Multi-Vendor Support

The following is where this thread was left before the forum changeover; it was suggested to me to get it restarted, so here it is:

blucollarguy 23rd April 2006 04:44 PM
I am the author of MVS(Multi-Vendor Shipping) for osC, and was wondering if you guys would consider adding more in depth support for Vendors. MVS was originally designed to enable me to work with dropshipping much better(ie. more accurate shipping, product price/quantity tracking and things of that nature). It has become used for more, more accurate inventory management, the ability to ship from multiple warehouses, and many other features I am working on myself. My efforts are to create a very well designed and proper cart that can truly handle dropshipping, or multiple location businesses, with ease.

If the Zen team were interested, I would be more inclined to make the switch myself, and continue with the developement as well.

Just a few thoughts, hope I have been clear enough, Craig :)

wilt 23rd April 2006 06:02 PM
Hi,

It depends on exactly what additions are required to the core code, we are always open to suggestion.

You should look at some of the options the codebase already adds, that allow you to write code wich has a minimal effect on core code.

More specifiacally, the product type system, overrides and the new observer/notifier system.


If you could be a little moe specific :)

Scheme138 29th April 2006 05:05 PM
multi vendor support is the 1 thing keeping me from coming back to zen-cart. I will be back in an instant if this gets added!

blucollarguy 29th April 2006 06:02 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by wilt@Apr 23 2006, 10:02 PM
Hi,

It depends on exactly what additions are required to the core code, we are always open to suggestion.

You should look at some of the options the codebase already adds, that allow you to write code wich has a minimal effect on core code.

More specifiacally, the product type system, overrides and the new observer/notifier system.


If you could be a little moe specific :)
The key difference is the ability set different "ship from" locations in order to get proper shipping quotes during checkout, the ability to assign specific shipping modules to each Vendor's products, and of course the management of the Vendors products, sortable by the Vendor(order management, order fulfillment, etc.). This is what MVS(Multi-Vendor Shipping) does for osC now, that's how I wrote it, but it is nearly a complete re-write of the checkout process, sorting products by Vendor, and then offering the shipping choices for that particular Vendor's products. One can also think of this as a multi-warehouseing script, with products that might only be available from certain locations(warehouses) around the country(or the world for that matter) and price shipping accordingly.

I am sure that I can add my own script to Zen, but I would really like to see more done with whole idea of Vendor support. I have become very comfortable working with osC, and am not sure I am prepared to learn an entirely new code base just to switch to a cart I have already created myself(my own osC package has pretty much all the features of Zen and Cre, and some of the Vendor support about which I am writing).

Soooo, I have been hoping that a team would tackle the Vendor support issue, and we could all benefit.

Hope this was a bit more clear, I can also offer a link to a demo of the package I referenced for you to look see, PM only, still in very beta mode.

Craig :)

drillsar 6th May 2006 08:52 PM
I love to see that to..

Merlinpa1969 6th May 2006 10:30 PM
blue collar,

You may have a cart with a few mods that resemble zen but you dont have anything close to zen....

sorry had to point that out, now to the vendor support,
there is a start is called vendor zen

there is also a shipping module for multiple dropshipper

drillsar 7th May 2006 01:10 AM
there is also a shipping module for multiple dropshipper
Where is that? I did a search found nothing...

blucollarguy 7th May 2006 08:23 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by Merlinpa1969@May 7 2006, 02:30 AM
blue collar,

You may have a cart with a few mods that resemble zen but you dont have anything close to zen....

sorry had to point that out, now to the vendor support,
there is a start is called vendor zen

there is also a shipping module for multiple dropshipper
I didn't claim to have a cart that had anything more than most of the features that Zen already has(Cre also). My point was that if I have already done that much work to create a cart with the most of the same features, it would not be to my best interest to start over in order to use Zen. Though I do like the direction Zen is going, it would be a lot of work to switch.

I don't in any way claim to have a cart as well built as Zen, I'm not that good a coder myself to do as well as the Zen team has done.

And I haven't seen any mods for Zen that can do what MVS does, NONE.

Please post the links if there are some.

I will gladly look into it.

Craig :)

drillsar 7th May 2006 03:26 PM
I agree MVS is great and thats why I havent switched to zencart for this reason. Im hoping someone either creates a mod like MVS or zencart team adds it in.

