[Qetzal]

Hi all,

New Ecwid version has been released. More details are in this blog post: http://www.ecwid.com/blog/ecwid-news...

It introduces some important changes, like API or paid accounts. So I am sure that you have some questions about these new features. Please ask them in this thread.

The resources worth reading:

1. About paid accoutns.
Compare plans: http://www.ecwid.com/compare-plans.html
Billing questions: http://kb.ecwid.com/Billing-questions


2. About API
- http://kb.ecwid.com/API
- http://kb.ecwid.com/Product-API#ProductAPI

3. "Better SEO"
- http://kb.ecwid.com/SEO
- http://kb.ecwid.com/Inline-SEO-Catalog

4. Facebook application
- http://kb.ecwid.com/Facebook#UsingourFacebookApp


Some comments:
- As we have said earlier free version will be always available. Forever free.

- as you may have noticed, the free version allows you to have 100 products only. This limit isn't applied to our early adopters with the existing stores. We appreciate your support and remember our promises. Moreover the limit for paid accounts and early adopters has been increased up to 20,000 products.

- Also you may have noticed that custom subdomain on your URL of mobile catalog is a paid feature now. Again, this change is applied to the new subdomains only. I.e. if you have already set up your mobile catalog on your URL, it will keep working even if you use the free version. I think it's fair.

Questions?

[Mark A Chapman]

Now we have version 4.0 released.

Whilst I am generally in favor of updates, up to now there have been very few, if any problems. However this time I now discover that quite a lot of css changes have been made which are overriding my own changes so my site is now messed up. Plus we now have a `Continue Shopping` button which is in the house style where as I, and I am sure many others, have custom buttons.

So now I will have to take my site down whilst I spend yet more time making adjustments.

Can we please have advance warning of release dates and any changes that will be implemented and what we can expect to happen when an update is made.

Eugene`s post this morning with the information seems to have dissapeared - any reason why?

[Qetzal]

Originally Posted by Mark Chapman

Now we have version 4.0 released.

Whilst I am generally in favor of updates, up to now there have been very few, if any problems. However this time I now discover that quite a lot of css changes have been made which are overriding my own changes so my site is now messed up. Plus we now have a `Continue Shopping` button which is in the house style where as I, and I am sure many others, have custom buttons.

So now I will have to take my site down whilst I spend yet more time making adjustments.

Can we please have advance warning of release dates and any changes that will be implemented and what we can expect to happen when an update is made.

Eugene`s post this morning with the information seems to have dissapeared - any reason why?

Mark, I totally understand your feelings and agree that this is a problem. You're right here: new features shouldn't bring new problems.

This release was a kinda rush one, because it was tied to the The Next Web conference and that's also why we didn't publish a public beta of the new version: we had to keep all the new changes in a secret.

This situation is definitely not good and it's our fault. I'm very sorry for this situation.


= How to fix the existing issues. =

1. In order to hide the new big "Continue Shopping" button, apply this CSS code to your CSS theme:

div.ecwid-productBrowser-backgroundedPanel div.ecwid-ContinueShoppingButton {
  display:none;
}

2. CSS changes.
Old Ecwid versions had issues, when site's CSS styles affected Ecwid appearance and store didn't look good. In the new version Ecwid's CSS theme always has a higher priority than the site's general CSS. It's a good thing, now Ecwid looks as it should on any site! However this change may cause an issue, if for example you didn't add your custom CSS rules to your Ecwid theme (as recommended), but added them to your site directly.

In order to return the old behavior, add this line of code BEFORE any Ecwid integration code:

<script>var ecwid_nocssrewrite = true;</script>

If it doesn't help, send me the link to your store. I will check it and help you to solve the issues.


= Next updates =

We really don't want such an issue to appear again. Really. Ecwid should have as smooth upgrades as possible and we will do our best to achieve it.

So, what we will do:

- we will announce the date of the new major release two-three days before it. It will be announced on our forums and Twitter. So you will be prepared for it.

- We will publish a public beta before the release, so everybody will be able to test it. As usual we will post a link to it on our forums.

- If changes affect the storefront appearance, we will also post the information about it before the release.

Any additions or suggestions?

P.S. I`m moving your message and my reply to the initial v4 thread.
Here is the link to my post about v4: http://www.ecwid.com/forums/showthre...

[Zamy Z]

Hi, and thanks for v4. Some new cool stuff there

I have a question: would it be possible to split those $17 between individual paid features?

What I'm thinking is a dynamic "Subscribe" button that will take the amount from the form, based on whatever features the user ticks off. For example, I don't worry about SEO or 20,000 products, CDN for pics, or affiliate features.

Of course, this might make it complicated since you have to implement kill switches for each feature in part...

The only reason I'm asking this is because $17/mo is like paying for another hosting package, and while it's not a lot for businesses (it's dirt cheap if you have a business and you sell products that bring income), it's a lot for non-profit organizations.

Thanks,
Z

[Mark A Chapman]

Thanks for the reply Eugene.

I have been looking at some of these changes and I figured out how to remove the `Continue Shopping` button - not that I don't like it but I was not ready for it and when I have the time will make a custom sprite and re-add it.

All my pages are seperate with quite a number of things removed. One problem I have is on the product page where I have the category name. Previously I setup the pages so that firefox and IE had different css padding using the html>body tag but this hack does not seem to work now and I have a misalignment in IE.

Another change is that the `Qty` and `Subtotal` text in the shopping basket is now above the values. It is less cluttered like this but I think they need moving down the page nearer to the actual amounts.

