Back In Stock Notifications

[MB1]

Hi,



No, what you want to use in the "Product Notifications" functionality already built into Zen Cart. The Back In Stock Notifications module is not appropriate for what you are looking to do.

Hope that helps!

All the best...

Conor
ceon

what about having it always on under the add to cart area and if people realize that something is out of stock they just sign up to the back in stock notification system

[conor]

Hi,

what about having it always on under the add to cart area and if people realize that something is out of stock they just sign up to the back in stock notification system

That is totally unnecessary. The whole point of the module is that it displays a subscribe button only when a product goes out of stock. There is no need for anyone to "realise" anything.

All the best...

Conor
ceon

[countrycharm]

Hi,



That is totally unnecessary. The whole point of the module is that it displays a subscribe button only when a product goes out of stock. There is no need for anyone to "realise" anything.

All the best...

Conor
ceon

I will agree with Conor. It works like it suppose to.

[MB1]

of course it works, just not with attributes :) which sucks if 95% of your products have attributes. and i'm sure there are others on the same boat

last time i was curious about this was in 2008 on my last major upgrade, and i remember reading that no real modifications will be done to this mod regarding attributes till v2.0 comes out as it would be a waste of time, but can this be modified in the mean time. as i'm sure i'll be running 1.39 for the next 2years even if v2.0 comes out tomorrow

i'd love to see this mod as a permanent box or only pops up if an attribute is out of stock the add to cart box in the product info page that way people can subscribe to the notification if they see your are out of stock a specific size that they want. how much would that cost to do? $$$

[conor]

Hi,

of course it works, just not with attributes :) which sucks if 95% of your products have attributes. and i'm sure there are others on the same boat

I understand where you are coming from. Zen Cart 1.x's attribute handling is abysmal. Obviously 2.0.0 is now two years overdue, we were all expecting it a long time ago and its vastly enhanced attribute functionality will be of great benefit to someone like yourself.

last time i was curious about this was in 2008 on my last major upgrade, and i remember reading that no real modifications will be done to this mod regarding attributes till v2.0 comes out as it would be a waste of time, but can this be modified in the mean time. as i'm sure i'll be running 1.39 for the next 2years even if v2.0 comes out tomorrow

i'd love to see this mod as a permanent box or only pops up if an attribute is out of stock the add to cart box in the product info page that way people can subscribe to the notification if they see your are out of stock a specific size that they want. how much would that cost to do? $$$

I'm afraid that I don't have time or motivation to rewrite the software to work with third party Stock Attributes modules and we no longer do custom Zen Cart development, but I'm sure if you posted a request on the help wanted forum someone could add the dynamic lookups and have the button display for out of stock attribute-based products.

You could have a permanent box displayed easily enough by modifying the zen_get_buy_now_button() function further to always add a button, however the current functionality is designed for products without attributes and subsequently only records the Product ID/Name and not the attributes currently selected by the customer. You'd have to add some nifty JavaScript lookups to record the specific attribute information as well. You'd then have to modify the database and admin notification scripts appropriately. Quite a bit of work really.

Sorry I don't have more positive news for you than that but hopefully you can find the help you need in the help wanted forum.

All the best..

Conor
ceon

[MB1]

Hi,

You could have a permanent box displayed easily enough by modifying the zen_get_buy_now_button() function further to always add a button, however the current functionality is designed for products without attributes and subsequently only records the Product ID/Name and not the attributes currently selected by the customer. You'd have to add some nifty JavaScript lookups to record the specific attribute information as well. You'd then have to modify the database and admin notification scripts appropriately. Quite a bit of work really.

hmmm that might work but without the java stuff i just want a way for people to add themselfs on the notification list for that product regardless of attribute as we normally restock right across the attribute spectrum anyways.

[conor]

Hi,

hmmm that might work but without the java stuff i just want a way for people to add themselfs on the notification list for that product regardless of attribute as we normally restock right across the attribute spectrum anyways.

In that case, just modify the zen_get_buy_now_button() function to always output a link to the back in stock form. Then always have the form display by changing the code the checks for quantity <= 0 to not ever check the quantity.

Of course, don't forget that to get the admin notification to run you'll have to update the stock level for the main product to a "quantity in stock" of greater than 0.

Hope that helps!

All the best..

Conor

[papyria]

I had the mod Back in stock Notification installed on my site, but have following problem. is this 'as designed' or was it erronesouly installed?

Now the user's clicking on the link at 'To be notified when this product is back in stock please click here' will cause a display of three fields (name, E-mail Address:, Confirm Email) and, if one fills those out and submits, one will get a confirmation email.

If I have an existing account under that email address it will correctly store the back in stock notification subscription under that customer account, even without me logging in (which seems wrong to me, is this as designed?)!

If I do not have a a registered customer account however, I'll still get a confirmation email, but there is no place, so no account to retrieve the subscription or remove it. is the latter as designed too? Shouldn't the script instead first request for the user to log in or register before accepting any back in stock subscription?

