uStorekeeper Reference Site

uStorekeeperTM
Online Shopping System

User's Guide


uStorekeeperTM
Copyright (c) 1999 - 2003; Microburst Technologies, Inc.
http://www.uburst.com

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Features

3. System Requirements

4. Getting Started

5. Installation

  1. Familiarization With Installing and Executing Perl Scripts
  2. Creating A Data Directory On Your Server
  3. Creating An Image Directory On Your Server
  4. Installing Some Default Images On Your Server
  5. Installing Some Default Layout Templates On Your Server
  6. Checking The File Extension Of The uStorekeeper Script
  7. Configuring The uStorekeeper Runtime Script
  8. Configuring The uStorekeeper Manager Script
  9. Configuring The uStorekeeper Affiliate Script
  10. Configuring The uStorekeeper Library/Configuration Script
  11. Transferring The uStorekeeper Scripts To Your Server
  12. Give The uStorekeeper Scripts READ and EXECUTE Permission
  13. Testing The Scripts

6. Control Panel

  1. General Settings
    1. General Information
    2. Store Appearance
    3. Payment Information
    4. Authorize.Net Interface
    5. LinkPoint Interface
    6. Tax Information
    7. Shipping Information
    8. Handling Information
    9. Gift Wrapping Information
    10. Discount Information
    11. Information Page
    12. Additional Settings
  2. Add Category
  3. Edit Category
  4. Delete Category
  5. Add Product
  6. Edit Product
  7. Delete Product
  8. Order Reader
    1. Reading Order Files
    2. Deleting Order Files
  9. Affiliate Tracking
    1. Adding A New Affiliate
    2. Editing An Affiliate
    3. Deleting An Affiliate
    4. Editing Affiliate Log
    5. Clearing Affiliate Log
    6. Affiliate Reporting
  10. Image Manager
    1. Uploading Images
    2. Deleting Images
  11. Purge
  12. Import
  13. Regenerate
  14. Diagnostics
  15. Goto Store

7. Using The Store

  1. Linking To Your Store
  2. Navigating The Store
  3. Searching The Store
  4. Adding Products To Your Cart
  5. Viewing Shopping Cart
  6. Placing Orders

8. Importing Data

9. More Information


1. Introduction

Microburst Technologies, Inc. proudly presents:

The uStorekeeperTM Online Shopping System

...bringing big e-business to small businesses.

uStorekeeperTM is a complete e-commerce solution that provides all you need to create, operate, and maintain an online store. It includes easy-to-use forms for managing product information, a built-in search engine and flat-file database, an interface to Authorize.Net, it's own Affiliate Tracking System, the ability to upload image and data files, and many other features...all of which can be controlled from a single Control Panel.

This User's Guide contains all of the information you need to know in order to setup uStorekeeperTM and start taking orders today.


2. Features

The Features of uStorekeeperTM include:

  • A single control panel by which you can easily perform all of the necessary functions associated with creating and maintaining an online store. No previous knowledge of HTML or CGI Programming is required.

  • An option to choose from several pre-defined page layouts for your store or the ability to create your own page layout templates.

  • Easy-to-use forms for adding, editing, and deleting products. For each product, the following options are available:
    • The ability to specify up to 3 option lists.
    • The ability to setup different prices per option.
    • The ability to add a small text box for monograms, initials, etc.
    • The ability to add a large text box for engravings, messages, etc.
    • The ability to mark items a taxable or non-taxable.
    • The ability to choose from 4 different display layouts.
    • The ability to specify a small and large (zoomed) image of the product.
    • The ability to specify minimum or maximum quantities of items.
    • The ability to setup different prices based on the quantity purchased.
    • The ability to allow customers to enter the price for the product (for quotes, etc.)
    • And much more!

  • A built-in import feature that allows you to upload product data files directly from your office or home computer without the use of any external FTP program.

  • A built-in image managing feature that allows you to upload or delete image files directly from your office or home computer without the use of any external FTP program.

  • Various options for configuring tax, shipping, and handling rates including the ability to charge different tax rates within each state and an option whether to include the shipping charge in tax calculations or not.

  • The ability to handle separate billing and shipping addresses.

  • The ability to offer a Gift Wrapping option.

  • The ability to offer Coupon and Global Discounts.

  • The ability to provide the following order options:
    • Order by Credit Card.
    • Order by Electronic Check.
    • Print Order for mail, fax, or phone orders.
    • A 'Contact Me' option to allow customers to request to be contacted by a sales rep.

  • The ability to validate credit card orders via checksum.

  • The ability to remember customer information (via cookies) so that returning customers do not have to fill in all the order forms every time.

  • A built-in interface to Authorize.Net and LinkPoint payment processing systems. (Note that you must have a merchant account that supports Authorize.Net or LinkPoint in order to use this feature).

  • A built-in Affiliate Tracking System which includes such features as:
    • Forms for adding, editing, and deleting affiliates.
    • The ability to configure commissions as a percentage of the total sales or as a flat rate per sale.
    • The ability to assign each affiliate a different commission.
    • The ability to edit the affiliate log in order to adjust for refunds, cancellations, etc.
    • The ability to clear the affiliate log of orders placed before a specified date.
    • The ability to generate affiliate reports on a specific affiliate or on all affiliates at once.
    • The ability to allow affiliates to login and see their own affiliate reports.

  • A built-in Diagnostics feature for assisting with configuration problems and facilitating support requests.

  • A built-in search engine and page navigation system.

  • No limit to the number of items in the store.

  • No monthly usage fees! Once you buy it, it's yours! *Note that you must purchase a new license for each store that you setup with uStorekeeper.

  • And much, much more!

3. System Requirements

The System Requirements of uStorekeeperTM are:

  1. You must be able to install and execute Perl scripts on your server.

  2. In order to ensure that transactions are secure, your server must also be a secure server (so that you can access your site via https in addition to http). See uStorekeeper Security.

  3. If you intend to use Authorize.Net to automatically process your orders, then you must have a merchant account that is compatible with Authorize.Net. See Authorize.Net for more information about setting up an account.
Note 1: If you are not planning to accept credit card or electronic check orders (ie. you just want to allow customers to contact you or print their orders) then the secure server requirement (#2 above) can be waived.

Note 2: If you do have an account with Authorize.Net and will be using them to handle credit card or electronic check orders, then the secure server requirement (#2 above) is still desirable, but can be waived.


4. Getting Started

In order to get started using uStorekeeperTM, it is recommended that you follow these steps:

  1. Upon receiving the ustorekeeper.zip file, you should unzip the entire .zip file into a new directory on your local desktop computer.

  2. Follow the instructions in the Installation section below in order to configure and install the uStorekeeperTM scripts on your server.

  3. After installing the scripts, login to uStorekeeper's main control panel by going to the URL of the ustorekeeper-manager.pl script on your server.

  4. Configure your store's general settings by pressing the "General Settings" button and filling in the information as described below in the General Settings section.

  5. After configuring your store's general settings, try creating a few categories by pressing the Add Category button and try adding a few products by pressing the Add Product button - both of which are described below. If necessary, use the Image Manager to upload images for your products.

  6. After adding a few categories and products, go to your store by going to the URL of the runtime ustorekeeper.pl script on your server. Try adding some items to your cart and placing a test order.

  7. After placing a test order, try using the Order Reader feature to read the order - just as you would do when a real order is placed.
The above steps should give you a good idea how uStorekeeperTM works and whether you have everything configured correctly. You can now go back and add any additional categories/products to your store as you see fit. Refer to the Control Panel section below for more information about utilizing all of uStorekeeper's features.


5. Installation

uStorekeeper consists of 4 Perl scripts that must be installed on your server. These scripts are:

  1. ustorekeeper.pl - The main runtime script that gets executed by visitors as they browse your store and place orders.

  2. ustorekeeper-manager.pl - The script through which you can access the uStorekeeper Control Panel and manage your online store.

  3. ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl - The script through which you can access uStorekeeper's Affiliate Tracking System.

  4. ustorekeeper-lib.pl - A library and configuration file that is used by the other uStorekeeper scripts.

This section describes how to install each of these scripts on your server. Note that during the setup, it will be assumed that your cgi directory is called "cgi-bin", however, on some servers it may actually be called "cgi-local" or simply, "cgi". Just substitute in whatever name applies on your server. Also, during installation you will be required to make a couple new directories. It will be assumed that the names of the new directories will be "data" and "images", however, you can actually name them whatever you want. Just substitute in the names you want to use.

Installation Part 1 - Familiarization With Installing and Executing Perl Scripts

If you've never installed or executed any Perl scripts on your server before, it is recommended that you first try installing our basic test script as described at our reference site:

http://www.uburst.com/uStorekeeper/testscript.html

This simple Perl script is the most basic of Perl scripts and should help you to understand how to install and execute scripts on your server. It also will verify that your web hosting account is configured properly to run Perl scripts and will make installing the uStorekeeper scripts that much easier.

Installation Part 2 - Creating A Data Directory On Your Server

uStorekeeper will store product data files and order files in a data directory on your server. So use your FTP program to create a directory called "data" on your server. This "data" directory should be a subdirectory of your cgi-bin directory. Also, this directory will need to have write and execute permissions, so use your FTP program to set the permissions on this directory to WRITE and EXECUTE (chmod 733). Note that if you have an NT Server, you may have to get your Web Hosting Provider to give this new data directory permission to allow CGI scripts to WRITE to that directory.

See Section 4 on our uStorekeeper Security page for more information about correctly setting up the data directory.

After this step, your cgi-bin directory should have a new subdirectory called "data" and this "data" directory should have WRITE and EXECUTE permission.

Installation Part 3 - Creating An Image Directory On Your Server

uStorekeeper allows you to specify a default image directory where it will look for images when the full URL of images are not specified and into which image files will be placed when using uStorekeeper's image upload utility. So use your FTP program to create a directory called "images" on your server. This "images" directory should be a subdirectory of your main directory (NOT a subdirectory of your cgi-bin directory). Also, this directory will need to have read, write and execute permissions, so use your FTP program to set the permissions on this image directory to READ, WRITE and EXECUTE (chmod 777). Note that if you have an NT Server, you may have to get your Web Hosting Provider to give this new directory permission to allow CGI scripts to WRITE to that directory and to allow website visitors to view the images in that directory.

At this point, you should have a directory structure setup on your server similar to:

- main directory
   |
   |-- images
   |
   |-- cgi-bin
   |     |
   |     |-- data
   |
   :
   :

Or depending on how your account on your server is setup, it maybe more similar to:

- main directory
   |
   |-- www
   |    |
   |    |-- images
   |    : 
   |     
   |-- cgi-bin
   |    |
   |    |-- data
   :
   :

Note that in the first directory structure example, regular web pages normally go straight into the "main directory".

Note that in the second directory structure example, the account was setup such that regular web pages normally go into the directory called "www".

Based on how your Web Hosting Provider sets up accounts, you may have slightly different structures.

Installation Part 4 - Installing Some Default Images On Your Server

While you're FTPed to your server, let's go ahead and transfer some default images into your images directory. You can go back later and overwrite and/or change these images, but for now, just go ahead and transfer them to your server so that we have something to work with.

Use your FTP program to transfer the following files into the "images" directory that you created in the previous step. Transfer:

  • logo.gif
  • tag.gif
  • cart_button.gif
  • order_button.gif
  • information_button.gif
  • example_check.gif
Installation Part 5 - Installing Some Default Layout Templates On Your Server

Also while you're FTPed to your server, let's go ahead and transfer some default page layout templates to your data directory. These default page layouts will allow you to choose what layout your store pages will have. You can find out more about these page layout templates - including how to make your own templates at our online Page Layout Reference.

