Archiwum kategorii: Release

Release i-systems – version 4.5

A new update of the base version of the i-systems e-commerce system has been introduced. Release 4.5 includes significant improvements in price interpretation and memory optimization. A new Price List Module has also been created.

Prices in the product

Products in the database have their prices assigned. In release 4.5, it was possible to pin down any price source for a product, such as a price list module or a database of previous prices stored in products. This means that when a customer wants to use a price from another source, they will automatically be downloaded without importing them to the i-systems database.

Optimization of the store

A number of modifications have been introduced to speed up the store’s operation and reduce the amount of memory required. The profiling of the store was conducted, which resulted in accelerating the operation of the store, thanks to the reduction of the amount of memory needed. The time needed to render a page: the home page, the product listing, and the product sheet has been reduced. From now on, less memory is required, and the basic version of e-commerce system has been significantly accelerated. This means that the server response has been optimized as well as the memory requirement per query.

Price List Module

The new Price List module allows you to manage prices not only for products, but also for sets. Up to now, there have been four types of prices attributed to the product: standard, promotional, wholesale, variants. Nowadays, it is possible to create an infinite quantity of price lists and add an infinite number of prices to them. They can also be hierarchized by setting a pricing strategy based on the criteria. This provides a great price management option. This also applies to foreign price lists, which are not part of the price list module. An example of such a price list may be the currency price list, which retrieves data based on its exchange rate. Thanks to the Price List module you can download price lists from another module in real time.

Release 4.5 also includes other improvements, such as changing the way currency and the country are selected. The customer stores information about the country and the currency is assigned to the country. There has also been unified form generation for ordinary payments and multi payments.

The release is an update of the base version of the e-commerce system, where the new functionalities are regularly added. Thanks to the update, it is possible to develop the system and adapt it to the changing market. It is also possible to update dedicated solutions in subsequent releases.

i-systems release – version 4.4

Another update of i-systems software, release 4.4, entails significant changes, this time in the structure of plugins. In addition, the ARMS module has been introduced, a couple of modules have been refactored, as well as previous versions of the system have been improved. Changelog in the case of this version of the system consists of 179 positions.

Plugin Migration

In this version of the system, plugins, such as payment and shipment, have been migrated to modules. Previously, they were part of the Plugins module. From now on, all deliveries and payments are made from separate modules, designed particularly for this purpose. They have common principles, their own installation files, translation languages, etc. The results of such migration are: much bigger transparency and development opportunities, as well as easier personalization.

ARMS Module

Account Receivable Management System is a system designed to support the company through effective management of accounts receivable, but also to prevent from the formation of overdue receivables, and their recovery.
In practice, a defined group of customers is created, for instance: “Trusted Customers”, “Premium Customers”, or “Blacklist”, and particular tasks are being assigned to this groups, along with the deadlines. Then, conditions are selected for those tasks. For example, reminder based on the fixed date of issue of the document, the total value of receivables, the amounts remaining to be settled, the amount of trade credit, as well as the payment date. This tool can be also integrated with other modules, which make it possible for instance to send payment reminders, automatically add a task to the calendar, or block placing orders. This solution is especially useful in the case of B2B companies.

Default Order Status Panel

A configuration panel in Order Status Module has been added to release 4.4. Each store has particular order statuses in system settings, such as new order, or canceled order. This status has its own ID, which is changed to another one – corresponding to the present order status when the update is made. The new solution will prevent any problem of improper queuing of stock levels and will facilitate order status checks.
This update of the system is also associated with the extension of installing files, and consequently – improved handling of multi-language fields in queries to the SQL (Structured Query Language) database. Refactoring of the Trade Credit module has also been completed, product images have been improved, and improvements have been made to the order edition.

The release is an update to the base version, on which the e-commerce system is based, to which new functionalities are regularly added. Thanks to the update, it is possible to develop the system and adapt it to the changing market. It is also possible to update dedicated solutions in subsequent releases.

i-systems release – version 4.3

Another version of our system has been released. This time, changelog reached a record number of 258 positions, such as: adding new full-text advanced search engine, redirection module, spam shield module, as well as HTTP Auth configurable authorization.  

