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Ecommerce Templates > General Help > The Control Panel > Main Admin Settings
Contents
- Main admin settings
- Store settings
- Product filter bar
- Order management
- Email settings
- Shipping and handling settings
- Language settings
- Currency conversion
- Cardinal commerce
Main admin settings
This page contains some of the crucial settings for your Ecommerce Template store and we have detailed the various options below.
Store settings
Country Settings
This is where you specify where you are selling from and the currency
on your store will adjust accordingly. It will also affect such things
as the date display format, tax settings and the shipping estimator.
The currency format can be overwritten on your store if necessary.
Store URL
This is a very important setting as it is used widely on the store.
Make sure the URL is the full URL of your store, this would normally
be http://www.yourstore.com/ but if you have placed your files
in a separate folder then you would need to change the setting
accordingly. There is a suggestion above the box that should help
you. Do not add a page name such as index.php or categories.asp
to the setting here.
Products per page
This is where you specify how many products you would like to appear
on your products page. Too many products will cause the page to
load more slowly, too few and your users may have to click through
many pages to get to what they are looking for so a value of perhaps
6 to 12 is a happy medium.
Default product sort order
Here you can choose how your products are listed on the products
page, whether you want them ordered alphabetically, by price,
date etc.
Product Filter Bar
This feature will appear on your products page and allows customers to filter the product listings by Manufacturer, Price, Keyword etc. To turn the feature on you will need to check one or more of the checkboxes. There are css classes included for formatting the look.
Allow Filter by Manufacturer
This will give you a drop down menu of the manufacturers that you
have defined in the manufacturers admin page.
Allow Filter by Search Criteria
This allows you to group products together using your own criteria.
You will first need to create your groups by clicking on the
link in the admin home page for "Edit Search Criteria". For
example you might want to create groups for brand new products,
nearly new and second-hand so the label you might want to enter
here would be "Condition". Once you have set up those groups,
you will then want to assign your products to each group through
the product admin pages.
Allow Filter by Price
You can provide a drop down of pricing bands to your customers
so they can filter the product listing by price. By default price
bands are of $100 but you can set your own thresholds
in vsadmin/includes.asp with for example
filterpricebands=150
or in vsadmin/includes.php
$filterpricebands=150;
Allow Customer Defined Sort.
This allows you to choose between the 10 different sort methods
so a customer can choose to have the product listing sorted alphabetically,
by price, by most recent etc.
Dynamic Products Per page
The customer can choose how many products will appear on the page.
The multiples come from the main products per page setting.
Allow Filter by Keyword
The customer can enter their own search terms to find the product
they are looking for. The search will be based on the product
name, id, description and additional search parameters.
Product Filter Bar video tutorial
Order Management
Stock Management
If you want to use the Stock Management
feature then it can be turned on here by choosing "On" from the
drop down 
more
details
Delete after (uncompleted orders)
Set the time period you would like uncompleted orders to be
deleted from your database. You will need to hit the Purge Deleted
button in the orders admin page to completely get rid of all
deleted orders from your database.
Delete after (clear logged in customers cart items)
This is the amount of time you can set for items to remain in the cart of a logged in customer.
Email Settings
Following a successful order on your store you will be notified by email if you have checked the Email confirmation box. The email will be sent to the address specified below that. It's important that the email is valid for the domain so you@yourdomain.com would be correct, you@anotherdomain.com would not. For the PHP version that should be all the information that is required. For the ASP version you will see the extra fields outlined below and these along with our email troubleshooting guide are outlined here.
Shipping and Handling Settings
Shipping type
Here is where you can specify the shipping method you want to employ
on your store for domestic and international customers. more details
Use alternate shipping rates
If you don't want to give your customers a choice
of shipping methods on checkout, select "Don't use alternative
rates". Selecting "Show alternate carriers in menu" will give the
customer the choice of selecting the shipping carrier from the
ones you select and then choosing the method they want the purchase
to be shipped by. Choosing "Show all shipping carriers together"
will present rates for all the shipping methods you select on the
same screen.
Alternate shipping
Use the arrow to set the order of the shipping methods presented
to your customers.
Select which methods you want to support by checking the box next to each carrier,
the first is for domestic shipping, the second for international.
Use the text field to label each of the methods.
Pack products
Selecting Pack products together will add all the product weights
together and take the shipping cost on this total. Pack products
separately will take the shipping cost for each item and then add
these together.
Username
If you are using USPS shipping on your store then after registering
for a user name with USPS you would enter it here. more details
Retailer ID
This is only required if you are using Canada Post as the shipping
method. more details
SmartHub ID
This is only required if you are using FedEx SmartPost®
Zip
This is the zip (postal) code of where you are shipping from. Only
one zip code can be used in the process of calculating shipping
costs.
Shipping weights / Dimensions
This is where you can choose between the metric and imperial systems.
Do note that some shipping carriers may restrict the available
shipping units and some may vary by country of origin. If you specify
units for dimensions you will have to enter dimensions for all products.
But most of the time it will make no difference to shipping.
Handling charge
The value specified here will be added to the order total
to cover handling costs. It is possible to add a per payment provider
handling charge, a handling charge as a percentage of the order total
and add tax to the handling.
ASP version
PHP version
Language settings
Admin Language
The language you want for your control panel
Store Language
The language you want to show on your public store pages
Number of languages
If you are going to run more than one language
off the same database then this is where you specify the number,
maximum of three. more
details
Language settings
This is also used with the multiple
language settings and here you can choose which fields you want
to appear in your
alternative languages. more
details
Currency conversion
It is possible to show your product prices in up
to three other currencies other than the default. The alternative
prices will be shown on your product and product detail pages below
the main default price. Sales will always be processed in the default
currency but it does provide a guide for international purchasers
regarding the approximate price in their local currency... more details
Cardinal Commerce
If you are going to implement the Cardinal
Commerce 3D Secure system to provide Verified by VISA, Mastercard
SecureCode and J/Secure functionality, enter the details here.
more details