We are pleased to announce the release candidate (RC1) version of VrCommernce 2.2.1 is now available from our client area.

This is pre-release software and is not intended for production use. This RC comes after the beta period but before the final release - it is the final stage of testing prior to the stable release. At this stage we believe all key areas of the system are functioning normally and all reported issues during the beta have been resolved.

If you are testing the release candidate and think you've found a bug, please report it to us either via the dedicated V2.2.1 Beta section on our forums, or directly to us via support ticket.

Along with this release, we are also making available the full change log for this latest version.

Thanks as always to everyone who helped out during the beta period, and we thank everyone for their patience with the extended delay in this release.

Dear Valued Customer,

On 1st May 2012, Nominet are introducing support for multi-year registration periods which will mean that in future, .uk domain names can be registered and renewed for between 1 and 10 years. As I'm sure you're aware, until now there has been a 2 year minimum.

We will be upgrading our systems to reflect these changes later today.

We will be introducing the following prices in line with Nominet pricing fees:

• Single year = £4.20
• 2+ years bought together in a single operation = £3.48 per year

Please note all prices show on this page include VAT

We are currently working on a new features for VrCommerce PRO, some of these new features:

1. New Mobile Framework for smart phones, iPad, iPhones, etc.
2. Upgrading some existing features
3. Adding new modules for the frontend and the backend

More details of the new features and updates to VrCommerce PRO, will be announced shortly.

As with all products, there comes a time when particular versions reach the end of their support life. We have already stopped support for versions 1.5 to 6.5, in March 2006. We will no longer be able to offer support for XL5. Version 9 was originally released in October 2009. After the 30st March 2012 we will no longer be able to provide any support or patches for any version of eShop PRO.

The reason why we have taken this decision as some of the features associated with php5.2 will no longer be supported under php5.3 and php5.4 onwards. All our new software will be backward compatible with php5.2, php5.3 and php5.4.

Our new eCommerce software is VrCommerce PRO which can run under any php5.x operating system.

We will also be working on a new version of eShop PRO XL5.3, which will be compatible with php5.3.x and eariler versions of php5.2.x

The amount of time required to convert existing eShop versions to the latest standards is not viable, as each version has been customised for each specific customer.

Customers who are currently on support contracts with us, we will send a separate email to those customers. From today we will no longer offering support contracts for eShop Pro XL5.

Virtual Web Designs are proud to announce the next release of VrCommerce PRO v2.1.3.

This is a major release that adds new features and fixes issues that have been reported since releasing v2.1.2

New template system has been incorporated into VrCommernce, we have tried to base the layouts as much as possible to some existing sites, i.e Comet, Currrys, Kayco.