What is advanced Solr search engine?

This module is an extension of an advanced product searcher (PAS), which uses Solr for searching. What is Solr? It is an efficient platform for full-text search. The previous version of the system was based on storing product data in database, however it was much slower. Solr is quicker than database query.

iqsi-screenshot1

This option can be efficiently scalable and expandable, unlike the previous version, where additional queries were needed. In case of PAS module, all changes in product features had to be refreshed, so that data could be outdated. Now, they are being refreshed incrementally every 5 minutes, and all data is being refreshed every hour. This means that  the longest waiting time for this changes on frontend level is 5 minutes. Moreover, customers get Solr search engine bundled with version 4.3.

Redirection module

This module allows to create and import URL redirections from the panel level. The customers want to keep URL address, they had in the previous store, because of positioning. Therefore, we prepared a tool, which in a very universal way, deals with tasks, which until now have been carried out in an individual way.

Spam Shield Module

Spam Shield reduces email spam from the contact forms, as Internet bots send unwanted content. This protection is based on both analysis of the display time and time needed to send a form – to small interval alerts application to bot. Also, a hidden box has been added, the fulfillment of which will inform the system about the threat.

HTTP Auth configurable authorization

Along with the launching new versions of the multidomain stores, when the customer does not want the store to be indexed by Google, while working simultaneously with the current store, the module introduces an additional authorization for a particular domain. This means, that the stores continue working, and the module introduces an additional authorization, preventing content indexing by Google.

What else?

In addition, discount politics module has been updated. The following changes have been introduced: discount limit support, base price discount, improvement of Allegro cart price calculation, improvement of transport registration, transport surcharge support, and conditional coupons support. Release 4.3 also includes new options for logistics modules, and improvement of UX in the administration panel.

i-systems release – version 4.2

We have introduced another update of our software, along with meaningful changes and improvements in system’s structure. Changelog consists of 57 records, among which we can find: discount politics, Allegro multi variants, plugin to BZ WBK transfers’ import, as well as moving components from individual repositories to main repository.

Discount Politics

The idea of the key module – Discount Politics – is to provide one point where other modules can report discounts. This module allows to manage discounts in the store globally, by creating connections between discounts and discount hierarchy, as well as fixing the method of calculating discounts. Thanks to the module, each discount can be calculated in a different way on each item in the cart, and discount chain can be broken, so they do not overlap.

There are two basic kinds of discounts: percentage and price discount. Price discount requires fixed price and currency symbol. Percentage discount is basically a percentage. From the delegate level it is possible to give a discount on the cart in different ways:

• Global discount – it is given similarly as any other discount. This is the amount / value we want to subtract from the entire cart. Because of the accounting reasons it can not be subtracted from the total value of the cart. Therefore it is spread over all the possible products uniformly,
• Mass discount – it allows to give a discount for groups of cart’s elements, not the whole cart itself,
• Weight and Volume Discount – it lowers only the prices of shipment, depending on the cart’s weight

The main objective of the discount politics module is to manage logistics of the price choice.

Allegro multi variants

Improving Allegro multi variants option resulted in customer’s ability to choose the size of the product that is to be purchased. Earlier, a single auction was made for one size and a seller had to create a lot auctions for given product. Thanks to this solution, auction costs are much lower, as there is only one auction needed to sell multiple sizes of the same product.

Adding integration with Expert Sender

An integration with external Expert Sender system has been added, which allows to send personalized e-mails and mailing campaigns on the basis of data about abandoned carts, signing up to the newsletter, and placed orders. Thanks to this integration, mailing campaigns are automated, which saved customer’s time, he would normally dedicate to create mailings.  

Plugin to BZ WBK transfers’ import

There is a new possibility to import data about transfers from BZ WBK bank. This module allows to automatically indicate payments for an order placed in the store. Properly paid orders will be automatically marked as paid.

