Magento World Newsletter July 9 2009 | Aheadworks
Categorized as : Ecommerce
Hope you’ve gladly appreciated new features of our products last month. This time we are to make you happier than before! Below you’ll find the summary of our month’s thorough work. As you know every month we release new products for a wide range of Magento ecommerce sites. So to stay well informed, please don’t forget to check product page of the extensions that might interest you — FAQ, changelog, demos, – or subscribe to our blog if you haven’t done it yet.
New Extensions
Blog
"Blog" version 0.5.9 created by “Lazzymonk” is a notable extension valuable for the community. The considerable number of downloads vividly demonstrated its' relevance and importance. We have come to a conclusion to concentrate a part of our efforts on the community sphere and have agreed with the previous developer on moving the ownership rights to our company. According to our heart-warming tradition the extension remains FREE! Taking into consideration this extension popularity we have made the upgrade compatible with your old version.
What's in the new release?
- Excerpt field
- Ability to show blog menu on blog page only
- Settings menu shortcut
- .html rewrite added to post link
Especially we’d like to emphasize the main features complemented by aheadWorks Co.:
- Switchable WYSIWYG. Rich Text Editor (RTE) a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" interface aims to reduce the learning curve associated with users trying to express their formatting directly as valid HTML markup.
- Tags. Tags help describe an item and allow it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are chosen by the Magento store owner informally and personally by the item's creator or by its viewer.
You are welcome to estimate new FREE version of the "Blog". This is not a beta — the release is stable and for live stores use. We would likely receive and take into consideration all your advices over "Blog" improvement.
Booking & Reservations
Are you a hotel/restaurant/theatre owner? Do you sell any kind of tickets? So our first extension is exactly for you! "Booking & Reservations" is a new product type, which allows you to create all kinds of bookable products — tickets, tours, attendances, seminars, all kinds of scheduled services, rentals, workshops, lectures, hotel rooms etc.
Here the main features turning your store to a powerful solution for any e-shop operations:
- Day or hour billable periods
- Date/time/date and time based products, e.g. hotel room/consulting attendance/rental
- Specify available time frame, e.g. 8 AM - 6 PM, all reservations can only be in this period
- Specify date period of product availability
- For admin: instant orders review on the product edit page using the calendar widget; separate orders page with all bookings and reservations
To get more information about this extension please have a look at "Booking & Reservations" page.
Grid Manager
Are you tired of numerous useless columns in a table in store administration section? We have a perfect solution of this problem! “Grid Manager” is a nice helper for store owners and administrators. All available columns for any standard grid are at your disposal — any displayable data can be selected and inserted into a grid. You can view all your customized tables in one place with ability to reset the changes to the default table view.
"Grid Manager" is up for you in:
- adding/removing columns
- opening it without page reload
- exploring grid data source
- designing on-the-fly column
Find out more features of "Grid Manager"!
Updated Extensions
Please don't forget to check complete changelog on the product pages.
Help Desk Ultimate
Help Desk Ultimate (HDU) is an integrated Magento customer support solution by aheadWorks Co. This useful extension has an optional feature to convert initial e-mail messages sent to parser mail box into new support tickets. We’d like to distinguish the main features of Help Desk Ultimate here if by some reason this extension has slipped from your attentive view.
Current version: 2.4.4
Upgrade: recommended from any previous versions, highly recommended for non-English speaking customers
Upgrade cost: free for all versions
What’s new:
+ Departments stats on a separate page
+ Ticket Notes
+ Link tickets to orders
+ Tickets tab at customer edit
+ Include name and email of customer in ticket reply email template
+ Added number of ticket messages
+ "Assign to customer" with search autosuggest
+ Auto-setting status to "open" when undetected address is used
+ aheadWorks updates feed support
+ New e-mail template sent when ticket is reassigned
* Minor bugfixes
* Improved filtering by date
* Interface improvements
Checkout Promo
This extension entices your customers to spend more to receive this or that benefit.
Features:
- Multiple configurable blocks positioning on checkout and shopping cart pages
- Rules priority, start and expiration dates
- Websites and customer groups based rules
- Customizable blocks defined in CMS Static Blocks section
- Multiple promo blocks on page
Current version: 1.0.3
Upgrade: recommended from any previous versions
Upgrade cost: free for all versions
What’s new:
* Fixed creating table during module installation
* Coupon functionality improvements
Advanced Menu
The extension makes your store menu looks as you wish in just 2 clicks. You can have a look at "Advanced Menu Demo”.
Current version: 1.7.4
Upgrade: recommended from any previous versions
Upgrade cost: free for all versions
What’s new:
+ AW All 2.0 extension integrated
* Native menu style affecting fix
* Left folding menu type top categories without children now clickable
AJAX Cart Pro
"AJAX Cart Pro" extension allows customers to do shopping without page reloads. Items can be added instantly with animation effects.
Current version: 1.4.4
Upgrade: recommended from any previous versions
Upgrade cost: free for all versions
What’s new:
+ Confirmation dialog hides when redirecting to checkout
+ Configurable confirmation dialog
+ Add-remove functionality on cart page
+ AW All 2.0 extension integrated
* Internet Explorer compatibility improved
* Non UTF-8 characters support
* JS performance optimization
* HTTPS support improvements
Featured Products
"Featured Products" is a wonderful possibility for original displaying of your Magento store products. Any products of your choice will be displayed statically or with animation effects and draw visitors attention.
Some essential features:
- One product can be added to multiple categories
- Added option to display product slideshow only on main page
- Shows warning message if no products found
- Ability to use custom image instead of the product image
Current version: 2.2.3
Upgrade: recommended from any previous versions
Upgrade cost: free for all versions
What’s new:
* Import no more crashed with aw_fp_category attribute
* Bundle products displayed with correct price
* Disabled products are not shown
Product Questions
"Product questions" module bonds you and your visitors by means of questions page added to each product. The idea is simple — visitors ask questions regarding the product, then store administrator reviews and answers the questions. Approved questions and answers appear on the product questions page enriching your site content and providing it with additional information about your products. Observe the whole list of "Product Questions" features.
Current version: 1.0.11
Upgrade: recommended from any previous versions
Upgrade cost: free for all versions
What’s new:
* Updated e-mail templates to be more compatible with Help Desk Ultimate
Promotion of the Month!
This month we have a special bonus offer for you! Enrich your store content pack with 4 best selling modules and get 45% off:
Product Questions
Review Rotator
RSS Reader
Who Bought This Also Bought
Please use the following coupon with these products:
JUN45RKCND
The offer expires 15 July 2009! No time for doubts. Hurry up!
That’s all what were going to inform you about. Do not forget stay in touch, leave ratings and all kinds feedback, we are always happy to hear your thoughts. If you need a new feature in our product – just let us know – it has good chances to be implemented.
Thank you for being with us and good luck to your business,
Sincerely yours,
aheadWorks Magento department