NEW:
• Updated - The tax system added new functionality to cope with new laws bought about by the US and EU.
• Updated - Taxes can also be assigned to different customer groups
• New - Auto complete in the admin for search for products, orders, customers, etc.
• New - New payment gateway called Web Payment Software
• New - New reports
o Order List
o Report Keyword Search
• Updated - Made it easy to code new modules.
• Updated - Product caching to improve performance for shops with a large number of products.
• Updated - Select returns from order info page
• Updated – HTML Templates have been updated
• Updated - Weight conversions are now done from weight_class_id and not unit.
• Updated - Mod will alert the shop owner by email
o Sends an email to the shop owner when a Returns Request is made containing all details of the return
o Sends an email to the shop owner when a Product Review is added to the site
o Alerts Admin in Dashboard of New Reviews, New Returns Requests, Customer Awaiting Approval and Affiliates Awaiting Approval
o Also added a 'Total Sales This Month' row to the Dashboard
• Updated - Admin Customer Area with new features
o Purchase History
o Order History
o Purchased Products
o Shopping Basket - view and delete content
o Wish list - View and Delete content
o Customer Track - track customer behaviour and activity
• Updated - Customer Invoice – Admin Area
o Turn on / off shop logo
o Turn on / off - Payment method
o Turn on / off - Barcode for invoice and product SKU
o Choose different types of barcode
• Updated –The SEO function to generate SEO keywords for all products, categories, manufacturer and information.
o Generate SEO keywords to all SEO path
o Select individual products to generate SEO keywords
o Custom select SEO path to generate SEO keywords
o Allow append product model to SEO keywords to products
o Allow append *.html to products suffix for better optimisation
• Updated - XML Feeds for Google Merchant (formerly Google Base).
o Fully Compliant with Google Merchant Requirements as of 22nd September
o List Singles Products and Product Variants for all products including Clothing & Apparel
o List up to 10 additional images per product
o Display Special Prices if they exist in addition to the standard price.
o Produce feeds for VrCommerce Multi-Shops
o List on Multiple Google Shopping Sites (provided you have the language and currency installed for those sites)
o Set the Google Product Category for each Google Shopping Site globally and on a per product basis.
o Set the Condition for each product globally and on a per product basis.
o Ability to override VrCommerce Brand with a more specific brand on a per product basis.
o Option to disable a product from appearing in the feed on a per product basis.
o Split Feeds into multiple feeds if your shop has a lot of products
• Updated – Search, to include by price range, manufacturers, categories, keywords, all in one search if required.
• Updated - Products Edits
o Edit products directly on the product list page
o Manage products within a certain shop, or view products in all shops
o Filter products by one or more categories by using the Advanced Filter
o Easily show and/or hide columns from the list
o Search box automatically filters as you type
o Copy, CSV and Print buttons
o Preloads data so you can switch pages even faster
o Sort any field by clicking on the column header
o Automatically remembers your column, sorting and other preferences
o Allows you to easily change the number of results per page
o Validates fields appropriately
• Updated - Admin Customer Area with new features
o Purchase History
o Order History
o Purchased Products
o Shopping Basket - view and delete content
o Wish list - View and Delete content
o Customer Track - track customer behaviour and activity
• Updated - Shopping Basket has been upgraded with new Ajax features.
o This allows products to be removed and quantities adjusted instantly without any page refresh, removing a product will fade the product out the slide the box smoothly out of view, updating everything in the background.
• New - Reward Points System
o Award points for each product purchased, customers can redeem for additional merchandise.
• New - RMA System
o Manage customer returns and credits.
• New - Grid, List Product listings
o Customers can switch between viewing products as a list or in a grid.
• New - Gift Voucher System
o Customers can purchase gift certificates for another customer to use in your shop.
• New - Credit System
o Shop credit that can be used during checkout.
• New - Reorder System
o Customers can quickly reorder a previous purchase.
• New - Wish List System
o Customers can add items to a wish list, move items to Basket at any time.
• New - Affiliate System
o Allow other websites to refer customers to you for a commission.
• New - Option Text Fields
o Customers can type instructions for customizing a product such as their initials or name.
• New - Banner Manager
o Easily change the slide show or large banner on the home page.
• New - One-Page Checkout
o Guest & Account checkout are supported
o Ability to turn off country and/or zone selects
o Zone-based shipping, dynamic shipping methods supported!
• New - Compare Products
• New - Create Google Sitemap
• New - Customer Testimonial allows the admin user to do add / edit Testimonials given by customers and make it display on shop
• New – Next / Last Products links added to products page
• New – Last Viewed Products
o Displays in Column Left, Column Right, Content Top and Content Bottom.
o Settings for number of products to display.
o Settings for product image dimensions to display.
• New - Auto fill SEO field (Category, Product, Information)
• New - Search Autosuggest
• New - Stock Alert, trigger email to shop owner automatically when stock is low.
o Set own email message
o Set the minimum quantity before trigger email to store owner
o Supported multiple recipients
• New – Admin Dashboard and Menu Control
o Set menu permissions per user
o Full user logging
o Log failed login attempts
• New – Users Online
o IP Address
o Host name
o Location (City, State, Country)
o Date and Time of Visit
o Language
o Operating System (including mobile phones)
o Browser used (including mobile browsers)
o Total number of visits
o Total number of pages viewed
o Site that referred them to your shop
o Delete information from the database by IP address
o Import data from previous version database tables
