downloadable demo quickstart guide - aspdotnetstorefront · 2013-05-09 · demoadmin site, and...

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Downloadable Demo Quickstart Guide

Rev 1.0

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Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Configuring the store

Accessing the Site 4

Personalizing the Store 5

Email Setup 7

Shipping

Realtime rates

General 9

UPS 10

USPS 11

FedEx 12

DHL 13

Australia Post 14

Canada Post 15

Fixed Rates

Creating Shipping Methods 16

Calculation Methods 17

Payment Settings 20

Organizing Products 22

Adding Products 23

For full product details, please see the online manual.

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Introduction

Welcome to AspDotNetStorefront!

This quick start guide is designed to take you through some of the most commonsetup and configuration tasks encountered when creating a newAspDotNetStorefront web site.

This is not by any means an exhaustive list of features. AspDotNetStorefront hasthousands of configuration options to fit a wide range of business requirements.Don’t see what you are looking for? Check our online manual athttp://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com or visit our community forums(http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.com) for more information and to interact withreal merchants successfully using our platform.

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Accessing the Site

To access the site, open your browser and go to http://localhost/sitename, where ‘sitename’ is the alias you set in step 5 of ‘Configuring IIS’ above.

To access the demo admin site, open your browser and go to http://localhost/sitename/admin, where ‘sitename’ is the alias you set in step 5 of ‘Configuring IIS’ above.

The default login credentials are:

Email address: [email protected]: Admin$11

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Personalizing the Store

This section covers ‘personalizing’ elements of the store that should be unique for your company, such as the site name, meta information, etc.

Store Name

To set your store name, go to Configuration → Advanced → AppConfig Parametersin the admin site and search for ‘Storename’. Edit this value and put in the name you would like to use. This will be used on several pages on the site, as well as on email receipts.

Meta Tags

Every page in the AspDotNetStorefront software can be given a meta title, meta description, and keyword tags. You have the option of either setting up unique meta information for every product, entity, and topic page, or of setting default meta values that will be used across the site.

The software has rules for what title information to set if none is entered by the store admin (see below for how to customize what is used instead). The defaults are:

- Product pages use the store name (set above) plus the product name- Entity pages use the store name plus the entity name- Topic pages use the topic name

To set that default information, simply populate the following AppConfigs:

- SE_MetaDescription- SE_MetaKeywords- SE_MetaTitle

If that is all you do, then every page will use the values you entered above (with the exception of titles, which are taken from product/entity names by default). If, however, you'd like to customize the meta information for each page, those tags can be set individually as shown below:

Product PagesEach product can have its own meta information, which is entered on the 'Search Engine' tab in Product Manager (see the online manual for more details):

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EntitiesLike products, entities get their own meta information from the data in the 'Search Engine' tab (see the online manual for more details):

TopicsTopic pages can have their own meta information as well:

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Email setup

To configure the demo to send emails, go to Configuration → Advanced →AppConfig Parameters in the admin site, and select ‘Email’ from the ‘Config Groups’ dropdown menu on the left. A list of AppConfigs like the following should appear:

All of these AppConfigs need to be populated with the information for your personal email address and mail server (obtain this information from your host, mail provider, or server manager).

Troubleshooting

Should you have trouble sending emails, the best way to troubleshoot email issues is to pull up a test order on the Order page and click the "Resend Receipt Email" button. The software will attempt to send that email, and display any errors encountered on the screen. This will often give an indication of where the issue is.

If emails are not being sent, check that there are no AppConfigs that are preventingthem from being sent. Some of these are:

Recurring.SendShippedEmail Recurring.SendOrderEmailToCustomers BulkImportSendsShipmentNotifications SendOrderEmailToCustomer SendWelcomeEmailToCustomer SendShippedEmailToCustomer TurnOffStoreAdminEmailNotifications

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Free email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail often filter out storefront emails, preventing your customers from getting messages you send. Some ways to prevent this are:

Ensure your domain/IP is not on a blacklist from these mail providers Ensure your emails are being sent from valid email addresses Implement one of the many ways to verify that you are a legitimate sender Sender Policy Framework, Sender ID, DomainKeys, Identified Mail, etc Verify that reverse DNS lookups resolve to your site properly Disable recursion on your server

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Shipping

An important part of setting up your store is configuring your shipping rates. Store owners can do this 2 ways: using Realtime rates from the major shipping carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL) or using flat rates which you create.

