Hello!
We have released CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.9.1. This is a minor release, so its main purpose is to introduce new functionality without affecting backward compatibility. The full list of changes is available in the changelog; this article will cover the most important changes.
The list of products has been reworked. See for yourself how it works on our demo. The first thing you’ll notice is that checkboxes next to products are gone—just click anywhere on the product, and you’ll select it. Multiple products can be selected and unselected by holding the Shift button on your keyboard (just like you do it with files and folders on the desktop).
Once the necessary products are selected, a menu will appear above them. That menu will allow you to perform various actions:
A new add-on called Back-End Sign-In via Google allows you to replace the standard sign-in mechanism (login+password) with authentication via Google. The drawback is that all your admins will need Google email addresses associated with their accounts. If you aren’t opposed to that, here’s how the add-on will benefit your store:
Please note that in Multi-Vendor this add-on applies only to the marketplace administrators and doesn’t affect vendors’ administrators in any way.
Ever since the vendor plans were added, they didn’t support a flat transaction fee. A marketplace could claim a sum X% from each order (X depended on the vendor plan). Starting with Multi-Vendor 4.9.1, this is no longer the case. You can now take X%, $Y or (X% + $Y) from each order, depending on the vendor plan. See the examples in the screenshot below:
Many people asked us how to modify the form that potential vendors have to fill in when they apply for vendor status. Previously it required technical skills: you had to find the right .tpl file and modify the code to add or remove the fields. That is no longer the case.
The Administration → Profile fields page now allows you to switch to Vendor information. This is where you’ll be able to add, edit, and remove the fields that appear on the vendor registration form. Just like with profile fields, you can make some of the fields required.
The terms and conditions that vendors must accept are now also a profile field. That’s why the Applying vendors must agree with the terms and conditions setting has been removed from Settings → Vendors.
CS-Cart allows you to have multiple storefronts. Previously, the list of storefronts wasn’t very informative: you could just see what storefronts there were. There wasn’t any indication if the storefront was open or closed. To close a storefront, you had to go to Settings → General, select the storefront in the top left corner of the page and tick the Close storefront checkbox.
In CS-Cart 4.9.1 we have improved the list of storefronts (try it on our demo): now you clearly see which of the storefronts are open and closed; you can also open or close a storefront with one click. If you go to the editing page for each storefront, you’ll find out how to access the storefront even if it is closed.
The upgrades to version 4.9.1 are already available in your Upgrade Center. As usual, for the first few days we limit the number of available upgrades and offer them on the first-come, first-served basis. If you don’t see an upgrade in your Upgrade Center, please try again later or in a few days.
Please note that because CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.9.1 work only on PHP 5.6 and newer versions, you’ll be able to start the upgrade only if you have a PHP version supported by 4.9.1.