Adding information about the domain to the order

Now orders save an information about domain they have been placed on. Thanks to this, communication of the customer is carried out continuously on the same domain. It is important, especially in case of the stores with language versions on subdomains. This increases the credibility of the store and the safety of shopping online.

Components in the repository’s main branch

The most important novelty introduced to the software is transferring components to the main repository of the store. Previously, the components were external repositories, which made changes took more time. Along with the new release, component’s code was added to the main repository, thus the whole app is in one place, showing all changes. Another advantage is shorter time needed to built an app. Currently, while downloading an app we have a complete, working store, which is much faster and more efficient.

The new release of Monnari online store

With the change of collection, Monnari unveiled a new design of an online store.

Monnari is one of the most well-known Polish clothing brands. The company is listed on the Stock Exchange in Warsaw. Currently Monnari’s chain of stationary  stores has 146 showrooms located throughout the country. Monnari online store has been operating for over 5 years. At first, the store functioned on Magneto, then on PrestaShop. For over two years it has been operating and developing on i-systems software.

Mobile potential

The work on new version of Monnari store mainly covered mobile side of sales.  New layout of the home page, as well as all subpages, has been designed. All the development and implementation works has been executed according to mobile first rule, to make it easy for target customers to search and buy products on mobile devices.

Sklep-Monnari-w-responsive-web-design

New lookbook

New Monnari store has also a refreshed lookbook. It means that product page consists of photos of high quality, with the models presenting new collections. Each product presented on the photo has its equivalent in online store. This solution can have an impact on many shopping decisions. What is more, new lookbook is more clear and creates an interactive product gallery. Among all the functionalities there are for instance: a possibility to create lookbooks’ categories, a possibility to assign multiple lookbooks to one category, a possibility to add multiple photos to one lookbook, a possibility to determine the date of publication of the lookbook, and the possibility to enter photographer’s data to the lookbook.

From online to offline

Currently Monnari’s chain of stationary stores has 146 showrooms located throughout Poland. Each of them is located in convenient and frequently visited place. Online customers have also a possibility to order directly to the stationary store. During the process of placing an order, customer can choose where it can be delivered.

Salony-stacjonarne-Monnari-na-interaktywnej-mapie-kopia

Brand-new Monnari online store means also less visible changes for users. Works covered among others: an improvement of the way products are put up on auction site (an option of automatic price change), ERP integrator update, and last but not least, dedicated cloud servers optimization.

The new online store can be found here: http://emonnari.pl

i-systems release – version 4.1

Brand new i-systems release has been recently launched. The changelog consists of 38 records, including 11 updates of features such as coupons, remarketing, payments and auctions. The major change introduced in our latest software update has been the migration to the Git revision control system.

Release adjusted to the Git revision control system

All the development works has been executed on the basis of Bazaar revision control system so far. However there were some deficiencies, such as: a kind of archaic solutions, and, the most troublesome, lack of development and adjustment to the changing systems and environment. While creating over a dozen releases during the year, as well as systems of increasing structure, this problem seem to grow bigger with every update of i-systems software. IT team had to create their own solutions in Bazaar very often.

In the long-term perspective it appears to be very ineffective. Therefore all the versions from level 4.1 and upward will function based on Git revision control system. Current release is a key to the transition process, because it identified and solved all the problems and discrepancies between Bazaar and Git. This above mentioned discrepancies concerned among others: adding new scripts, refactoring autoload, and adjusting components to the corresponding location in the project tree.

Why Git?

Revision control system is responsible for tracking changes in files and code. It also enables reestablishment of any previous version during the process of creating eCommerce software. What is more, there is a possibility to compare this versions and find out who implemented those changes, when did it happen, and what are the specific changes implemented. This is a key factor considering system development, and it is very helpful in case of large projects and teams. Git system is a response to challenges that IT teams have to face while working on developed projects. Git is disturbed, fast, it protects against repository errors and eliminates all the CVS errors. Among its specific advantages there are possibilities to:

– track project development from the beginning to the current state; 


– reestablish any previous version; 


– track changes in code in offline mode; 


– maintain every repository as a separate branch, what is very helpful in case of projects with above 900 branches;


– merge changes introduced by different people in different time; 


– build branches, to allow parallel work of several programmers on several solutions without blocking and interfering each other; 


– make the revision control system work faster (easy to notice on large projects); 


– merge from any place in the project to any other place;


– save a complete change view, in opposition to other revision control systems, where only particular changes could have been saved.


