Interchange Upgrade Guide ========================= icupgrade.1.23 (Draft) 1. Introduction =============== This document contains, in rough form, notes on upgrading from Minivend 3 to Minivend 4, and Minivend 4 to Interchange. 2. Interchange 4.8 Deprecated Features ====================================== This document describes features of Interchange 4.8 that have been deprecated. Any use of these features should be discontinued. In most cases we have provided an alternative mechanism to accomplish the same results. These deprecated features may be removed at some point in the future. You should change to the new mechanism to avoid breakage. 2.1. Deprecated Features Previous to Interchange 4 -------------------------------------------------- This section needs some serious work. cart/page from path interchange.PL 308,313 if($path =~ s:/(.*)::) { $cart = $1; if($cart =~ s:/(.*)::) { $page = $1; } } mv_orderpage interchange.PL 321,323 $CGI::values{mv_nextpage} = $CGI::values{mv_orderpage} || find_special_page('order') if ! $CGI::values{mv_nextpage}; $decode interchange.PL 493 HTML::Entities::decode($value) if $decode; mv_orderpage interchange.PL 854,855 $CGI::values{mv_nextpage} = $CGI::values{mv_orderpage} if $CGI::values{mv_orderpage}; ROUTINES and LANG interchange.PL 1552,1579 ROUTINES: { last ROUTINES unless index($Vend::FinalPath, '/process/') == 0; while ( $Vend::FinalPath =~ s{/process/(locale|language|currency)/([^/]*)/} {/process/} ) { $::Scratch->{"mv_$1"} = $2; } $Vend::FinalPath =~ s:/process/page/:/:; } my $locale; if($locale = $::Scratch->{mv_language}) { $Global::Variable->{LANG} = $::Variable->{LANG} = $locale; } if ($Vend::Cfg->{Locale} and $locale = $::Scratch->{mv_locale} and defined $Vend::Cfg->{Locale_repository}->{$locale} ) { $Global::Variable->{LANG} = $::Variable->{LANG} = $::Scratch->{mv_language} = $locale if ! $::Scratch->{mv_language}; Vend::Util::setlocale( $locale, ($::Scratch->{mv_currency} || undef), { persist => 1 } ); } list_compat lib/Vend/Interpolate.pm 2808 list_compat($opt->{prefix}, \$text); lib/Vend/Interpolate.pm 3538 list_compat($opt->{prefix}, \$text); lib/Vend/Interpolate.pm 3874 list_compat($opt->{prefix}, \$page); find_sort lib/Vend/Interpolate.pm 3270,3271 $text =~ /^\s*\[sort\s+.*/si and $opt->{sort} = find_sort(\$text); mv_order_report lib/Vend/Order.pm 867,868 $body = readin($::Values->{mv_order_report}) if $::Values->{mv_order_report}; mv_error_$var lib/Vend/Order.pm 1030 $::Values->{"mv_error_$var"} = $message; 2.2. Interchange 4 Deprecated Features -------------------------------------- Vend::Util::send_mail Vend::Order::send_mail send_mail The send_mail routine has been replaced by the Vend::Mail::send routine. 3. Upgrading from Minivend 4.0 to Interchange 4.6 ================================================= if [item-price] suddenly turns 0, check PriceField in the catalog.cfg 3.1. minivend.cfg ----------------- o Remove references to MiniMate. o Add this line to minivend.cfg: #include lib/UI/ui.cfg Make sure the files catalog_before.cfg and catalog_after.cfg are there, or add their contents to etc/your_cat_name.before and etc/your_cat_name.after to it only for some catalogs. 3.2. Access Manager ------------------- You need to get the minimate.asc file renamed to access.asc and add the following fields to the first line: groups last_login name password Remove these catalog.cfg lines: Variable MINIMATE_META mv_metadata Variable MINIMATE_TABLE minimate Database minimate minimate.asc TAB Add this one: Database affiliate affiliate.txt TAB Authentication for admin users is now done from a separate table than customers, and passwords are encrypted. 3.3. Database Editing --------------------- Update the mv_metadata.asc file as appropriate. 