ECommerce Software Updates
| 11/20/2009 | Order Notification E-Mail: New/Repeat Customer - Distinguish between new and repeat customers in Order Notification E-Mails | |
| 11/12/2009 | XML Tools: CustomerQuery and OrderQuery Enhancements - Query customers using a partial or complete E-Mail Address via the OrderQuery XML Tool; retrieve Product Weights and Inventory Kit information via the OrderQuery XML Tool | |
| 11/6/2009 | XML Tools: ProductQuery; CustomerUpdate; Activities in CustomerQuery - Query products; add and update customers; and query Customer Activities via the XML Tools | |
| 8/21/2009 | OrderQuery XML Tool: Query by Ship To State or Country - Query orders by Ship To State/Province or Country via the OrderQuery XML Tool | |
| 7/15/2009 | Payflow Pro Integration Update - Nexternal's Payflow Pro Integration has been updated to comply with PayPal's latest specification for this gateway. | |
| 7/14/2009 | Customers, Affiliates, and Vendors: Exclude Blocked Countries - Exclude blocked countries from all country select boxes relating to customers, affiliates, and vendors | |
| 7/8/2009 | USPS Packaging: Small Flat-Rate Box - Utilize Small Flat-Rate Box packaging for use with USPS Rates and Endicia Shipping | |
| 6/16/2009 | Expanded Full Credit Card Access Control - Explicitly control full credit card number access for Administrators, and lock credit card access options to prevent changes being made | |
| 6/16/2009 | Show Kit Contents - View the contents of Inventory Kits at various points in the Order Management System to assist with order fulfilment | |
| 5/14/2009 | Layout: Import Files - Import Images, Audio, JavaScript, CSS, or Flash Files from the Layout Screen | |
| 5/5/2009 | Search Credit Cards - Search orders by Payment Credit Card, and customers by Preferred Credit Card | |
| 4/29/2009 | Customer List Screen: Display Company Name - Company Name is now displayed on the Customer List Screen. | |
| 4/29/2009 | Customers: Assign Owners and Follow-up Dates - Assign owners and follow up dates to customers. | |
| 4/23/2009 | Customer Activities - Record customer activities on the Customer Detail Screen |
11/20/2009 -- Order Notification E-Mail: New/Repeat Customer
If you are using Order Notification E-Mails (Settings/Boolean Options in the Order Management System), those e-mails now include, in the subject line, whether the order was placed by a new customer (i.e. a first-time buyer) or a repeat customer. The body of the e-mail also includes the exact number of orders placed by the customer (e.g. "This is the 2nd order for Tiger Woods").
Back to top11/12/2009 -- XML Tools: CustomerQuery and OrderQuery Enhancements
The CustomerQuery XML Tool (Settings/XML Tools in the Order Management System) has been enhanced to allow customer information retrieval using a partial or complete customer email address.
The OrderQuery tool has been enhanced to return Unit Weight and Total Weight for each Line Item and Total Weight for each shipment in an order. The OrderQuery Tool also no returns Inventory Kit details for Line Items that include an Inventory Kit.
For further details on the XML Tools and their features, please refer to the XML Tools Documentation.
Back to top11/6/2009 -- XML Tools: ProductQuery; CustomerUpdate; Activities in CustomerQuery
The XML Tools (Settings/XML Tools in the Order Management System) have been enhanced with 2 new tools: ProductQuery and CustomerUpdate. The CustomerQuery tool has also been enhanced to optionally return Customer Activities.
ProductQuery: ProductQuery is a new XML Tool, used to query product data, thus “exporting” products from the Order Management System so that they may be “imported” into an external system.
CustomerUpdate: CustomerUpdate is a new XML Tool, used to add or update customer information in the Order Management System. This allows you to “import” existing customer data, including saved credit cards, mailing and shipping addresses, and other relevant customer information from an external system.
CustomerQuery: CustomerQuery is an existing XML Tool that has been enhanced to optionally return Customer Activities for each customer returned by the query. If the new IncludeActivities node is included in the CustomerQueryRequest, the new Customer/Activites container may appear in the CustomerQueryReply.
For further details on the XML Tools and their features, please refer to the XML Tools Documentation.
Note: With this update, file extension of all XML Tools URLs have changed from .asp to .rest. However, the .asp extensions for preexisting tools continue to be supported at present.
8/21/2009 -- OrderQuery XML Tool: Query by Ship To State or Country
The OrderQuery XML Tool (Settings/XML Tools in the Order Management System) now permits using Ship To State/Province Code or Country Code as part of the query criteria. For details, please see the updated XML Documentation.
Note: Because Gift Certificate orders do not contain Ship To Addresses, only Product orders are included when Ship To State/Province or Country is included in the query criteria.
7/15/2009 -- Payflow Pro Integration Update
PayPal has updated its Payflow Pro Payment Gateway integration requirements and will no longer be supporting legacy integration methods as of September 1st, 2009. Nexternal has upgraded its ecommerce software to conform with the new specification. No action is required on behalf of Nexternal clients that use the Payflow Pro Payment Gateway.
