Pre-Sales Questions

I am looking to purchase the Business edition of HikaShop, but I need to know if I can do the following:

1) I need users to be restricted to categories. So, for instance, UserA will only be able to see CatA, CatB and CatC. However, UserB will be able to see CatA, CatC and CatD.
2) I need to be able to provide a file upload field during the checkout process. Preferably a field that will allow multiple file uploads.
3) Allow users to add products from the front-end.

Thanks!!
Rick

Hi Rick,

1/ You can restrict categories of products to group of joomla users in the Business edition of HikaShop so you will be able to do that.
2/ You can create custom order fields of the type "file" via the menu Display->Custom fields for that. You can create several fields for that but there is no multi upload for one field.
3/ This is actually not possible in HikaShop.

Hey, thanks for the quick response! That's a good sign!!!

Of the three, only the first two are really critical, so that works. Since #3 is not possible, is there, by any chance, a product upload function?

A product upload ? You mean an import function ?
www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentatio...hikashop-import.html

That's what I meant. Sorry!!! And, thanks again!

And I can buy this with a 30 day money-back guarantee, so there's nothing to lose!

Another access-related question which may seem silly, but I have seen it all too often - do the search plugins respect the category restrictions set for users in #1 above? I cannot have a user who, for example, has access to CatA and CatB see search results at ALL for CatC, etc.

Thanks!!

Yes, no problem.

Is there a Quote feature in the shop?

Yes. In the latest version of the commercial versions of HikaShop, you have the possibility to activate a "contact us" button on product pages in the config under the tab display.

Okay, but can a user build an entire cart and submit that as a quote?

interesting

Well, if you don't need payments handling on your store, you can remove the payment_ view from the checkout workflow options and change a bit the texts so that orders are assimilated to cart quote requests.
But if you need both cart quotes and normal checkout on your shop, then, that's not possible.

Right now, I do not need payment processing. Everything from this store will come though solely for quoting purposes. I appreciate greatly the fact that you provided me with a solution, even though I have not yet purchased your extension!!!

I have decided that HikaShop will handle my needs. I just need to get approval for the purchase and then I will buy!

BTW - you may want to look into adding a quoting system in the future. I had looked into redShop, which includes that feature, as do many of the other players in this market. In the end, though, your extension does 99% of what I need and that's enough for me!!

Rick

Yes, we'll look into that in the future.

I lied - one more question...

The store I am setting up will be used as a B2B site with our customers for the ordering of printed marketing material. The "products" will be thousands of supplier-provided images relating to their product lines. My clients (distributors) will be able to browse through and pick out the supplier images they want used on their printed material. Ideally what I would like to do is to have my client pick out a printed product type - say a 6"x8" postcard. This item would allow for one image on the front and two on the back. I would like to know if there was some way to set up dependencies, whether in the cart itself or in the product, which would make sure the user chooses three images. Does that make sense?

I know this is probably a pipe dream, but I have to ask!!

Thanks!
Rick

There is no option for that directly in hikashop. However, you can edit the code of the views in the checkout and add a few lines for that:
edit the file cart of the view checkout and something like this ( you need to write the code //check related products and set the variable $not_ok ) :

foreach($this->rows as $product){
if(empty($row->cart_product_quantity)) continue;

//check related products and set the variable $not_ok

if($not_ok){
$app =& JFactory::getApplication();
$app->enqueueMessage('You do not have enough images for your post cards...','error');
$this->nextButton = false;
}

}

Well, I just purchased the Business Edition, only to find out I misread your response to my initial questions. Your shop can restrict access to users based on Joomla category, not based on groups internal to HikaShop. That make s TREMENDOUS difference, as I cannot use the Joomla groups. I am still in J1.5, so I cannot add/change this!!! Unless you have an alternative, I may already have to get a refund!!!!

On joomla 1.5, you can use the extension DJF ACL extensions.joomla.org/extensions/access-...access-control/13050 to manage your joomla user groups.

Yeah, I thought about an ACL extension, but most of them hack core files, and I do not want to have to screw with it every time Joomla updates. HikaShop will run native on J1.6, correct? And it utilizes the ACL features included? If so, perhaps I will just move on up to that!

Yes, you also have the option to use joomla 1.6. HikaShop is totally compatible with it and the access level feature also works on joomla 1.6

And I use the same installer, correct?