introducing cpshop 2.0

It's been a long time coming, but I'm very proud to announce the arrival of cpshop 2.0. (Note that this is the first 2.0 version, so you should probably read this entire message before installing.)

The biggest and baddest change? Well, it supports the affiliate program now. It's also faster, cleaner, and easier to use. You'll read more about the nitty-gritty in a moment.

But first, this is not a free upgrade. If you bought cpshop before October 2004, there's a voluntary $10 upgrade fee, which can be purchased on the cpshop pricing page. What do I mean by voluntary? Well, that means even if you don't pay, you can still upgrade to 2.0, and I'll still offer support if you have any problems or questions; I'm not money grubbing or anything, and I won't come after you. But I've worked an astronomical number of hours on cpshop over the last 3 1/2 years, and though I feel kinda bad for asking, it just seems fair to me that at some point, it's reasonable to ask for a small upgrade fee to help cover my time in development and support.

changes in cpshop 2.0

• now supports CafePress Affiliate PIDs & TIDs
• optionally accepts PIDs and TIDs through the URL (to support other affiliates)
• much faster, more efficient data retrieval (especially with giant filters)
• supports storeid/sectionno as well as storeid.sectionno
• supports storeid/all syntax to represent all products in a store
• cleaner URLs for all pages
• supports thumbnail URLs for each store ID entry
• supports premium shop section descriptions
• added <[sidebar]> tag
• re-added <[producttext]> tag
• moved "empty cache now" box to top of admin screen
• several annoying bugs fixed

how to upgrade

1. Before installing this upgrade, I recommend you backup your current cpshop directory. This is a huge upgrade, and it could potentially have some mystery bugs I just haven't encountered yet, especially since I haven't had the luxury of testing with the widest variety of server types. If you backup the .lib and .config files, that should be enough.
2. Unzip the contents of either cpshop2.0rc1-Unix-update.zip or cpshop2.0rc1-Win-update.zip (or the newest version available). Be sure you use the "update" zip file -- and NOT the "full" zip file -- to upgrade!
3. Upload the contents of the zip file to the cpshop directory on your server.
4. Test your store. If you encounter anything bizarre or broken, let me know.

now supports CafePress Affiliate PIDs & TIDs

If you're not familiar with the CafePress Affiliate Program, then here's the short description: link to other people's stores, make money. And with cpshop, now it's especially easy. Sign up for the CafePress Affiliate Program, get your PID (partner ID), plug it into cpshop, and start looking for cool stores. You can add them to your cpshop install, or create a second cpshop install as an affiliate superstore. Honestly, the possibilities are endless, and there's a lot of money to be made.

If you want to learn more, go sign up (it's free, of course), and start reading. It's totally worth it.

Here's a nifty feature: if you choose to enable it, CafePress affiliates can link to your cpshop install, and if someone they refer buys something from your store, they get 20%. This basically means you can run something like your own Affiliate Program. It's also just a great incentive to get stores to link to you that wouldn't otherwise.

For those of you using filters, I'm sure you've noticed how slow cpshop is when processing filters, or processing any collected group of store IDs. To correct this, cpshop now downloads all the information it needs at once. No more piecemealing, and that means one slow page load (typically the first one after you clear the cache), and then it's smooth sailing.

There is a downside, however. cpshop no longer supports on-the-fly store ID rendering, meaning it won't display stores not entered into the admin panel. This may be an annoyance to some, but it serves a purpose -- the affiliate program would make that old feature a dangerous tool in the wrong hands.

You know how the cpshop store section ID for http://www.cafepress.com/love/347250 would be love.347250? Now cpshop will also accept love/347250. Doesn't that make more sense anyway?

If you make storewide product filters, you know how much trouble it is to constant maintain a giant list of store section IDs. Well, now it's a lot easier. The new storeid/all syntax lets you refer to every product in a store with a simple shorthand. For example, to display all the clocks in the geeklove store, just use geeklove.all, cpfilter_name:clock.

Sick of dirty URLs? Well now cpshop URLs are 126% cleaner! I've gotten rid of the linktrail gobbledygook, and replaced it with something much, much simpler. Frankly, it looks a lot better whether you've got clean URLs turned on (example: cpshop.cgi/love/love/347275) or off (example: cpshop.cgi?i=love/love/347275). Feel free to click around the demo store to see what I mean.

(The downside: for those of you that have hardcoded links to your cpshop installation, I've tried to make cpshop smart enough to guess which page you want; it guesses right...sometimes. As a result, I recommend you check any hardcoded links, and replace them with the new URLs ASAP.)

Another obvious feature: a thumbnail URL field for each store ID entry. If you enter thumbnail URLs (and have more than one store ID entry), then cpshop will display your thumbnails on the homepage.

A popular request: cpshop can display premium shop section descriptions at the top of section pages. You can also display them in your thumbnail page template with a <[sectiondesc]> tag.

If you want to display a sidebar navigation menu like those in premium shops, look no further than the <[sidebar]> tag. It goes in your template, and you can toggle whether it displays nested subsections or not.

The <[producttext]> tag can be used in the product thumbnail grid layout box to denote the product description. (CafePress used to display product descriptions as part of the thumbnail page, but they stopped doing that a couple of years ago. Now you can do it again.)

Because it's a very common box to hunt down, I've moved "empty cache now" to the top of the admin screen.

Outstanding bugs like the direct printing popup, <[productname]> tag, "Tell A Friend" toggle, and breadcrumb issues have all been fixed.

the last word(s)

It's been a busy, busy, exhausting few months. Between the Affiliate Program, this cpshop upgrade, two contract jobs, countless personal projects, and a stray kitten named Bacon, I've been sleeping somewhere in the 4-6 hour range nightly since around May. And now I'm really, really hoping to have time to work on my postcard site -- you know, the one I said I was going to have finished before Halloween last year. Man, is it always going to be like this?

A few of you have asked if I'm going to be at the Los Angeles Meet & Greet in October. I'm honestly not sure. I'd like to go -- I haven't been down to LA in ages, my sister's wedding excepted -- but I just can't plan that far in advance. If I do decide to go, I'll be sure to let people know via GreatGear.

And remember -- if you make any sweeping changes to your cpshop store and want to show them off, email me the URL, and I can add it to my cpshop site list.

As always, let me know if you have any problems with this, either via or posting on the message board.

Regards, Marty