Realtime Rates

With realtime shipping, your website connects to one or more of the major shipping carriers (such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL) and gets the price that the carrier would charge to ship that order, based on the weight and/or size of the products ordered, and the origin and destination of the package. This requires an account with one or more of the 3rd-party carriers, and incurs additional monthly fees through those companies.

General

To set up realtime shipping (regardless of the carrier you choose to use), the following steps must first be performed:

1. In the AspDotNetStorefront admin site, go to Configuration → Advanced →AppConfig Parameters.

2. In the “Config Search” box, enter Origin, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

3. Each of these RTShipping.Origin AppConfigs needs to be populated. These make up the origin address that is used for shipping calculations, so set them to the address you wish to use for that purpose. Note the following rules:

- Be sure that RTShipping.OriginState is a 2-letter abbreviation, do not use the full state name- RTShipping.OriginZip should only be 5 digits

4. Go to Configuration → Shipping → Shipping Rates Table in the AspDotNetStorefront admin menu, and put a dot next to the “Use Real Time Rates” option, then click “Set as Active Shipping Calculation Method”.

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UPS

Once the General realtime shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable UPS shipping:


2. In the Config Search box, enter “RTShipping.ups”, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

3. The following AppConfigs will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from UPS. Do not change the other AppConfigs unless instructed to do so!

- RTShipping.UPS.License- RTShipping.UPS.Password- RTShipping.UPS.UserName

4. Finally, search for the “RTShipping.ActiveCarrier” AppConfig, and set the value to UPS.

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USPS

Once the General realtime shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable USPS shipping:

1. Obtain access to the USPS Web Tools (http://www.usps.com/webtools/) by clicking the "Sign Up" link, and submitting your information.

2. When USPS emails your Username, you have access to their Test servers-only. Reply to their email, explain that you are using an off-the-shelf storefront (AspDotNetStorefront), and need access to their Production servers.

3. Wait for the confirmation email from USPS before proceeding. Once they grant you access to their Production servers, you can finish the following steps.


5. In the Config Search box, enter “RTShipping.usps”, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

6. The following AppConfig will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from USPS. Do not change the other AppConfigs unless instructed to do so!

- RTShipping.USPS.UserName

4. Finally, search for the “RTShipping.ActiveCarrier” AppConfig, and set the value to USPS.

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FedEx

Once the General realtime shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable FedEx shipping:


2. In the Config Search box, enter “RTShipping.Fedex”, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

3. The following AppConfigs will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from FedEx. Do not change the other AppConfigs unless instructed to do so!

- RTShipping.FedEx.AccountNumber- RTShipping.FedEx.Meter *

4. Finally, search for the “RTShipping.ActiveCarrier” AppConfig, and set the value to FedEx.

* To obtain your FedEx Meter, go to Configuration → Shipping → Get FedEx Meter in the AspDotNetStorefront admin site. Fill in your account number and address information and click Submit Request.

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DHL

Once the General realtime shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable DHL shipping:


2. In the Config Search box, enter “RTShipping.DHL”, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

3. The following AppConfigs will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from DHL. Do not change the other AppConfigs unless instructed to do so!

- RTShipping.DHL.AccountNumber- RTShipping.DHL.APISystemID- RTShipping.DHL.APISystemPassword

4. Finally, search for the “RTShipping.ActiveCarrier” AppConfig, and set the value to DHL.

NOTE: DHL has 2 realtime rate services available - RateIT and ShipIT. ASPDNSF customers should use the RateIT service.

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Australia Post

Once the General realtime shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable AusPost shipping:


2. In the Config Search box, enter “RTShipping.AusPost”, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

3. Verify that the following AppConfigs are configured as desired for your site. Note that AusPost does not require any username/password information to return live rates.

- RTShipping.AusPost.DefaultPackageSize- RTShipping.AusPost.DomesticServices- RTShipping.AusPost.IntlServices- RTShipping.AusPost.MaxWeight

4. Change the "Localization.StoreCurrency" AppConfig to "AUD" (see the online manual for more information on changing locales).

5. Change the "Localization.WeightUnits" AppConfig to "kg" (see the online manual for more information on changing locales).