o Flush data from current database tables (Reset Visitor Tracker tables)
o Add / Remove ip addresses to exclude from tracking statistics
o Add / Remove bot names to exclude from tracking statistics
o Set the idle time for online visitors to not be shown as online - defaults
to 300 seconds (5 minutes)
o Set UTC Timezone offset so SQL server will match your timezone
o Ban IP addresses from your shop
o Who is Online - See who is currently browsing your shop
o Bot, Guest or Customer (shows name if registered customer)
o View shopping baskets if they have anything in it (registered customers only)
o Shows the time since their last click
o Automatically removes online visitors after 5 minutes (300 seconds) of
idle time
o Abandoned Basket - See if any of your registered customers left items in their basket
o View the contents of your customers abandoned basket including product options
o Ability to click on product name to take you to the catalog/product admin page for the item. Also added the model number to the basket information page.
o Email customer directly from the abandoned basket window
o Ability to clear the abandoned basket
• New – Specials Manager
o Edit specials directly on the special list page. Update discount, discount
type, start and end dates and more.
o Apply specials to entire categories with ease. Or, select all categories
and apply a shop-wide discount!
o Discount by percentage, fixed amount or just set it to a fixed number!
o Easily show and/or hide columns from the list.
o Search box automatically filters categories and products as you type.
o Copy, CSV and Print buttons allow you to copy the rows to your clipboard, export them to a CSV file or print them with the click of a button!
o Sort any field by clicking on the column header.
o Automatically remembers your column, sorting and other preferences.
o Allows you to easily change the number of results per page.
o Validates fields appropriately.
• New – Pre-set Admin order comments.
o Adds buttons to the order history screen to speed up adding standard order comments. Order comments can be modified in the order Comments screen.
• New - Admin to edit all language files
• New - Promotional Tags & Product Labels
o Easy to add as many promotional labels to show at for Featured, Bestsellers, Category, Search, Latest and Product page at backend.
o Tag positioning, Top-Right, Top-Left, Bottom-Left and Bottom-Right
o Product labels to show per product at admin page
o Easy control over discount rate(%) to display per product at admin page
o Allow easy control over promotional labels link to different site / pages. Example: Link 'Call for Price' label to contact us page.
o Facebook Like/Share at product page
o Display percentage discounted per product dynamically based on user input
o Auto display out of stock tags when zero stock detected
o Auto calculating new price when discount rate is entered (Firefox not compatible)
o Auto turn off promotional price, discount rate/icon when promotion period expired
o Auto replace `Add to Basket` with `Sold Out` button when quantity is zero
o Auto replace `Add to Basket` with `Call For Price` button and price when price is set to zero
o Multi Languages supported
o Can quickly update price, discount rate, promotional tags, special price, promotion date start and promotion date end
o Automatically update new price when discount rate is entered when updating
• New - Split Categories
o Unlimited categories creation
o Side boxes can be placed anywhere (left, right, top, bottom)
o Side boxes can be placed on any layout
o Side boxes use the module system and can be enabled/disabled individually
o Side boxes can have their own title configured from the admin with multilingual support
o Mix and Match categories in any way you like
o Show / Hide Category product count
o Expand All categories by default option
• New- Product Options multiple add, allows you to enter the same options over multiple products at once, saving a huge amount of time when it comes to entering options
• New - Restrict Customer Groups
o Dynamic Customer Group selector in category edit
o Multi-Select
o Products won't show if they belong to a restricted category
o Support for "Logged out" as well
o Automatic DB update for new field
• New - Edit Customer Orders
• New - Customer Discount Groups
o Discount by % or flat fee
o Ranged discount breaks at different price points
o Based on sort position to allow include/exclude of other totals
o Option to prevent discounting special priced products
o Discounts automatically added to the checkout process
o Dynamically expands for all customer groups created
o Different discounts for each Customer Group including Guest Checkout
• New - Category Management System with products
o Edit products by catalog
o Include product counter for catalog
o Unlimited Categories
o With Slide Tree menu
• New - Batch Order Update
• New - Multi Image Upload
• New - Help / FAQ System
• New - PDF Invoice with email
• New - Display Category Wall
• New - Customised Layouts
• New - Multi Shop System
• New - Can now use Shared SSL
• New - Wholesale Price List
• New - Generate a packing / picking list for your orders
• New - FrontPage Categories
• New - PDF Single Product Flyer, users can create their own PDF datasheet
• New - MSRP to admin / frontend products
• New - Visual rows to the admin pages
• New - Customer Activity report
• New - Display child category as Tabs
o Enable / Disable from admin side
• New - Allows you to enter the same options over multiple products at once,
• New - Customer who bought this product also bought
• New - A quantity box added to Products List pages
• New – PDF Reports from reports and invoice.
o Send by email the invoice & reports as an attached PDF
o Available format are:
o a) invoice with image products
o b) invoice without prices
o c) invoice with logo
o d) label
• New - Add To Basket Confirm Ajax Popup
o This will show the Add to Basket / Wishlist / Compare confirmation as an Ajax popup box in the center of the screen. It Fades In, stays & then Fades Out leaving your customer right where they are, whilst still updating the basket total.
• New - Detailed Product Sales Report on the Product page.
o Can view detailed list of customers who bought this product (with product option), purchased quantity, total amount, view order date, order number, invoice number and order status.
o Filtering by date or statistics range.


