Can we get some love for Commerce?

[CodingJungle]

I find commerce to be a useful, but frustrating application. it has a ton of potential just waiting to be baked into it, but is weak in so many spots, that i don't even know where to start. so this topic is two fold, i would like to hear what future plans IPS has for it before i start modifications of it, and i would like to also hear what others would like it be capable of.

what i'd like to see:

• adding items from the front end
• more widgets (like top selling products, new products, etc)
• integration with a hosting API like digitalocean, digitalocean has a pretty clean API.
• digital goods (you can still make downloads required, but allow the product itself contain the download versus me having to maintain both apps on my front end, when i really only have them cause they are incomplete without each other imho). 
• push notifications (there are several fine api's out there to handle push notifications, so i would like to see either the suite adopt 'em or at least commerce like for purchases)
• Questions and Answer section (comments aren't good for this, cause its just a wall, with a questions and answers like a mini-forum, you have the question and then the answers). 
• better license option - most of the time the standard license is enough for me, but instead of making that the identifier for it, they become the algorithm and we can define the key for it, cause i have a few different ones for different apps and products, and they are all based on the standard one, but i have to create and upload a file each time i need a way to separate them. 
• once a key is activated, have a way in the ACP for me to insert and/or change the extra data that we can pass to it. right now, there really isn't a way to do this other than to do a DB edit or regenerate the license key and then have the person "reactivate" it. 
• customers - it would be nice to be able to access their purchase history from the front end, as a lot of time i'll get a PM about something and i just want to do a quick check to see if they are active purchaser, and i have to login into the acp and then go find them, many extra steps for something simple imho. 
• auto create support departments - it would be nice from the item itself, i can select that purchasers can use the support system, and then an option to have a department created specifically for for this item, and then like auto assign to a person/group from there as well. 

I have more, but they are more than likely things i will need to implement on my own, as they are specifically related to selling apps . if i come up with anything else, i'll be sure to post it, but i would also like to hear what others wish commerce was capable of and as well from IPS on future plans for the app. 

[Steph40]

May I add better ads management like selling ads per day, weeks, month etc instead of just per clicks or impressions.

[CodingJungle]

Just now, Steph40 said:

May I add better ads management like selling ads per day, weeks, month etc instead of just per clicks or impressions.

i was thinking about them, but i don't use ad's. i would like to see a way that existing blocks/widgets on the page, can be "sponsored". like they pay x amount for a week/month/day/etc, and the block is display with a "sponsored by xxxx" and a link to their site or whatever, and then at the end of it, it can be autoconfigured to remove the block/widget or just remove the "sponsored by". like activity streams could have this done, as i imagine a lot of "eyes" are looking at it a lot of the times. 

[Steph40]

I like that idea.

[Meddysong]

3 hours ago, CodingJungle said:

• adding items from the front end

I don't think you'll get that since IPS don't allow translatable fields on the front end because of associated security risks. What I'm going to do in my case is grant our employee access to the ACP but only for Commerce.

[bradl]

• I would like to be able to set a product end-service date using an actual date rather than a term (days, months, year, etc.). Similar to a subscription but for calendar-based periods.
• I would like to be able to 'gift' or assign a group-changing product to a user and have it expire *silently* generating no renewal notices to the recipient. I don't mind if *I* get the notice, but I do not want the recipient getting renewal invoices.

[CodingJungle]

On 10/5/2017 at 1:41 AM, Meddysong said:

I don't think you'll get that since IPS don't allow translatable fields on the front end because of associated security risks. What I'm going to do in my case is grant our employee access to the ACP but only for Commerce.

i am not aware of the "associated" security risk translatable would impose, cause it really isn't any different than allowing user created content like topic titles/bodies/posts/comments/etc imho. 

i would say opening your ACP to sellers would impose the bigger risk than allow product creation to happen on the front end, how would you prevent them from messing with others products, if they became competitive or at worst vindictive and if you lapse and forget to set the restriction for newly added apps or a new section was added to nexus, they could have access to that and you wouldn't immediately know it. but i'm sure a vetting process of some kind would be used at this point, to only allow the most trusted into being sellers (which could drastically limit the types and quantity of your sellers too). but then again, i can add paid downloads on the front end in downloads, so the argument imho about "security risk" is diminishing.   

since there is no replies from IPS on this in over a week, i'm guess i am gonna begin modification to commerce for my needs  

[Meddysong]

20 hours ago, CodingJungle said:

i am not aware of the "associated" security risk translatable would impose, cause it really isn't any different than allowing user created content like topic titles/bodies/posts/comments/etc imho.

I had it explained to me by one of the team (I don't remember who) that they don't allow user-submitted content to be translatable because it opens up to problems, which is why I can't create blogs with translated titles any more. I don't know the specifics of the problem (I'm not a techie) but that's what I was informed was the thinking behind the decision. (They seem consistent with it too; if it can be created through the front end (blogs, clubs), it's not translatable. It seems to be only stuff that is created uniquely through the ACP which is.)