6. Finally, search for the “RTShipping.ActiveCarrier” AppConfig, and set the value to AusPost.

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Canada Post

Once the General realtime shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable Canada Post shipping:


2. In the Config Search box, enter “RTShipping.CanadaPost”, then click Search. Results should be shown as below:

3. Verify that the following AppConfig is configured with your account information from Canada Post.

- RTShipping.CanadaPost.MerchantID

4. Change the "Localization.StoreCurrency" AppConfig to "CAD" (see the online manual for more information on changing locales).

5. Change the "Localization.WeightUnits" AppConfig to "kg" (see the online manual for more information on changing locales).

6. Finally, search for the “RTShipping.ActiveCarrier” AppConfig, and set the value to CanadaPost.

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Fixed Rates

With fixed rates, you must manually create shipping methods, and then set up pricing tables for them. There are several ways to create these tables, covered below.

NOTE: Realtime rates and fixed rates cannot be mixed, you must use one or the other.

Creating Shipping Methods

First, you must create the shipping methods that your customers will have to choose from. To do this, go to Configuration → Shipping → Shipping Methods in the demo admin site, and click Add New Shipping Method. Give the method a name and click Add New.

Note: The name given to shipping method is just a label that's presented to your customers. It does not have to be a valid carrier shipping method name. “U.S. Ground Shipping”, “Local Pickup”, “Super Saver Shipping”, etc are all just as acceptable as “UPS Ground” and “2nd Day Air”

Once your methods are created, you must set which states and countries each method is allowable in. To do this, under Configuration → Shipping → Shipping Methods, click the Set Allowed States and Set Allowed Countries buttons for each method, and check all of the areas you wish the method to be allowed for. Customers will only see the methods that are allowed for their Country/State combination.

Note: Be sure that every method has at least one valid state/country combination or it will not show up to any customers. For example, a shipping method that allows Florida but not United States will never appear.

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Calculation Methods

Once you have created your shipping methods, you must choose a way of calculating the shipping rates and populate the associated table. The software offers 9 ways of calculating these rates:

Calculate Shipping By WeightThis method uses a simple table based on the total weight of the order (see the online manual for information on setting up product weights) to calculate shipping costs. You specify a low-end and high-end for each range, and can specify different costs for each shipping method, as shown below.

NOTE: Be sure your weight ranges do not leave gaps that order weights could fall into. If your table goes from 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, etc, an order of 2.5 lbs will fail.

Calculate Shipping By TotalThis calculation method lets you base your shipping rates on the total dollar amount of the customer's order, as shown below.

This method can easily be used to give certain dollar ranges free shipping. In the example below, anyone buying more than $50 worth of products gets free shipping.

NOTE: Be sure that your table covers all totals that a customer may get. If someone has an order total lower or higher than your table accounts for, or that falls into a gap in your table, the order will fail.

Use Fixed PricesThis is the simplest shipping calculation method to set up. Each shipping method has one price, regardless of the order contents.

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All Orders Have Free ShippingAs the name states, all orders – regardless of contents – will receive free shipping.

Use Fixed Percentage Of TotalThis method charges a percentage of the order total for shipping, as shown below.

Use Individual Item Shipping CostsThis calculation method allows you to set a shipping cost on each product variant (see the online manual for information on setting up product attributes). The shipping costs will be added together to generate your customers' shipping total.

NOTE: The option to set a shipping cost on product variants will not appear until this shipping calculation method has been selected.

Calculate Shipping By Weight & ZoneThis method allows you to charge different amounts based on the destination zip code (or zip code range, see the online manual for information on zones) and the order weight.

Calculate Shipping By Total & ZoneThis method allows you to charge different amounts based on the destination zip code (or zip code range, see the online manual for information on zones) and the order total.

Calculate Shipping By Total & Percent

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This is the most complicated of the fixed shipping rates to set up, but allows for greater flexibility in pricing than the other methods. The Base Charge is the base shipping dollar amount. The software then adds to that charge a percentage of the order total, based on the Shipping Charge As % of Total that you enter.

The Minimum Charge field is optional, but allows you to set a minimum value for each range that will override the calculated price if it's below that minimum.

In the example table below, an order of $10 would be charged $5 for ground shipping, since the base amount ($3) plus the percentage ($1) is less than the minimum. A $45 dollar order would be charged $7.50 ($3 base plus $45 x 10%).

NOTE: Be sure that your table covers all totals that a customer may get. If someone has an order total lower or higher than your table accounts for, or that falls into a gap in your table, the order will fail.