Use your FTP program to transfer the following files into the "data" directory that you created above in part 2. Transfer:

  • USTOREKEEPER1.layout
  • USTOREKEEPER2.layout
  • USTOREKEEPER3.layout
  • USTOREKEEPER4.layout
  • EXAMPLE.layout
Installation Part 6 - Checking The File Extension Of The uStorekeeper Script

Currently, the uStorekeeper scripts are named ustorekeeper.pl, ustorekeeper-manager.pl, ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl, and ustorekeeper-lib.pl. Some servers, however, require that Perl (or any CGI scripts) have the extension .cgi instead of .pl. If this is the case for your server, simple rename the files using the .cgi extension so that the files are named ustorekeeper.cgi, ustorekeeper-manager.cgi, ustorekeeper-affiliate.cgi, and ustorekeeper-lib.cgi, respectively. Note that if your server does support CGI scripts that end in ".pl" (as most servers do), then you can skip this step.

Installation Part 7 - Configuring The uStorekeeper Runtime Script

Perform the following steps to configure the ustorekeeper runtime script for your server:

  • Step 1 - Use any text editor (such as WordPad) to open the ustorekeeper.pl script.

  • Step 2 - As the very first line of the script, specify your path to Perl. This will be something like #!/usr/bin/perl or #!/usr/sbin/perl on UNIX servers or #!C:/perl/perl.exe on NT servers. If you do not know your path to Perl, ask your web hosting provider. Note: Be sure to include the #! before the path.

  • Step 3 - Immediately below the path to perl, you will see the line:

    require "ustorekeeper-lib.pl";

    Note that the file name in the quotes must match that of your ustorekeeper-lib file. So if you renamed that file to ustorekeeper-lib.cgi in Installation Part 6 above, then be sure to change the name here too.

  • Step 4 - Save the ustorekeeper runtime script. (If your editor prompts you, choose to save the file as TEXT.)

  • Step 5 - Exit your text editor.
Installation Part 8 - Configuring The uStorekeeper Manager Script

Perform the following steps to configure the ustorekeeper-manager script for your server:

  • Step 1 - Use any text editor (such as WordPad) to open the ustorekeeper-manager script.

  • Step 2 - As the very first line of the script, specify your path to Perl. This will be something like #!/usr/bin/perl or #!/usr/sbin/perl on UNIX servers or #!C:/perl/perl.exe on NT servers. If you do not know your path to Perl, ask your web hosting provider. Note: Be sure to include the #! before the path.

  • Step 3 - Immediately below the path to perl, you will see the line:

    require "ustorekeeper-lib.pl";
    Note that the file name in the quotes must match that of your ustorekeeper-lib file. So if you renamed that file to ustorekeeper-lib.cgi in Installation Part 6 above, then be sure to change the name here too.

  • Step 4 - Save the ustorekeeper-manager script. (If your editor prompts you, choose to save the file as TEXT.)

  • Step 5 - Exit your text editor.
Installation Part 9 - Configuring The uStorekeeper Affiliate Script

Perform the following steps to configure the ustorekeeper-affiliate script for your server:

  • Step 1 - Use any text editor (such as WordPad) to open the ustorekeeper-affiliate script.

  • Step 2 - As the very first line of the script, specify your path to Perl. This will be something like #!/usr/bin/perl or #!/usr/sbin/perl on UNIX servers or #!C:/perl/perl.exe on NT servers. If you do not know your path to Perl, ask your web hosting provider. Note: Be sure to include the #! before the path.

  • Step 3 - Immediately below the path to perl, you will see the line:

    require "ustorekeeper-lib.pl";
    Note that the file name in the quotes must match that of your ustorekeeper-lib file. So if you renamed that file to ustorekeeper-lib.cgi in Installation Part 6 above, then be sure to change the name here too.

  • Step 4 - Save the ustorekeeper-affiliate script. (If your editor prompts you, choose to save the file as TEXT.)

  • Step 5 - Exit your text editor.
Note that at this point, you should have made the exact same changes to the uStorekeeper Runtime Script (ustorekeeper.pl), the uStorekeeper Manager Script (ustorekeeper-manager.pl), and the uStorekeeper Affiliate Script (ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl).

Installation Part 10 - Configuring The uStorekeeper Library/Configuration Script

Perform the following steps to configure the ustorekeeper library script for your server:

  • Step 1 - Use any text editor (such as WordPad) to open the ustorekeeper-lib.pl script.

  • Step 2 - Answer the 21 questions which are located at the top of the script and which are described in detail below:

  • Question 1: What is your uStorekeeper License Number?
    For this question, simply enter the license number that you were given when purchasing uStorekeeper. An example value is:

    $license_number = "ABC-123-456-789";

  • Question 2: What is the full URL of your domain?
    For this question, simply enter the full URL of your website. An example value is:

    $domain = "http://www.mystore.com";

  • Question 3: What is the secure URL of your domain?
    For this question, enter the secure URL (beginning with https) of your website. An example value is:

    $secure_domain = "https://www.mystore.com";

  • Question 4: What is the full URL of the uStorekeeper runtime script?
    For this question, enter what the full URL of your ustorekeeper.pl script will be. Considering that you will be installing the ustorekeeper.pl script into the cgi-bin directory on your server, an example value is:

    $runtime_script_url = "http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl";

  • Question 5: What is the secure URL of the uStorekeeper runtime script?
    For this question, enter what the secure URL of your ustorekeeper.pl script will be. This should be identical to the location specified in the previous question except that you use the secure (https) URL instead. An example value is:

    $secure_runtime_script_url = "https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl";

  • Question 6: What is the full URL of the uStorekeeper manager script?
    For this question, enter what the full URL of your ustorekeeper-manager.pl script will be. Considering that you will be installing the ustorekeeper-manager script into the cgi-bin directory on your server, an example value is:

    $manager_script_url = "http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-manager.pl";

  • Question 7: What is the secure URL of the uStorekeeper manager script? For this question, enter what the secure URL of your ustorekeeper-manager.pl script will be. This should be identical to the location specified in the previous question except that you use the secure (https) URL instead. An example value is:

    $secure_manager_script_url = "https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-manager.pl";

  • Question 8: What is the full URL of the uStorekeeper Affiliate script?
    For this question, enter what the full URL of your ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl script will be. Considering that you will be installing the ustorekeeper-affiliate script into the cgi-bin directory on your server, an example value is:

    $affiliate_script_url = "http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl";

  • Question 9: What is the secure URL of the uStorekeeper Affiliate script? For this question, enter what the secure URL of your ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl script will be. This should be identical to the location specified in the previous question except that you use the secure (https) URL instead. An example value is:

    $secure_affiliate_script_url = "https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl";

    Question 10: What is the URL of the image that you would like to use for your store's logo?
    For this question, enter the full URL of the image that you would like to use for your store's logo. The recommended size of this image is under 250 x 200 pixels. If you don't already have an image in mind, just go ahead and use the URL of the main_image.gif that you installed in your "images" directory in Part 4 above. An example value is:

    $image_url = "http://www.mystore.com/images/logo.gif";

  • Question 11: What is the secure URL of the image that you would like to use for your store's logo?
    Because the your store's logo will also be displayed on secure pages - like while you use uStorekeeper's Control Panel, you need to also specify the secure URL of the image that you specified in the previous question. An example value is:

    $secure_image_url = "https://www.mystore.com/images/logo.gif";

  • Question 12: What is the full or relative path to your data directory?
    For this question, you should enter the full or relative path from your cgi-bin directory to the "data" directory that you created in Part 2 above. For example, if you did make the "data" directory as a subdirectory of your cgi-bin, you should be able to set this value to:

    $data_directory = "./data/";

    IMPORTANT NOTE: This $data_directory must be a path - NOT a URL (ie. It should NOT start with "http").

  • Question 13: What is the full or relative path to your default image directory?
    For this question, you should enter the full or relative path from your cgi-bin directory to the "images" directory that you created in Part 3 above. For example, if you did make the "images" directory as a subdirectory of your main document directory, you should be able to set this value to:

    $default_image_dir = "../images/";

    or

    $default_image_dir = "../www/images/";

    (Depending on what the relative path is.)

    IMPORTANT NOTE: This $default_image_dir must be a path - NOT a URL (ie. It should NOT start with "http").

  • Question 14: What is the URL of your default image directory?
    For this question you should enter the Full URL of the default image directory that you created in Part 3 above. An example value is:

    $default_image_dir_url = "http://www.mystore.com/images/";

  • Question 15: What is the main currency that your store will use?
    For this question you should enter the currency symbol that your store will be using, such as "$" or "£". An example value is:

    $currency_symbol = '$';

  • Question 16: What email method do you want to use? (SENDMAIL, BLAT or SOCKETS)
    For this question, specify the email method that the uStorekeeper script will use on your server. Available choices are "SENDMAIL", "BLAT", or "SOCKETS". SENDMAIL is recommended for all UNIX servers. "BLAT" is only available on NT servers. And "SOCKETS" can be used on both UNIX and NT servers. If you not know what email method to use, you may want to check with your Web Hosting Provider on what the recommend email method is for CGI scripts on your server. Assuming you have a UNIX server, an example value is:

    $email_method = "SENDMAIL";

  • Question 17: If using SENDMAIL to send email, what is the path to sendmail?
    For this question, specify the path of sendmail on your server. This information can usually be found in your Web Hosting Provider's "CGI Help Page". Otherwise, just ask your provider what the path of sendmail is. An example value is:

    $sendmail_path = "/usr/lib/sendmail";

    NOTE: If you are not using SENDMAIL to send email, then you can just skip this question.

  • Question 18: If using BLAT to send email, what is the path to Blat?
    For this question, specify the path of Blat on your server. This information can usually be found on your Web Hosting Provider's "CGI Help Page". Otherwise, just ask your provider what the path of Blat is. An example value is:

    $blat_path = "C:/Blat/blat.exe";

    NOTE: If you are not using BLAT to send email, then you can just skip this question.

  • Question 19: If using SOCKETS to send email, what is the IP address (or name) of you mail server?
    For this question, specify either the IP address or the name of your mail server. An example value is:

    $smtp_address = "mail.mystore.com";

    or

    $smtp_address = "123.456.789.5";

  • Question 20: What password would you like to use to login?
    For this question, specify any password that you would like to use when logging in to uStorekeeper's Control Panel. You can use almost any combination of letters and numbers for the password. An example value is:

    $login_password = "mypassword";

  • Question 21: FOR AUTHORIZE.NET USER'S ONLY. What is your Authorize.Net Transaction Key?
    If you plan on using Authorize.Net's payment gateway, you must configure a unique "fingerprint" or "transaction hash key" that Authorize.Net will use to validate requests from your store. Follow the instructions below for configuring a transaction key, then enter your Authorize.Net-generated key as the answer to this question. An example value is:

    $x_hash_key = "1234567890123456";

    Special Instructions for Configuring an Authorize.Net Transaction Key (March 2003)

    1. Log in to your Authorize.Net Control Panel
    2. Under "Settings", select "Obtain Transaction Key". Record the generated transaction key for use later.
    3. Make sure the URL of your uShop CGI script is listed under Settings | Response/Receipt URLS.
    4. Make sure the URL of your uShop CGI script is also listed under Settings | Relay Response
    5. Change your Authorize.Net account to "Password Only" mode. (Settings | Password Required Mode)
    6. Under "Settings", disable the WebLink method if it is currently enabled. (Note: This option won't even show up in the settings if you already have WebLink disabled, or if you are a new Authorize.Net merchant.)

