Reward Points Extended Installation Guide

INSTALLATION GUIDE

Reward Points Extended for OpenCart

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Reward points free shipping allows your customers to earn free shipping through reward points.

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Have a look at our other extensions, if you would like to purchase one, you will receive another free. You must contact me via Skype, e-mail, or IRC to receive this discount prior to purchase.

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YOU'VE JUST HELP SUPPORT A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Thank you very much for choosing one of my OpenCart extensions, you've just helped to support a (very) small business. Like many of you out there I shared a dream of owning my own business, and by you purchasing my software extensions you help to make that dream a continued reality.

If you need any support or assistance with installation please visit the 'Support' section of the documentation, it will provide you with various ways to get in touch with me should you need to.

Best Regards,

Jeff Hunter

Installation Instructions

Guide & Requirements

Version 2.0 introduces an automated installer which takes care of all changes to the OpenCart database.

INITIAL INSTALLATION

VQMOD

Many of you will already have vQmod installed, those who don't it can be downloaded here: VQMod downloads page. If you haven't upgraded to the vqmod 2.2.x series of vQmod I highly recommend that you do so now as it offers performance benefits over previous generations, especially if your shop is running a large number of mods. If you are fairly new to OpenCart & vQmod an installation tutorial video can be viewed here.

UPLOAD IT

Located in this this package is a series of folders ('admin', 'catalog', and 'vqmod'), these folders should be uploaded via FTP to your store root (matching existing folders). If you do not currently have a FTP client, I highly recommend FlashFXP. You will need to know your websites FTP connection settings and username and password, these are provided by your web hosting company.

RUN THE INSTALLATION APPLICATION

If you are not currently logged into your OpenCart admin panel, please login now (or if you are already logged in, please visit your dashboard page). This will trigger the Reward Points Extended installer to run. In most cases, everything should report okay, in the event that you experience any error notifications, please skip forward to the installation errors section, it contains details on how to deal with any encountered errors.

CONFIGURE INITIAL SETTINGS

You will need to visit Extensions > Modules > 'Install & Edit' 'Reward Points Extended' and configure and save the settings you would like for your store.

(OPTIONAL) E-MAIL REMINDERS CRON JOB

Login to cPanel (or DirectAdmin, or whatever control panel you web host is providing) and goto 'Cron Jobs', create a new entry to run once a day (or more often if you handle a very large number of orders daily).

The command line should look something like this :
php -q /home/yourwebhostusername/public_html/admin/rpe_cron.php

If you experience problems running the above command you can alternatively use:
wget -q http://www.yourdomain.com/admin/rpe_cron.php

If you are uncertain of the base path, just open your stores config.php in your open cart admin directory.

You can later verify that this is running correctly by visiting the 'Reward Points Extended' settings interface in the admin panel under 'Cron Status'.

If you web host does not offer Cron Jobs you can setup an account with this free server and use the wget method above. https://www.setcronjob.com/

INSTALLATION COMPLETE

You may now reference the feature guide to learn about the features of this extension, how to configure them and the ways in which they can benefit your shop.

INSTALLATION ERRORS

UNABLE TO REMOVE INSTALLER APPLICATION

If you receive this error, it simply means that the installation application was unable to remove itself from the vQmod xml directory. Please manually remove this file from your OpenCart website: ./vqmod/xml/install_reward_points_extended.xml.

UPGRADING TO VERSION 2.0

Important Information You Should Know Before Upgrading

Version 2.0 brings the biggest update yet, and to be honest a much needed update to the extension. The code involved has increased over 6 fold and is now a single fully featured module with customizable options. An all new settings panel, better display of P.O.P products, automated installer, and drastically improved handling.

The automated installer application which is bundled with version 2.0 will take care of making any nessicary adjustments to your OpenCart database for you. There are a variety of new settings available both in the settings panel and the sidebar module panel, you will need to enter both and edit/save settings to ensure that the rewards point extension continues to operate correctly.

Please also review the installation section of the documentation, particularly the 'Cron Job Setup' if you wish to use e-mail reminders, and be dispatching them automatically.

NOTE: The use of the previous storage field 'credit_points_amount' has been depreciated as of this release, if you have been actively using this extension, please contact me for an assisted upgrade prior to installation.

THE FEATURES OF REWARD POINTS EXTENDED

All You Need To Know About Configuring Reward Points Extended

A full length features guide will be available in an upcoming patch release.

VERSION HISTORY

Learn about all the recent changes

Reward Points Extended v2.0 Released

Released on January 21st, 2012

Version 2.0 brings the biggest update yet, and to be honest a much needed update to the extension. The old code libraries have been entirely scapped and RPE has been reborn a new, all involved the code base has increased over 6 fold and is now a single fully featured module with customizable options. An all new settings panel, better display of P.O.P products, automated installer, and drastically improved handling.

Corrected bug where quantity discounts for 'cost of goods' was not properly calculated during checkout.
Depreciated the use of 'credit_points_amount' as it was not required.
Moved 'Point Only Purchase' option to reward points tab in product editor.
Added Module to Extensions > Modules to control extension settings.
Added bonus reward points option for account registration.
Added bonus reward points option for newsletter sign-up.
Added option to automatically remove awarded bonus on newsletter un-subscribe.
Added bonus reward points option for leaving product reviews.
Added bonus reward points option for first order.
Added 'special' price in reward points support.
Added Point Purchasing URL entry/support which adds to error message displays to direct customer to purchase points for P.O.P products.
Added controller level display overrides for P.O.P items to show points required instead of price/special price/etc to the following page types: category listing, search, manufacturer/brands, featured, latest, related, product.
Added controller level display override to show reward point pricing for quantity discounts on product page.
Added automated removal of awarded points on order cancellation or delete.
Added multi-select completed order statuses to make automated reward point awarding more flexible.
Added multi-select cancelled order status to make cancelled order point clearing more flexible.
Added fields 'alt_id' and 'reason_code' and related programming to the 'customer_reward' data modeling to allow for more detailed tracking, allowing for proper multi-language capabilities.
Added 'BONUS FEATURE': Product Review E-Mail Reminders (or for general/other use).
Added automated installation features to make database changes.
Added new style of documentation.
Added 'product_review_reminder' field to order table to track what orders have had e-mail dispatched.
Added auto approve feature for product reviews above X star rating.
~~More improvements are forthcoming in a future patch, but wanted to get this out! :).

Undocumented Release Changes Pre 2.0

Spanning Release Dates

Minor patch/update for release version 1.1.

Added 'Point Only Purchase' option.
Added 'Currency Edition' release.
Added automated use of reward points on checkout.

Reward Points Extended 1.0 Released

Released on March 1st, 2012

Initial version released of Reward Points Extended.

SUPPORT CONTACT

If you require support, please get in touch!

Send us an e-mail

If you are in need of support, please send an e-mail. For fastest installation assistance please include FTP and OpenCart admin panel login credentials.

NOTE: E-mail contact form not functional at this time

Contact info

E-mail: jeff@hunterbm.com
Website: www.hunterbm.com

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