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Payment Settings

Payment Gateway

While the demo only allows manual payment processing for testing purposes, the full software integrates with over 30 major payment processors. See the online manual for more information.

Payment Methods

The software supports several methods of payment. To enable a payment method, go to Configuration → Advanced → AppConfig Parameters in the admin site and search for ‘PaymentMethods’. Edit the AppConfig and list the methods you want to use (described below

Credit CardThis payment method allows customers to enter their CC information and pay without leaving your site. This is the most common payment method, and is usually the simplest to manage as most of the work is done by the payment gateway.

PayPal ExpressPayPal Express takes customers off of your site (the link appears on the shopping cart page, before the normal payment process) to pay through their PayPal account. Funds are transferred directly to your own PayPal account. This option is generally more reliable than PayPal Standard.

PayPal StandardPayPal Standard appears as an option on your final payment page. If customers opt to pay that way, they are taken off of your site and sent to PayPal's site to pay. This method of payment is cheaper than most payment gateways, but notification of new orders can be unreliable. Completion of an order depends on customers using the 'Return to Merchant' button after completing payment on PayPal's site. If they do not click that button, or the redirect fails, your site may not be notified of the order (though it will be recorded in your PayPal account)

Request for QuotesThis method does not actually collect any payment information from customers. Store admins will be notified of the new order, and must then provide the customer with quote/pricing information (generally through email, though this can be handled however is desired as it is done outside of the software) for the products that were 'ordered'.

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Purchase OrdersPurchase orders are often used for government agencies or large businesses. Rather than paying directly through your site, they will request that you send them a PO, and they'll send the payment back however you work out. Most of the order processing is handled outside of the software.

CheckChecks are very rarely used for online transactions, but they can be enabled if desired. Note that if you decide to use this method, you need to make sure that the address to send payment to is prominently displayed on your site and the receipt.

C.O.D.With Cash on Delivery orders, products/services are paid for in full with cash or certified check immediately at the time of delivery, or when they are received by the buyer. As with checks and purchase orders, most of the order handling is done outside of the software.

eCheckThe Authorize.net, eProcessingNetwork, and ITransact payment gateways support eChecks, which essentially work the same way paper checks do. Only sites using those gateways will be able to use this payment method.

MicroPayMicropayments are pre-paid accounts that work only on your store site, similar to phonecards or giftcards. A customer can put in an initial amount and when it is used up, add more to it. Micropayments also save in merchant transaction fees by cutting down the number of transactions, since only adding funds to the micropay account requires running a live transaction through a gateway - all other micropay transactions stay on your site.

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Organizing Products

Before you can create a product, you must have an entity to map it to, so that customers can find the product in your store. Entities are what the software calls Categories, Departments, Distributors, and Manufacturers. Products are generally grouped into one or more of those entities. As with products, entities have many attributes that affect their use, which are explained in detail in the online manual.This guide covers creating a very basic category.

1 - First, click on Organization → Manage Categories in the admin menu.

2 - Click 'Add Category' in the tree on the left.

3 - Give your category a Name, and click 'Add New'.

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Adding Products

Now that you have a category to 'hold' the products you create, you can start adding the things you're going to sell:

1 - First, go to Products → Manage Products in the admin site, and expand the tree by clicking the + next to the category you just created.

2 - Next, click the + next to 'Products', and then click on 'Add Product'.

3 - Now fill in the required fields on the Main tab. The fields that must be completed at a minimum to create a basic product are explained below:

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Attribute Description

Name The products's name. This is visible to all customers

Product TypeGeneral type of product (generic, gift card, kit, etc). Most products will be 'Generic Product'

ManufacturerManufacturer. Use the predefined "Generic Mgf" if no custom ones have been created

Display Format XmlPackage

The XML package chosen here determines how the product detail page is laid out. For this product, we'll use product.simpleproduct.xml.config, the most basic of the packages.

4 - Every product should have images as well, so next click on the Images tab. By default, the software is set up to create icon (which display in the cart and on category pages) and medium (which display on the product detail page) images when you upload large (which display in a special popup window from the detail page) images, so click the Large 'Browse' button and upload the image you'd like to use for this product.

5 - Now your product needs a price. Click on the Variant tab, and set a base price for the product.

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6 - Finally, click 'Add New' at the bottom, and your new product is complete.

downloadable demo quickstart guide - aspdotnetstorefront · 2013-05-09 · demoadmin site, and...

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