    Specify the recorded transaction key as the answer to configuration Question 21.

  • Step 3 - After configuring all 21 questions as described above, save the ustorekeeper-lib.pl script and exit your editor.
Installation Part 11 - Transferring The uStorekeeper Scripts To Your Server

Once the uStorekeeper scripts have been configured as described in the Parts 7, 8, 9, and 10, above, you can now transfer the scripts to your server, along with the Authorize.Net library SimHMAC.pm file (even if you are not using Authorize.Net, this MUST be installed in your cgi-bin directory). Use your FTP program to transfer all four scripts to the cgi-bin directory on your server. IMPORTANT NOTE: When transferring these files, be sure to transfer them in ASCII or TEXT mode - NOT BINARY or RAW mode.

File Upload Checklist:
  • ustorekeeper.pl
  • ustorekeeper-lib.pl
  • ustorekeeper-manager.pl
  • ustorekeeper-affiliate.pl
  • SimHMAC.pm (an Authorize.Net library MUST be installed, even if you don't use Authorize.Net)

Installation Part 12 - Give The uStorekeeper Scripts READ and EXECUTE Permission

Once the uStorekeeper scripts and the SimHMAC.pm file have been transferred to your server, you must give the scripts READ and EXECUTE permission. Use your FTP program to give each of the script READ and EXECUTE permission (chmod 755). Note that if you have an NT Server, you may have to get your Web Hosting Provider to give these scripts EXECUTE permission.

Installation Part 13 - Testing The Scripts

You can now test out the scripts by going to the URL of the uStorekeeper scripts.

  • Start your browser and try going to the URL of the ustorekeeper.pl script that was installed on your server. The URL should be the same value that you configured in Question #4 of the ustorekeeper-lib.pl script setup. Something like:

    http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl

    This should result in a page displaying the uStorekeeper Copyright Information.

  • Now use your browser to go to the URL of the ustorekeeper-manager.pl script that was installed on your server. The URL should be the same value that you configured in Question #7 of the ustorekeeper-lib.pl script setup. Something like:

    https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-manager.pl

    This should result in the uStorekeeper "Login" page.
At this point, you can "Login" to uStorekeeper's Control Panel by using the password that you configured in Question #20 of the ustorekeeper-lib.pl script setup - and start using uStorekeeper. You have successfully installed uStorekeeper!

If you ran into any trouble installing uStorekeeper, visit our reference site at:

http://www.uburst.com/uStorekeeper/reference.html

...for the latest in troubleshooting assistance.


6. Control Panel

The uStorekeeper Control Panel provides the means by which you can create, manage, and operate your online store. To login to the control panel, go to the URL of the ustorekeeper-manager script that you installed in the previous section. This URL should be the same value that you configured in Installation Question #7 of the ustorekeeper-lib script and will be something like:

https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-manager.pl

Note that is recommended that you used the secure URL (beginning with https) of your ustorekeeper-manager script when logging in.

Note also that it is recommended that you bookmark this URL so that you don't have to type it in each time you want to login to your store.

Upon entering your password (from Installation Question #20) at the login prompt, uStorekeeper's Main Control Panel will be displayed. On this control panel, you will see 15 buttons - each of which is described in the following sections.


6.1 General Settings

The General Settings button creates a configuration page from which you can setup many of your store's general settings. These settings include such things as contact information, payment types accepted, tax calculations, shipping & handling calculations, and more! All of the settings that are configurable through this configuration page are described in the following sections.

6.1.1 General Information

This section allows you to setup some general information about your store such as name, address, phone, etc. This information will primarily be used for display purposes only - except for the email address fields which specify where order notifications will be sent.

*Company Name - This field allows you to specify the name of your company/store. It will be displayed on order forms and receipt pages. You can enter any text for this field.

*Address - This field allows you to specify the correct mailing address of your store. It will be displayed on order forms and receipt pages. You can enter any number of text lines for this field.

*Phone - This field allows you to specify the correct phone number of your store. It will be displayed on order forms and receipt pages. You can enter any text or numeric characters for this field.

Fax - This field allows you to specify the correct fax number of your store. It will be displayed on order forms and receipt pages. You can enter any text or numeric characters for this field.

URL - This field allows you to specify the full URL of your store's website such as "http://www.mystore.com". It will be displayed on order forms and receipt pages.

*Primary Email - This field allows you to specify the email address to which you would like order notifications to be sent. Whenever an order is placed, an order notification email will be sent to the email address specified in this field. This is also the email address that will appear in the "FROM" portion of email receipts sent to the customer and on the order forms/receipt pages. Only one email address can be specified in this field.

Secondary Email(s) - This field allows you to specify any additional email addresses to which you would like the order notifications to be sent. You can list as many email addresses as you like here - each one separated by a comma. For example, if you want order notifications to also be sent to your home email accounts, then you could specify this field as "john@aol.com,jane@mindspring.com"... again listing as many addresses as you like, each separated by a comma. Note that these "Secondary" email addresses will never be seen by the customer - and are designed to just help notify the right people when an order has been placed. If you do not want the order notifications sent anywhere other than the email address specified above as the "Primary Email", then leave this field blank.

6.1.2 Store Appearance

This section allows you to specify some preferences for your store such as the page layout, images, shopping cart colors and order form colors.

Store Layout - This field allows you to select the layout template from which your store pages will be created. You can choose one of the pre-defined layout templates or create your own template. See the Page Layouts reference page for more information.

Store Banner Image - This field allows you to specify the default banner image that will be displayed on your category pages. This image will also be displayed at the top of your "View Cart" pages. See the Page Layouts reference page for suggested sizes for this image based on the layout template that you are using.

Secure Store Banner Image - This field allows you to specify the default banner image that will be displayed on your secure store pages. That is, this image will be displayed on such pages as your Order Form page and your Thank You page. Typically, this URL maps to the same image that you specified in the previous "Store Banner Image" field...except this field will begin with "https".

*View Cart Button - This field allows you to specify the URL of the image that you want to use for your "View Cart" button.

*Place Order Button - This field allows you to specify the URL of the image that you want to use for your "Place Order" button.

*Information Button - This field allows you to specify the URL of the image that you want to use for your "Information" button.

Default Background Image - This field allows you to specify the URL of the image that you want to use for your default background image. If you don't want a background image, then set this field to NONE or leave it blank.

*Cart Font Name(s) - This field allows you to specify the name of the font that you want to use for your shopping cart. You can use any font name such as Arial or Helvetica or Courier. You can also specify multiple (default) font names such as Verdana,Helvetica,Arial.

*Cart Font Color - This field allows you to specify the color of the font in your shopping cart. You can specify any RGB value ranging from #FFFFFF (white) to #000000 (black).

*Cart Title Color - This field allows you to specify the color of the shopping cart's title bar. You can specify any RGB value ranging from #FFFFFF (white) to #000000 (black).

*Cart Background Color - This field allows you to specify the background color of the shopping cart. You can specify any RGB value ranging from #FFFFFF (white) to #000000 (black).

*Order Form Font Name(s) - This field allows you to specify the name of the font that you want to use for your order forms. You can use any font name such as Arial or Helvetica or Courier. You can also specify multiple (default) font names such as Verdana,Helvetica,Arial.

*Order Form Font Color - This field allows you to specify the color of the font on the order forms. You can specify any RGB value ranging from #FFFFFF (white) to #000000 (black).

*Order Form Title Color - This field allows you to specify the color of the order form's title bars. You can specify any RGB value ranging from #FFFFFF (white) to #000000 (black).

*Order Form Background Color - This field allows you to specify the background color of the order forms. You can specify any RGB value ranging from #FFFFFF (white) to #000000 (black).

6.1.3 Payment Information

This section allows you to specify the payment types that your store will accept along with some additional options associated with them.

*Credit Cards - If your store will be accepting credit card payments then set this field to "Support Credit Card Payments". Otherwise if your store will not be supporting credit card payments, then set this field to "Don't Support Credit Card Payments". Note: If you're going to use Authorize.Net or LinkPoint to process credit card orders, then set this field to "Don't Support Credit Card Payments" and configure the Authorize.Net or LinkPoint sections below.

Credit Card Types - If your store will be accepting credit card payments, use this field to specify which credit cards will be supported. You can list as many types of cards as you like here - just be sure to separate each card type with a comma. For example, if your store will be accepting Visa, MasterCard and American Express, then set this field to "Visa,MasterCard,American Express".

Credit Card Instructions - If your store will be accepting credit card payments, use this field to specify instructions for credit card orders. The text entered in this field will appear on the "Review Order" page and is meant to instruct the customer on how to begin the credit card ordering process. An example value for this field is: "Click here to pay by Visa, Master Card, or American Express."

*Support Electronic Checks - If your store will be accepting electronic check payments then set this field to "Support Electronic Check Payments". Otherwise if your store will not be supporting electronic check payments, then set this field to "Don't Support Electronic Check Payments". Note: If you're going to use Authorize.Net to process electronic checks for you, then set this field to "Don't Support Electronic Check Payments" and configure the Authorize.Net section below.

Check Image - If your store will be accepting electronic check payments, then it may be helpful to the customer to see an example check image illustrating where to get the necessary checking information. Use this field to specify the location of an example check image. Since this will be viewed from a Secure Order Form, the URL of the example check image should also be secure (beginning with https). An example check image is "https://www.uburst.com/uStorekeeper/images/example_check.gif".

Electronic Check Instructions - If your store will be accepting electronic check payments, use this field to specify instructions for electronic check orders. The text entered in this field will appear on the "Review Order" page and is meant to instruct the customer on how to begin the electronic check ordering process. An example value for this field is: "Click here to pay by electronic check."

*Print Order Option - If you would like to give customers an option to print their orders (for mailing orders in with their check/money order, faxing orders in, or calling orders in), then set this field to "Provide A Print Order Option". If you don't want customers to be able to print out their order, then set this field to "Don't Provide A Print Order Option".

Print Instructions - If your store will be providing an option to print out orders, use this field to specify instructions for printing orders. The text entered in this field will appear on the "Review Order" page and is meant to instruct the customer on how to print their order. An example value for this field is: "Click here to generate a printable order form for Phone, Fax, or Mail Orders."

*Contact Option - If you would like to give customers an option to be contacted about an order, then set this field to "Provide A 'Contact Me' Option". This will essentially provide an additional order form which does not request any payment information, but instead will just send an email notification to indicate that the customer would like to be contacted by a sales representative. If your store will not be supporting this "Contact Me" option, then set this field to "Don't Provide A 'Contact Me' Option".

Contact Instructions - If your store will be providing a "Contact Me" order option, use this field to specify instructions for submitting the contact request. The text entered in this field will appear on the "Review Order" page and is meant to instruct the customer on how to submit the "Contact" request. An example value for this field is: "Click here to have a representative contact you about your order."

6.1.4 Authorize.Net Information

If you are going to be using Authorize.Net to process your credit card and/or electronic check orders, then use this section to configure the Authorize.Net interface settings. Note that you must have an account with Authorize.Net in order to be able to use this feature and you must have previously configured the ustorekeeper-lib.pl Question 21 with your generated Authorize.Net security fingerprint.. You can find out more about getting an Authorize.Net-compatible merchant account Here.

*Use Authorize.Net - If you have an Authorize.Net account and would like to use their Secure Transaction Servers to process credit card and/or electronic check payments, then set this field to "Use Authorize.Net To Process Payments". If you do not have an Authorize.Net account or do not what to use Authorize.Net to process credit card and/or electronic check orders, then set this field to "Don't Use Authorize.Net To Process Payments".

