Product Type Book (by moku)

[hareslade]

Hi berrybatens

The ISBN field is really zencart product 'model' field, so it's not one that can be easily duplicated and then appear exactly the same as ISBN does, (e.g ISBN appears in product listings for book products)

But the book 'misc' fields that are spare can be used as extra data lines in the product book display lower section... these are fields that take up to 255 characters.

if you have a look in the admin ....
catalog | product types | product book | edit layout

You may see that there are some fields called 'misc...' 1 to 10
Some of these are already on (1) but those set to '0' should available for use, if set to 1.

If one of those spare is switched on, (maybe avoid misc_1) it should then appear, both in admin side book product page, (collect info page), and also appears in the data lines listing on the cart book display provided a value was inserted in admin for that field.

You would have to also find the books 'defines' php file entries to change the textual labelling of the field, in both the admin (admin/includes/languages/), and the cart defines (/includes/languages/) /your_language, if you don't want labels to remain as 'misc_' which is their currectly set label text.

[berrybatens]

Thanx for the clear explanation, I worked it out and everything looks good! I have even skipped the original ISBN field and made new ISBN fields and a NUR field from the MISC fields. It works perfectly.
I still have one more question; Is it possible to only show the Gross price of a book instead of Net and Gross?

[meeven]

Is the product type book recommended as the only way for building a bookstore? I notice in the README_main_book_install.txt that it talks about a few core files being replaced. What implications does this have for zencart upgrades and code maintenance? Will upgrading ZenCart overwrite these changes?

Also, I couldn't quite understand the difference between ADMIN_PATCH_SQL_EXTENDED_BOOK_TYPE_V3.txt and only_use_the_patch_for_FULL_V3_install.txt

I am installing this for the first time, so I am not sure which patch to use.

[meeven]

I have a few questions about the product type book mod. It seems to fill a great need, judging by the fact that this forum post has one of the largest number of views. My qeustions are:

1. Is this recommended as the only way for building a bookstore or is it okay to go with the product general type?
2. I notice in the README_main_book_install.txt that it talks about a few core files being replaced. What implications does this have for zencart upgrades and code maintenance? Will upgrading ZenCart overwrite these changes?
3. I couldn't quite understand the difference between ADMIN_PATCH_SQL_EXTENDED_BOOK_TYPE_V3.txt and only_use_the_patch_for_FULL_V3_install.txt . I am installing this for the first time, so I am not sure which patch to use.
4. Also, "Apply SQL in folder RUN_THIS_SQLPATCH_FOR_DATABASE in zencart admin sql patch section" is a bit cryptic. I understand the following patch syntax reasonably well:
   
   patch filetobepatched < patchfile
   
   but can't correlate this to the specific patch file and the directory in which the patch should be run.

[FONT=Verdana]
Thanks in advance. [/FONT]

[jazeem]

I notice in the README_main_book_install.txt that it talks about a few core files being replaced. What implications does this have for zencart upgrades and code maintenance? Will upgrading ZenCart overwrite these changes?

[FONT=Arial]I wanted to ask the same question.[/FONT]

[meeven]

Sorry about the double post. I have no idea how it happened.

[meeven]

I am facing a bit of frustration getting this to work.

I have uploaded all the files, but can't figure out the cryptic, "3. Apply SQL in folder RUN_THIS_SQLPATCH_FOR_DATABASE in zencart admin sql patch section".

I want to run the patch for the full version since this is a fresh install, but I don't see a "zencart admin sql patch section" among the install files. Where exactly is this? And what is the file against which this patch has to be run? Or, does this patch have to be run through phpmyadmin or something?

Also, I had renamed my original zencart admin folder to something else. It isn't clear from the readme files if the 'admin' folder for this product type is different from the original admin folder or if I need to upload the contents of this admin folder to my renamed admin folder. I ended up uploading the whole contents of this product type's catalogue folder, so there is now the original admin folder(renamed) and the admin folder for this product type. Is this the right way to do it?

I will be thankful for some help with all this.

[GSIS]

After a few false starts I finally have the main part of the Extended Moku mod working, and will be implementing the search box and other odds and ends as I start to bring the revised site back up to speed.

I started out trying to implement version 3, from the Zen Cart Downloads area, on a brand new local Zen Cart with no other mods. This took me down a dead end as I wasn't able, with my limited php knowledge, to clear up what appears to be a T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING syntax error in or around line 1714 of collect_info.

