The next CS-Cart release is on its way to make us and our clients happy with a set of new shiny features. And while we are waiting for it to come, I am going to give you a short preview of some of them.
New look-n-feel of the admin panel
Administrator area is an essential part of any online store. We do our best to keep the admin panel in CS-Cart an easy yet powerful tool. And we also want administrating to still be fun for the users.
The new admin area design is aimed to present all store functions in an elegant and smart manner while having a nice stylish look.
All tools are now easily accessible through a multi-level drop-down top menu. In the old navigation one had to click on a tab to see the sections inside and at the same time all sections of the tab were being shown even after the desired one had been entered.
By using the new menu navigation we managed to avoid unnecessary clicks and displaying of the information not needed at the time, which in the end has led to better usability.
The Design and Administration tabs have been moved higher along with the Settings section which had been too big to be a subsection of the Administration tab and has been turned into a full-blooded top-level menu item. Now these three elements logically form the Configuration group.
The redesign also touched the bottom menu, which has been narrowed to free more space for content though obtained two elements migrated from the top – language and currency choosers. They have been moved to give room in the top for more often used items.
Improved search in the admin panel
There is a significant change made to the search in the admin panel.
Currently there are three separate search areas (Order ID, Product code and User) for the user to choose.
We now have extended the number of the areas and also put them together. No need to specify where you want to search — give it a request, it will find everything that fits.
For instance, entering “com” as a search request will return customers having “com” in their names or emails, products containing it in its product code, title or description and all orders having the requested characters in the customer’s name or email.
The search box has taken place on top, with the other often used items.
New payment processors integrated: CardSave Hosted, Rocketgate and Merchant Warrior Express
We already support over 50 payment systems and we are happy to announce that three more payment processors will be available since the next release. Customers will be able to use CardSave Hosted, RocketGate and Merchant Warrior Express besides all the other payment services.
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This post is only the first part of the features overview. The second one is coming very soon, so do not change the channel. You are welcome to suggest what you would like to see in CS-Cart in our CS-Cart Idea Tracker and please be free to share your opinion on the coming features in the comments.
Stay tuned to our blog and Twitter to get the freshest news and announcements and to learn more about CS-Cart at first hand.
Thank you very much team of cs-cart. this what im looking for as development. hopefully for front-page also :)
ready for new generation of cs-cart!!
Thanks a lot!
Nice to know you’re looking forward to seeing the new release :-)
By the way, these are not the only new things, I’m going to review some more features in another post, you’ll probably like them, too :-)
amm,, that’s kind of surpising :P <- feel like a dream get this admin panel
Oops,, btw im the first commenting.. hee..
oh yes, can make save as pdf file for report sales in new version?
Thanks
Haekal,
no, we’re not adding Save as PDF into this release and we actually don’t have such a thing in plans.
But you know it sounds like a nice feature to be added, maybe you should leave us a message in our CS-Cart Idea Tracker (http://cscart.uservoice.com/) so we could have the feature in mind :)
ohh, hope cs-cart create That feature in future – export to. pdf, Because im so Tired to collect month by month for the final report.
um .. wish can do that, but I was again convicted because i do something wrong :( so can not be everywhere, im Glad That i can see new news from blogs.
Thanks
I have added this idea to the Idea Tracker, you can vote for it here: http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/40782-professional/suggestions/1834005-add-save-report-as-pdf-feature
If it gets many votes, there’s a pretty good chance the feature will be included someday :-)
This is simply lovely. I like the redesigned Admin Panel, it looks more elegant with the drop down menu; of course, useability wise, now you can get to a function more easily, with fewer mouse clicks.
The new payment processors look great too!
Thank you Jasmine! We’re doing our best :-)
But, when CS-Cart will launching new features & new design?
I can’t tell you with 100% confidence but alpha and beta test versions are scheduled for release at the beginning of June. The final release date depends on what the clients’ feedback will be :)
When is the new release scheduled?
I’ve already answered the same question above: the first test versions are surely to be out in the beginning June. Then we’ll have to collect the feedbacks and according to those we’ll announce the final release date.
Great news! I like the new design!
