Discreet Order "office only" comments Module

[philip_clarke]

Here is the "beta"

http://########################.co.uk/SBD_Discreet_ZC1.3.x_v0.5.zip

Here's the problem. You go to someone's order and they've been mucking you around, or repeat paying and cancelling, and you add the comment "Possible Fraud ?" or maybe you've shipped the wrong item and are waiting on a return, so you add to the comment "Re-ship with a ZX81 when customer returns ZX80", because you want other admin people to know.

The problem is that even if you chose not to notify the client, these pieces of information turn up when they go to "view order" in "my account". This module adds the ability to put "office only" comments on orders, that the customer won't see. The documentation is in the docs folder when unzipped. Copy docs across and the rest of the installation instructions are in

http://<YOUR_WEBSHOP>/docs/SBD_Discreet/

Thank you
Philip.

[DrByte]

How different is this from the Admin Notes addon in the Free Addons area? http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=688

[philip_clarke]

How different is this from the Admin Notes addon in the Free Addons area? http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=688

Having only had a two minute look and install, SBD Discreet does not require additional SQL as it uses the existing db structure, so it integrates into the area where shop owners are expecting to see information. Got to admit, I was unaware of the Admin Notes bit, I still think it's preferable to put information about an order's status all in one place rather than splitting it up.

Philip.

[philip_clarke]

How different is this from the Admin Notes addon in the Free Addons area? http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=688

I am intending on submitting this to the free-addons area anyway, I've had a bit more of a look at "Admin Notes" and I can't work out what super_orders.php does, "Admin Notes" does have the advantage that if a shop is upgraded then because the data is stored in a different table, there is not the possibility of customers seeing admin notes, whereas with mine, one has to be a bit more careful. I think that the comments on mine add clarity to the status, the purpose of the append comments tickbox, for example.

Mine is also going to be integrated into a GPL'd "suite" of complementary modules. It wasn't supposed to be the starting point, it was just that I found when analysing the response from a payment gateway, that I needed somewhere obvious on the order page to store the information, and it was then pointed out that customers could see the comments whether they were emailed or not... so I needed something like this.

[DrByte]

I imagine the super_orders.php file is a modified file from the popular Super Orders addon ... making it easy for someone with that addon to quickly benefit from the new feature if they're using that addon too.

[philip_clarke]

I imagine the super_orders.php file is a modified file from the popular Super Orders addon ... making it easy for someone with that addon to quickly benefit from the new feature if they're using that addon too.

Super Orders has some good features, but it also out of synch with the payment side of things. It's "half complete", (and also possibly against the UK data protection act as you're not supposed to keep that info unless full enrypiton is in process and one is "registered"), in that I have (for example) a paypal paid order, by default the order is "there" because it's already been paid, so there's no need to add "Order payment data", but with a COD or walk-in payment, then order payment data is added, which knocks off the total from the "balance due", so you could have half orders that appear to be outstanding as they paid with paypal, and half that are marked up fully paid with cash.

Any plans to integrate the whole thing into version 1.4 ? Then payment gateway modules could update the Order Payment Data and bring everything into line. It's a nice system but it's only half a solution.

[Bigenuf]

Here is the "beta"

http://########################.co.uk/SBD_Discreet_ZC1.3.x_v0.5.zip

Here's the problem. You go to someone's order and they've been mucking you around, or repeat paying and cancelling, and you add the comment "Possible Fraud ?" or maybe you've shipped the wrong item and are waiting on a return, so you add to the comment "Re-ship with a ZX81 when customer returns ZX80", because you want other admin people to know.

The problem is that even if you chose not to notify the client, these pieces of information turn up when they go to "view order" in "my account". This module adds the ability to put "office only" comments on orders, that the customer won't see. The documentation is in the docs folder when unzipped. Copy docs across and the rest of the installation instructions are in

http://<YOUR_WEBSHOP>/docs/SBD_Discreet/

Thank you
Philip.

Hi Philip,

Hope your well.

I installed this new SBD Discreet but i seem to have a problem. Is this written for 1.3.8a ? because i'm running 1.3.7.1 and i get the following message in the orders.php page under
Customer
Comments


Fatal error: Call to undefined function: zen_get_orders_comments() in /public_html/shop/admin/orders.php on line 863

And yes i went into Tools/ SBD Discreet and installed it :)

This is line 863 in orders.php

<td class="dataTableContent" align="center"><?php echo (zen_get_orders_comments($orders->fields['orders_id']) == '' ? '' : zen_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'icon_yellow_on.gif', TEXT_COMMENTS_YES, 16, 16)); ?></td>

The script stops running right there and doesn't write anymore of the page.

Thanks , Lake

[philip_clarke]

Hi Philip,

Hope your well.

I installed this new SBD Discreet but i seem to have a problem. Is this written for 1.3.8a ? because i'm running 1.3.7.1

It'll be fixed within the next two hours.

Thanks
Philip.

[Merlinpa1969]

philip

to clarify
the reason for a new table is to make 100% sure that admin comments DONT get seen by the customer.....

and the super orders file was added there as DrByte said as a convenience for those that use super orders.......

its NOT a required file....

also if you have multiple people dealing with orders,
if an admin note is filled out it will send out an email to the other users ( defined ) and tell then that the changes were made what time and by who.......

[philip_clarke]

philip

to clarify
the reason for a new table is to make 100% sure that admin comments DONT get seen by the customer.....

and the super orders file was added there as DrByte said as a convenience for those that use super orders.......

its NOT a required file....

also if you have multiple people dealing with orders,
if an admin note is filled out it will send out an email to the other users ( defined ) and tell then that the changes were made what time and by who.......

Yes this I understand already, I'd personally prefer a more integrated solution, where if the admin notes section we in core, one could store the useful information like AVS codes that are being passed back by worldpay, as well as warnings and cautions.

An example would be that paypal transaction data is stored in the orders_status_history table, like this:

PayPal status: Completed @ 11:34:25 Nov 05, 2008 PST
Trans ID:1C023057M6862822U
Amount: 4.25 GBP

But then to store notes on a WorldPay (or other) gateway transaction, one has to put them in an entirely different place. WorldPay issues warnings and cautions, sometimes it would be preferable to delay an order by 24-48 hours to make sure the credit card had fully cleared, and to be able to look in the same area on the order when the worldpay orders are only sent to the merchant account holder, is certainly prefereable. To put a STOP notice underneath a worldpay caution (which would be visible to all admin staff immediately) would etc.... swings & roundabouts really, if I had known of the existence of the "admin notes" modules, I'd still do this module this way, as I'm looking for a more fluid workflow.

With regards to upgrading, I agree totally that there is a possibility that the customer could see internal office notes with SBD_Discreet so it would require installation, on the other hand, Admin Notes also requires installation else "the office" can't see the notes. I've place warnings all around my module to make sure. It could happen though, but then I once wrote "possible fraud" in the order comments when I was unaware that the client could read them, so it's no worse than before installation anyway.

Philip.