Bluegenegeek

Code is also available on Github here .You can read more about the widget from Steve Miller's post on sitefinity.com here

Venkata

Sitefinity 4.4 has been released today. I am really excited about Module Builder. The release also introduces product variations for the Ecommerce module and a ton of bug fixes.

Check it out at http://www.sitefinity.com/devnet/forums/sitefinity-4-x/general-discussions/sitefinity-4-4-released.aspx

Venkata

In my previous post I explained how to use Disqus in a development environment.

In this post I will talk about how to use Disqus comments in Sitefinity Blogs.

Getting started with Disqus is pretty simple, go to Disqus.com and signup, all you need is to provide Site information (site where you will use Disqus comments) and your moderator information. 

Now navigate to Disqus developers section where you will find an universal code that you can embed. Copy that code and paste it into a user control in your Sitefinity Web Application. 

Below is how how your user control will look like - 

You would need to change "disqus_shortname" to your disqus short name. This is how your control setup will look like - 

Now navigate to Sitefinity's backend and go to Design-> Widget Templates and look for "Full Blog Post Item" template and edit the template. 

At the top of the Widget Template add the below lines to register your Disqus Comments control. 

Now scroll to the end of the template where you will find a section where Sitefinity's default Comments controls can be found. Below image will show you where they are -

replace these controls with the disqus comments control that has been registered above, below is how it would look like -  

Reload your comments page and you should now see Disqus comments as your comments system in Sitefinity Blog Post.

To download a sample of code used in this post Click here and if you want to see a running sample, well if you are reading this post, this is a running sample :) 

Hope this helps

Cheers

Venkata

Sitefinity 4.3 has been released. Lots of new features and huge number of bug fixes.

I am really excited about a lot of new features in Ecommerce, to read more head to release notes here

 Cheers

Venkata

The Sitefinity’s 4.2 Release, brings a new module to the picture ECommerce.

This post walks you through how to setup a store and all the steps that are required in the process.

First let’s talk about the feature set of the eCommerce module -

Features

The initial release of eCommerce lets you –

Backend Features

1.       Manage Products
2.       Manage Product Types
3.       Manage Departments
4.       Manage Customers 
5.       Manage Orders
6.       Manage Shipping Methods
7.       Manage Discounts and Sale Prices
8.       Manage Payment Methods
9.       Manage Taxes

10.   Reports

 

Frontend Features

1.       Showing Product List with Sale / VAT Price
2.       Product Detail page with configurable routing
3.       Shopping Cart page
4.       Checkout page with Anonymous login
5.       My Orders page which lets the users see the orders they placed

6.       Invoice page which shows the invoice of the purchased order

To get started with the eCommerce module, a merchant will need
1.       Pages (that shows various eCommerce controls)
2.       Basic, Shipping and SMTP settings
3.       Payment Method

Let us talk about each of them in detail –

Pages required by eCommerce

Any basic store will need the following pages to be created in Sitefinity pages section –

1.       Product List Page: The page that lists the available products in the store.
2.       Shopping Cart Page: The page that shows the shopping cart control and lets the users checkout.
3.       Checkout Page: The page that accepts user’s credit card information and performs checkout.
4.       Confirmation Page: The page that the user will get redirected to after placing an order.

Settings required by eCommerce

The following settings are required by the eCommerce module to work correctly –

1.       Basic eCommerce Settings (under Sitefinity/Administration/Settings/Advanced/Ecommerce)

a.       Default Currency

b.      Shipping From Country

c.       Shipping From Zip

d.      Merchant Email

2.       Shipping Settings (under Sitefinity/Administration/Settings/Advanced/Shipping)

a.       Shipping Carrier Provider

3.       SMTP Settings (under Sitefinity/Administration/Settings/Advanced/System/SMTP (Email Settings))

a.       Settings for sending out email

Payment Method

Every Ecommerce system requires payments methods to be setup to process payments. The Ecommerce module will support two different Payment Processors by default

1.       Authorize .net

a.       Authorize .net by default needs URL, Login Id and transaction key.

2.       PayPal PayFlowPro

a.       Thee PayPal PayFlow Pro by default needs URL, Username, Password, Vendor and Partner information. You can signup for a PayPal PayFlowPro account here

Widgets

 

1.       Product List: This widget shows a list of products that are available in the store.
2.       Buy Now: Useful when the merchant wants to show a single product buy now option
3.       Shopping cart Summary:  This widget shows the summary of the users shopping cart (Number of items in the cart and subtotal information)
4.       Shopping cart: This widget shows the shopping cart of the uses and lets the user checkout or continue shopping.
5.       Checkout: This widget shows the Checkout (Order related) form and lets the user to place the Order.
6.       Order list: This widget shows list of orders place for the online store.
7.       Order invoice: This widget shows the invoice of a particular Order

I will be posting more in detail regarding each widget and how to use the other parts of the Sitefinity Ecommerce system soon.

Stay tuned!

Cheers

Venkata