Authorize.Net Instructions - If your store will be using Authorize.Net to process payments, use this field to specify instructions for ordering. The text entered in this field will appear on the "Review Order" page and is meant to instruct the customer on how to begin the ordering process with Authorize.Net. An example value for this field is: "Click here to pay by credit card on Authorize.Net's Secure Transaction Servers."

Authorize.Net URL - If your store will be using Authorize.Net to process payments, then you must specify the URL of Authorize.Net's secure transaction script. The current value is "https://secure.authorize.net/gateway/transact.dll", however, if it ever changes, this is where you can make the adjustment.

Authorize.Net Login ID - This field should be set to the unique ID that was assigned to you when setting up an Authorize.Net account. It is required so that Authorize.Net can credit your correct account when orders are placed via your online store.

Customer Identifier - Whenever a transaction is processed by Authorize.Net, an identifier will be assigned to the transaction to identify how the order was placed. This identifier will help you to keep track of which orders were processed manually via Authorize.Net's Virtual Terminal and which orders were process automatically via an online order. This "Customer Identifier" field allows you to specify the identifier that will be assigned to all online orders - thus identifying them as being placed "on-line". You can specify any text for this field such as "Online Customer".

Use Address Verification - This field allows you to specify whether you want to use Authorize.Net's Address Verification System to validate customer addresses before accepting orders.

Test or Live Mode? - This field allows you to specify whether your store is in TEST MODE or LIVE MODE. When first setting up your store, you should begin with this field set to TEST MODE. TEST MODE will allow you to place test orders that are not actually processed by Authorize.Net. Once you are ready to start accepting real orders, however, you must change this field to LIVE MODE. LIVE MODE will cause Authorize.Net to start processing orders.

6.1.5 LinkPoint Interface

If you are going to be using LinkPoint to process your credit card orders, then use this section to configure the LinkPoint interface settings. Note that you must have an account with LinkPoint in order to be able to use this feature. You can find out more about getting a LinkPoint-compatible merchant account Here.

*Use LinkPoint - If you have a LinkPoint account and would like to use their Secure Transaction Servers to process credit card payments, then set this field to "Use LinkPoint To Process Payments". If you do not have a LinkPoint account or do not what to use LinkPoint to process credit card orders, then set this field to "Don't Use LinkPoint To Process Payments".

LinkPoint Instructions - If your store will be using LinkPoint to process payments, use this field to specify instructions for ordering. The text entered in this field will appear on the "Review Order" page and is meant to instruct the customer on how to begin the ordering process with LinkPoint. An example value for this field is: "Click here to pay by credit card on LinkPoint's Secure Transaction Servers."

LinkPoint URL - If your store will be using LinkPoint to process payments, then you must specify the URL of LinkPoint's secure transaction script. The current value is "https://staging.linkpt.net/cgi-bin/hlppay", however, if it ever changes, this is where you can make the adjustment.

LinkPoint Store ID - In this field you should enter the 6-digit store id that was assigned to you when you setup your LinkPoint account.

*NOTE: For additional information about configuring the uStorekeeperTM - LinkPoint Interface, see the following URL:

http://www.uburst.com/uStorekeeper/linkpoint.html


6.1.6 Tax Information

This section allows you to setup how your store will handle taxes.

Tax Instructions - This field allows you to specify a set of instructions that describe how tax is handled in your store. These instructions will appear on the order form and can be used to indicate such things as from which states will customers be charged tax. For example, if you want to tell customers from Florida that they must select the correct tax rate for their area, then you could set this field to "Customers in Florida must select the tax rate for their area." If you do not want any tax instructions displayed on the order form, then leave this field blank.

Tax States - This field allows you to specify any specific states that will be charged tax. For instance, if you only want to charge Florida and California customers tax, then you can specify this field as "FL,Florida,CA,California". Note that you can specify as may states as you like - each one being separated by a comma. Note also that if you want to charge the same tax for all states, then leave this field blank and use the "Tax Options" field described below to specify the default tax rate.

*Tax Options - This field allows you to specify the default tax rate and tax options for your store. If you want to charge one tax rate for all customers, then you only need to specify one value here - such as "0.0%" for no tax or "6.0%" to charge everyone a 6% sales tax. If you want to have different tax values, then you can specify as many additional tax rates as you want - each one separated by a comma, such as "0.0%,6.0%,6.5%,7.0%". When multiple tax rates are entered for this field, then a drop-down selection list will appear on the order form so that customers can choose the correct tax rate for their area. Usually multiple tax rates will be used in correlation with the "Tax States" field above - so that only customers from certain states are forced to select their tax rate. Note that when multiple tax rates are specified, the first rate will serve as the default tax rate.

*Base Tax On - This field allows you to specify whether tax will be based on the order's "Destination" or always on the "Billing Address". Currenly in the United States, the tax rate should be based on the state where the order is being sent (the "Shipping Destination"), but just in case the tax laws change, this field also allows you to base the tax rate on the "Billing Address" (regardless of where the order is being shipped).

*Tax Shipping - This field allows you to specify whether shipping charges will be taxed or not. If you want shipping costs to be taxed, then set this field to "Yes - Tax Shipping Charge". Otherwise, if you don't want the shipping charge included in the tax calculations, then set this field to "No - Don't Tax Shipping Charge".

TAX EXAMPLE 1:

As an example, say you wanted to charge all customers from all states a 6.0% sales tax. Then you could use these settings:

Tax Instructions = "" (leave blank since you don't need any special instructions displayed)
Tax States = "" (leave blank since you will be charging all customers the same tax rate)
Tax Options = "6.0%"

TAX EXAMPLE 2:

As another example, say you wanted to charge customers in Florida and Georgia the appropriate sales tax for their area and customers from everywhere else - no sales tax. Then you could use these settings:

Tax Instructions = "Customers in Florida and Georgia must select the tax rate for their area."
Tax States = "FL,Florida,GA,Georgia"
Tax Options = "0.0%,6.0%,6.5%,7.0%,7.5%"

Note that customers from states other that FL and GA will be charged the default tax rate of 0.0%.

Note also that if a customer from FL or GA tries to select 0.0%, they will be prompted again to select the appropriate tax rate for their area.

6.1.7 Shipping Information

This section allows you to configure the shipping options and up to 5 different shipping methods/calculations for your store.

*Shipping Address - This field allows you to specify whether your order forms will support a separate "Ship To" address. If you want the order forms to have both a billing and a shipping address area, then set this field to "Support A Separate Shipping Address". Otherwise, if you don't want the separate shipping address section to appear on the order form, then set this field to "Don't Support A Separate Shipping Address".

Shipping Instructions - This field allows you to specify a set of instructions that describe your shipping options/policies. These instructions will appear on the order form immediately above the place where the customer will select his/her shipping method. You can leave this field blank or specify any text such as "For overnight delivery, orders must be submitted Monday through Friday by 11 AM EST."

Shipping Methods

uStorekeeper allows you to configure up to 5 different shipping methods from which the customer can choose from. For each of these methods, you can configure the Shipping Method's Name, Calculation Type, and Rate(s):

Shipping Method Name - This field allows you to give a name to each Shipping Method. For instance, if you want the give the customer the option of whether to ship by "UPS" or "Federal Express". You can name Shipping Method 1 "UPS" and Shipping Method 2 "Federal Express". Or maybe if you are selling something that gets emailed to the customer, you might want to name a Shipping Method as "Email". You can use almost any text you want to name your shipping methods.

Calculation Type - This field allows you to specify how shipping will be calculated for each Shipping Method. Available choices are "Calculate By Weight", "Calculate By Subtotal", "Calculate By Quantity", "Charge A Flat Rate", and "Not Used". Each of these calculation types are used in correlation with the "Shipping Rate(s)" field and are described further below.

Shipping Rate(s) - This field allows you to setup the shipping rate/shipping table for each Shipping Method. The values you setup in this field are used in correlation with the "Calculation Type" field and are described further below.

Calculating Shipping Base On Weight

If you want the shipping charge of a Shipping Method to be calculated based on the Total Weight of the order, then you must set the Calculation Type of that method to "Calculate By Weight". The Shipping Rate(s) field can then be used to setup the calculation as a weight equation or as a weight table.

Weight Equation

The weight equation is interpreted as:

Shipping Charge = (Total Weight) X (Shipping Rate)

So, if you wanted to charge $0.50 cents for every one unit that the order weighs, you would set the Calculation Type to "Calculate By Weight" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "$0.50".

Weight Table

The weight table allows you to setup a series of weight=charge ranges. The format of the "Shipping Rate(s)" field would then be "weight1=charge1,weight2=charge2,weight3=charge3,weight4=charge4,...." and so on.... where the weight=charge combinations are interpreted as:

if (weight1 <= TOTAL WEIGHT) and (TOTAL WEIGHT < weight2), then SHIPPING = charge1
if (weight2 <= TOTAL WEIGHT) and (TOTAL WEIGHT < weight3), then SHIPPING = charge2
if (weight3 <= TOTAL WEIGHT) and (TOTAL WEIGHT < weight4), then SHIPPING = charge3
if (weight4 <= TOTAL WEIGHT), then SHIPPING = charge4

Note that you can list as many weight=charge combinations as you like - each one separated by a comma.

Note also that the weight=charge combinations should be in increasing weight order - with the first weight being zero.

For example, suppose you wanted to charge shipping based on the following table:

WEIGHT            SHIPPING CHARGE
0 - 9.999         $5.00
10 - 19.999       $6.00
20 - 29.999       $7.00
30 and over       $9.00
Then you would set the Calculation Type to "Calculate By Weight" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "0=$5.00,10=$6.00,20=$7.00,30=$9.00".

Calculating Shipping Based On Subtotal

If you want the shipping charge of a Shipping Method to be calculated based on the Subtotal of the order, then you must set the Calculation Type of that method to "Calculate By Subtotal". The Shipping Rate(s) field can then be used to setup the calculation as a subtotal equation or as a subtotal table.

Subtotal Equation

The subtotal equation is interpreted as:

Shipping Charge = (Subtotal) X (Shipping Rate)

So, if you wanted to charge $0.10 cents for every one dollar of the order's subtotal, you would set the Calculation Type to "Calculate By Subtotal" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "$0.10".

Subtotal Table

The subtotal table allows you to setup a series of subtotal=charge ranges. The format of the "Shipping Rate(s)" field would then be "subtotal1=charge1,subtotal2=charge2,subtotal3=charge3,subtotal4=charge4,...." and so on.... where the subtotal=charge combinations are interpreted as:

if (subtotal1 <= ORDER SUBTOTAL) and (ORDER SUBTOTAL < subtotal2), then SHIPPING = charge1
if (subtotal2 <= ORDER SUBTOTAL) and (ORDER SUBTOTAL < subtotal3), then SHIPPING = charge2
if (subtotal3 <= ORDER SUBTOTAL) and (ORDER SUBTOTAL < subtotal4), then SHIPPING = charge3
if (subtotal4 <= ORDER SUBTOTAL), then SHIPPING = charge4

Note that you can list as many subtotal=charge combinations as you like - each one separated by a comma.

Note also that the subtotal=charge combinations should be in increasing subtotal order - with the first subtotal being zero.

For example, suppose you wanted to charge shipping based on the following table:

SUBTOTAL          SHIPPING CHARGE
$0 - $49.99       $10.00
$50 - $99.99      $8.00
$100 - $199.99    $5.00
$200 and over     $0.00
Then you would set the Calculation Type to "Calculate By Subtotal" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "$0=$10.00,$50=$8.00,$100=$5.00,$200=$0.00".