What’s the number of this next build? :)
Thank you for all you make for us!
These are indeed great news:)
The number is 2.2.
That’s what I thought!
Hope to test this build :)
Next step, a news about the iPhone feature :p
There will probably be a special post about CS-Cart iPhone app, just have a little patience:)
Still, you can always find fresh information on its very own web-site http://twigmo.com/blog/.
Hi, I am in the proccess of having a Template designed for CS Cart professional with my Website Designer – it seems a shame not to wait for the new release. When you say ‘The final release date depends on what the clients’ feedback will be’ can you be a little more specific? Are we talking in weeks, over a month? This would help me immensely as a lot of work is going into the venture & it is quite a big site.
Thanks in advance.
Hello, Tamara,
it’s going to take several weeks to polish the release. Hopefully, it’ll be completed by the end of June.
So I’d suggest it makes sense to wait for it :-)
Looks good, however the changes only look like a bit of a cosmetic freshenup.. CS-Cart really needs work in the categories, products and orders sections. Interspire has the interface right – Hopefully CS cart can get there.
Thanks for advice, David, we’ll pay attention to these things! Maybe you could tell more about what namely would you like us to improve?
By the way, have you already seen the second part of this preview? :-)
Seems very beautiful, but I think that it’s bad for mobile navigation. I use administration with an htc desire and the new menus appear to be not good for touch navigation. Please try before launch.
This is a very important point. Agree with Enrique.
Thanks for that! We’ll surely pay some extra attention to that issue.
Sorry for I didn’t answer earlier. The point you made is indeed very important, thanks a lot. I’m sure we’ll manage to make the interface good for mobile devices.
Is the design for multivendor also improved? Right now a vendor logging in (usually with limited IT knowledge) easily get confused in the navigation so I hope for improvements here.
Yes, of course all those features will be also available for Multi-Vendor Edition. Actually, every CS-Cart release refreshes the whole product regardless of edition.
Excellent! What about a preview of product images on the order details page? I need this feature.
That sounds useful indeed :-) I’ll add it to the IdeaTracker, if you want. Or you can do it yourself.
This is wonderful… any news on the multi-site functionality.. and are there any new featuresin code and template customization (.e.g a local folder like Magento)?
Hi, Darren!
The Multi-Store Edition is under development you can read more about it here (http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=21752). We’re currently doing the Implementation A. It’ll hopefully be on by the end of summer.
And about that local folder: actually, you don’t have to store local customizations like in Magento, all your settings are stored automatically :-)
I have been running CS-Cart for over year now, and It has been a nightmare trying to get my custom frontend updates to be functional again after every upgrade.
Will the front end templates be getting updated again as well?
Can’t you focus on the admin and cart functions… and leave the skins alone.
I mean specialized jscript and css is hard to bedug when you are changing elements of it with every update. I have used hooks etc.. as much as possible but its mostly your javascript usage that seems to be the issue.
Please develop features that are backend related, and give us the option to integrate to the front end.. not force it on us.
Thanks for advice, we’ll do our best!
I would like to seel Alertpay integration in cs-cart. I hope they will release on next version
Very nice and much better grouped sections. I am looking forward for the new updates, also. Cheers!
The new update is already on, check it out!
Will there be an easier way to view and manage Products With Options? Right now its a bit clunky to see whats left and to increase the inventory count for Products with different sizes and colors for example.
That is in our long-term plans.
Hello,
You guyz should have Facebook Social Shop Application so at our Facebook Page we can easily show featured, new, popular products.
The feature is in our Idea Tracker, vote for it so it has higher priority in the additions list:
http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/40782-professional/suggestions/506141-facebook-store?ref=title
Can we have a field to enter in the COST for each product so that year end we can tally up our closing inventory amount in dollar value and easier to calculate cost/profit for each item?
Hi! I suggest you ask our support about this issue. It is possible to both enter costs for each product and have extended annual reports. Our specialists will gladly help you with these features :-)
I just upgraded my cart to new version . new look of back panel is awesome and new top menu is very useful. 10/10, very nice job.
waiting for eBay integration…
Thanks! The eBay integration is on its way!