3.4. Order Manager ------------------ Some things that are needed for the order manager: o Add these fields to transactions: affiliate approx. char(32) archived char(1) campaign approx. char(32) comments blob/text complete char(1) deleted char(1) order_wday char(10) order_ymd char(8) po_number approx. char(32) o Add these fields to transactions: affiliate approx. char(32) campaign approx. char(32) o Remove this field from userdb: mv_credit_card_info o Add these fields to userdb: inactive char(1) credit_limit char(14) or decimal(12,2) dealer char(3) o Create the directory 'logs'. o Create the directory 'orders' if it doesn't already exist. o Update your order routes to those in the Interchange distribution. Note that the route log_entry is necessary if you want to enter orders from the Interchange UI. o Update the etc/log_transaction file. o Add the etc/log_entry file. o Add this to catalog.cfg: ## Don't want people setting their credit_limit directly UserDB default scratch "credit_limit dealer" 3.5. Affiliates --------------- Add a tab-delimited affiliate table: affiliate name campaigns join_date url timeout active password You can find a recommended database configuration in foundation/dbconf/*/affiliate.*. 3.6. Page Editor ---------------- Add the directories 'templates' and 'backup'. Copy the contents of the Interchange simple/templates to templates. 3.7. Item Editor ---------------- Add a merchandising table with the following fields: Database merchandising merchandising.txt __SQLDSN__ Database merchandising DEFAULT_TYPE text sku char(32) featured char(32) banner_text banner_image blurb_begin blurb_end timed_promotion char(16) start_date char(24) finish_date char(24) upsell_to cross_sell cross_category char(64) others_bought times_ordered Index the fields with char(*) types. You can find the recommended database configuration in foundation/dbconf/*/merchandising.* 3.8. Preferences Editor (KNAR) ------------------------------ Create the tab-delimited file variable.txt with these fields: code Variable pref_group Add this as the *first* line of catalog.cfg: VariableDatabase variable 3.9. Route Editor ----------------- Create the file route.txt with these fields: code report receipt encrypt_program encrypt pgp_key pgp_cc_key cyber_mode credit_card profile inline_profile email attach counter increment continue partial supplant track errors_to Add this line in catalog.cfg: RouteDatabase route 3.10. Transactions database --------------------------- The back office UI should work fine for editing database tables. Obviously the things which are specific to the order transaction setup will break unless you have the right fields, but even these can be controlled by configuring the UI. Add a new field to transaction.txt called 'archived'. 4. Upgrading from Minivend 3 to Minivend 4 ========================================== There were big changes from Minivend 3 to Minivend 4, some of which were incompatible. Many things were removed as redundant, deprecated, or just plain crufty: 4.1. Nested [loop]s ------------------- MV3 used a different scheme for creating nested loop lists: [loop with="-a"* arg="item item item" search="se=whatever"] allowed you to refer to the nested values with a [loop-code-a] construct. In Minivend 4, the form is: [loop prefix=size list="Small Medium Large"] [loop prefix=color list="Red White Blue"] [color-code]-[size-code]
[/loop]

[/loop] 4.2. All frame features removed ------------------------------- Frames are now managed by the user in HTML. 4.3. Tags removed ----------------- 4.3.1. buttonbar ---------------- Replace with Variable defined in catalog.cfg. buttonbar was previously used as an SSI-like command for catalog-wide standardized features like navigation bars. In the 3.x catalog.cfg the ButtonBars parameter defines a list of html snippets, like ButtonBars header.html footer.html copyright.html So [buttonbar 0] substitutes 'header.html', [buttonbar 1] substitutes 'footer.html', etc. In 4.x catalog.cfg, define variables, like Variable HEADER etc, tags. Thus the current practice is to use filenames with no extension or perhaps '.txt' to differentiate them from pages. 4.3.2. random ------------- Replace with [ad random=1] or custom code. See the [ad] tag docs. Random and rotate were used to place random or rotating regions on pages, such as banner ads. The Random directive in catalog.cfg defines the numbered HTML snippet files, similar to buttonbars above. 4.3.3. rotate ------------- Replace with [ad ...]. See [random] above. 4.3.4. help ----------- No replacement. Use data functions or variables. 