Calculating Shipping Based On Quantity

If you want the shipping charge of a Shipping Method to be calculated based on the Total Quantity of the order, then you must set the Calculation Type of that method to "Calculate By Quantity". The Shipping Rate(s) field can then be used to setup the calculation as a quantity equation or as a quantity table.

Quantity Equation

The quantity equation is interpreted as:

Shipping Charge = (Total Quantity) X (Shipping Rate)

So, if you wanted to charge $1.00 shipping for each item in the order, you would set the Calculation Type to "Calculate By Quantity" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "$1.00".

Quantity Table

The quantity table allows you to setup a series of quantity=charge ranges. The format of the "Shipping Rate(s)" field would then be "quantity1=charge1,quantity2=charge2,quantity3=charge3,quantity4=charge4,...." and so on.... where the quantity=charge combinations are interpreted as:

if (quantity1 <= TOTAL QUANTITY) and (TOTAL QUANTITY < quantity2), then SHIPPING = charge1
if (quantity2 <= TOTAL QUANTITY) and (TOTAL QUANTITY < quantity3), then SHIPPING = charge2
if (quantity3 <= TOTAL QUANTITY) and (TOTAL QUANTITY < quantity4), then SHIPPING = charge3
if (quantity4 <= TOTAL QUANTITY), then SHIPPING = charge4

Note that you can list as many quantity=charge combinations as you like - each one separated by a comma.

Note also that the quantity=charge combinations should be in increasing quantity order - with the first quantity being one.

For example, suppose you wanted to charge shipping based on the following table:

QUANTITY          SHIPPING CHARGE
1 - 4             $6.00
5 - 9             $8.00
10 - 19           $10.00
20 and over       $15.00
Then you would set the Calculation Type to "Calculate By Quantity" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "1=$6.00,5=$8.00,10=$10.00,20=$15.00".

Charging A Flat Rate (Flat Fee) For Shipping

If you want to charge just a flat fee for shipping, then you must set the Calculation Type of that method to "Charge A Flat Rate". The Shipping Rate(s) field can then be used to specify the shipping charge.

For example, suppose you want to charge a flat fee of $10.00 for shipping. Then you would set the Calculation Type to "Charge A Flat Rate" and the Shipping Rate(s) field to "$10.00".

6.1.8 Handling Information

This section allows you to setup any additional handling fees that will be added to each order.

*Default Handling Fee - This field allows you to specify the default handing fee that will be added to each order. For example, if you want to charge an additional $5.00 handling fee for each order, then you would set this field to "$5.00". If you don't want to charge any handling fee, then set this field to "$0.00".

Handling Per Country - This field allows you to specify different handling fees for customers from different countries. The format of this field is "country1=handling1,country2=handling2,country3=handling3,...." and so on.... where each countryX=handlingX combination is interpreted as "if the customer is from countryX, then charge a handling fee of handlingX. You can specify as many country=handling combinations as you like....and if the customer is not from one of the countries in the table, then the Default Handling Fee (described above) is used.

Example 1: Suppose you want to charge most customers a handling fee of $2.00...but want to charge customers from Australia a $3.00 handling fee and people from New Zealand a handling fee of $4.00. To do this you would set the Default Handling Fee to "$2.00" and the Handling Per Country field to "Australia=$3.00,New Zealand=$4.00".

Example 2: Suppose you don't want to charge any handling fee to customers from the United States, but want to charge a $5.00 handling fee for customers from all other countries. To do this you would set the Default Handling Fee to "$5.00" and the Handling Per Country field to "USA=$0.00,U.S.A.=$0.00,United States=$0.00". Note, as in this example, that you may have to specify various combinations of spellings of the countries such as "USA", "U.S.A.", and "United States" to account for the various ways a customer might spell his/her country.

6.1.9 Gift Wrapping Information

This section allows you to set up a gift wrapping option.

*Gift Wrapping - This field allows you to specify whether your store will offer a gift wrapping option or not. Set this field to "Gift Wrapping Is Available" in order to display the gift wrapping option on the order form. Otherwise, set this field to "Gift Wrapping Is Not Available" in order to hide the gift wrapping section on the order form.

Charge Per Giftbox - If your store is going to offer a gift wrapping option, then this field can be used to setup the price per gift box. For example, if you want to charge $5.00 per gift box, then set this field to "$5.00". Note that the gift wrap charge will be based on the total quantity of items in the shopping cart. So if there are 3 items in the shopping cart and the Charge Per Giftbox is "$5.00", then the total gift wrapping charge will be 3 x $5.00 = $15.00.

Gift Wrapping Instructions - If your store will be offering a gift wrapping option, use this field to specify instructions for customers wishing to get their orders gift wrapped. The text entered in this field will appear in the "Gift Wrapping" section of the order form and is meant to inform the customer of the price per gift box and how to include a personalized message with the gift. An example value for this field is: "Gift boxing is available for an additional $5 per box and includes a gift card with your message. Type message below:".

6.1.10 Discount Information

This section allows you to set up discounts for your store.

*Global Discount - This field allows you to specify either a percent discount or a flat rate discount that will be applied to all orders. For example, if you would like to take 10% off all items in the store, then set this field to "10%". Or as another example, if you would like to take $5.00 off all orders, then set this field to "$5.00". Note that the discount will not be reflected in the shopping cart until the customer fills out the order form. Note also that if you do not want to give any global discount, this field should be set to "0.0%".

Coupon Instructions - If your store will be offering any coupon discounts, then use this field to specify the instructions for redeeming coupons. These instructions will appear in a special "Coupon" section on the order form. An example value for this field is "To redeem any discount coupons, please enter the coupon ID below:". If you do not want a "Coupon" section to be displayed on your store's order forms, then leave this field blank or set it to "NONE".

Coupons

uStorekeeper allows you to setup up to 3 different coupons/discounts. This is done by assigning a "Coupon Number" and "Coupon Discount" to each of the coupon fields in this section.

Coupon Number - To setup a coupon, you must specify a unique value for this "Coupon Number" field. This "Coupon Number" can really be any string that you want to use to uniquely identify the coupon. Remember that the customer will have to enter this coupon number when filling out the order form.... so don't make it too long or difficult to type in. Example coupon numbers are "8002357" or "C24156". You can use virtually any value you want for the coupon numbers.

Coupon Discount - Discounts that are to be associated with a coupon can be specified either as a "percent off" or as a "fixed discount value". For example, if you want to give customers with a specific coupon a 25% discount, then set the Coupon Discount field to "25%". Or as another example, if you want to give customers with a specific coupon $10.00 off their order, then set the Coupon Discount field to "$10.00".

6.1.11 Information Page

This section allows you to configure an information page for your store. This information page is designed to have three easy-to-configure sections by which you can convey information about your store to the customer. Such information might be what your store specializes in, how to shop in your store, what your store's refund policy is, and/or how your store handles security. Just fill in the "Title" and "Description" for each section you want to use.

For advanced users, an "Additional HTML" section has been added so that you can add additional HTML to the page - such as links, images, or more information.

6.1.12 Additional Settings

This section contains additional fields for configuring some miscellaneous store settings such as order instructions, email subjects, and more.

*Order Instructions - This field allows you to specify some additional instructions that will appear at the top of the Order Form page. Example instructions are: "To place your order, please fill out the form below and then press Continue."

*Review Instructions - This field allows you to specify some additional instructions that will appear at the top of the Review Order page. Example instructions are: "Please review your order below and then select your choice of payment."

*Store Email Subject - Whenever an order is placed, an email will be sent to the "Primary Email Address" described above. This email is used to notify the storeowner that an order has been placed. The Store Email Subject field allows you to specify the subject that will appear on the order notification emails sent to the store owner. An example subject is "Order Notification".

*Customer Email Subject - Whenever an order is placed, uStorekeeper will also send an email receipt to the customer. This field allows you to specify the subject that will appear on this receipt email. An example subject is "Order Receipt".

Thank You Message - This field allows you to configure a small message that will be included at the bottom of the email receipt. An example message is "Thank you for shopping with us!"

Receipt HTML - This field allows you to specify some additional HTML that will be displayed at the bottom of the receipt page that's displayed after the order has been placed. This can be any standard HTML such as links, banners, or other information.

Comments Section - This field allows you to specify whether to include a separate "Comments" section on the order forms. A "Comments" section would be helpful if you want to provide customers with an area where they can include additional comments concerning the order. If you want to have a "Comments" section on the order form, set this field to "Have A Comments Section On The Order Form". Otherwise, if you don't want to display a "Comments" section on the order form, set this field to "Don't Have A Comments Section On The Order Form".

Maintain Address Book - This field allows you to specify whether you would like uStorekeeper to maintain an address file with the name and address of each customer who places an order in your store. If you do want uStorekeeper to maintain this file, then set this field to "Record Customer Information In Address Book". Otherwise, if you do not want uStorekeeper to maintain this file, then set this field to "Don't Record Customer Information In Address Book".

If you do choose to have uStorekeeper maintain this address file, a file called address.txt will be created in your data directory and will consist of the following information associated with each customer who places an order:

First Name
Last Name
Street 1
Street 2
City
State
Zip Code
Country
Phone
Fax
Email

The format of the file is such that each field is separated by a bar (|) and each order entry is on it's own line. Here is an example address.txt file with three entries in it:

John|Doe|123 Main Street||Anytowne|PA|12345|USA|555-5555|555-5556|john.doe@example.com
Mary|Jones|1023 35th Street||New York|NY|54321|USA|555-5557|555-5558|mary@example.com
Bob|Smith|532 Beverly Ave||Los Angeles|CA|90210|USA|555-5559|555-5560|bob@example.com
Record Tracking Information - This field allows you to choose whether or not to record affiliate tracking information associated with each order. That is, if you are going to be using uStorekeeper's built-in affiliate tracking system, then you should set this field to "Record Tracking Information". Otherwise, if you will not be using the affiliate tracking feature, set this field to "Don't Record Tracking Information".


6.2 Add Category

The Add Category button creates a form from which you can add a new category to your store. Below is a description of each of the fields associated with creating a new category.
  1. *Category Name - This field allows you to specify the name of the category. The category name can consist of any text (except bars and double-quotes) and can be any length - however, it is recommended that you keep the size of the category name to under 30 characters (for display reasons).

  2. Category Description - This field allows you to specify a description for the category. Any text entered in this field will appear at the top of the category page - just below the Category Name. The amount of text used for the description can range anywhere from a single sentence to an entire paragraph. If you do not want to display any description with the category, then leave this field blank.

  3. Category Image - This field allows you to specify an image that will be displayed at the very top of the category page. This image should be specified as the Full URL of the image such as "http://www.uburst.com/uStorekeeper/images/ustorekeeper_tag.gif". If you do not specify the URL (by leaving off the http://...) then uStorekeeper will default to using the $default_image_dir_url value (a.k.a. your default image directory) that you specified while installing the uStorekeeper scripts.

    For example, if you specify this field as "my_category_image.gif", then uStorekeeper will assume that the image is located in your default image directory (by prepending your $default_image_dir_url value to it).

    Note that the recommended size for this image is approximately 250x200 pixels.

    Note also that you can use uStorekeeper's Image Manager to upload any new images that you might create for this category.

    Note that if you do not want any image displayed for this category, then just leave this field blank.

  4. Background Image - This field allows you to specify a background image that will be used for the category page. Similar to the Category Image, this image should be specified as the Full URL of the image (beginning with http://...) - otherwise, uStorekeeper will assume that the image is located in your default image directory.