Adjusting release to the Git revision control system is a part of long-term development plan of i-systems software.

From continuous delivery…

The vision of the i-systems software development assumes faster growth, as well as more effective adjustment to the market demands and to the dedicated customer demands. Therefore, introducing Git revision control system will allow more effective transition to the continuous delivery model. Continuous delivery is a process of automatic code implementation for the testing environment, where it can be a subject of other tests and where other functionalities can be created, until the desired result is obtained. After a completion of series of tests, the product is being transferred to the “production line”, which means that functionalities tested are being applied into production server.

Of course, despite increased automation, all the decisions are to be made by the team. An intense process of software development has no impact on stability and safety of the projects. Continuous delivery method is being applied in aviation, banking and medical industry. It is assumed that NASA applies this method in case of space probes. Only after passing all the tests and being approved by the team, the software can be used by the customers.

With the automation of the routine tasks and quick feedback, continuous delivery process improves satisfaction level of the programmers as well.

…to continuous integrations

In the long-term perspective all the changes have to result in continuous integration of the i-systems software. Continuous integration is characterized by a systematic addition of current changes in the code to the main repository. A frequency of the changes mentioned can reach the amount of even several times a day. However, the optimal frequency, taking i-systems into the consideration, is smaller. The most important advantages of the continuous integration are: increased efficiency when combining work during projects, the ability to detect any possible errors and constant access to the latest code version. In practice, continuous integration provides a set of tools for the programmers, which compiles code, creates build, performs automatic tests and other static code analysis.

All the changes in the process of software development will be implemented gradually, and will be practically invisible for the i-systems customers – what changes is only an organization of the part of IT team itself.

i-systems release – version 4.0 Black Adder

This year’s next release is already available: it is the first eCommerce system upgrade marked with 4. The number alteration was caused by two factors: a complete change of the administration panel design and the creation of a shop with the Git version control system.
Beginning with version 4.0, every subsequent version is going to have a unique name serving purely informative and identification purposes. The most significant changes in Black Adder are as follows:

Creating a new administration panel design

The administration panel for our customers required renewal. The design and frontend team was entrusted with a task of creating a new panel which would have a simple layout, be functional and comply with i-systems identification spirit. After an analysis of requirements, the design team created project UI, i.e. basic colors, typography, logos, icons and other graphic elements connected with the panel.

UI

The next works concerned the implementation of the new panel. The result is a modern interface with perfected details which puts emphasis on easy handling of the eCommerce system.

Nowy-design1

Adding a call center module

i-systems integrates eCommerce with other sale environments because this is what the market and the customers require. Thus, a call center module has appeared in release 4.0 Black Adder. It is an expanded, advanced module combined with information about customers, products, orders, returns and stocks. It allows for conducting telemarketing from the browser.

Moduł-call-center1

Moreover, the call center module is integrated with the B2B module, a calendar and a flow diagram. The latter enables the user to create a conversation scenario for a given campaign; such a scenario is very useful to people making the conversation and can be created and edited independently in each campaign.

Scenariusz-rozmowy

The call center consultants see conversation stages and click appropriate buttons depending on the course of the conversation, thus making it proceed according to the previously defined scenario.

During the conversation, the consultants can also view the information about the products and their stocks as well as plan subsequent conversations since the module is linked with the calendar. If a given date and time selected by the user is already booked in his/her calendar, the module suggests the next free date and time every 15 minutes.

The call center employee can use the module to check a customer’s purchase history, open a new order form, write a remark in the form, place a marking which shows if an order was generated during the task as well as set the date and time of the next contact.

The module can also record the task time from the moment of opening to saving by the employee as well as verify the list of tasks with an appropriate mode in order to include them on the list of automatic calls at a given number on a specified date and time.

