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Neil
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Posted Wed 9 Jan 2013
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Sat 3 Nov 2018
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I see Kartris version 2.0 being mentioned in the newly released user guide here http://userguide.kartris.com.
Can you let us know any new features planned? Is mobile device support planned? We see now that almost 1/3 of our visits are from a mobile devices (inc tablets etc).
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Mart
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Posted Thu 10 Jan 2013
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Group: Administrators
Last Active: Wed 18 Nov 2020
Posts: 148,
Visits: 3,450
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We won't have mobile in v2.0.
We have been working with jquery mobile to deliver a mobile interface for our recruitment software. Hopefully we'll be able to use the knowledge gained from that to create a mobile interface for Kartris.
The other option is to use response web design or RWD, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design
The attraction of this second technique is that we'd have just one set of kartris code... whereas for jquery mobile we'd essentially have to build a parallel mobile interface for kartris, and maintain it with bug fixes and new features in future.
As an aside I think the mobile figures provided by google are a bit misleading. When using google analytics to determine mobile share, its best to consider ipads and other tablets as not being mobile. When I use my ipad I use the full version of websites since virtually all will work fine on an ipad sized screen. Its a bit annoying that they show up as mobile devices, as really the user experience they provide is closer to a regular PC than a phone. I think the rapid growth in tablet use is what is pushing the apparent surge in mobile browsing. I'm not saying browsing on mobile phones isn't happening, but I don't think its quite so big as the raw figures suggest due to confusion with tablets.
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Neil
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Posted Thu 10 Jan 2013
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Sat 3 Nov 2018
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I tend to agree with you. Our site works really well on an ipad in all browsers I have tested in. The real change is required when you drop to a much lower resolution (mobile phones) where the content needs to be stacked vertically. I did look at adding css for lower resolution devices but didn't want to spend time on it if you were going to release supported code.
Even though the figures in Google Analytics may be misleading I still think it would be worth the effort for phone users.
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Paul
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Posted Sun 20 Jan 2013
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Group: Administrators
Last Active: Fri 15 Sep 2023
Posts: 806,
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We experimented with a special mobile skin that had CSS and skin changes to work on smaller screens. The problem with this is that you end up having to write hacks into some user controls too, and very soon it becomes a nightmare to maintain the code.
The other issue is that for mobile devices, you ideally want to not just change the layout, but also simplify the output code and features. Doing this from CSS alone means you end up still downloading a normal page, but hiding many of the features from display with CSS.
So I think the approach we would follow would be to create an alternative interface that is far simpler for small screen devices. This would consist of full screen menu navigation to items, or search. Products would all display in same format - tabular. We'd drop some features such as writing reviews, as these just complicate things and aren't really the kind of features that are easy to use on mobile devices anyway. The emphasis would be on simplicity.
It may be too that we don't include the full checkout experience in the mobile version initially (the user can still use the normal checkout of course). Checkout requires submission of various data so it's not particular easy for users to do on a mobile device. If we let them set up accounts easily though, they can browse and save items to purchase later when they're on a device with a proper keyboard. For the kind of user sitting on a train or bus and hence using a mobile device, this lets them use that time to browse and find items, and then they have the choice of checking out on the mobile device, or later when they have a full keyboard. Of course for users with existing accounts who have addresses all set up already, going through the checkout would be very quick and simple.
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If my post solves your issue, can you 'Mark as Answer' so it's easier for other users to find in future.
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ianguest
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Posted Fri 15 Feb 2013
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Tue 31 Mar 2015
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Yourcomments are in line with an article from Barclays who state that in 2011Mobile devices would account for 5% of m-commerce and in 2012 it shouldincrease by 2012.
Inpractice we have seen this to be true, but in a different way. Google Analyticsis showing that we are receiving 10% of visitors on a Mobile platform, of which80% are Apple iPad which use the full version of the website.
Rollingon through the next two years, we would like to offer a mobile version of thewebsite. But devices are growing in screen size and power (Apple iPhone5 andSamsung Galazy siii) so would these be able to pull off the full version of thewebsite?
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Neil
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Posted Thu 14 Mar 2013
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Sat 3 Nov 2018
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Can you let us know the new features/changes planned in v2?
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Paul
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Posted Fri 15 Mar 2013
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Group: Administrators
Last Active: Fri 15 Sep 2023
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These are the main changes:- Fully open-source code with GNU GPL v2 license all core code BLLs and DALs merged into App_Code
- Upgraded to latest AJAX toolkit
- New back end skin for improved usability
- New front end default skin
- All triggers removed for improved performance and compatibility with the Microsoft Web App Gallery
- Improved password hashing for user and login accounts
- HTML templates for emails (order confirmations, password reset, etc.)
- New 'cancelled' order status, returns any items in order to stock
- Can view customer addresses from new 'addresses' tab when viewing a customer record
- New order/payment history tab with total balance for better snapshot of customer account and any overdue balance or refund.
- Support ticket improvements, fixed various bugs and added 'tagging' system to aid keyword searching
- Support ticket cross links with customer record, can view all tickets for particular customer from link in customer record
- Now using the ASP.NET AJAX HTML editor for simpler interface
- Live currency rate lookup now available to all users, rates now come direct from ECB (European Central Bank) feed, which includes all common European and non-European currencies
- Object config system extended to versions (previously only available for products)
- Back end image and media upload and handling improvements, back end images previews now properly thumbnailed
- Error handling now more efficient, error pages self-contained to avoid possibility of 404 cascades
- Front end search improved, now passes querystrings to Search.aspx page so can be invoked from external search box
- Windows 8 live tile for order and support ticket notifications on Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows 8 Phone devices (coming soon)
There are a load of other minor bug fixes, performance improvements and minor feature improvements. This is largely a structural release (removing the compiled core and merging everything was quite a major job but simplifies things internally and makes the code fully open source).
The v2 code is available already here http://kartris.codeplex.com
We're working on a new data tool too at the moment, which we hope to have available in next few weeks.
We also have some useful things planned for Kartris 2.1 including a web services API and some interesting payment/checkout stuff which will be particularly interesting to people selling downloadable products or online services.
--
If my post solves your issue, can you 'Mark as Answer' so it's easier for other users to find in future.
If you would like to be informed of new features, new releases, developments and occasional special bonuses, please sign up to our mailing list: http://bit.ly/19sKMZb
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Neil
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Posted Fri 15 Mar 2013
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Sat 3 Nov 2018
Posts: 192,
Visits: 5,220
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Looks like some nice changes/improvements! Especially like the idea of HTML templates for emails and cancelled order statuses. Might try and get it running locally for testing...
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holtcomp
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Posted Tue 26 Mar 2013
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Wed 18 May 2016
Posts: 12,
Visits: 145
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any tips for installing version 2, i can't seem to get it to work.
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