We’ve upgraded all stores to SolidShops version 1.4.1

In this first update of 2012, we have made a couple of improvements for you. First of all, our template language is now more consistent by following a specific coding convention. This will make it easier for all of you who are using the language to build  flexible designs for your clients by providing a consistent way to code up themes.

We’ve decided to make small adjustments to the syntax of some of the variables and methods used in the template language. These changes will apply to our API later down the road as well, so that you will always have one clear way of coding things on SolidShops.

The following is a list of changes that have been made. Of course we’ve also updated our documentation, as well as all store templates, email templates and invoice templates where necessary.

Changes to the template language

  • old: stripwhitespace / new: strip_whitespace
  • old: striptags / new: strip_tags
  • old: charlimit / new: char_limit
  • old: random / new: random_number
  • old: orderby / new: order
  • old: shopname / new: shop_name
  • old: shopurl / new: shop_url
  • old: assetsurl / new: assets_url
  • old: productscount / new: products_count
  • old: firsturl / new: first_url
  • old: previousurl / new: previous_url
  • old: lasturl / new: last_url
  • old: currenturl / new: current_url
  • old: nexturl / new: next_url
  • old: taxpercentage / new: tax_percentage
  • old: taxsetting / new: tax_setting
  • old: trackstock / new: track_stock
  • old: alwaysavailable / new: always_available
  • old: parentid / new: parent_id
  • old: paymenttext / new: payment_text
  • old: productid / new: product_id
  • old: taxpercentage / new: tax_percentage
  • old: firstname / new: first_name
  • old: lastname / new: last_name
  • old: postalcode / new: postal_code
  • old: countrycode / new: country_code
  • old: datemodified / new: date_modified
  • old: trackstock / new: track_stock
  • old: thumb / new: thumbnail

In short, the most important change here is that we are consistently using underscores in our variables and filters whenever a new word starts.

Additional image formats

When you upload a product image, we now generate three different versions of that image:

  • .thumbnail (this is the cropped thumbnail with a height of 200 pixels and a width of 200 pixels
  • .full (the original image, compressed and optimized for faster loading, recommended in most cases)
  • .original (the original image, uncompressed in full quality)

Other updates and improvements

The following improvements have also been made to the SolidShops application.

  • CSV export of orders now includes all details like name, address (thanks David)
  • linking Facebook stores can now be done without navigating away from your store backend
  • you can now sort products by stock in your store backend
  • theme name is added to the browser tab’s title for easier editing (thanks Pascal)
  • new payment method: “pick up in store without charging shipping costs” (thanks Jill)
  • you can now show “related products” in your store based on product tags (thanks Peter)
  • sometimes, thumbnails would be 199 pixels high instead of 200 pixels. This has been fixed (thanks Samir)