AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

Hi Guys

I have been using the trial Able Commerce and really like what I have seen so far. I have a few questions that the sales man wasn't able to answer, he recommended the forums which I've looked at with no luck, so I thought i'd give you guys a go by posting. If I can get the answers, I am going to sign up.

I am initially looking at going for the hosted solution, so the questions refer to this option

1) The dates are all shown using mm dd yyyy format, but as I am a UK store I need to show them as dd mm yyyy, particulary when customers review their orders (I could live with it on the back end). There doesn't seem to be an option to do this, is it something I can modify when I sign up.

2) I need to be certain that I will be able to edit the code that runs the store (not just the html layout and content). Looking at the info on hosting, I should have full access to the code and be able to make the required changes. As an example, being in the UK, I need to remove the US shipping estimator from the mini basket, remove the option to ship to anywhere but the UK , remove the wishlist functionality etc. It looks as though I can use the Hosting Control Panel to FTP in and copy the files to my PC? Can anyone confrm this is the case, and If I can get to the files I need to modify, what tools do I need to modify them, I have access to VS2005, VS2008 and VS2010. After I've made modifications will I be able to test the changes locally?

4) Can anyone recommend the best merchant account for Able to interface with. Its my only unknown and I'm a bit nervous about setting it up,so I want to use the simplest and easiest to set up merchant account.

any help would be much appreciated

thanks

Andy

1) The dates are all shown using mm dd yyyy format, but as I am a UK store I need to show them as dd mm yyyy, particulary when customers review their orders (I could live with it on the back end). There doesn't seem to be an option to do this, is it something I can modify when I sign up.

Edit your Website/web.config file and locate following tag and update it to save the file and now test again, dates should be in your desired format.

2) I need to be certain that I will be able to edit the code that runs the store (not just the html layout and content). Looking at the info on hosting, I should have full access to the code and be able to make the required changes. As an example, being in the UK, I need to remove the US shipping estimator from the mini basket, remove the option to ship to anywhere but the UK , remove the wishlist functionality etc. It looks as though I can use the Hosting Control Panel to FTP in and copy the files to my PC? Can anyone confrm this is the case, and If I can get to the files I need to modify, what tools do I need to modify them, I have access to VS2005, VS2008 and VS2010. After I've made modifications will I be able to test the changes locally?

* Yep source code is available.
* Regarding removing the shipping estimator read following thread viewtopic.php?f=42&t=14104
* For country specific shipping go to Administration > Configure > Regions > Zones and setup a zone for UK. Then go to your shipping methods and mark them available only to newly created zone.
* In order to remove wishlist functionality read this topic http://wiki.ablecommerce.com/index.php/ ... e_Wishlist
* Regarding tools if you have VS2005 then its good or you may use VS2008 too.
* In order to test locally you need to install AbleCommerce on your local computer

Hi Mazhar

thanks for the reply, that all sounds like good news.

Do you know if I can do the modifications on the Hosted solution option as I won't have the physical software, just whats created for me on the web server? Do people just copy the files to their local PC, modify them and them republish? I.m just a bit nervous as I don't want to spend the time building the whole store and then find because I'm using the hosted option I can't make the changes to make it 'UK' proof.

thanks again for the reply

Andy

Hi Andy, Yes you can do if you have FTP access on hosting. All you need is to modify the files locally and then publish them back on your hosting in their respective locations using some FTP software.

Cheers Mazhar very much appreciated