipping in a more user friendly way for items over 75 (or 150) lbs. if it weren't for the way the error is handled. Again, mostly solved this one for myself, but I think it is important in the core.

This is just my attempt to help VM become an even more useful tool than it already is. Of course there are other important issues as well, but I don't see these even in the tracker. I would be happy to add them if given permission.

Thanks!



aravot

I too live in California so I know about the different tax rates and will start testing next week.

Search, didn't understand a word of it, sorry.

UPS will be fixed before VM 1.1 goes stable.

To get attention of developers please update tracker items instead of reposting here, not all of them check the forum, we go by the tracker but forum is good place to discuss things, just to clarify for those who read this tracker is not for support only report bugs, and post follow up to bugs which you or others posted, for discussion forum is the best and only place.

unleash.it

Hi Avarot thank you, I understand the difference between the forum and the bug tracker. The last time I checked the tracker, none of these issues were in there. I am just trying to follow the rules you outlined in the sticky about bug reports and posting in the forum first. Maybe I'm just being overly cautious...

On the UPS, great news. (p.s. I hope you were able to get it working for your website). I'm glad this and the tax issue is being considered (FYI I think it applies to other states/countries than California). As far as the search, I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. It's sort of particular what happens, so I I will try to more carefully explain. Here goes again:

The problem is how VM search results are displayed. There are two separate behaviors and one of them makes no sense. Unless this is a configuration problem I am having (but tried with a few different setups), anyone should be able to easily repeat this. Please anyone, let me know if you can so I know I know I'm not going mad ;)

Step 1: Fresh install of Joomla 1.5 stable, VM build 1204, sample data installed. VM module published w/default settings.
Step 2: Load the home page in a browser (I"m using Firefox). Now clear your cache.
Step 3: Search for SHOVEL. The results are fine here. The term you just searched for is displayed at the top, and items from all categories that have SHOVEL are displayed. There is NO category heading at the top.
Step 4: Click on ANY category. Search for SHOVEL again.
Step 5: Notice the different appearance. The search terms are no longer displayed. Whatever category you had picked from Step 4 is still displayed along with its category description. Under all that are your results.
Step 6: Clear your cache again and search for SHOVEL one more time. You should get the same results again as Step 3.

There are two problems with this. Search results should not be associated with a category, because (like in the case of the shovel) there are shovels in more than one category. The other problem is when the category description is more than a few lines, it pushes the results lower on the page, in some cases much lower. If you go to my site (in the original post), you can easily see the problem if you try a couple searches.

I would think step 3 should be be the way the results are always displayed. Is this your thinking too? If I'm not the only one having this problem and you don't object Avarot, I will post this in the tracker.





aravot

Just so that all of us are on the same page, by search you are referring to VM search module (mod_virtuemart_search) or search plugin/mambot, I have never used the search module (need to have a look), I use the search plugin/mambot.

unleash.it

I'm using VM's search, not Joomla's. Specifically, mod_virtuemart which has both categories and search. Just now, I tried installing mod_virtuemart_search and it made no difference.

In the process, I seem to have found a new problem with the Product Categories module (mod_product_categories). I've never tried it until just now. When I click on any category, it always takes me to the shop home page...not the individual category. Doesn't matter which one I click, I get the same page. I'm using the one from the latest build. Clicking categories on mod_virtuemart doesn't have this problem.

gregdev

I can verify the search problem (from mod_virtuemart).

Greg

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unleash.it

It seems this was in the tracker, except the problem is listed as only happening with SEO enabled:   Bug [# 1528]  Wrong browse template in search function when using SEO

For me it happens with SEO off or on. I added a comment with a link to this thread for steps to reproduce.