You also made changes to the add to bag, checkout and place order buttons by adding IE6 hacks. Thats OK but without my adding the extra css line to my main theme my custom buttons would not show in Internet Explorer - something that everybody may need to be aware of.

At some point from version 3.0 onwards all the products in my list view and in the basket view are underlined and I cannot seem to remove this.

The code you have posted

<script>var ecwid_nocssrewrite = true;</script>

does it ignore all the updates and behave as if it were v3.4. Because I am using seperate pages will I need to add this to everypage?

[Qetzal]

Originally Posted by Zamy Z

Hi, and thanks for v4. Some new cool stuff there

I have a question: would it be possible to split those $17 between individual paid features?

It isn't possible yet, but we will consider your idea, thank you.

Originally Posted by Mark Chapman

Thanks for the reply Eugene.

I have been looking at some of these changes and I figured out how to remove the `Continue Shopping` button - not that I don't like it but I was not ready for it and when I have the time will make a custom sprite and re-add it.

All my pages are seperate with quite a number of things removed. One problem I have is on the product page where I have the category name. Previously I setup the pages so that firefox and IE had different css padding using the html>body tag but this hack does not seem to work now and I have a misalignment in IE.

Another change is that the `Qty` and `Subtotal` text in the shopping basket is now above the values. It is less cluttered like this but I think they need moving down the page nearer to the actual amounts.

You also made changes to the add to bag, checkout and place order buttons by adding IE6 hacks. Thats OK but without my adding the extra css line to my main theme my custom buttons would not show in Internet Explorer - something that everybody may need to be aware of.

At some point from version 3.0 onwards all the products in my list view and in the basket view are underlined and I cannot seem to remove this.

The code you have posted

<script>var ecwid_nocssrewrite = true;</script>

does it ignore all the updates and behave as if it were v3.4. Because I am using seperate pages will I need to add this to everypage?

Mark,

- If you add this code, Ecwid will not enable the feature that allows Ecwid themes to be affected by site's CSS rules.
- Do you use static HTML files or any CMS?

[Mark A Chapman]

Eugene

You wrote "If you add this code, Ecwid will not enable the feature that allows Ecwid themes to be affected by site's CSS rules." - can you explain?

Also "Do you use static HTML files or any CMS?" - I am using static HTML.

I am also concerned about SEO as in previous posts you have stated that Ecwid is SEO friendly but now you are using a paid for update which makes Ecwid SEO friendly. So which one is correct? Is the free version not as good at SEO as was originally stated?

[Qetzal]

Originally Posted by Mark Chapman

Eugene

You wrote "If you add this code, Ecwid will not enable the feature that allows Ecwid themes to be affected by site's CSS rules." - can you explain?

Also "Do you use static HTML files or any CMS?" - I am using static HTML.

I am also concerned about SEO as in previous posts you have stated that Ecwid is SEO friendly but now you are using a paid for update which makes Ecwid SEO friendly. So which one is correct? Is the free version not as good at SEO as was originally stated?

1. Now when Ecwid includes your CSS theme, it adds a special prefix to all Ecwid's CSS classes.
So if you have this code:

div.some_ecwid_class {
}

The following code will be included:

html#ecwid_html body#ecwid_html div.some_ecwid_class {
}

Because of this prefix this rule gets higher priority than any site's usual CSS style. So site's CSS doesn't affect Ecwid anymore.

The "var ecwid_nocssrewrite = true" code will disable this behavior.

2. In this case maybe some tool for automatic search-n-replace will help?
For example replace all <body> tags with <body><script>var ecwid_nocssrewrite = true;</script>

3. There are three ways to get your Ecwid store indexed by search engines. They are desribed in this article: http://kb.ecwid.com/SEO

The "Inline Seo catalog" option allows to automate some processes. If you use static HTML pages for your products & categories, you don't need this feature.

[knblawson]

Eugene,

You have been extremely helpful thus far in creating my store (thank you) and I am very excited to have helped out in the beta process by being an early adopter. You guys truly have a superior product! I do have one concern about the new release. You stated that all the free features will remain free and v4/changing to the paid features will only ADD to what is already free, however the "Promotions/Coupons" are now a paid feature. As early adopters you have allowed us to keep our mobile sites and have over the 100 free products, but now all my coupons are disabled. Any chance you guys could consider unlocking the coupons (which are included on almost all free shopping cart software) for us early adopters? It seems like such a basic feature that you guys would want to include for everyone (or at least us who already use it). Thanks for your consideration.

Brad

[Qetzal]

Originally Posted by knblawson

Eugene,

You have been extremely helpful thus far in creating my store (thank you) and I am very excited to have helped out in the beta process by being an early adopter. You guys truly have a superior product! I do have one concern about the new release. You stated that all the free features will remain free and v4/changing to the paid features will only ADD to what is already free, however the "Promotions/Coupons" are now a paid feature. As early adopters you have allowed us to keep our mobile sites and have over the 100 free products, but now all my coupons are disabled. Any chance you guys could consider unlocking the coupons (which are included on almost all free shopping cart software) for us early adopters? It seems like such a basic feature that you guys would want to include for everyone (or at least us who already use it). Thanks for your consideration.

Brad

Brad,

Discount coupons were initially designed as a feature for paid accounts. As soon as it was added, the noticeable special note with icon was placed to the "Promotion" page. It stated that:

- this feature is for paid accounts
- it available for all temporarily only I.e. it will be disabled for free accounts in the future.

So we don't consider coupons an initially free feature.

Anyway thank you for your suggestion. We consider all our user's suggestions.