Back In Stock Notifications

Hi,

It gives us great pleasure to release a new Zen Cart module - one which we feel many of you will find very useful!


Back In Stock Notifications

The Back In Stock Notifications is an extremely handy module which lets customers subscribe to a notification list for a product that has gone out of stock.

The subscription process is completely automated, customers don't have to have an account to subscribe themselves, but if they do the subscription is automatically associated with their account.

Once a product is back in stock, an e-mail can be sent to all those subscribed to the notification list for that product, using the convenient admin utility.

Read on to check out all of the features... we're sure you'll find them very comprehensive!


Features

Fully-automated, dynamic subscription display

• As soon as a product goes out of stock, a message asking customers if they want to “be notified when this product is back in stock...” is shown where the Buy Now button would have been.
  
  
  http://dev.ceon.net/images/back_in_stock_notifications/back_in_stock_notification_link.png
• A form is also displayed directly on the Product Info page to encourage a quick and easy subscription! It is pre-filled if the customer is logged in!
• If a customer is already subscribed to the Back In Stock Notification List for this product, a message “You have requested to be notified when this product is back in stock” is displayed instead of the subscribe message. The form also isn't added to the page.
• If a customer is not logged in when they subscribe to a notification list, the subscription is automatically associated with their account.

Fully-automated unsubscriptions

• If a customer has an existing account with the store, they can manage their Back In Stock Notification subscriptions directly in their “My Account” section.
• Customers who have subscribed to a notification list, but don't have an account with the store, can click on a link in their subscription e-mail to unsubscribe, or browse to the unsubscription page on the website and enter the code they were sent in this e-mail.

Intuitive, comprehensive admin utility

The admin utility allows a store owner to view existing subscriptions, send subscription notification e-mails and delete old subscriptions. The options it provides are as follows:

• The current list of products with subscriptions can be viewed. This allows the store owner to quickly and easily see which products customers are interested in as well as the current stock level for each of these products.
• The current list of products with subscriptions can also be viewed with additional information about the customers subscribed and when they subscribed.
• A “Test Run” of the subscription notification mailing can be run. This will let the store owner see who would have been e-mailed, and about which product(s). The first e-mail that would have been sent is sent to the store owner so that they check if the e-mail is formatted correctly before the actual run!
• The actual, real run of the subscription notification mailing can be run. The subscriptions for the completed notifications will then be automatically removed from the database.
• Subscriptions for products which no longer exist can be expunged from the database.

Intelligent notifications

• If a customer is subscribed to several notification lists and a mailing is going out which includes more than one of these products, the notifications for that customer will be combined so they will only receive one e-mail. This looks more professional and minimises any irritation or thoughts of spamming!

Download here



We hope you like this module - feedback is greatly appreciated (As are donations)!




All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Looking forward to trying this !

Hi,

A new version of this essential module is out now - don't lose out on sales, let people know when a product they want is back in stock! :)

From the changelog:

[ADDED] E-mail confirmation field added to prevent automated scripts spamming the notification form and therefore avoid useless subscriptions and needless bounced confirmation/notification e-mails.

Download 2.2.0 Now!


All the best...

Conor
Ceon

Hi

I have installed this, but for some reason the form does not work when I clicl on it.

See on my test site here.

http://www.lozer.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=220&products_id=6897

Regards
Laurie

Hi Laurie,

chalfontgifts:

I have installed this, but for some reason the form does not work when I clicl on it.

You've either:

messed up when modifying tpl_product_info_display.php.

or

A PHP error is occurring within the added code from that template. Are you sure you've uploaded class.CeonXHTMLHiTemplate.php? If that file was missing the PHP code would fail and break the page as it has on your site.

I've released a new version of the software as I found a very minor bug when looking at this for you... please download the new version and use the tpl_product_info_display.php from within it and make sure you've uploaded all the files.

All the best...

Conor

I have installed the back in stock notification in my cart 1.38.All installations went fine until when i click on an out of stock product,
Suddenly the page goes out of order.I mean i am using a 3 column layout, it all collapses and only this one shows up beneath the product sold out button.

To be notified when this product is back in stock please click here.

The link is also not working.

After hours of digging i finally find out that this section

<!--bof Form close-->
<?php // BEGIN BACK_IN_STOCK_NOTIFICATIONS 2 of 2
if (isset($back_in_stock_notification_build_form) && $back_in_stock_notification_build_form) {
// Build the notification request form

has some problem.When i disable this code,the page get backs to normal.i am desperate.Please help. I Have re installed the application.But no way

:frusty:

Please help me out

Hi,

dhanesh:

After hours of digging i finally find out that this section

Which version of the module are you using?

