introducing cpshop 2.3

With all of the hubbub going on at CP, it only seemed right that I try to beef up some cpshop features as well. Frankly, CPConnect was pretty motivating; it pushed me to get these changes in, ones I've been thinking about for a while.

changes in cpshop 2.3 (since 2.2)

• added hooks, which allow dynamic includes based on page type
• added cpfilter_sort:random
• added support for predefined product type sort order
• added <[productno]> tag
• added support for dynamic and customizable "now loading" screen
• recognition when CafePress is down for maintenance when loading data
• several bug fixes
• plus all updates added during the 2.2 series

how to upgrade

1. Unzip the contents of either cpshop2.3-Unix-update.zip or cpshop2.3-Win-update.zip (or the newest version available). Be sure you use the "update" zip file -- and NOT the "full" zip file -- to upgrade!
2. Upload the contents of the zip file to the cpshop directory on your server.
3. Test your store.

added hooks

Hooks are a powerful addition to cpshop, but also complicated enough that I believed they warranted a page on hooks.

By request, you can now have your product results appear in a random order. The order will be updated every 3 hours, so it's not totally random, but shoppers don't like random things that change while they're shopping.

Also by request. For those that would like to control the order of their products with more granularity, you can now manage the cpshop.cgi.sortorder.txt file, which allows you to specify the exact sort order of products by type. You can even use it just to sort certain types to the end.

To use a predefined product type sort order, you should:

1. Create a cpshop.cgi.sortorder.txt file, using the cpshop.cgi.sortorder.txt.sample file as a guide (or you can just rename that file if you want). Follow the instructions in the file, ordering the product type numbers in the order you'd like that product type to appear.
2. Select one of the "preset in cpshop.cgi.sortorder.txt" choices for Thumbnail Sort Order in cpadmin. (The difference between "normal default" and "random default" is how cpshop sorts the product types you don't list in the sortorder file.) If you don't want to preset the sort order for your entire cpshop installation, you can also use cpfilter_sort:preset or cpfilter_sort:presetrandom in a store ID entry field.

New template and thumbnail grid layout tag: <[productno]> - The product number of the current product (as opposed to <[productnumber]>, which is the storeid.productnumber combination of the current product).

You know how at Orbitz they have that cool "now looking for fares" screen that comes up? Well, I figured it'd be convenient if cpshop had something similar during data downloads. So now it does, and you can customize it too -- meaning you can create your own "now looking for products" or "wait a moment" screen, and it'll appear during long data downloads.

I've pre-entered a really simple default one for now (though it's disabled), that looks like this:

Just think how creatively you could be with this sort of thing, considering that I didn't want the default to require any graphics!

I'm sure many of you were annoyed by cpshop attempting to cache data when CafePress was down for maintenance. I've fixed that, so now cpshop is at least smart enough to know that there's nothing to cache, and to display a "CafePress is down" message. (In a future release I hope to make cpshop smarter, and have it look for out-of-date data files to use in the meantime.)

the last word(s)

It's been a crazy, crazy 6 months. Between the wedding, my job, CP site issues, CPConnect and cpshop, I've been swamped. As a result, I still haven't gotten the best search API implementation figured out. I'm determined to get it right, but I'm running out of time before the holiday season begins in earnest, and I still want you all to have time to actually setup any search-based shops, so...I'm trying. And I'll keep trying.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the awesome folks at GreatGear for their fabulous wedding gift (which has already come in handy for our last two dinner parties). It was totally unexpected, and caused me to suddenly and uncontrollably bubble up with pride at how awesome the GreatGear family really is. So Jean, Mary, Jen, Rodney, Tony, Sue, Barbara, Sherry, Dan, Lorilei, Fricka, Kristen, Shawn, Cassie, and anyone I've forgotten -- thank you, thank you, thank you.

And remember -- if you make any sweeping changes to your cpshop store and want to show them off, email me the URL, and I can add it to my cpshop site list.

As always, let me know if you have any problems with this, either via or posting on the message board.

Regards, Marty