If this is fixable, does anyone have a suggestion who can fix this? The way it now works I cannot use it as it will confuse my buyers.

[countrycharm]

I had the mod Back in stock Notification installed on my site, but have following problem. is this 'as designed' or was it erronesouly installed?

Now the user's clicking on the link at 'To be notified when this product is back in stock please click here' will cause a display of three fields (name, E-mail Address:, Confirm Email) and, if one fills those out and submits, one will get a confirmation email.

If I have an existing account under that email address it will correctly store the back in stock notification subscription under that customer account, even without me logging in (which seems wrong to me, is this as designed?)!

If I do not have a a registered customer account however, I'll still get a confirmation email, but there is no place, so no account to retrieve the subscription or remove it. is the latter as designed too? Shouldn't the script instead first request for the user to log in or register before accepting any back in stock subscription?

If this is fixable, does anyone have a suggestion who can fix this? The way it now works I cannot use it as it will confuse my buyers.

Now the user's clicking on the link as 'To be notified when this product is back in stock please click here' will cause a display of three fields (name, E-mail Address:, Confirm Email) and, if one fills those out and submits, one will get a confirmation email.

That is correct.

If I have an existing account under that email address it will correctly store the back in stock notification subscription under that customer account, even without me logging in (which seems wrong to me, is this as designed?)!

Why is it wrong? Seems to be working like it was designed.

If I do not have a a registered customer account however, I'll still get a confirmation email, but there is no place, so no account to retrieve the subscription or remove it. is the latter as designed too? Shouldn't the script instead first request for the user to log in or register before accepting any back in stock subscription?

This module was designed to let potential customer as well as customer subscribe to a product that is not in stock and to be notified when it is. If a product is discontinued you can delete those customers or potential customers. When it comes back in stock you can let them know also.
As Conor says in the docs for the back in stock module.

The Back In Stock Notifications is an extremely handy module which lets customers subscribe to a notification list for a product that has gone out of stock.
The subscription process is completely automated, customers don't have to have an account to subscribe themselves, but if they do the subscription is automatically associated with their account.
Once a product is back in stock, an e-mail can be sent to all those subscribed to the notification list for that product, using the convenient admin utility.

If this is fixable, does anyone have a suggestion who can fix this? The way it now works I cannot use it as it will confuse my buyers.

Nothing confusing at all. Once again.

• Fully-automated, dynamic subscription display
  
  • As soon as a product goes out of stock, a message asking customers if they want to “be notified when this product is back in stock please click here...” is shown everywhere the Buy Now button would have been; on the Product Info page and - new for 2.4.0 - on every Product Listing page (category listings, featured product listings etc.).
  • A subscription form is also displayed directly on the Product Info page to encourage a quick and easy subscription! It is pre-filled if the customer is logged in!
  • If a customer is already subscribed to the Back In Stock Notification List for a product, a message “You have requested to be notified when this product is back in stock” is displayed instead of the subscribe message. The subscription form also isn't added to the Product Info page.
  • If a customer is not logged in when they subscribe to a notification list, the subscription is automatically associated with their account.
  
  
• Fully-automated unsubscriptions
  
  • If a customer has an existing account with the store, they can manage their Back In Stock Notification subscriptions directly in their “My Account” section.
  • Customers who have subscribed to a notification list, but don't have an account with the store, can click on a link in their subscription e-mail to unsubscribe, or browse to the unsubscription page on the website and enter the code they were sent in this e-mail.
  
  

• Intuitive, comprehensive admin utility
  
  The admin utility allows a store owner to view existing subscriptions, send subscription notification e-mails and delete old subscriptions. The options it provides are as follows:
  
  • The current list of products with subscriptions can be viewed. This allows the store owner to quickly and easily see which products customers are interested in as well as the current stock level for each of these products.
  • The current list of products with subscriptions can also be viewed with additional information about the customers subscribed and when they subscribed.
  • A “Test Run” of the subscription notification mailing can be run. This will let the store owner see who would have been e-mailed, and about which product(s). The first e-mail that would have been sent is sent to the store owner so that they check if the e-mail is formatted correctly before the actual run!
  • The actual, real run of the subscription notification mailing can be run. The subscriptions for the completed notifications will then be automatically removed from the database.
  • Subscriptions for products which no longer exist can be expunged from the database.
  
  
• Intelligent notifications
  
  • If a customer is subscribed to several notification lists and a mailing is going out which includes more than one of these products, the notifications for that customer will be combined so they will only receive one e-mail. This looks more professional and minimises any irritation or thoughts of spamming!
  
  

Now what confusing about that.

[papyria]

Conor,

I appreciate you taking the time to highlight the differences between what I was experiencing with this mod and how it should work.

Before posting here I had informed the installing developer of these issues and he suggested I pay him extra to fix the issues I had.

Loh and behold after this posting on the board, suddenly the exact functionality appeared on my site as you described it.

One wonders......

So all works great now with this mod.

Thanks,

Peter