Craig :)

I had this posted in this forum before too, and am just getting it back in here, the original thread:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33940

My opening statement on that thread:

I am the author of MVS(Multi-Vendor Shipping) for osC, and was wondering if you guys would consider adding more in depth support for Vendors. MVS was originally designed to enable me to work with dropshipping much better(ie. more accurate shipping, product price/quantity tracking and things of that nature). It has become used for more, more accurate inventory management, the ability to ship from multiple warehouses, and many other features I am working on myself. My efforts are to create a very well designed and proper cart that can truly handle dropshipping, or multiple location businesses, with ease.

If the Zen team were interested, I would be more inclined to make the switch myself, and continue with the developement as well.

Just a few thoughts, hope I have been clear enough, Craig :)

And there was some back an forth, if anyone is interested, see the archive or just post here.

Craig :)

I like the idea of multi-vendor support, and the ability to properly quote drop-ships etc at the time of the order, not to mention the multi-warehouse inventory tracking that could be an extension of such a feature.

I also think it would be great if it were a module that could be easily added to Zen Cart as a plugin, thus allowing you to continue to enhance it without having to worry about how people would upgrade the code if they were needing to update their live site with other mods in it, etc.

I suspect that not only the checkout functions need to be extended, but also the shipping-modules likely need some additional functions in them, etc.

Keep in mind that the checkout process infrastructure is being rewritten to allow tons more flexibility. However, even with that, the steps needed to implement what you're suggesting could be maintained, just reworked to run from the right places, etc.

DrByte:

I like the idea of multi-vendor support, and the ability to properly quote drop-ships etc at the time of the order, not to mention the multi-warehouse inventory tracking that could be an extension of such a feature.

I also think it would be great if it were a module that could be easily added to Zen Cart as a plugin, thus allowing you to continue to enhance it without having to worry about how people would upgrade the code if they were needing to update their live site with other mods in it, etc.

I suspect that not only the checkout functions need to be extended, but also the shipping-modules likely need some additional functions in them, etc.

Keep in mind that the checkout process infrastructure is being rewritten to allow tons more flexibility. However, even with that, the steps needed to implement what you're suggesting could be maintained, just reworked to run from the right places, etc.

Absolutely, the shipping modules do need to be altered for MVS(the version I wrote for osC) now. I like the idea of it being written as a module, making it very much on it's own. I believe that would be a critical decision in the process of implementing this idea. The ckeckout process now is very isolated, in order to change anything about it, one must do major code work to accomplish it, I know, the process of writing MVS was quite a chore. But, it could be written as several different modules that relate to each step in checkout process. This would give great flexibility in working with one's checkout. I also would think this would make a faster checkout process available upon the site operator's choice. If each step were a module on it's own, one could combine them in any order(within reason of course) they chose, keep them fully separated or anything in between.

Some more detail about MVS:

As far as the customer is concerned, MVS only effects their shipping costs, but my next step is something along the lines of "Vendor Locator", a mod that finds the closest location to the customer from which a product can ship. That is the next option I plan to build into MVS.

On the Admin side, MVS uses automatic email notification to tell the Vendor that the order was placed and where to ship it. For dropshippers, this is a big timesaver. Another request I have received for this part is automated faxing, but I have not gotten deeply into investigating the "hows" of that idea.

I very much appreciate your reply and hope the Zen team will seriously consider this type of support built into ZenCart. I know that Zen's popularity would grow significantly with this addition(I know it is growing without it as well, you know what I mean). There are so many carts that claim to support dropshipping and multi-vendor, but they ALL fall short, in fact most fall FAR short of just what MVS does now.

I would like to hear(or read) any and all input on this issue, so if anyone has any thoughts, please post them.

Craig :)

Hi Craig,

I'm right there with you on the Multi-Vendor system for the drop shipping folk.

The best way we found to accomodate those that wish to fax the drop ship orders, we simply created a fax queue module to use the efax.com FaxAPI. Just run the fax queue using cron, and it picks up new orders needing a fax sent out every 30 minutes, and sends an order to each of the vendors for the products needed.

Yeah, its more of a higher volume solution, but it works great and is very reliable. I am completely happy with the results we've had using eFax. We've also developed solutions using Send2Fax, and they were pretty impressive too. Both worked equally well, I would say. The latter, Send2Fax webservice, was an easier setup for use in PHP. Both performed flawlessly though and continue to reap rewards for those using our automation solution for the drop shipping.

Wesley Snider
SophWise Solutions
http://www.sophwise.com

SophWise.com:

Hi Craig,

I'm right there with you on the Multi-Vendor system for the drop shipping folk.