FIXED:
• Added utf-8 helper functions so there is no need for mb extension to be installed.
• Page speed rendering issue IE
• Multi-Shop Layout Change not working for second shop
• Removed some redundant data
• Fixed the problems with weight class and length classes
• No DB changes are required to upgrade from 2.1.2
• No template changes are required to upgrade from 2.1.2
• Weight class problem with multiple languages.
• Quote in banner names and modules not working.
• Fix for Can't search UTF-8 words inside product description
• Fix for backup backing up all tables
• Removed manufacturer’s module and replaced it with one called carousel. This should stop problems with site with large numbers of manufacturers.
• Tabs fix for people who cannot wait for their admin pages to load.
• Invoice email not being sent when coupon is applied
• Removed redundant data from the zone to geo zone table
• PayPal fix for totals with a minus value.

Dear Valued Customer,

Our offices will be closing for the Christmas and New Year holiday at 12pm on Friday 23rd December 2011, opening again on Tuesday 3rd January 2012 at 9.30am.

During this time a limited sales facility will be available via. email to sales@vwdesigns.co.uk. Our support services will still be available through the support@vwdesigns.co.uk email address as per usual.

However, no support service will be available on the following week days:

Monday 26th December 2011 and Monday 2nd January 2012

We would like to wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you for your custom during 2011. There will be a lot of exciting developments for Virtual Web Designs in 2012, which we're looking forward to sharing with you.

We are delighted to announce the immediate release of VrBookings v1.2 VrBookings is an online booking system for Hotels, Guesthouses or anyone who requires a booking system for their website. The bespoke booking software allows you to start your own online booking system within minutes.

VrBookings has also been designed to simplify the task of online booking and to be incorporated into any website very easily. It also provides users with a unique, intuitive and easy to use interface that improves the way people use the web today.

V1.2 New Features and Bug fixes below (Last release was v1R1)

