Category: All HC Users

It’s done! We’re upgraded. It was really that easy. I am shocked!! Sorry for all the emails today. I really anticipated that this would be much more complicated than it was. Please let me know if anything acts / looks weird in the next few days.

OK — I submitted the upgrade request. I am hoping this goes as smoothly as possible. If we are down for more than a day, I will bump out everyone’s paid date by the amount of downtime. I just backed up the database one last time, so changes up until a few minutes ago are saved.

I’ve put this off as long as possible, but it’s time to upgrade my hosting package to accomodate HC’s growth. I have hesitated on doing this because while I’m happy with my host overall, I’ve heard some scary stories about difficulties when upgrading. Most likely, we’ll have some downtime, but I won’t know when or how long it will be. I haven’t put the request in yet, but will probably do so in the next few days. I’ll let you know if I find out more info on what exactly will happen during the upgrade. Most likely, the HC database will be deleted. I’ll be backing it up (as I always do), every evening. That does mean, though, that if you add some items or have a sale go through between backups, this information might be lost. I’m apologizing ahead of time for this. The other alternative is to shut down HC now, until I know for sure the upgrade has gone through, but I don’t want to do that because I don’t know if it will be a day or a week between my request and the actual upgrade. If anyone has any suggestions or requests to make this smoother, please let me know. Like I said, I haven’t put the request in yet, so anything you add / change in the database today will be backed up. I emailed my host and asked how long it would take, but as expected, I haven’t heard back. I will let you all know exactly when I request the upgrade so you can know not to plan any huge stockings in those next few days.

Thanks everyone for your understanding. I’m hoping this upgrade will fix the dropped email problems, and the increased storage space will make it possible for me to host your images directly on the HC server. I’ll be working on that code next week. The charge will be an extra $2.50 per month, if you’re interested (it will be optional).

I changed the code so that your vendor pages all have a white
background rather than whatever you have it set as in your store. As
everyone gets into customizing their stores, some people were starting
to have trouble reading the text on the stocking pages. Hope this
works out for everyone. Let me know if you notice any weird issues
related to the change.

More things are coming, I just have to find the time to get to them (I
know you all know how that is 😉 ).

Enter your vote today! A new poll has been created for the
hyenacart group:

Would you pay extra (about $2.50 / month) to be able to
upload your product photos directly onto the HC server? This
would make stocking much easier as the thumbnail could be
automatically re-sized for you, and you could browse your
hard-drive for the photos rather than uploading them
separately. Thanks!

o Yes
o No

To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hyenacart/surveys?id=2000189

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

At the urging of several people, I’ve coded a script that will
automatically update your paid date after you pay. It seems to be
working pretty well, but Paypal is inconsistent with how their end
works, so if you pay, and don’t see your paid date reflected within a
few minutes, feel free to drop me a line and let me know. Also, since
it’s totally automatic now, if your paid date is overdue, you’ll get
exactly 31 days from the moment you pay (not noon that day as it was
before). If your paid date is up-to-date, you’ll get 31 days from your
current paid date.

Please use the Paypal button on your vendor pages to make your monthly
payments. Otherwise you’ll need to wait until I get to my computer and
update you manually.

Although there are separate submit buttons under future, current, and
past items, they all apply changes made to all three tables. I just
put multiple buttons in there so you didn’t have to scroll to much to
find one.

Finally! I’ve had this one on my list forever and I’m hoping it will
really make your lives easier. You’ll see a new link in your vendor
footer called “Multi-edit.” It allows you to edit / delete multiple
items simultaneously. Please let me know if you notice any bugs with
it.

Some of you have noticed that I’ve added a ‘contact me’ link on your
store pages. I did this because I’ve been getting emails from
customers who are unable to find contact info anywhere on HC stores.
I’ve just added the option to customize this link with a graphic
(you’ll see it on your ‘edit profile’ link in the optional
customizations section. Also, if you want to eliminate it entirely,
there are instructions on your profile page to do that as well. As a
courtesy to your customers, please ensure that you have your contact
info listed somewhere in your store.

Thanks 🙂

Karen

PS ~ if you’re working with a web designer, please let them know that
they’re free to join this Yahoo group to get updates on new features,
etc. Thanks!

I think I’ve finally got the discount codes option working correctly.
You can define codes from your vendor pages (Discount Codes link) by $
amount, percentage, or free shipping. The customer enters the code on
their payment page. I’ve also moved the comments box to the payment
page as well, and am considering moving the shipping options there in
the future. I think it’s self-explanatory, but if you have questions,
or it’s acting buggy, please let me know.

Also, if you have used a designer to help customize your store, and
his/her business is not listed on this page:
http://hyenacart.com/customizing.php . please let me know.

The congo coding is nearly 100% complete. Please let me know if you’d
like to start setting one up. I’ve written in a lot of flexibility and
you should be able to make it look exactly the way you want. Pricing
will be $25/month. Here’s a Test Congo:
http://hyenacart.com/Test_congo/ to give you an idea how it looks.
Features include individual vendor logins, separated store listings,
and an automatically generated ‘about us’ page.

Finally, I’ve had a few people ask me about sales tax. I don’t plan on
including this in HC, but you can set sales tax in your Paypal
preferences. It will automatically be added in when the customer
checks out.

Thanks everyone for using HC 🙂