The best way we found to accomodate those that wish to fax the drop ship orders, we simply created a fax queue module to use the efax.com FaxAPI. Just run the fax queue using cron, and it picks up new orders needing a fax sent out every 30 minutes, and sends an order to each of the vendors for the products needed.

Yeah, its more of a higher volume solution, but it works great and is very reliable. I am completely happy with the results we've had using eFax. We've also developed solutions using Send2Fax, and they were pretty impressive too. Both worked equally well, I would say. The latter, Send2Fax webservice, was an easier setup for use in PHP. Both performed flawlessly though and continue to reap rewards for those using our automation solution for the drop shipping.

Wesley Snider
SophWise Solutions
http://www.sophwise.com

Excellent solution, I was expecting to go that route as well, but I had not gone deeply enough into it yet to know what direction to take for sure. Did you submit your module as a contribution by chance? I would love to have a look at the code to see just how you implemented it.

I appreciate the feedback, and hopefully the Zen Team will take a close look at the possibilities this could create for the management of an ecommerce website.

Craig :)

i still have my fingers crossed for this feature. i too cannot find the "vendor zen" or the multiple dropshipper mod. can someone link to these? thnx

Are you going to work on a multi-vendor mod for dropshippers for ZenCart? I would love to have it.

I have not gotten beyond a number of other things I am working on to enhance MVS with osC and a number of other personal projects. At some point, I hope to have the time to write a version of MVS for Zen, but I can't say when I will get to it.

Been very busy lately, the work never stops!

If anyone wants to give it a shot themselves I will help as much as I my time will allow.

Good luck, Craig :smile:

hi Craig,

I'm really waiting when zen cart will have the MVS something like you have done it on oscommerce...

I'd like to work on this. I have a dropshipper in MI and one in WA. It would make my life much easier.

Currently I have to use tables, and everything from my zip.

I'll email Craig and get the code.

My first post here. I too would love to see something like this incorporated. I am looking at either ZC or OSC. While new to both of these, we have been online for more than 10 years (using X-Cart). During this time we have had to modify the core code of this cart so much that it has become impossible (for several years now) for us to implement any new upgrades when they are released.

Multi-vendo/location shipping is something that we had to code ourselves into this cart since it was not included in the core and no add-on module was available. It has since become vital to our daily operations and we depend heavily on it, as I suspect any other merchant that does a good deal of drop-shipping would also be likely to do.

To have something like this included in ZC would really sway me towards this cart.

If there are others out there that could also use this functionality maybe we could get together and donate to see that this happens??

Count me in as well. I have an upcoming store that will NEED to have this type of functionality, and I'm not exactly keen to the prospect of using osCommerce for it. I have a couple of other Zen Cart contributions that I am working on at the moment, but as this is something that I need to figure out how to implement one way or the other, I may as well contribute to working on it for ZC in tandem with anyone else who may be or want to work on it. Perhaps a more organized team for implementing this would be in order? If anyone is drop-dead serious on making this a reality, I say we get to work on it. Any takers?

Hi all, I went ahead and got started on this. It is about 20% finished as of now, and I will be continuing fast and furious development on it. I started from scratch, so if anyone has any feature input, please post it up here so that I can take it into consideration. I'm hoping to have a working version ready by the end of the week.

hi Sparrish,

wow, i'm hardly to wait...count on me if you need a beta tester!!!:smartass:

Okay, I'm at least half way there now. Right now, I'm finishing up the functions to split up the cart by vendor, then calculate the shipping. I may potentially have to make new versions of the shipping modules as things like the zip code, etc., are global. I'm definitely not planning on hacking the core shipping modules, so that looks like the best solution. We should still be on, or even ahead, of schedule, so it will hopefully be ready for testing by the weekend.

That sounds fantastic! :yes:

If there's anything I can do to help in any way at all just let me know.

Thank you very much for your interest! I've been making major progress on this, and am still on schedule to have it ready by the weekend. I'll keep everybody posted, as I will be needing some beta testers for it as soon as it's ready.

sparrish:

Thank you very much for your interest! I've been making major progress on this, and am still on schedule to have it ready by the weekend. I'll keep everybody posted, as I will be needing some beta testers for it as soon as it's ready.

hi Sparrish,

I'm really waiting your great effort.. Keep posted when it completed.. Hope to see it very soon...Thanks.. :D

Just about ready to test out! Right now, I'm working on reconfigured shipping modules (all of the regular ones use the standard Zen Cart configurations, so I have to rework them), but as soon as that is ready, it should be fully functional. Hopefully sometime today. :D