After rebuilding a clean Zen Cart I was able to implement version 2, from the hareslade.com web site, without problems. As I only use one language, at present, I don't see this as a problem for my site - but it's certainly a caveat for those who need the multi-language features of V3. I've now repeated this implementation on my live site, and will be adding the other odds and ends as they're needed and as time permits.

I've re-organised my categories but now have over 500 books to change from Product - General to Product - Book. I'm aware of another thread that advises against changing the Product Type, but would like to get these 500 products changed as quickly as possible. An initial trial of one product shows me that there will be problems but they might be quicker to fix than copy/pasting all of the data!

Any thoughts, anyone?

[skydealer]

I'm bumping this thread to keep it alive.

I'm in the same boat as some of the other posts. I'm pretty fair with SQL databases, and even run a vbulletin forum (which is what this forum uses) but the modding didn't quite go as expected.

I'm playing with a clean, new install of version 1.3.7 on Zen. My server has MySQL version 4.1.20. I've wiped out the Zen Cart install and re-tried the ISBN plugin several times and it's still not showing up in the admin area. The database is showing the tables...
books_to_authors
books_to_genres
books_to_languages
books_to_types
book_authors
book_authors_info
book_color
book_color_description
book_condition
book_condition_description
book_genre
book_genre_description
book_type
book_type_description

a second attempt created the following fields (just in case it needed the prefix)

zc_books_to_authors
zc_books_to_genres
zc_books_to_languages
zc_books_to_types
zc_book_authors
zc_book_authors_info
zc_book_color
zc_book_color_description
zc_book_condition
zc_book_condition_description
zc_book_genre
zc_book_genre_description
zc_book_type
zc_book_type_description
zc_get_terms_to_filter
zc_product_book_extra

The site is just for test purposes (at goodnerd.com) until I get everything worked out. The other issue will be how to one imports the bookfields from a database program such as bookttrakker, bookhound, pragersoftware or UIEE.

Do online booksellers enter their products twice? How do they list a book in both their online zen-cart store and also upload their stock listings to sites like Amazon or Alibris?

I have about 20,000 books to eventually list, of which I only have about 2000 cataloged so far. The ISBN ones are on half.com and the inventory database is a CSV file, the other I used Pragersoftware and it's a UIEE file. My site was using bookwriterweb to generate the book pages, but I'm wanting to switch to a zen-cart setup and I was hoping this ISBN plugin would do the trick but I'm striking out and I'm seeing the same results every time I install it. I just can't figure out where I'm screwing up.

The original instructions went okay until the last few lines of SQL modding, but I saw in one of the other posts what the fix was. Still, no changes in the admin area.

[GSIS]

Do online booksellers enter their products twice? How do they list a book in both their online zen-cart store and also upload their stock listings to sites like Amazon or Alibris?

Some very small sellers probably only ever list on one venue and end up out of business if that venue pulls the plug on them. Companies like Amazon are quick to do this if, for example, they receive more than a certain number of complaints in a short time. Amazon does little to protect its sellers - it is only interested in keeping buyers happy.

Very small sellers probably do manually cross-list. Without a business plan to introduce the tools to support growth they either stick at the size they can handle or try to grow too big and let customer service (and leisure time) suffer as they try to keep up with the listing in numerous places.

Those who plan to grow usually recognise that the right tools are essential. They allow time, in their business plan, for research and development. They have the tools in place as and when they're needed to either support growth through faster listing (and cross-listing) or by effective use of cheap labour. The ideal situation is to make effective speed-listing tools available to the cheap labour.

Order fulfilment and churning are other issues.

In order fulfilment the keys are to find and pack the book as quickly as possible. In the UK - over certain limits - it's more efficient and cheaper to have RM come out and collect your outgoing mail than it is to go to the post office. Once the mail is ready to go you make better use of your time by being at your desk than in the queue at the post office (especially on pension day).

Churning is about getting rid of old stock. It's a particularly important issue for those with storage problems. I list low-value books into particular boxes, give them 6 months, then churn the whole box. I still have to weed out long-standing non-sellers from the main stock (I give them 12 months) but it's less time consuming as I collect the expired stock whenever I visit a particular box to pick a book for an order.

Automatic cross-listing is a huge time saver and multiplies the opportunity for your stock to be seen and sold with relatively little effort by you or your staff.

Amazon can take a batch upload.

I don't know about Alibris or Abebooks but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they can do the same.