    Note that you can use uStorekeeper's Image Manager to upload any new images that you might create for this category.

    Note also that if you do not want any background image displayed for this category, then just leave this field blank.

  5. Background Color - This field allows you to specify the background color for this category. The format of field should be in the standard HTML RGB color format #RRGGBB, where RR corresponds to the amount of red (00 - FF), GG corresponds to the amount of green (00 - FF), and BB corresponds to the amount of blue (00 - FF). The default value for the background color is white (#FFFFFF).

  6. Text Color - This field allows you to specify the text color for this category. The format of field should be in the standard HTML RGB color format #RRGGBB, where RR corresponds to the amount of red (00 - FF), GG corresponds to the amount of green (00 - FF), and BB corresponds to the amount of blue (00 - FF). The default value for the text color is black (#000000).

  7. Max Products Per Page - This field allows you to specify the maximum number of products that will be displayed on each page in this category. That is, if you will be having a lot of products listed in this category, it would not be desirable to list all of them on one single HTML page. With this field, you can put a limit on the number of products listed on a page - and when the limit has been exceeded, uStorekeeper will automatically create "NEXT" and "CONTINUE" pages as necessary.

  8. Additional HTML (Top) - For Advanced User's Only - This field allows you to specify any additional HTML (such as a banner link) that you would like added to the top of this category's web page. Whatever HTML you enter here will be added just after the <BODY...> HTML field.

  9. Additional HTML (Middle) - For Advanced User's Only - This field allows you to specify any additional HTML (such as a banner link) that you would like added to the middle of this category's web page. Whatever HTML you enter here will be added just after the category's "Description" HTML.

  10. Additional HTML (Bottom) - For Advanced User's Only - This field allows you to specify any additional HTML (such as a banner link) that you would like added to the bottom of this category's web page. Whatever HTML you enter here will be added just before the closing </BODY> HTML field.

6.3 Edit Category

The Edit Category button provides the means by which you can select and edit a pre-existing category. You will be first prompted to select the category that you want to edit. After selecting the desired category, a category edit form will be displayed. The fields in this category edit form are similar to those on the Add Category form (described above) and will be pre-set to the current values of the category.


6.4 Delete Category

The Delete Category button provides the means by which you can delete an existing category. You will first be prompted to select the category that you want to delete. Upon selecting the category, you will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Select "YES" to delete the category or "NO" to abort the deletion.


6.5 Add Product

The Add Product button creates a form from which you can add a new product to your store. Below is a description of each of the fields associated with adding a new product.
  1. *Category - This field allows you to select which category the new product will be added to.

  2. *Product ID - This field allows you to specify a Unique ID by which to identify this product. This field must consist of at least 3 unique letters and numbers - with the recommended length being about 10 or 12 characters total.

  3. *Product Name - This field allows you to specify the name of the product. The text entered for this field will appear as the Name of the product on the HTML pages and as the Name of the product when added to the shopping cart.

  4. Description - This field allows you to provide a description of the product. The description can be as long as you like and will be displayed with the product on the HTML page. Note that this description will not be displayed in the shopping cart - the Short Description field described below is the description that will appear in the shopping cart.

  5. Short Description - This field allows you to provide a short description of the product. This short description is what will appear in the shopping cart and is meant to eliminate the need of display the full Description (described above) in the shopping cart. If you don't want any description added to the shopping cart, then leave this field blank.

  6. Notes - This field allows you to specify some additional notes for the product. Such notes might be "Limited time only!" or "This month's special!". Whatever text is entered for this Notes field, will be displayed on the HTML page in Italics and directly below the product's description.

  7. Keywords - This field allows you to optimize uStorekeeper's search feature by adding additional keywords to identify this product. The comma-separated keywords entered in this field will not be displayed on the HTML page, but will be used when uStorekeeper is performing product searches.

    As an example, say your store is selling a U2 Music CD. You might want this CD to be included in the results of searches done on "Bono","The Edge","Irish", or even "U-2". So you could specify the Keywords field for the product as "Bono,Edge,Irish,U-2".

    Note: uStorekeeper will normally perform searches on all fields that are displayed on the HTML pages. This "Keywords" field just provides an additional field by which searches will look.

  8. Weight - This field allows you to specify the weight of the product. Note that it is not important (and actually prohibited) to specify any weight units with this value (such as "lbs", "pounds", "#", or "ounces"). In fact, Do NOT Include Any Weight Units In This Field. This field should just be a numeric value such as "0", "1.5", or "25.0". As for units, just keep the weights of all your products relative to one another. If using Kilograms, then give all weights in Kilograms. If using Pounds, then give all weights in Pounds. If you won't be basing your shipping calculations on weight at all, then you can even leave this field blank or set to zero.

  9. *Price - This field allows you to specify the price of the product in one of three formats: 1)Basic Format, 2)Quantity Price Format or 3)QUOTE Format. Each of these formats is described below:

    Basic Format

    The Basic Format is used if you just want to have one basic price for the product. Simply enter the price. That is, if you want the product to cost $5 dollars, then enter this field as "$5.00". If you want the product to cost $19.95, then enter this field as "$19.95".

    Quantity Price Format

    The Quanity Price Format allows you to setup a price table that is based on the total quantity purchased by the customer. The format of this field is "quantity1@priceeach1,quantity2@priceeach2,quantity3@priceeach3,..." and so on, where each quantity@priceeach combination is interpreted as:

    if quantity1 items are purchased, then the price of each one is priceeach1
    if quantity2 items are purchased, then the price of each one is priceeach2
    if quantity3 items are purchased, then the price of each one is priceeach3
    and so on....

    Note that you can list as many quantity@priceeach combinations as you like - each one separated by a comma.

    Note also that the quantity@priceeach combinations should be in increasing quantity order - with the first quantity being one.

    As an example, suppose you want to setup the following pricing table for a product:

    QUANTITY          PRICE EACH
    1 - 2             $99.00 (each)
    3 - 4             $75.00 (each)
    5 or more         $60.00 (each)
    
    Then you would set the Price field to "1@$99.00,3@$75.00,5@$60.00".

    Or as another example, suppose you want to setup the following pricing table for a product:

    QUANTITY          PRICE EACH
    1                 $42.00 (each)
    2 or more         $35.00 (each)
    
    (a.k.a. $42.00 for one or $35.00 each for any two or more)

    Then you would set the Price field to "1@$42.00,2@$35.00".

    *IMPORTANT NOTE - When uStorekeeper is determining the total quantity that has been selected of a specific product, it will search through the list of items in the shopping cart and identify all items that have a Product ID starting with the same 3 characters. This is so that the Quantity Price Table can be setup to apply to items in a specific class.

    Example: Suppose your store sells Music CDs and Videos and want to offer the videos as $20.00 each or $15.00 each if the customer buys two or more. uStorekeeper can't just look blindly at the total quantity of items in the shopping cart because a customer might have some CDs in his/her shopping cart too. So that is why uStorekeeper will look at the first three characters of the Product ID field of each item in the shopping cart and determine the total quantity based on all products that match.

    So to prevent the quantity price calculations from getting confused between different types of products, it is recommended that you adopt a Product ID prefix convention for your store - where all different product types will begin with 3 Unique Characters. In the previous example, for instance, the Product ID of all CDs could start with "MCD" and the Product ID of all Videos could start with "VID". (You can, of course, use any three characters you want to identify the different product types in your store).

    NOTE: 95% of stores will not need to have the quantity@price calculation applied over multiple products. So A SIMPLE RULE OF THUMB is to "Give each product using a quantity@price calculation a unique Product ID beginning with any unique 3-character prefix."

    QUOTE Format

    The QUOTE Format allows you to leave the price blank so that the customer can fill in the price. This is useful when handling such things as price quotes, donations, etc. To allow customers to enter the price, just specify the price field as QUOTE.

  10. Taxable - This field allows you to specify whether the product is taxable or not. If the product is taxable, select "Yes". Otherwise, if the product is NOT taxable, select "No". Products that are not taxable will be indicated with an asterisk (*) next to its price in the shopping cart and the price will not be included in tax calculations.

  11. Options - uStorekeeper allows you to associate up to 3 different option lists with each product. The option lists provide the customer with the ability to select options for the product such as color, size, etc. Each of the option lists are totally configurable and can even be used to adjust the total price of the product (such as adding $X dollars if option Y is selected).

    Normal Options

    If you just want a normal drop-down list of options, then the format of this field should be "option1,option2,option3,option4,option5,...." and so on. You can list as many option fields as you like - each one separated with a comma.

    Example: Suppose you want to allow customers to select the color of an item and the available colors are blue, red, green, black, and white. To do this, you would just set one of the Option fields to "blue,red,green,black,white".

    Options With Prices

    If you want the total cost of the item to be based on what options a customer selects, then use a "+" or "-" next to the option followed by the price. This is most easily illustrated in an example:

    Example: Suppose you have an item that comes in Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Also suppose you want to charge an additional $40.00 if the customer chooses Platinum or subtract $20.00 from the price if the customer chooses Silver. To do this, you would set one of the Option fields to "Gold,Silver -$20.00,Platinum +$40.00".

    (The order of the options does not matter and you can list as many options as you want - each one separated by a comma).

  12. Min Quantity - This field allows you to specify a minimum quantity that can be purchased at a time. For example, if you wanted to enforce customers to purchase 5 or more of this product, then you would set this field to "5". The default value of this field is "1".

  13. Max Quantity - This field allows you to specify a maximum quantity that can be purchased at a time. For example, if you wanted to limit customers to buying a maximum of 10 of this product at a time, then you would set this field to "10". Or if you were selling something that there is only 1 of - such as a unique painting - then you might set this field to "1" (thus indicating they can't purchase more than 1). The default value for this field is "NONE" - which indicates that there is no maximum quantity (the customer can buy as many as he/she wants).

  14. Text Color - This field allows you to specify the text color for this product listing. The format of field should be in the standard HTML RGB color format #RRGGBB, where RR corresponds to the amount of red (00 - FF), GG corresponds to the amount of green (00 - FF), and BB corresponds to the amount of blue (00 - FF). For example, if you want the listing to have a text color of black, then set this field to "#000000". The default value for the text color is "SAME" - indicating that the text color of the listing will be whatever the text color for the category is set at.

  15. Text Label - This field allows you to add a small text entry field to the product's listing. This is ideal for products that have monograms, initials, or other small labels. If you want to add such a text entry field to the product's listing, just specify the label associated with the field - such as "Monogram: " or "Initials: ". If you do not want any text entry field associated with this product, then leave this field blank or set it to "NONE".

  16. Text Area Label - This field allows you to add a large text entry field to the product's listing. This is ideal for products that may need a large customized message such as plaques, trophies, or gift cards. If you want to add such a text entry field to the product's listing, just specify the label associated with the field such as "Message: " or "Greeting: ". If you do not want any text entry field associated with this product, then leave this field blank or set it to "NONE".

  17. Product Image - This field allows you to specify an image that will be displayed with this product listing. Generally, this should be a small image of the product with a maximum size of about 200 x 200 pixels. Note that this image can really be any size, however, you should keep in mind that the larger the image is, the longer it will take your store pages to load. Furthermore, you will see in the description of the next field that uStorekeeper also allows you to specify a second, larger image that will be associated with the product. This second (and usually larger) image is only displayed when the customer clicks on the small image - so your store pages will still be able to load fast.

