Import for Affiliate Manager 5.x is finally done!

I had been going about writing the imports for Affiliate Manger 5.x rather piece meal. I had started an import module for the product data, had started on a module to import data from Affiliate Manager 4.x, and had completed a module to import affiliate data from Merchant’s affiliate feature when I finally came to my senses. I bundled all of that into a single module, with our new spiffy css based admin, and it’s finally ready to go!

It is bundled with Affiliate Manager 5.x (and you’ll need the latest version of that module to go along with the import module) and is capable of importing:

• affiliates from Affiliate Manager 4.x
• affiliates from Merchant’s 5.x affiliate feature
• category and product configuration data from flat files

At this point it does not import the payouts, orders, or hits data from Affiliate Manager 4.x (or Merchant’s affiliate feature) but if the demand is there I’ll likely update it later to import that to a separate sets of databases which can be viewed from inside of Affiliate Manager’s admin. You can view the new module’s documentation here

The only way to get the module right now is by downloading the latest version of Affiliate Manager 5.x (it’s included in the download zip). Once it’s installed, new versions can be obtained, when available, from the “check for upgrades” link in the module’s admin.

Now that’s done I’ll be focusing all of my non-tech support time on “Focus” our new search module. I’m looking forward to getting back into that groove as it’s been a great pleasure to work on (but then that’s generally true about all coding…and definitely NOT true about writing documentation).

Affiliate Manager 5.x “design settings” and more news on what’s coming next

Affiliate Manager 5.x (our MivaMerchant module for affiliate tracking, for those who stumble in here out of the dark) has been undergoing some significant development lately. Among other things, the admin has been updated to use our new css layout to brighten your Miva Merchant experience; the default grey, dark-red, and black of Merchant Admin starts to get to me after a while.

Two weeks ago I finished adding the product specific payouts feature that lets you configure each affiliate to be paid a specific amount for individual products. And along those lines, you can configure it a “category at a time” so that all of a cateory’s products have the same affiliate payouts.

Last week I added the option to send “New Affiliate” notification emails up the referral chain so that you can notify affiliates when someone they have referred signs up to become affiliates themselves.

And today I have just completed adding the ability to configure specific global headers and footers for each affiliate. These can be used in place of the default header and footers whenever customers shop in the store as a result of a referral from that affiliate.

You’ll find specific entries addressing all of these new features in the module’s FAQ.

Continue reading Affiliate Manager 5.x “design settings” and more news on what’s coming next…

Flyout and Reveal - First of the 5.x AJAX modules

We are officially releasing two new Miva Merchant 5.x AJAX modules today.

The first is Flyout 5. You may have already seen the 4.x version we released that a couple months ago. Flyout adds Netflix type pop-ups to your Miva Merchant store. Any place that you can display a product in your store, you can display a pop-up. You can display pop-ups on your category pages, product list page, storefront - or anywhere else. View a demo of Flyout here.

The second module is Reveal 5, for Inventory Manager 5. This module addresses the oft answered question when dealing with attribute combinations - how can I hide inventory options that are out of stock?

For example, say you are tracking two attributes: size (small, large) and color (red, blue). A customer selects small, however it is only available in blue. Given the way Miva Merchant and Inventory Manager 5 are designed, a customer would have no idea that red is out of stock. With Reveal, an AJAX request is sent when someone selects an option and checks what remaining attributes are in and out of stock. In this case, red is out of stock, so it is removed from the attribute drop down list. Additionally, when your product page is initially loaded, an AJAX request is sent and any completely out of stock options are removed. So, if red is out of stock in both small and large - that option is removed from the drop down list.

Since the module is currently in beta, there are currently a couple shortcomings and known issues. The first is that it is only compatible with drop down list attributes. It is not compatible with checkboxes or radio buttons. Support for all appropriate attribute types is planned. Another shortcoming is that if you have multiple attributes but are not tracking all of them, the module will incorrectly remove non-tracked attributes. So, if a product has three attributes displaying (e.g. size, color and style) and you are tracking two (size and color) the module will not work. A fix is currently in the works. The last limitation is that the module will only work (correctly) on Product Pages. In its final version, it will be compatible on any Miva Merchant Page that can display attributes.

Reveal, being in beta, is selling at a discount right now. All future updates and bug fixes (as with all our modules) are free. Get it while it’s at a discount!