4.3.5. body ----------- Replace with templates. Again the body tag [body 1] etc. defines numbered body definitions that could be applied site-wide. However, in this case minivend actually built up the substitution using the Mv_* directives in catalog.cfg. 4.3.6. finish_order ------------------- [finish_order] was a conditional tag; if the basket contained anything a 'checkout' graphic would be displayed. No replacement; use [if items]Message[/if]. 4.3.7. last_page ---------------- No replacement - this can be emulated by setting a scratch variable on one page, then using it to build the return URL. 4.3.8. item-link ---------------- No replacement, just use [page [item-code]]. 4.3.9. loop-link ---------------- No replacement, just use [page [loop-code]]. 4.3.10. sql-link ---------------- No replacement, just use [page [sql-code]]. 4.3.11. accessories ------------------- Replace with normal data functions. 4.3.12. Compatibility routines ------------------------------ Compatibility routines for many popular tags like [random], [rotate], etc. are provided in the appendix of this document. To use one, copy it to a file and put it in your usertag directory. (Tags in the usertag directory are read in by interchange.cfg by default). 4.4. Directives removed ----------------------- ActionMap AdminDatabase AdminPage AsciiBackend BackendOrder ButtonBars CheckoutFrame CheckoutPage CollectData DataDir Delimiter DescriptionTrim FieldDelimiter FrameFlyPage FrameLinkDir FrameOrderPage FrameSearchPage ItemLinkDir ItemLinkValue MsqlDB MsqlProducts Mv_AlinkColor Mv_Background Mv_BgColor Mv_LinkColor Mv_TextColor Mv_VlinkColor NewReport NewTags OldShipping OrderFrame PageCache PriceDatabase Random ReceiptPage RecordDelimiter ReportIgnore Rotate SearchFrame SearchOverMsg SecureOrderMsg SpecialFile SubArgs Tracking 4.5. Minor operations removed ----------------------------- o auto-substitution of mp= on [loop search=profile], [search-region arg=profile] o [tag scan]... o [tag sql]... Many of these are related to one of: o Removal of frames logic o Removed tags o Obsolete methods o Old routines for 2.0x compatibility 4.6. Search lists ----------------- Search tags must now be surrounded by [search-region] [/search-region]. This is because multiple searches can be done in a page, with multiple [more-list] entries, multiple [no-match] areas, etc. It was not really possible to avoid this and add the feature. To find all files containing the search list, do: find pages -type f | xargs grep -l '\[search.list' That will yield a set of files that need to be updated. You should surround all parts of the search area, i.e.: [search-region] [search-list] your search iteration stuff, [item-code], etc. [/search-list] [more-list] [more] [/more-list] [/search-region] 4.7. Search conditionals ------------------------ Search conditionals should now say [if-item-field field] [/if-item-field] and [if-item-data table column] [/if-item-data]. This allows mixing and nesting of lists. You may find that the old works in some situations, but it will not work in all situations. 4.8. Form data updates ---------------------- Added Scratch variable mv_data_enable to gate the update_data function. You must set it before doing a form update. Prior to this it was possible to update a SQL database willy-nilly. A quick fix like this will allow the update on a single page: [set update_database] [set mv_data_enable]1[/set] [/set] It will ensure at least that the user loads one form from you for each update. For best security, gate with a userdb entry like this: [set update_database] [if type=data term="userdb::trusted::[data session username]"] [set mv_data_enable]1[/set] [else] [set mv_data_enable]0[/set] [/else] [/if] [/set] 4.9. Checkout changes --------------------- Minivend 4 uses in-page error-flagging on the checkout page. Simplest way to convert is probably to use the checkout.html from the simple demo as a start, and move in any customization from the existing site's catalog.html (headers, footers, logos, etc.) A line-by-line comparison of the data fields in the checkout page should be performed, adding any custom fields as needed. Custom error checking