    When specifying the Product Image, you should specify it as the Full URL of the image such as "http://www.yourstore.com/images/product.gif". If you do not specify the URL (by leaving off the http://...) then uStorekeeper will default to using the $default_image_dir_url value (a.k.a. your default image directory) that you specified while installing the uStorekeeper scripts. For example, if you specify this field as "product1.gif", then uStorekeeper will assume that the image is located in your default image directory and prepend your $default_image_dir_url value to it.

    Note that you can use uStorekeeper's Image Manager to upload any new product images.

    Note also that if you do not want any image displayed, then just leave this field blank.

  18. Large Image or Link - This field allows you to associate a second image (or a link) with the product. This second image (or URL link), will be displayed when the customer clicks on the small Product Image described above. When specifying this image or URL link, you should specify it as the Full URL of the image such as "http://www.yourstore.com/images/big_product.gif" or the full URL of the link such as "http://www.yourstore.com/moreinfo.html".

    Note that if you do not want to use a second image or URL link, then just leave this field blank.

  19. Product Layout - This field allows you to specify the general layout of the product listing. Available layouts are "Image On Left", "Image On Right", "Image On Top", and "No Image". Simply select the layout that you want to use for this product.

  20. Location On Page - This field allows you to specify where the product will be inserted on the category page. Options include inserting the listing alphabetically, at the top, or at the bottom. The default and recommended value is "Add Product Alphabetically By Name". However, if you want the product to be the first product listed in the category, then you should select "Add Product At Top Of Category". Otherwise, if you want the product to be the last product listed in the category, then you should select "Add Product At Bottom Of Category".

  21. Additional HTML (Top) - For Advanced User's Only - This field allows you to specify any additional HTML that you would like added immediately before this product's HTML.

  22. Additional HTML (Bottom) - For Advanced User's Only - This field allows you to specify any additional HTML that you would like added immediately after this product's HTML.

6.6 Edit Product

The Edit Product button provides the means by which you can select and edit a pre-existing product. You will be first prompted to select the category that the product is in and the product that you want to edit. After selecting the desired product, a product edit form will be displayed. The fields on this product edit form are similar to those on the Add Product form (described above) and will be pre-set to the current values of the product.


6.7 Delete Product

The Delete Product button provides the means by which you can remove an existing product from your store. You will first be prompted to select the category that the product is in along with the actual product that you want to delete. Upon selecting the product, you will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Select "YES" to delete the product or "NO" to abort the deletion.


6.8 Order Reader

The Order Reader button provides the means by which you can securely read and manage orders files. That is, whenever an order is placed, an email notification of the order is sent to the email address(es) that were configured on the General Settings form (described above). This email, will not contain any of the customer's sensitive payment information because regular email is not necessarily secure. So uStorekeeper has provided this Order Reader to allow you to easily and securely read the entire order - including the payment information.

6.8.1 Reading Order Files

To securely read an order, simply select the order number and then press the "Read Order" button on the Order Reader form. The selected order file will then be displayed in its entirety - including the payment information which will be displayed at the very top of the order file.

6.8.2 Deleting Order Files

As you receive more and more orders, the number of order files on your server will gradually increase. A "Total Order Files" indicator is provided in the upper left of the Order Reader form so that you can see the current number of order files on your server. At any time, you can choose to use the "Delete Order" button located on the Order Reader form to delete a specified order file. To delete an order file, simply select the Order Number of the file you want to delete and then press the "Delete Order" button. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Press "Yes" to confirm or "No" to abort the deletion.

Tip: Many storeowners like to delete orders right after they are read. This makes it easier for them to find new orders as they arrive. If you choose to adopt this technique, don't forget to first print out the order or at least write down the payment information.


6.9 Affiliate Tracking

The Order Tracking button is the means by which to access uStorekeeper's built-in Affiliate Tracking System. Affiliate Tracking provides a way for you to register other companies/web sites to advertise for your store in exchange for a commission of the sales that were referred to you through them. The way this works is that you use uStorekeeper's Affiliate Tracking System to register a company/web site by recording such information as contact name, company name, address, phone number, web site, etc. At this same time you also configure the commission that the affiliate will receive (either a percentage or flat rate) and assign the affiliate a unique tracking number. The affiliate then advertises your store on his/her site and uses his/her unique tracking number when linking his/her visitors to your store. If the referred visitor places an order in your store, uStorekeeper will record the affiliate tracking number of the referring site. You can then use uStorekeeper's Affiliate Reporting option to look up affiliate sales (every month, for instance) and reward the affiliate with the appropriate commission.

Features of uStorekeeper's Affiliate Tracking System include:
  • Easy to use forms for adding, editing, and deleting affiliates.
  • The ability to configure commissions as a percentage of the total sales or as a flat rate per sale.
  • The ability to assign each affiliate a different commission.
  • The ability to edit the affiliate log in order to adjust for refunds, cancellations, etc.
  • The ability to clear the affiliate log of orders placed before a specified date.
  • The ability to generate affiliate reports on a specific affiliate or on all affiliates at once.
  • The ability to allow affiliates to login and check their own affiliate report whenever they want.

6.9.1 Adding A New Affiliate

The Add Affiliate button on the Affiliate Tracking Control Panel displays a form from which you can create an account for a new affiliate. Below is a description of each of the fields associated with creating a new affiliate account.
  1. *Unique ID - This field allows you to specify a Unique Tracking Id for the new affiliate. The affiliate will use this ID when linking visitors to your store and will be the means by which orders can be associated with the affiliate. You can enter any single text string (number and letters - no spaces!) for this field. Example values are "A00001" or "REF00234".

  2. *Full Name - This field allows you to specify the full name of the affiliate. You can enter any text for this field.

  3. Company - If the affiliate is associated with a specific company, this field allows you to specify the company's name. You can enter any text for this field.

  4. Address - This field allows to record the mailing address of the affiliate. Simply enter the address as you would like it to appear - using as many lines of text as you want.

  5. Phone - This field allows you to specify the phone number of the affiliate.

  6. Fax - This field allows you to specify the Fax number (if any) of the affiliate.

  7. Email - This field allows you to specify the email address of the affiliate.

  8. URL - This field allows you to specify the URL of the affiliate's website.

  9. *Rate - This field allows you to specify the rate of commission for the affiliate. There are two available ways to setup the rate: either as a percentage of sales or as a flat rate per order. Each of these is described further below:

    Percentage Of Sales

    The Percentage Of Sales option allows you to give the affiliate commission based on a percentage of the sales that were referred through him/her. To do this, simply add a percent (%) to the value you enter in the "Rate" field. For instance, say you want to reward an affiliate by giving him/her 1.0% of the sales that he/she referred to your store. To do this, simply set the Rate parameter to "1.0%".

    Flat Rate Per Order

    The Flat Rate Per Order option allows you to give the affiliate commission based on a fixed rate per order that was referred through him/her. To do this, simply specify the amount per order in the "Rate" field. For instance, say you want to reward an affiliate by giving him/her $1.00 per order that resulted from a referral from him/her. To do this, simply set the Rate parameter to "$1.00".

  10. Password - This field allows you to specify a unique password that the affiliate can use to login to check his/her current affiliate report.
6.9.2 Editing An Affiliate

The Edit Affiliate button on the Affiliate Tracking Control Panel provides the means by which you can select and edit the account of an existing affiliate. You will first be prompted to select the affiliate that you want to edit and then will be presented with the Edit Affiliate form. The fields on this form are similar to those on the Add Affiliate form (described above) and will be pre-set to the current values of the affiliate.

6.9.3 Deleting An Affiliate

The Delete Affiliate button on the Affiliate Tracking Control Panel provides the means by which you can delete an entire account of an affiliate. You will first be prompted to select the affiliate that you want to delete and then prompted to confirm the deletion. Select "YES" to delete the affiliate or "NO" to abort the deletion.

6.9.4 Editing Affiliate Log

The Edit Log button on the Affiliate Tracking Control Panel provides the means by which you can edit the affiliate log for a specified order. Upon pressing the "Edit Log" button, you will be prompted to enter the Order ID (a.k.a. the Order Number) of the log entry that you want to edit. An Edit Affiliate Log form will then be created and will display the Order ID, Affiliate ID, Order Date, and Order Subtotal. Simply make any changes to this information and then press "Submit". Note: If you want to delete an entry entirely, set the Subtotal field to "$0.00" or leave it blank.

6.9.5 Clearing Affiliate Log

The Clear Log button on the Affiliate Tracking Control Panel provides the means by which you can clear all entries in the affiliate log up to a specified date. Upon pressing the "Clear Log" button, you will be prompted to enter the date up to which all affiliate log entries will be cleared. The format of the date must be MM/DD/YY, where MM is a two-character month, DD is a two character day of month, and YY is the last two characters of the year (00 for 2000, 01 for 2001, 02 for 2002,... and so on.).

6.9.6 Affiliate Reporting

The Reports button on the Affiliate Tracking Control Panel provides the means by which you can generate an affiliate report on all affiliates or on a specified affiliate. Upon pressing the "Reports" button, you will be prompted to select a specific affiliate for which to generate the report or to just generate the report on ALL affiliates. The report will contain a summary of all orders that were referred by an affiliate since the last time the affiliate log was cleared.

Note that affiliates can login to check their own affiliate report by going to the secure URL of your uStorekeeper manager script with the "report" command. That is, if you configured the $secure_manager_script_url in Installation Question #7 (described above) as something like:

https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-manager.pl

Then affiliates could use the following URL to login and see their own affiliate reports:

https://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper-manager.pl?commmand=report


6.10 Image Manager

The Image Manager button provides access to uStorekeeper's built-in image management feature. uStorekeeper's Image Manager allows you to upload image files and delete image files to/from your server without the use of any external FTP program. All files will be uploaded to or deleted from the directory that was configured as your $default_image_dir when setting up the uStorekeeper script.

6.10.1 Uploading Images

To upload a file to your default image directory, you can use the form labeled "Upload Image To Server". First select the file that you want to upload by pressing the "Browse" button and locating the image file on your local desktop computer. Note that you may have to change the filter while searching for the image files from the default "*.html" to something like "*.gif", "*.jpg", or simply "*.*". After selecting the image that you want to upload to your server, just press the "Upload Image To Server" button and the image file will be transferred to your server. Note that depending how large the image file is, you may have to wait 10 or so seconds for the transfer to be complete.

Note: As a precaution, uStorekeeper limits the size of the files that it will upload to 100K bytes each.

6.10.2 Deleting Images

To delete an image file from the default image directory on your server, you can use the form labeled "Delete Image From Server". Begin by selecting the file that you want to delete from the drop-down list. After selecting the file, just press the "Delete Image From Server" button and the file will be deleted.


6.11 Purge

The Purge button provides the means by which you can remove old shopping cart files from your server. That is, uStorekeeper will create one new .cart file on your server for each new customer that adds 1 or more items to his/her shopping cart. This is how customer's shopping cart data is maintained until he/she places an actual order. uStorekeeper also attempts to keep the number of these files as low as possible by not creating a .cart file until the customer actually adds an item to his/her shopping cart and then by automatically deleting the .cart file once the customer actually places an order. However, for the case where a customer adds items to his/her shopping cart but never actually places an order, the .cart file will remain on your server and the number of .cart files may build up over time. So even though these .cart files are small, it is recommended that you remove the older .cart files from your server from time to time. You can do this my selecting to purge files that are over 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month old.

Note: Do not confuse .cart files with order files. Cart files are only used to temporarily maintain a customer's shopping cart information until he/she places an order. Once an order is placed, an order file is created (containing the shopping cart and billing information) and the .cart file is deleted. If you want to actually purge/delete order files from your server, see the description above about the Order Reader utility.