Back to top7/14/2009 -- Customers, Affiliates, and Vendors: Exclude Blocked Countries
Countries for which the Online Store rule is set to Deny (Settings/Anti-Fraud and Security) are now excluded from all country select boxes relating to customers, affiliates, and vendors (i.e. it is not possible to create a customer, affiliate, or vendor with an address in such a country). This rule does not apply when a country is denied access via the Default Rule only; the denial must be on the country level for select box exclusion to occur.
Back to top7/8/2009 -- USPS Packaging: Small Flat-Rate Box
If you are using USPS Rates and/or Endicia Shipping (Settings/Compatible Software/Online Shipping Tools), you may now utilize Small Flat-Rate Box packaging. Packaging types may be specified when packages are defined Settings/Compatible Software/Online Shipping Tools/Preferences, subject to override at the product level in the Product Overrides section.
Note: Small Flat-Rate Box is available only for USPS Priority Mail and USPS Priority Mail International™. If a packaging type that does not apply for a given shipping method is selected, packaging type reverts to Own Packaging.
6/16/2009 -- Expanded Full Credit Card Access Control
An option to control full credit card number access for Administrators has been added to the Full CC Access checkboxes (Settings/Site Options in the Order Management System), which control the User Access Levels that may view full credit card numbers. For each Access Level for which Full CC Access is not granted, all but the last 4 digits of all credit card numbers are replaced by x's; those users may still enter full credit card numbers if and when it is necessary to do so, but may never view them afterwards. The Report/XML option, which replaces the Export Full CC option (formerly at Settings/Boolean Options) controls whether or not an order's full credit card number is included in the Order Print Report (Orders/Reports) and when using the XML Tools (Settings/XML Tools).
Notes:
- The Full CC Access checkboxes do not apply to users with Product or Layout access, who have no access to credit card information.
- If the Report/XML option is on, the user must also have access to full credit card numbers generally, via the appropriate User-level checkbox in this section, to access full credit card numbers in the Order Print Report.
Lock Full CC Access
Clicking the new Lock Full CC Access button will prevent any change from being made to the Full CC Access options. If you wish to then unlock those options, you must contact Nexternal Solutions.
Note: If your Full CC Access checkboxes are disabled and you do not see the Lock Full CC Access button, your options are currently locked. Please contact Nexternal Solutions if you wish to unlock these options.
6/16/2009 -- Show Kit Contents
The new Show Kit Contents field for Invoices and Packing Slips (Settings/Site Options/Invoices and Packing Slips in the Order Management System) controls whether or not the contents of Inventory Kits are shown on Invoices and Packing Slips. If this option is on, the products that compose the kit are shown below the name of the kit product to assist with order fulfilment. If this option is off, only the name of the kit product is shown.
A new, similar option to display kit contents in the Order Print Report may be found at Orders/Export/Order Print Preferences. Additionally, kit contents are always available on the Order Detail screen, by positioning the mouse pointer over a Line Item that contains an Inventory Kit; and when creating and viewing Shipping Labels via the Shipping Labels button on the bottom of the Order Detail screen.
Note: Inventory Kits are available only if Inventory Control (Settings/Site Options) is on, and may be defined at the product or SKU level.
5/14/2009 -- Layout: Import Files
On the Layout Screen in the Order Management System, you may now import a single image, audio clip, .css, .js, .swf file, or multiple files packaged into a .zip file. This is useful when referencing files in your Bordering HTML (Layout/Edit Advanced Layout).
Back to top5/5/2009 -- Search Credit Cards
In the Order Management System, you may now search orders by Payment Credit Card (Orders/Advanced Search and Sort) and customers by Preferred Credit Card (Customers/Advanced Search and Sort). In both cases, the searchable fields are Credit Card Type, Credit Card Number, and Credit Card Expiration Date. Credit Card Number searches require an exact match for inclusion in search results; Expiration Date searches allow for searching across a range of month/year combinations.
Back to top4/29/2009 -- Customer List Screen: Display Company Name
Company Name is now conveniently displayed on the Customer List Screen except in the instance where Company Name is set to "do not use" for every Customer Type (Customers/Types/Page 2).
Back to top4/29/2009 -- Customers: Assign Owners and Follow-up Dates
You may now assign both an owner and follow-up date to a customer. This can be done on the New/Edit Customer Screen, or more conveniently from the Customer List and Detail Screens. There is also a button labeled Today atop the Customer List Screen. Clicking the Today button will execute a search that displays a list of all customers that have a follow-up date of today that are also assigned to the logged in user. Both parameters are also included in the Customer Search, Customer Import, Customer Export, Order Export (Excel and Access), and CustomerQuery (XML Tools). Only Administrators, Editors, Power Users, and Guests can assign owners and follow-up dates.
Click here to see a video tutorial demonstrating this new feature.
Back to top4/23/2009 -- Customer Activities
You may now create and view customer activities on the Customer Detail Screen. Activities might include such things as notes from a phone call or email correspondence. A customer can have multiple activities and each activity has a recorded time stamp. Each activity will also have a specified type. Activity Types and their list order can be defined in Customers/Types.
Notes:
- Only Administrators, Editors, Power Users, and Guests can create activities.
- An activity can only be modified by the person that originally created the activity.
- When using the Customer Cleanup Feature, customers with activities will not be deleted regardless of order history. When merging customers, activities will also be merged.
- Activity Types cannot be deleted if there are activities associated with that type.
