(Minivend is a leading open-source Web store. — lt
ed.)
****** message to minivend-announce from Mike Heins ******
Announcing Release of Minivend 4.
(
Note to the user list: I have been using Minivend 4 in
production now for two months. It has taken tens of thousands of
orders. I think it is time to bite the bullet and release.
😎
)
Minivend 4 is an extensive rewrite of the Minivend software.
Though many things will be compatible with MiniVend 3, some will
not.
Major new features are almost too many to mention, so I won’t in
this forum. Read the WHATSNEW and documentation for the most
complete description.
In particular MiniMate (thanks to Stefan Hornburg) and the demos
have been extensively reworked. Some highlights:
- Added “basic” demo with bare-bones set of MV features, no
__VARIABLE__ defines, etc. - Added multi-level order pages, selectable at makecat time.
- Added demonstration of downloadable products.
- Built-in support for all sorts of payment schemes. A “signio”
and an “authorizenet” routine will be provided eventually;
integration with other payment systems should be a relative
snap. - HTML fixed (somewhat).
- MySQL and PostGres should install out of the box. PostGres
still has some userdb problems due to arcane SQL syntax that I
don’t understand.
MiniMate is now strongly recommended — it is greatly improved.
Highlights:
- Security/login is handled within userdb and should be
transparent. You can supplement it with HTTP auth if you want, but
for most purposes it should be sufficient. - Individual user profiles can be created so that certain users
can only edit certain tables (and rows and columns). You can also
limit the set of features they see. - Meta-information, a little-known feature of MiniMate, has been
supported with a display editor. This allows you to custom-tailor
the display of certain fields in the edit screens. - Some menus have been cleaned up and simplified.
I believe this software is a great improvement over MiniVend 3
— only time will tell if you agree.
Best,
Mike