6.12 Import

As an alternative to individually adding each product to your store via the "Add Product" button, the Import button creates a form by which you can import product data files directly into your store. Note that these product data files, must be in the format defined below in the Importing Data section. See Importing Data for more information.


6.13 Regenerate

The Regenerate button provides the means by which you can force uStorekeeper to regenerate all of the store's HTML pages. This can be useful if you ever manually modify any of uStorekeeper's data files or try to restore any old data files.


6.14 Diagnostics

The Diagnostics button provides a means for checking out your uStorekeeper configuration. Upon pressing this button, uStorekeeper will perform a series of tests to check such things as your directory structure, file permissions, and email configuration. It also will display all of your configured settings which may be needed when seeking support.


6.15 Goto Store

The Goto Store button provides a direct link the first page of your store.


7. Using The Store

Two of the major goals of uStorekeeper are to allow you to create stores that:
  1. Have a clean and professional appearance.
  2. Provide an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for the shopper.
This is accomplished through the creation of a standardized page layout, a simple page navigation scheme, and a built in search feature. Together, these features help to make shopping in uStorekeeper stores require very few instructions and very little assistance. The following sections go over some of the basic operating procedures anyway.

7.1 Linking To Your Store

You can link customers to your store via the URL of the uStorekeeper runtime script. This should be the same URL that you configured in Installation Question #4 (described above) and will be something like:

http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl

This URL will link customers to the first page of your store.

For Advanced Users - You can actually link customers to a specific product if so desired. To do this, append "?command=goto&pid=PRODUCTID" onto your runtime script's URL, where PRODUCTID is the actual ID of the product. For example, if the Product ID of the product that you want to link to is "12345678", then you could use the following URL to link a customer directly to that product:

http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl?command=goto&pid=12345678

For Advanced Users - You can also link customers to a specific category if so desired. To do this, append "?command=goto&file=CATEGORYFILE" onto your runtime script's URL, where CATEGORYFILE is the HTML page of the category. For example, suppose you have a categry called "Office Supplies". The category file name would be "Office_Supplies.html" (all spaces replaced with underscores and ".html" was added). So you could then use the following URL to link a customer directly to that product:

http://www.mystore.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl?command=goto&file=Office_Supplies.html

7.2 Navigating The Store

Navigating uStorekeeper stores is primarily done via the category selection box in the upper right of each store page. To use this selection box to browse the various store categories, simple select the category that you want to go to, then press the "Go!" button. You will automatically be linked to the first page of that category.

7.3 Searching The Store

Searching uStorekeeper stores is done via the Keyword Search Box that is located in the upper right corner of every store page. To perform a search, simply enter the desired keyword in the text entry box, and then press the "Search" button. The results of the search will appear on a new page that has links to all products that met the search criteria. Simply follow the links to the desired products.

7.4 Adding Products To Your Cart

Items can be added to your shopping cart by simply pressing the "ADD" button located next to the desired product. If there are any options or text fields associated with the product, then you may have to select/enter those too. All products will also have quantity entry boxes that allow you to specify the exact quantity of the item that you want to add to your shopping cart.

7.5 Viewing Shopping Cart

At any time, shoppers can view the current contents of their shopping cart by pressing the "View Cart" button located just below the navigation and search box.

7.6 Placing Orders

At anytime after the shopper has added at least one item to his/her shopping cart, he/she can begin the order process by pressing the "Place Order" button located just below the navigation and search box. Follow the given instructions on how to fill out the order form and complete the order process.


8. Importing Data

uStorekeeper has a built-in Import Data Utility that allows you to upload data files directly from your office or home computer - without the use of any external FTP program. This import feature is initiated via the Import button on the control panel. Upon pressing the Import button, a form will be displayed that allows you to select the data file that you want to import to your server. Simply select the data file and press the "Import Data" button to start the import. uStorekeeper will then handle transfering the file to your server and adding the product information to the correct categories in your store. This is a great way to add/maintain large numbers of products.

In order for uStorekeeper to be able to import the data correctly, however, the format of data file must be in a defined format. The following section describes the required format of the import data files.

Import Data Format

The format of the data file is such that the data associated with each product must be separated on its own line in the file. Furthermore, on each product line, the fields for that product must be separated by BAR (|) characters.

There are a total of 23 fields associated with each product. These fields - and valid values for them - are described below:

Note that these fields and the format of each field are very similar to those described in the Add Product section above. Refer to that section as needed.

  1. CATEGORY_NAME - This required field must match one of your pre-existing category names. If the desired category does not exist yet, you must create it before performing the import.

  2. ID - This required field is the ID of the product - as already described in the Add Product section above.

  3. NAME - This required field is the Name of the product - as already described in the Add Product section above.

  4. DESCRIPTION - This field should contain the description of the product. You can have any text here or, if not used, you can leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  5. SHORT_DESCRIPTION - This field should contain the short description of the product (as it will appear in the shopping cart). You can have any text here or, if not used, you can leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  6. NOTES - This field should contain any notes for the product as described by the "Notes" field above in the Add Product section. You can have any text here or, if not used, you can leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  7. KEYWORDS - This field should contain any keywords for the product as described by the "Keywords" field above in the Add Product section. You can have any number of comma-separated keywords here or, if not used, you can leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  8. WEIGHT - This field corresponds to the weight of the product an can be 0 or greater.

  9. PRICE - This required field corresponds to the price of the product and must be in the format as described in the Add Product section.

  10. TAXABLE - This field corresponds to whether the product is taxable or not. Set this value to YES if the product is taxable. Otherwise, set this value to NO if the product is not taxable.

  11. OPTIONS 1 - This field corresponds to the first option list for the product. The format should be as described in the Add Product section. If you don't want any options for the product, leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  12. OPTIONS 2 - This field corresponds to the second option list for the product. The format should be as described in the Add Product section. If you don't want any options for the product, leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  13. OPTIONS 3 - This field corresponds to the third option list for the product. The format should be as described in the Add Product section. If you don't want any options for the product, leave this field blank or set it to NONE.

  14. MIN_QUANTITY - This field corresponds to the minimum quantity of the product as previously described in the Add Product section. Valid values are 1 or greater.

  15. MAX_QUANTITY - This field corresponds to the maximum quantity of the product as previously described in the Add Product section. Valid values are NONE, 1, or greater.

  16. TEXT_COLOR - This field corresponds to the text color of the product listing. Valid values are NONE, SAME, or an RGB color as previously described in the Add Product section.

  17. TEXT_LABEL - This field corresponds to the label of the small text entry box, if any. Valid values are a text label, NONE, or just leave the value blank.

  18. TEXTAREA_LABEL - This field corresponds to the label of the large text entry box, if any. Valid values are a text label, NONE, or just leave the value blank.

  19. IMAGE - This field corresponds to the URL of an image for the product. Leave this field blank or set to NONE if there is no image for the product.

  20. LARGE IMAGE - This field corresponds to the URL of a large image for the product. Leave this field blank or set to NONE if there is no large image for the product.

  21. LAYOUT - This field allows you to specify the layout of the product listing. Set the value to 0 for no image, 1 for image on left, 2 for image on right, or 3 for image on top.

  22. TOP_HTML - This field corresponds to the TOP HTML field as described previously in the Add Product section. Leave this field blank or set to NONE if no additional TOP HTML.

  23. BOTTOM_HTML - This field corresponds to the BOTTOM HTML field as described previously in the Add Product section. Leave this field blank or set to NONE if no additional TOP HTML.

The following table summarizes these 23 fields:

FIELD NUMBER FIELD NAME VALID VALUES
1 CATEGORY_NAME Can be the name of any existing category.
2 ID The product's Id.
3 NAME The product's Name.
4 DESCRIPTION A description, NONE, or BLANK.
5 SHORT DESCRIPTION A short description, NONE, or BLANK.
6 NOTES Any text, NONE, or BLANK.
7 KEYWORDS Comma-separated keywords, NONE, or BLANK.
8 WEIGHT The product's weight. Must be 0 or greater.
9 PRICE The product's price.
10 TAXABLE YES or NO
11 OPTION 1 Comma-separated options or BLANK.
12 OPTION 2 Comma-separated options or BLANK.
13 OPTION 3 Comma-separated options or BLANK.
14 MIN QUANTITY 1 or greater.
15 MAX QUANTITY 1 or greater or NONE.
16 TEXT COLOR RGB color (#RRGGBB), SAME, NONE, or BLANK.
17 TEXT LABEL Label for text box, NONE, or BLANK.
18 TEXTAREA LABEL Label for large text box, NONE, or BLANK.
19 IMAGE Image URL, NONE, or BLANK.
20 LARGE IMAGE Image URL, NONE, or BLANK.
21 LAYOUT 0 = no image
1 = image on left
2 = image on right
3 = image on top
22 TOP HTML HTML, NONE, or BLANK.
23 BOTTOM HTML HTML, NONE, or BLANK.


So putting it all together, the format of the data file will be in the format:

F1|F2|F3|F4|F5|F6|F7|F8|F9|F10|F11|F12|F13|F14|F15|F16|F17|F18|F19|F20|F21|F22|F23
F1|F2|F3|F4|F5|F6|F7|F8|F9|F10|F11|F12|F13|F14|F15|F16|F17|F18|F19|F20|F21|F22|F23
F1|F2|F3|F4|F5|F6|F7|F8|F9|F10|F11|F12|F13|F14|F15|F16|F17|F18|F19|F20|F21|F22|F23
F1|F2|F3|F4|F5|F6|F7|F8|F9|F10|F11|F12|F13|F14|F15|F16|F17|F18|F19|F20|F21|F22|F23
F1|F2|F3|F4|F5|F6|F7|F8|F9|F10|F11|F12|F13|F14|F15|F16|F17|F18|F19|F20|F21|F22|F23
:
:
And so on... Where each line corresponds to another product and each "F#" correspondes to one of the 23 product fields.

Here are a few lines from an example import data file (with real values):

Dogs|DOG0128|Beagle|Very lovable.|Dog.|2 months old.|dog,friend,run,pet|5|300.00|yes|Male,Female|NONE|NONE|2|NONE|#000000|NONE|NONE|product_image.gif|product_image.gif|||
Dogs|DOG0129|Grey Hound|One word: FAST!|Dog.|2 months old.|dog,friend,run,pet|5|300.00|yes|Male,Female|NONE|NONE|1|NONE|#000000|NONE|NONE|product_image.gif|product_image.gif|||
Cats|CAT0210|House Cat|Good mouse hunter.|Cat.|2 months old.|cat,pet|5|100.00|yes|Male,Female|NONE|NONE|1|NONE|#000000|NONE|NONE|product_image.gif|product_image.gif|||
Birds|BRD0123|Eagle|These birds are have great eyes.|Eagle.|1 year old.|bird, eagle, fly|30|1000.00|yes|Male,Female|NONE|NONE|1|NONE|#000000|NONE|NONE|product_image.gif|product_image.gif|||
Birds|BRD0124|Owl|Who wouldn't want one of these?|Owl.|1 year old.|bird, owl, fly|10|200.00|yes|Male,Female|NONE|NONE|1|NONE|#000000|NONE|NONE|product_image.gif|product_image.gif|||

9. More Information

You can find the latest uStorekeeperTM information including Frequently Asked Questions, Troubleshooting Tips, and More on our uStorekeeperTM Reference Site at:

http://www.uburst.com/uStorekeeper/reference.html




Copyright (c) 1999 - 2003, Microburst Technologies, Inc.