Custom Trigger / Status for "Reserve & Collect"

[pezza]

Hi,

I have created a new status called "Ready to collect". The purpose of this status is to record orders where the item is ready to be collected, where a customer has chosen a shipping method as "Reserve & Collect".

I wanted to add this extra feature to allow local customers to be able to order online, but select the option to collect the goods in store without having the item(s) shipped.

I have created an email template based around the shipped email, which just says that the order is ready to be collected, but i am struggling to find a "trigger" that i can use that will change the status to "Ready to collect" and therefore send this email to the customer.

I cannot use the shipped trigger, as this would mean that every order that i mark as shipped, will then receive an email saying that their order is ready to collect. Specifically, i would like to create a new trigger that we can select manually once:

1) The payment has been made
2) It is a shipment method of "Reserve & Collect"
3) We are satisfied that the item(s) are in stock and ready to collect (hence the reason for a manual trigger)

I cannot use Non-Shipment trigger, as this is not systematically the same thing, as the items are "shippable", it is just that the customer has chosen the shipment method to reserve and collect.

Can anyone help me with this? Either for a better way of handling this kind of Reserve & Collect feature, or if there is a way that i can create my own trigger, such as "Ready for Collection", which i could then select from the Orders page in the same way that i would choose "Mark as Shipped" or "Process Payment" or anywhere else that i could manually force a trigger on that order.

I know that "Reserve & Collect" is not strictly a shipment method, in the true sense of the word, but this was the initial way that i thought i could create a feature to allow customers to collect their items. As i say, if there is a better/official way that i should do this, then i would appreciate any advice

Thank You

Andrew

[compunerdy]

Make a order status called "reserve and collect"

When you have done the 3 steps change the order to this status and have this status trigger that E-mail.

Then when it is picked up change the status to completed.

[pezza]

Thanks for the reply Tim,

I have this set up this way at the moment, but the email is not being triggered when i change the status, so i thought that it must be the trigger itself that sends the email?

I guess if it should send the email by changing the status manually, that must mean that i have not configured the email properly?

I will have another look at that.

Thanks

Andrew

[pezza]

For some reason, it is not triggering the email.

All looks fine with the email itself, although no triggers are selected, but that is because you cannot link to a specific status change. The only one that is close is "status is changed", but that would send the email whenever the status is changed regardless of what it is changed to.

Is there another option that i need to enable in order to "activate" my template?

As it stands, i have:

1) Email Template that confirms ready to collect
2) Order status called "Ready To Collect"
3) That status links to my email template

So, what would stop the email from sending?? I have had emails from other stages in the order process, so i know that the physical email settings are working.

I hope this is something really obvious that i am missing!

Thanks

Andrew

[mazhar]

Did you tried order status updated Email trigger. You can create your custom Email template with some NVeclocity code and assign it order status updated trigger. I guess this will send updates to customer against all order status updates.

[pezza]

Thanks Mazhar,

So if i have understood this correctly, i can select the update status trigger which would usually trigger on any status change, but then add some nVelocity loop around the email contents that basically says for each status of "Ready to Collect" process the content?? meaning that the change of status would trigger the loop, and therefore only send the email if the status matched?

Could i enclose the <html> / </html> within a nVelocity loop?

Thanks

Andrew

[mazhar]

Well you can't stop Email from being sent through NVelocity. All you can do is to format your Email template by putting some if/else structure that checks order status name and then shows suitable contents against each of them. But Email will be sent for every status change you can't cancel the Email process from within NVelocity for example if status is ABC then send the mail else don't send the mail scenario is not possible. If you are looking to send updates against only some specific order statuses then perhaps you need to write some manual Email code on possible locations where one can change order status.

[pezza]

Thanks Mazhar,

I am slightly confused with this as the Merchant Guide suggests that you can create a new order status and have an email sent when the status is changed to this new status. It also mentions that an Order Status doe NOT have to have a trigger and it should send the email when the status is set.

This is what Tim was saying above, which does make sense, but for some reason, it is not sending the email.

One thing i have thought about, is if the status has changed a few times on my test order and the email will no longer send. In other words, if i change from "Ready to Collect" to "Shipped" 5 times, should i get 5 emails each time the status is set to "Ready to Collect" or would i just get 1 email on the FIRST occurrence of that status change?

The functionality does suggest that it is possible to create a new order status (without a trigger) that sends an email when the order is set to that status, so i am wondering if this is a bug and it is actually relying on the trigger AND the status change to send the email, or if it might be as i descibed above.

Thanks

Andrew

[mazhar]

Hmm sorry it seems like I over looked some points. Give a try and edit your newly added custom order status. And then select order status update trigger and your custom Email template and save it. Now I guess this should only trigger Email if the order status is changed to your custom order status. Also don't forget to unselct any event trigger you selected for your custom email template form edit email template screen.

[pezza]

Thanks Mazhar for helping me with this.

It didn't work unfortunately.

Adding the status update trigger DID send the email, however as we originally thought, it sends this email on ANY status change, so i changed it to my reserve and collect status and i got the email. When i then changed the status to Completed, i got the same reserve and collect email again.

If i remove the status update trigger, i then do NOT get an email when i change the status to reserve and collect.

So, in the true sense of the name, i guess the email is sending correctly when a "status update" is triggered, but realistically i still believe that i should just be able to create the order status WITHOUT specifying a trigger and just specify the email to send, and upon that status being selected, it should send the email. The hover tooltip suggests this and also the merchant guide, so i am still thinking that this may be a bug.

I have also tried creating a complete new order, just to rule out any "suppression" where the email may only be triggered once for an order, and i didn't get the email when the status was changed.

So it looks like either a bug, or a trigger MUST be used for new order status's. If this is the case, then the guide should be re-worded and the hover tooltip in the order status page changed to read that you MUST have a trigger and that this must be customised (as a trigger is not provided), as at the moment it suggests that you can simply create a new order status and have the email sent when the status is changed to this status "If applicable, Select the email template(s) that will be processed and sent when an order is updated to this status" (this is what shows when you hover over the "Select Emails" bubble in the Order Status page.

It would be good to establish if this is what is meant to happen?

Thanks

Andrew

[pezza]

Just to add, i have raised a support case for this, just to rule out whether or not this is meant to behave in this way. At least this should identify if it is a bug, or if it simply is not meant to trigger the email.

The way i understand it, there are 3 levels of status/email notifications:

1) Automatic - An event such as an order being placed will automatically change the status of the order and automatically send the email
2) Semi-Manual - Manually changing the status of the order would automatically send the email
3) Manual - Merchant would manually edit the order and choose to send the customer an email by selecting the required email from a list

I know that 1 and 3 works, but 2 doesn't, and not sure whether this is meant to be the way that it should work

Thanks

Andrew

[pezza]

Hello,

Just an update...

Katie has reported this as a bug http://bugs.ablecommerce.com/show_bug.cgi?id=8811

Andrew

[sloDavid]

Is there a way to view that bug? It says you need a log-in, and I don't have one. I'm having the same problem. On the "Edit Order Status" page, the "Select Emails" prompt says that updating to my new order status will cause the selected email template(s) to be sent.

But it actually doesn't do that unless there's also an associated trigger. But none of the triggering events match my needs. The only triggering event should be the updating of the email to this particular status.

[mazhar]

This is fixed in our latest version 7.0.5, check the 8811 entry in change log here http://help.ablecommerce.com/upgrades/a ... _7.0.5.htm