DropShipping/Supplier Interface

[while_do_loop]

Hi,

I've created a drop-shipping/supplier interface module for a project I'm working on. I started this as a way to learning module development for zen-cart and to anticipate the specification of the project because the final specs haven't been finalize yet. When the final specs came out it didn't exactly fit what I've made (actually I think it fits but upper management don't want to use the extra features it have) so rather than waste this program which I believe has great potientials I will be sharing it here. I hope with the help of the community it will mature and new features will be added so by the time we decide to use it, it will be mature enough for commercial use.

The module is suppose to allow our suppliers to login to an administration page to manage products that they supply. They are limited to products they supply and have no access to other products from other suppliers. I will also need to let our suppliers add products to categories he is allowed to add products to. I probably also need this feature to be enabled or disbled which will limit them to only modify existing products in the database. Other future plans would be
sales report viewing where the reports will limited to their products, viewing orders of their products, downloading a summary of these orders (csv files),
automatic email sending when a customer ordered one of their product, etc

Right now the only thing working is supplier/supplier group/supplier admin management and the interface where the supplier will login. Once the supplier logs in he would be presented with an interface similar to zen-car admin interface but with the menus limited to task he is allowed to. Right now the menu is empty. Only the skeleton of the menu is present. My plan was I would have several suppliers, and each suppliers would have several admin accounts that are divided into groups. Some groups would have access to product editing/adding and some groups would have access in viewing sales report. A group can have its super_admin_flag enabled which will give member-admins the access to all supplier-admin-tasks without implicitly assigning it to them.

A supplier can be disabled which blocks supplier_admin accounts under that suppliers from logging in, or groups can be disabled to block member supplier_admins of that group, or individual supplier_admin accounts can be disabled. I'am anticipating a future need thats why I created this structure. Also deleting suppliers will not work if there are groups under it. Deleting recursively is not implemented. I'm thinking if I would recursivly delete groups and accounts if a supplier is deleted. Or flag that a supplier can't be deleted if it has groups & admin under it, and a product that it is supplying is still in the products database.

One problem with this module is that I'm trying to make a non-standard structure for zen-cart because my module will need modules in it self to be usefull. Right now I'm working on a product editing module based on the stock product editing feature of zencart. In the (website owner) admin page, site owner should have the ability to relate products to a supplier. I would probably add a drop down list in product editing page to assign a product to a particular supplier. When the supplier logs in, he will aslo see a similiar Categories/Products interface but some categories might not be accessible to him, 'new product' button would be disabled, or product editing/detail not related
to him is not accessible. This module is not yet finished but I'm attaching the unfinish module here so people interested can play with it.

Once this module matures I'll put it in the contribution page.

Anyway.. here are the files, and I'm open to suggestions on how to improve it. Thanks.

[Kim]

Please add your files to the Downloads section so they can be accessed easily by the other folks that might like to use and improve it. Thanks!!

[while_do_loop]

ok i just did. I'll just be waiting for the approval then I'll post the link here. Again at first I was hesitant to put it in the Download area because its still a work in progress.

wdl

[cropinstop]

Have you posted the files yet?

I am also interested in categorizing products by drop shipper, but my concerns are at the selling end. Because most of my sales are for less than $30, shipping cost is a major consideration. I have 3 dropshippers as well as local stock, and would like to be able to adjust my shipping charges in the shipping cart to cover minimum weight and handling charges for each shipping source when a customer orders multiple items, and they are shipped from 2 or more locations.

Is this someting you have considered, or does anyone have a easier solution?

[while_do_loop]

hi cropinstop,

The module I created is actually very different and is not the solution to your problem . My priority is actually empowering suppliers to edit products that they supply, and a host of other task that limit them to their products (viewing orders their products are involved in, viewing sales reports of their products, uploading pictures for their products, etc.... ) without giving them an admin account and letting them login to the same interface store owners login to administer their website.

I've already submitted my modules for review in the Download Section but its almost a month since then and I don't know if it was rejected or still pending for review (will they inform me if its rejected?). I've uploaded my module to one of the free webhosting service (for safekeeping) but I'm not sure if it would be ethical to post the link here while it is still pending for review. Maybe you could pm me your email if your interested to check it out.

[while_do_loop]

my contribution have been activated.. thanks...

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=327

[tajul_ashyqin]

thanx for this great contrib! i just installed on my local testing server but got the following error whe i tried to login into my admin;

Parse error: parse error in c:\program files\easyphp1-8\www\v135\admin\includes\classes\suppliers_classes.php on line 642

I just installed the supplier interface folder but not yet the categories products interface! am i missing something???

[tajul_ashyqin]

I managed to login to my admin page but somehow when I tried to login to the supplier account to test it out, the following error occured ;

Parse error: parse error in c:\program files\easyphp1-8\www\v135\supplierinterface\includes\classes\suppliers_classes.php on line 567

I did the full installation of the mod... somehow there was a lot of parses error in the suppliers_classes.php file...

[tajul_ashyqin]

okay, now I can see the suppliers interface page where the administrator of the respective suppliers may log in! so, you need to key in your email and your password but somehow, just after I enter the correct email and password, my account was temporarily disabled...

[bettysue]

It sounds like your mod is similar to something I've been looking for only for a completely different reason. If possible, before I install it could you read what I want to use it for and let me know if it's possible?

It is for a music download site for new artists. We want them to be able to upload their music files, and be able to add to only their products, do the descriptions, etc., plus be able to access the records of what they have sold.

Hopefully you can see why your mod stood out to me as something that may be able to accomplish this. Of course the fact I have yet to figur eout how to have people upload to the store is another issue all together..lol

thank you,

betty