This critical code update delivers highly requested features and important bug fixes, while also preparing our platform for the upcoming Drupal 11 upgrade. Here's a preview of what's included:
New Features
POS Stock and Website Stock: We're introducing "Website Stock" for managing inventory of non-book items online, similar to the "Stock" feature from the legacy 1.0 platform. This new option allows you to manage website-specific stock, differing from "POS Stock" (formerly "Local Store Inventory" or "LSI"). POS Stock is primarily used for books to synchronize in-store inventory with the website, but can also be used for non-book items.
Stores can now enable both POS Stock and/or Website Stock for non-book items. The primary selection is made under Fulfillment Settings (Dashboard > Commerce > Fulfillment Settings), with more granular control available at the product level. Please verify your selections by checking a few products on your site.
POS Stock (previously LSI)
- No functional changes in this release.
- Can be uploaded multiple times a day via FTP, Above The Treeline, or manual upload.
- Applicable to books and non-book items (e.g., store merchandise, non-shippable merchandise, services, book variations).
- Product availability on the website is determined by the uploaded LSI file and associated configurations.
- On-hand numbers are updated from the uploaded file and are not decremented as orders are placed.
Website Stock (New in this release)
- Exclusively for non-book items (e.g., store merchandise, non-shippable merchandise, services, book variations); not an option for books.
- Allows setting an on-hand stock number and a notification threshold for stores.
- On-hand stock numbers automatically decrement as orders are placed.
- When stock reaches zero, the product is marked "Out of Stock" (customizable message) and cannot be purchased.
- An email notification is sent to store staff when stock drops below a predefined threshold (thresholds can vary per product).
- Bulk upload is not currently available.
Book Variations with Additional Preferences: We've enhanced Book Variations by incorporating an important property from Service into it. This improvement facilitates use cases like School Visit Books and Author Signings by allowing the inclusion of preference fields in a signed book variation.
Feature Updates:
Order Confirmation Email to Store Admins: The order confirmation email for store staff has a slightly modified template:
- The order number now links directly to the order page on the website.
- The "Thank You" message has been removed.
- If the LSI file includes the store section for the book, it will now be included in the email.
Stores can disable these confirmation emails for store admins if preferred.
Editing Migrated Orders: Migrated orders can now be edited to some extent, streamlining processing and completion for stores. You can add or remove order tags, modify shipping addresses, and add shipping tracking numbers.
Bug Fixes:
Inventory and Order Management
- Accurate LSI Stock Display: Books reported in stock by LSI files will now display the correct availability message. This resolves previous issues where LSI books incorrectly showed "out of stock," and stock information was inaccurate in the Pick List and Stock table.
- Checkout: An issue resulting in missing order numbers during checkout has been addressed.
User Experience and Data Management
- Truncated Book Descriptions: Book descriptions on the search results page are now truncated to 300 characters. Truncation will not affect search results if it occurs mid-tag (e.g., `<pr>` or `<b>`).
- Improved Customer Email Validation: Validation for customer emails has been enhanced.
- Custom Sales Summary Report Accuracy: The Custom Sales Summary Report will now return accurate results when filtered daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Performance and Stability
- LSI File Uploads: Improved the reliability of manual upload of LSI files.
- User Account Bulk Uploads: Bulk upload of user accounts will now complete without timing out.
- Removed Double Spacing: Double spacing has been removed from Site Alerts and Announcements.