Actinic v10 – A brief discussion on what could be going into the next version

Before I go any further, I just want to write this disclaimer, I have not seen v10, nor was I involved in v10, this is purely a discussion on what feature version 10 could have

Right, now that is out of the way, lets discuss the fable version 10

Since Actinic made the decisions to remove templates and bring in design objects in the database, making it more WYSIWYG and easier for new clients and new developers, the whole structure of the software has changed, Especially with more parts of the s/ware working in an offline PHP Mode, eg the tax module with the PHPRunner dll file, Now is the time that Actinic works on what is the four most asked for items.

Real Time Stock Monitoring
Now from a personal view of who had experience in development within Actinic, I could guess that the real time stock monitoring will not be pulling off data within an online database, Instead what I would imagine, is the data would be stored in the .cat files where it holds in other product data. Now comes the logical issue with this, when does the real time stock monitoring kick in, is it from when the customer add to cart, or checkout/complete the order. If it is from when the customer adds to cart, then what happens when the customer closes the browser, the data is still written into the online datafile, therefore any other potential customer cannot order that product and check out. If it is on checkout, then what happens when both customer checks out at the same time (unlikely I know).

Actinic could program a switch in the User Interface to either use both situation, but it would be interesting to see how customers react when this finally comes out.

Google Checkout
Already developed for Actinic Express, the PSP plugin may come into v10 to everyone joy on the community. The only issue I have with Google Checkout is what happens when Google changes their format, I can remember in development when Froogle appeared, and every 6 months or so, you had them changing their format. This caused issue with us, as the export for Froogle was hardcoded in the application, therefore it would need an application change everytime, so it may have been delayed. After this happening for a couple of years, Froogle went to become GoogleBase,  So I’m hoping the same doesn’t happen in Google Checkout.
I don’t think it would happen, as Google Checkout has been out for some time now, and it must have matured, so now attaching the PSP part into Actinic would be a good move.

Streamline Checkout
Most opensource product, and online shops, now have a 2-3 page checkout. Actinic checkout hasn’t changed since v5, such a change would be huge in the perlscripts – It would need a total rewrite, but after much discussions on the forum, this new feature may be shown in v10. The only issue is the PSP bounce over, this is another step, so if it was a 2 page checkout, this will now turn into 3 page checkout, including the bounce over. The bounce over cannot be removed, as it has hidden fields which transfer over the customer address, plus the total amount. If v10 is delayed whatever reason, I would imagine this feature would be put back, and may be included in a maintenance release (I’m just guessing here). Also a footnote to this, one member of the community has already done a hack, see StinkyInk Blog

Online Customer Accounts
Again another feature which is asked for alot of time, the ability to create a customer account online and use it. Again much like the Real Time Stock Monitoring, I wouldn’t imagine that the data is stored in an online database, instead, the customer accounts details would be added to where they are now in the .fil files. The main change would be in the AccountScript.pl to add in new function of creating the customer account. The script already can read encrypted information so security will not be an issue, the only issue I could see is the perl processing time, what happens if you have a busy site and loads of people are creating customer accounts, the load on the server may be quite great. (Remember the script would be collecting the data, then encrypting it using a strong encryption).

Anyway these are just my thoughts as a ex-developer of Actinic with plenty of time . If anyone agrees or disgrees please use the comments sections with your thoughts, and please play nice