• New – Able to cancel booking for admin and clients
• New - Add more extras after booking was created
• New – Added Print (with printable view) a Bookings » Description page
• New - Added room availability for each day of year
• New - Admin to allow client reservation cancelation: Bookings -> Booking Settings [Clients May Cancel Reservation]
• New - Admin to assign a room number to each reservation: Bookings -> Description
• New - Admin to define a type of billing numbers: random or sequential
• New - Admin to enter Hotel Reservation ID (for internal use only)
• New - Admin to send invoices by email
• New - Admin to show allow/hide Reservation Form on homepage
• New - Check booking status online
• New - Create packages with minimum-stay requirements
• New - Define a maximum number of allowed no completed reservations per client via Modules -> Bookings -> Booking Settings
• New - Define a number of days before clients may cancel a reservation
• New - Define and use discount coupons on site: Bookings -> Promo and Discounts -> Coupons Management
• New - Define Initial Fee via Modules -> Bookings -> Booking Settings
• New - Define price format: American and European
• New - Define type of the first night value calculating: real or average
• New - Discount campaigns for specific client groups
• New - New field "fax" to client's accounts
• New - New status for bookings: payment error
• New - Payment type - Pay on Arrival
• New - Redirecting of visitor to last visited page after login (booking pages only)
• New - Resend activation email from client login page
• New - Set a size of page for search of rooms availability
• New - Set VAT fee included in price or not Bookings -> Booking Settings [VAT Included in Price]
• New - Testimonials, that allows admin to manage client’s testimonials
• Upgraded - Pre-payment feature - added new types: Full Price, First Night Fixed Sum and Percentage
• Upgraded - "rooms left" message on search result page
• Upgraded - Automatic CSS "active" for left menu links in Administration Panel
• Upgraded - booking statuses - added new status 'payment error'
• Upgraded - Calculating of discount was removed from extras
• Upgraded - Cancellation of reservation - added sending email for client and admin
• Upgraded - Cleaning of displayed text from tags, code holders etc. in search procedure
• Upgraded - Credit cards validation procedure
• Upgraded - Minor changes in Clients Module settings
• Upgraded - minor changes in News Module
• Upgraded - Minor changes in style and functionality of Administration Panel
• Upgraded - Optimized search rooms availability procedures
• Upgraded - Prepayment types - added 'fixed sum', 'percentage' and 'first night'
• Upgraded - Search availability form holds selected check-in/check-out dates on booking page too
• Upgraded - Search feature - search in rooms defined as default
• Upgraded - SEO links redirection on changing language or currency
• Upgraded - Statistics feature - added possibility to view separately taxes and income for bookings
• Upgraded - System pages - added possibility to edit "system page" parameter on edit page
• Upgraded - Working with session variables
• Fixed - Admin in Preview Mode couldn't see system pages
• Fixed - Calculating of rooms availability
• Fixed - Order displaying odd rooms after searching
• Fixed - Preferred language when it was set as inactive
• Fixed - Price for partial payment (first night) was calculating without VAT

Virtual Web Designs would like to announce the next release of VrCommerce PRO within the next 2 weeks. This will be a major new release that adds a lot of new features and fixes issues that have been reported since releasing v2.1.2

We will also be adding new online support documentation for VrCommerce PRO

We are delighted to announce the immediate release of VrBookings v1.0 VrBookings is an online booking system for Hotels, Guesthouses or anyone who requires a booking system for their website. The bespoke booking software allows you to start your own online booking system within minutes.

VrBookings has also been designed to simplify the task of online booking and to be incorporated into any website very easily. It also provides users with a unique, intuitive and easy to use interface that improves the way people use the web today.

NOTE: This was formally known as VrReservations

V1.0 New Features and Bug fixes below (Last release was v1R1)

• Added - Automatic CSS "active" link for left/right menu
• Added - Automatically removing of "preparing" orders via Admin Panel -> Booking -> Booking Settings
• Added - Automatically switch according to minimum night in JavaScript calendar
• Added - Groups for customers and possibility to send mass mail by customer groups
• Added - New layout for pages in Add/Edit mode
• Added - New status for booking - "Refunded", old status "Pending" renamed into "Reserved"
• Added - New system page - Contact Us
• Added - Popular search
• Added - Possibility for admin to add/edit Extras and include them with room booking
• Added - Possibility for admin to allow showing fully booked rooms in search
• Added - Possibility to cache system and news pages
• Added - Possibility to customer to delete posted comments
• Added - Possibility to define type of mailer function (2 types) via Admin Panel -> General-> Settings
• Added - Possibility to define type of WYSIWYG Editor (2 types) in Admin Panel -> General -> Settings
• Added - Possibility to display separate album, on page with {module: album=code}
• Added - Possibility to embed new module's tag into pages: {module: rooms}
• Added - Possibility to preview site for admin without log off
• Added - Possibility to search available rooms, using a number of children parameter
• Added - Possibility to see room’s availability by all rooms or single room: Booking Management -> Rooms Availability
• Added - Possibility to show Google Map on About Us page
• Added - Possibility to update vocabulary from uploaded file
• Added - possibility to view room prices on booking page
• Added - Remainder: ACTION REQUIRED on Home Page in Admin Panel
• Added - Reports module for administrator: Bookings -> Information and Statistics -> Reports
• Added - Special CSS style for Admin Login/Restore Password page
• Added - Statistics for user’s registrations/logins, Accounts -> Statistics
• Added -Possibility to define 3 types of registration confirmation: none, by email, by admin
• Updated - Added prefilling of PayPal credit card holder form
• Updated - Admin reservation - added possibility to assign customer to such reservations
• Updated - AJAX compatibility with other scripts, all "$" changed with "jQuery"
• Updated - Auto-filling of customer data on PayPal site
• Updated - Availability calendar view in administrator panel Bookings -> Bookings Management -> Rooms Availability
• Updated - Defining price - added possibility to define price for one day
• Updated - Drawing headers - added possibility to add <IMG> tags for headers with text
• Updated - Functions files split into admin, common and validation files
• Updated - Minor changes on Bookings page in Admin Panel
• Updated - Possibility for admin to make reservation - now without collecting credit card info
• Updated - Prepayment option - added possibility to define prepayment in presents or first night
• Updated - Remove customer account procedure
• Updated - Reservation and booking information in administrator panel
• Updated - Reservation email - added more information about customer
• Updated – Secure image module updated to v.2.0 BETA
• Updated - SEO links for system pages
• Updated - System pages - long links changed into short links
• Updated - Templates - changes structure of xml description file
• Updated - Working with modules in Admin Panel
• Bug Fixed - On installation with magic_quotes_gpc turned 'On'
• Bug Fixed - On language switching, when visitor is found on Check Availability page
• Bug Fixed - Selecting wrongs dates in Check Availability form
• Bug Fixed - With drawing rooms by priority order
• Bug Fixed - With search rooms availability for inactive rooms
• Bug Fixed - Wrong calculating available rooms when search from the Home page
• Bug Fixed - Wrong calculation room price for split period of time
• Bug Fixed - Wrong data in calculating "bookings amount" field for customers table
• Bug Fixed - Wrong data in invoice if booking was performed by admin
• Bug Fixed - Wrong displaying of META tags for system pages
• Bug Fixed - Wrong drawing minimum pre-payment present on Reservation page
• Bug Fixed - Wrong META tags for system pages
• Bug Fixed - Wrong sum of income on statistics page for bookings with different currency
• Bug Fixed - Wrong values in dropdown box, if only online order method allowed
• Bug Fixed - Empty dropdown box if all payment methods were disabled
• Bug Fixed - On duplicate account update for if returning customer, if account registration is not required

After nearly months of development work to make our VrCommerce a more robust and feature-rich eCommerce system, Virtual Web Designs are proud to announce the next release of VrCommerce PRO v2 Beta.

This version will only be available to register members, for testing. Please use our forums to report any bugs, etc. We hope to have the final release very soon.

This is a minor release that fixes some issues that have been reported since releasing v2 Beta 1

• Added - Additional files
• Fixed - No longer requires the filter extension installed on php Replace thickbox with fancybox since its no longer support
• Fixed - the JSON fallback function if the JSON extension is not installed on php
• Fixed - an issue with the logo image not updating when changed
• Fixed - Compatibility issues with IE8, IE9, Firefox 3
• Fixed - Error Message in Admin Upload Files Breadcrumb has inconsistent label for the cart. United States Postal Service Shipping Module: Displays Nothing In Cart or During Checkout
• Fixed - Adding to cart items that have required options fails with product not found
• Fixed - Disabled related products. \"E-Mail Address does not appear to be valid!\" in Store-settings in Admin
• Fixed - FancyBox still not working on SSL enabled pages Notice: Undefined index: filter_name
• Fixed - Cannot edit categories while connected to admin in SSL
• When you disable the mega menu, the attention alerts don't pop up in the top
Clicking on the edit link in admin/category will redirect you from https:// to http://
• Wording ideally needs changing on Checkout Page
• Guest Checkout and/or non download purchase - Checkout Success Wording
• Authorize.net payment values don't get posted
• Ajax shopping cart displays MD5 has on end of filename
• Affiliate System Tracking code problem
• UPS Shipping Module: Displays Nothing In Cart or During Checkout
• Breadcrumb has inconsistent label for the cart.
• Disabled related products.