Improvement of basket UX with special consideration for displaying promotional prices and product discounts

We are aware of the importance of the basket in the entire purchase process, so we continuously introduce small corrections which increase its effectiveness. Release 4.0 Black Adder has an improved price display which takes into account additional discounts and rebates. Owing to this change, the basket view is more transparent.

Release i-systems – version 3.46

Another software upgrade has been released. The changelog lists as many as 59 items and is one of the biggest upgrades in the history of i-systems software. Every changelog consist of new features, bug fixes and refactoring. The most interesting changes in release 3.46 include:

Adding a content preview of the order status change notification for the customer

Sales service is related to sending the target customer information about the current status. Now it is enough to click the magnifying glass icon next to the order information to see the content of all messages directly in the panel. This change allows for a quick check of the correspondence with the customer and control of message correctness.

Adding a class for multivariant distribution to separate filters in the advanced product browser

Some products have many variables by which they can be browsed. Shoes from the newbalance.pl shop are an example here: the footwear from individual collections has two variants – standard size and shoe width (a rarer parameter). Thus, the browsed products previously had to fulfill both conditions to be displayed on the list of browsing results. The new class in the PAS (Product Advanced Search) browser allows for distributing both variants to two independent filters. As in the newbalance.pl shop, the customer can now find the New Balance ML574POG shoe model no matter if he/she uses a “size 42.5” or a “D width” filter.

Product-page-view

Adding a task module in the background

Customer teams operating an online shop wish to send information packages comfortably via API to the shipment manager. With several hundred or more orders, such information takes up a lot of space, but API usually requires sending all information via one request. This activity may last longer and thus hinder the work. The task module in the background allows for performing time-consuming operations in the background of the system. No more rotating loaders or white pages while waiting for the target page to open – the operations are now delegated. At the same time, the customer service staff can see the task progress status.

Adding a box module

Personalization of online shopping is currently implemented in many ways. One of them may be offering the target customer the possibility of choosing the packaging. The customer can select a box for the goods in the order basket.
The boxes have a virtual warehouse status, which serves solely informative purposes useful to the shop administrator. The box in the basket is only available for the products which have an appropriate box size ascribed. It has a name, color, size, warehouse status and photo.
The shop staff can see the information about the selected boxes in order details and on generated shipment lists. Box selection is displayed next to every ordered item for which the box has been chosen. There is also a summary at the bottom of the generated document, which includes the number of boxes for the selected configurations of size and color. This minimizes the risk of making a mistake when packing the products.

Adding a shipment plug-in for InPost service

Release 3.46 has also widened the range of courier companies available. InPost courier services are provided in Poland and 18 European countries. Recipients expecting a quick delivery may also choose an option of guaranteed delivery till the noon of the next working day (though one must remember that this service is only available in selected places in Poland). At the beginning, the integration uses the option of payment on collection, but it will be possible to configure other forms of delivery in the future.

Adding the handling of cookies in the affiliate partner module

The affiliate module is aimed at tracking the visits of target customers from the partners with which the shop signed a partnership agreement. Such partners may include blogs, news websites, advertizing networks and other online shops. Each partner is identified individually using a GET parameter. The identification allows for settlement between the partners: if the target customer visits the shop by clicking the partner’s link and makes a purchase, a suitable piece of information will be displayed in the order view in the administrative panel. The added cookie handling function replaces the session-based solution and will measure affiliations better.

Improvement of UX of the purchase process

The release also includes changes immediately visible to the customers. The 3.46 version has improved minor design elements in the order summary. Thus, the content is now displayed better on mobile devices and the phenomenon of abandoning the baskets should decrease.

Adding new authentication methods via REST

The safety of connections is one of the most important issues in eCommerce and the entire IT. The applications are now protected against unauthorized access by REST-handled authentication methods such as SessionCookie, OAuth1 and HTTPAuthBasic.

This is the last series 3 release – the next software upgrade will already be numbered as 4.0. Beside standard updates, it will also refresh the whole administrative panel layout. Stay tuned for the details.