Version 3.0.0 Beta 2
Version 3.0.0 Beta 2 is now available for all beta testers on our Downloads page. Please provide feedback in this forum section.
There have been a lot of changes since Beta 1. Beta 2 is a "Pro" version including all modules.
What's New Since Beta 1
Here are some of the major changes since the last beta that I can remember at the moment:
1. Rich Text Editor module has been discontinued in favor of a cross browser compatible rich text editor (FCKEditor). It's built into all versions of Squirrelcart, and is no longer considered a module.
2. We incorporated our image browser into the new rich text editor, and added some improvements. When you click the image button in the new editor, it will open Squirrelcart's image browser. The results are now paginated, and you can sort them. You can also upload new files on the fly, and create folders. After selecting an image, it is placed in the editor field.
3. When you add an image to a rich text editor field, upon saving that record, the URL pointing to your images folder is replaced automatically with a constant:
Code:
<img src="SC_IMG_DIR_DYN/products/some_image.jpg" alt="" />
When that image is sent to your customer's browser in the storefront, that constant is automatically replaced with the appropriate URL:
Code:
<img src="http://www.example.com/sc_images/products/some_image.jpg" alt="" />
That feature has 2 benefits. It keeps your image tags working even if you change your store's URL. It also will swap between "http://" and "https://" based on how the current page was requested.
4. The tooltip feature (which uses UniTip) is now configured properly with settings that can be fine tuned per product, category, etc...
5. We've added built in Slimbox support for displaying larger product images. Slimbox is a lightweight clone of Lightbox 2.
6. The default stylesheet has chagned from store.css.php to style_main.css.php.
7. Themes can now have variants (2 different types). If you design a theme and then want to make minor color changes available you can do so by creating a primary variant stylesheet file in that theme's folder. They are named like style_variant1_blue.css.php. That stylesheet is included after style_main.css.php, and has the sole purpose of changing the colors of the theme to blue. The theme choice for that variant then shows up as "theme name.blue" in the theme selection field.
Primary theme variants can optionally also provide different versions of theme images. To make that work, you just create a folder in the theme's folder named images_variant_name. For example, if you want to offer some different images for a theme named superduper , for it's green variant, you would put those alternate images in squirrelcart/themes/superduper/images_green. They are automatically used if present. If not present, images in squirrelcart/themes/superduper/images are used instead.
Secondary variants can also be added. These can be used for anything, but we recommend you use them to control the overall width of the page. If you want to offer the above mentioned theme in 2 different widths, you can do so by creating 2 theme variants - one for each width:
style_variant2_800.css.php
style_variant2_1024.css.php
With those stylesheets in place, the theme choices become:
theme name.blue.800
theme name.blue.1024
8. Theme settings in the control panel have changed significantly. Navigation records under Settings > Themes > Navigation are now gone. Those records used to define Left Navigation and Right Navigation. Those settings were storewide, and couldn't be controlled on a per theme basis. You will now find fields on the theme records themselves to control your navigation. That will allow you to create a theme that has completely different navigation blocks from another one.
9. In the same fashion as the item listed above, we've created new Content records. They control the content areas seen in the center of the store's homepage. These Content boxes can be customized on a per theme basis, and edited with the new rich text editor. It is now very easy to add a new content box in that area without knowing HTML.
10. If you are a developer, you can add fields to collect additional theme specific data to your theme records. We support (5) each of: text, HTML (uses the rich text editor if enabled), checkbox, radio buttons, and select inputs. You can control which ones appear, what their labels are, and what the available choices will be (for select and radio buttons). Those variables are then made available to the theme's stylesheet and templates via PHP - in a variable named $SC['theme_config']. That will allow you to put custom content wherever you like in any template or stylesheet.
11. When you save a theme in the control panel, an XML config file is saved in it's folder - config.xml.php. It contains everything necessary to install that theme on another Squirrelcart installation, including all data for any navigation blocks and content records that are assigned to it. To install the theme in another Squirrelcart installation, you copy it's folder into that installation. You then click "Check for New Themes", which will read in the config file (if present). That will create the theme's record, along with all associated navigation blocks and content records that are not already present in the installation.
12. The default theme in Squirrelcart has not been changed significantly, but now comes in 3 widths variants: 1024, 800, and fluid. It also comes with several different color variations. We will now be working on some new themes for sale, and possibly one more available for free. There should be at least one theme (with a few variants) available for sale with the release of v3.0.0.
13. Navigation blocks and Content now contain [edit] links in their headers when you are logged in as store admin, so you can easily edit them without having to first locate them in the control panel.
I'm sure there are some other changes that I can't think of at the moment. I'll be going through my list of changes and explaining them in more detail when the final release is out.
Originally Posted by beeline