The reason your page is not rendering properly is that something within that block of code is failing and PHP is exiting. More than likely the require_once statement which comes after the line you mentioned is not finding the file it needs.

If you insert the following lines after the initial <?php // BEGIN BACK... line, the error message should be displayed:

[php]
@ini_set('display_errors', '1');
error_reporting(E_ALL);[/php]Please post that error message here.


All the best...


Conor

Hi Conor,

This is the message.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NEW in /home/electrop/public_html/includes/classes/class.CeonXHTMLHiTemplate.php on line 682

Link: http://electropath.ca

Thanks

Hi,

Thanks for following up on this.

Argh! You've found problem with the module... I missed out a single PHP 5 keyword in that file... commented several out but missed that one. You're obviously using PHP4 so it failed to parse the file.

I'll release an updated version soon. I'd appreciate it if you could simply try this in the meantime:

Open:

includes/classes/class.CeonXHTMLHiTemplate.php

and change line 682 to the following three lines:

[php]
$extract_more_parts = false;
printf("Couldn't find start tag for %s!\n", $part_name);
//throw new Exception("Couldn't find start tag for $part_name");[/php]Please let me know if that gets things working as expected.

If it does, I'll repackage the module up as 2.2.2.

Sorry once again about the oversight!

All the best...

Conor

I have replaced the string.
The template system is fine.The page is back to normal.Buts its still showing this error.Please follow this link

http://electropath.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=157_174&products_id=997#back_in_stock_notification_form

Hi,

dhanesh:

I have replaced the string.
The template system is fine.The page is back to normal.Buts its still showing this error.

Yes, I see that and I know what's causing it... the str_replace method is different in PHP5 from PHP4.

I have to modify the CeonTemplate class to add in backwards compatibility for this function.

Do you mind getting in contact privately please so I can send you the updated file?

http://dev.ceon.net/contact_us

Thanks very much for your patience, we're almost there!

All the best..

Conor
Ceon

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:hug:

It Worked:clap::clap::clap:

Hi,

dhanesh:

It Worked:clap::clap::clap:

That's great! Thanks for letting me know.. I'll have a new version out this weekend with those updates.

I'll post here when it's available. Please update as you are using a slightly older version (that displays the {cofnospam} tag in the confirmation field... ugly ;) ).

All the best...

Conor

Hi Conor

I think I may have the same problem here with mine as I am running php4 too. Is there any chance you could give me the details of what to change, as I really need to test today.

Regards
Laurie

Hi,

A new version of the module has been released with compatibility with PHP4 completed for the CeonXHTMLHiTemplate class.

It can be downloaded here:

http://dev.ceon.net/web/zen-cart/back_in_stock_notifications/downloads

Hopefully the distribution will also be updated in the Zen Cart downloads area.

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

conor:

Hopefully the distribution will also be updated in the Zen Cart downloads area.

It can't be if it's not submitted ... typically by someone like the author.

Hi,

DrByte:

It can't be if it's not submitted ... typically by someone like the author.

Doing so now...

All the best..

Conor

Customers who have subscribed to a notification list, but don't have an account with the store, can click on a link in their subscription e-mail to unsubscribe, or browse to the unsubscription page on the website and enter the code they were sent in this e-mail.

The feature above does not seem to be working on my site.
The link send straight to the login page.

I have COWOA on my site. Could this be causing a problem, or an I mis understanding how this should work.

I thought it would take the customer back to the product page, but place an unsubscribe link on the page. I am not sure where the unsubscriptionpage that is refered to above is placed neither.

[FONT=Tahoma]This is the link that is sent in the email :[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]http://www.lozer.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=account_back_in_stock_notifications[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma][/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]When you go to this it appears to re direct to this.[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma][/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]https://web165.secure-secure.co.uk/lozer.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=login&zenid=4382fd0e3de53bf87dbfff47931230b1[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma][/FONT]
Thanks for any help, and a great idea for a contribution.

Hi,

chalfontgifts:

The feature above does not seem to be working on my site.

It's working fine.. if a customer signed up for a notification while they were logged in, and they are not logged in when they click on the link, then Zen Cart will ask them to log in; they will then see the back in stock notifications page or section in the account admin.

Obviously for security reasons a link to a website should not be able to log someone in!

chalfontgifts:

Thanks for any help, and a great idea for a contribution.

No problem. I'm glad you like it!

All the best..

Conor

Great looking mod Conor, as usual, however im having trouble with it. Ive copied all the files over and ran the sql and it is showing up under 'configuration' and also 'catalogue' in Admin. The only problem is, the option to enable it is not there, so it doesn't work!

I have double checked to make sure all the files were uploaded and they are there. Any ideas? :no: