Auction Product Type

[MarionWante]

One last bug to squash, prior to launch:

In the e-mail sent at close of auction, the subject line is supposed to include the name of the product, dynamically generated, just as it is in the body of the e-mail.

While it's working just fine in the body, the subject line says this:

Re: Your Auction Bid for - %s

Anybody else have this problem, or know of a solution?

Thanks,

Rob

Yes, I had the same problem. I solved it simply by changing the subject line to : Your Auction Bid on Website Name. In the body the name of the product is stated, so I thought this was the easiest way.

[MarionWante]

Discovered another issue: There is a huge delay between the ending of the auction on the front end (I have the countdown clock working), and the back end recognition of that fact. The front end will count down and state that the auction has ended, and if you are logged in, it will tell you to Pay Now. However, Auction Manager does not reflect that the auction is over, and does not send e-mail, until hours later (or maybe the next day).

Is there any way to make the program send the e-mail as soon as the auction ends?

Thanks,

Rob

That is strange. On my website there is no delay. When the auction closes on the front end the back end will close also and send e-mails etc.
Do you also encounter this delay when you place bids with 2 different accounts (so you can outbid yourself) and the Auction Manager is forced to send outbid e-mail?

[Rob Wood]

I'm wondering if the auction module is reading the actual server clock. One weird twist: Even if the expiration is set for, say, 13:00, the front end countdown clock will state that the auction ends at 13:05:00.

Is there a place to set the time zone in this module?

On outbidding myself: Yes, I've done that, and the outbid e-mails work just fine.

I had several test auctions that started yesterday, end at noon today, and they all sent e-mail to me, either as loser or winner, at 12:52.

Rob

That is strange. On my website there is no delay. When the auction closes on the front end the back end will close also and send e-mails etc.
Do you also encounter this delay when you place bids with 2 different accounts (so you can outbid yourself) and the Auction Manager is forced to send outbid e-mail?

[Rob Wood]

It would be the easiest way if the bidder was only bidding on one item, and all of the auctions did not end on the same day. Not the case on my site.

Also, if you hack a file just to make the auction work on your site, what happens when an update comes along, and that hacked file is overwritten by a file that does not contain that hack?

Best regards,

Rob

Yes, I had the same problem. I solved it simply by changing the subject line to : Your Auction Bid on Website Name. In the body the name of the product is stated, so I thought this was the easiest way.

[artezan]

Hi,
I have some auctions running on my site. It appears on the main auctions listing that the 'current bid' is actually the first bid or the starting price if there isn't a first bid, not the current bid at all.

Is there a way of getting it show the actual current bid? Or if that is impossible I guess it would be better to change it to 'starting bid' or something? (if you could point me in the right direction for that if that is what needs to be done that would be great), but as I have a number of auctions I'd really like to be able to see where bidding is at on the items page.
Or not display the price at all?

Thanks in advance.
Zan

[artezan]

ADDING TO THE ABOVE I have changed the text now on the product listing page to say Starting Bid as that's what it appears to be displaying but I would love to know if I can get it to display the current bid (which as that was the original text I was thinking it is possible?)

[artezan]

Been looking into it more.
The sidebox seems to be displaying the correct current bid (though I'm sure it wasn't when I was testing and that's why I turned off it displaying the price). It calls for $auction_current_bid

As does the product_listing.php file (in includes/modules/your template/ )
This being the code: (note the text change from Current Bid to Starting Bid that I edited so it at least wasn't confusing people)


$auction_current_bid = ($auction_bid->fields['customers_bid'] >= 1) ? $auction_bid->fields['customers_bid'] : $auction->fields['bid_start_price'];
$lc_price = 'Starting Bid <br />'. $currencies->format($auction_current_bid) . '<br />';

But for some reason it's displaying the start price not the current bid.

Any help please?
Thanks

[artezan]

And another problem from me.
I just had a test auction end and all the bidders on the live auctions were emailed a you didn't win email. None of them bid on it.

Dear xxxxx
You recently bid on our auction product - Zan testing end. The auction for that product is now closed, and unfortunately you were not successful in your bidding.
$EMAIL_MESSAGE_HTML
For help with any of our online services, please email the store-owner: email and link correct
$EMAIL_CLOSURE
Copyright (c) 2011 ArtEZan. Powered by Zen Cart
This email address was given to us by you or by one of our customers. If you did not place a bid on ArtEZan, or feel that you have received this email in error, please send an email to email correct
This email is sent in accordance with the US CAN-SPAM Law in effect 01/01/2004. Removal requests can be sent to this address and will be honored and respected.

I cannot work out where the $email message html and email closure are meant to be defined, and they aren't in the template file

/html/includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/my template/product_auction.php

Also for none of the emails the %s in the email subject is substituting to the auction title, though it does in the email body.

Any help on these ones?

[Davx]

Hi Guys,

I am looking at some of these issues and hope to release another updated version shortly with these improvements:

1. Email Issues (Better structure, fix %s with a link to pay for a won product)
2. Better Template Layout (table format with separated buy it now button, easier to style for beginners)
3. Clock in Auction Manager, Current Time: 00:00:00 at the top and a countdown on each auction.
4. Bug Fix: In auction manager. (Line 203 & 205 replace FILENAME_AUCTIONS_MANAGER with FILENAME_AUCTIONS_PRODUCTS)
5. Sidebox to display Open auctions only (no point in advertising something that’s not available)

There may be more .... suggestions welcome.

@artezan, have you tried the current version? I can confirm that I am not experiencing the same bug as you, can you provide specific info (php/sql version, cart version).

Kind Regards

Dave

[Rob Wood]

Hi Dave,

That's great news! I have an auction site running, and there are some additional bugs to squash, plus some features that would be nice to have.

Bug/Improvement 1: Setting the auction start date/time. The auction product form in the back office has a calendar for when the product becomes available. Naturally, I assumed that if I set a date for the auction to begin for that product, the product would not be up for bid until that start date. However, the auction mod ignores the start date, and unless you mark it as out of stock, the product is available for bid immediately. It would be nice if people could browse the upcoming auction items, but not be able to bid until the appointed date and time.

Bug 2: Moving a product from auction to fixed price, or fixed price to auction. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this, short of manually deleting the product, and then manually adding it back in. You can use the "move" function, but that merely moves the product from one category to another, while maintaining its fixed or auction characteristics.

Bug 3: Price field in product info form has too many decimal places.


Thanks,


Rob

Hi Guys,

I am looking at some of these issues and hope to release another updated version shortly with these improvements:

1. Email Issues (Better structure, fix %s with a link to pay for a won product)
2. Better Template Layout (table format with separated buy it now button, easier to style for beginners)
3. Clock in Auction Manager, Current Time: 00:00:00 at the top and a countdown on each auction.
4. Bug Fix: In auction manager. (Line 203 & 205 replace FILENAME_AUCTIONS_MANAGER with FILENAME_AUCTIONS_PRODUCTS)
5. Sidebox to display Open auctions only (no point in advertising something that’s not available)

There may be more .... suggestions welcome.

@artezan, have you tried the current version? I can confirm that I am not experiencing the same bug as you, can you provide specific info (php/sql version, cart version).

Kind Regards

Dave