in etc/order.profiles may have to be re-worked, or can be added into checkout.html using the in-page order profile capability. (Note that etc/order.profiles is called etc/profiles.order in newly-built Interchange catalogs.) Remember to update receipt.html and report/report.html with any custom fields, as well. 4.10. [if-field] etc. --------------------- The least-compatible things in the tag area are [if-field] (needs to be [if-PREFIX-field], where prefix might be item|loop by default depending on the tag. Likewise: [if-data table col] --> [if-PREFIX-data table col] [on-change mark] --> [PREFIX-change mark] [if-param param] --> [if-PREFIX-param param] [PREFIX-param N] --> [PREFIX-pos N] (where N is a digit) 4.11. [search-list] ------------------- You must always surround [search-list] with [search-region] [/search-region]. Embedded Perl changes quite a bit. While there are the $Safe{values} and other variable settings, they are automatically shared (no arg="values") and move to: $Safe{values} --> $Values $Safe{cgi} --> $CGI $Safe{carts} --> $Carts $Safe{items} --> $Items $Safe{config} --> $Config $Safe{scratch} --> $Scratch There are a number of other objects, see the docs. Most other issues have more to do with the catalog skeleton (i.e. simple or barry or basic or art) than they do the core. For instance, the "basic" catalog produced for MV3 ran unchanged except for the issues discussed above. 4.12. Global subs ----------------- Accessing globalsubs from [perl] tags is done slightly differently. Minivend 3 method: [perl sub] myfunsub(); [/perl] Minivend 4/IC method: [perl subs=1] myfunsub(); [/perl] If you do this wrong, you'll get an error that looks like this: 115.202.115.237 H8gbq6oK:115.202.115.237 - \ [28/February/2001:18:58:50 -0500] testcat /cgi-bin/testcat.cgi \ Safe: Undefined subroutine &MVSAFE::myfunsub called at (eval 283) line 2. 5. History of Interchange ========================= Interchange is a descendent of Vend, an e-commerce solution originally developed by Andrew Wilcox in early 1995. Mike Heins took the first publicly-released version, Vend 0.2, and added searching and DBM catalog storage to create MiniVend. Mike released MiniVend 0.2m7 on December 28, 1995. Subsequent versions of MiniVend took parts from Vend 0.3, especially the vlink and Server.pm modules, which were adapted to run with MiniVend. In the four years that followed, Mike Heins expanded and enhanced MiniVend, creating a powerful and versatile e-commerce development platform. MiniVend grew to support thousands of businesses and their e-commerce sites, and sites running on MiniVend versions 3 and 4 are still common today. Separately, an experienced e-commerce development team founded Akopia. Their goal was to create a sophisticated open source e-commerce platform that was both feature-rich and easy to use. Their product, Tallyman, was intuitive, and had great content-management features, but lacked many of MiniVend's capabilities. Akopia acquired MiniVend in June 2000. Mike Heins and the Tallyman developers combined MiniVend 4 with Tallyman's features to create Interchange. Interchange replaces both MiniVend and Tallyman. In order to preserve compatibility, the name "minivend" and prefixes like "mv_" and "MVC_" will still appear in source code and configuration files. Interchange's first stable release was version 4.6. In January 2001, Red Hat acquired Akopia and created its new E-Business Solutions Division. Red Hat sponsored the development of Interchange 4.8 and the Red Hat E-Commerce Suite. In mid-2002, Red Hat decided to stop supporting Interchange development, and a group of individuals formed the Interchange Development Group to coordinate Interchange development independent of any company or person. The first stable release by the new independent group of developers was Interchange 5.0. Interchange continues to advance, the user community is growing, and new Interchange sites are frequently deployed. ______________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2002-2004 Interchange Development Group. Copyright 2001-2002 Red Hat, Inc. Freely redistributable under terms of the GNU General Public License.