We toyed for a while with image uploading in our Magento web-to-print extension. It was working so-so for some weeks, but now it progressed to a stable build.

Try this demo web-to-print template.

There was a number of improvements in the admin area and web-to-print data import as well.

Add our Magento access control extension and it comes together into a neat corporate web-to-print portal with you in control of the presentation and workflow.

We are working on image editing and approval process at the moment.

Help with setting up

Unfortunately we can help only so much with setting up and configuring a Magento web-to-print store. There was a number of successful installations and the freelance developers that did it will be happy to help you too. The cost is likely to be much lower than hiring a web development company. Send us an email and we’ll put you in touch with someone.

We made some changes to how users are registered in web-to-print portals. It may not appear as a big change on the outside, but we had to make some major changes in the back end to enable it. Still work in progress as we need to add some more convenience features to the process.

Email confirmation is not required

A user can register beforehand, during or after ordering. The user can leave the site, come back and log in without clicking on the confirmation link. The email will be marked as unconfirmed. The user is reminded to confirm it.

We hope it will make life a bit easier in cases where confirmation emails do not reach users or end up in junk mail.

User ownership

If a printer adds a user and the email status is unconfirmed the user can only access corporate catalogs by domain name within the web-to-print portal of the printer that created the user. Once the email is confirmed the user can access such catalogs on any other ZP web-to-print portal. This change may affect printers running several web-to-print portals as different accounts and share users between them.

Bugs

We won’t be surprised if we missed a thing or two with this registration change. Please, let us know ASAP if you spot anything unusual.

We released a beta version of some image management and image editing functions for our web-to-print API.

There is not much at the moment:

• get list of images
• get image details
• upload new
• delete
• crop
• rotate
• edit title

Some other functions are in stealth mode and will be released soon:

• copy to different folder
• move to different folder

We want to add a few filters to the mix, e.g. grayscale,  sepia, watercolor, etc. Need your input on what you think will be popular with your web-to-print customers. Your suggestion on what you think is a good implementation of this functionality are very welcome.

Web-to-print image editing will appear in our Magento web-to-print plugin first and then will be transferred to the core user interface. This is work in progress at the moment.

Magento web-to-print update

We are actively working on image uploading and image editing for our Magento web-to-print extension. It has not been finished yet, but we are looking for early adopters to help with polishing the feature.

Please, download the latest beta and give it a try. Send your questions to web-to-print support at admin@zetaprints.com.

Performance problems

The site is running much slower than it used to. We are adding more capacity over the weekend. There is a problem with auto-scaling and we don’t want to cause any disruption while the ordering is in full swing.

Our team is back in full strength (almost) and we’ll start rolling out some changes you need to know in advance.

Asynchronous image uploading

Images will be uploaded as soon as they are selected. This will eliminate the problem of the uploads being too large. Users should not notice any difference, only it will be faster.

If you think this will disadvantage your users, please, email us with your concerns. We may be able to leave your store on the old interface for some time.

Skin color changes feature will be removed

We will be removing the color changing feature for web-to-print store skins. You will need to use CSS to make appearance changes. There will be no change in the skin appearance, but if you are planning to change colors soon we suggest you find someone with CSS knowledge now to help you. Any web designer or web programmer should be able to do it.

We released a beta version of an access control extension for Magento.

Magento Community edition (the free one) has no access control. It’s a feature of their Enterprise edition, which costs money. We created a simple extension that allows access control at a basic level, but it should do the job for small portals. Please, give it a try.

Web-to-print extension update

We also released a stable update for our web-to-print extension for Magento. It went through a dozen of betas and has many bugs fixed, plus many new features. It’s really shaping up now. Image uploading and basic editing features are in the works. We planned to release them couple of weeks ago, but the festive season got on the way.

You need to update the XML in data import and product creation profiles for the latest upgrade to work correctly. See the latest help for web-to-print extension.

Problems with emails

We are having problems with many emails not being delivered. It is a complex issue with some of it beyond our control. We are trying to find altenatives, but it may take another 24 hrs.

Would you like notifications about new web-to-print orders to arrive as text messages to your cellphone via Twitter? Flick us an email and we’ll set you up.

Sorry, we’ve been quite since moving the new hosting. The core team is still busy bringing order and stability to your hosted web-to-print portal. It’s not as reliable at the moment as it should be. We are planing to complete all the admin, backup and auto-scaling procedures in the next few days. You probably won’t notice from the user end, but we’ll feel much better with all the fail-over protection.

Magento web-to-print update

We released a new version of our web-to-print extension for Magento. It is taking some real shape with most bugs fixed. Not saying it is perfect, but it works.

Custom themes

An important change is how web-to-print integrates into a custom them. We recommend that you upgrade to the latest version and change your theme as well. The sooner you do it the easier it will be to apply further updates.

Configurable and simple web-to-print products

Previous versions could work only with simple products. Now you can link any product to an imported web-to-print template. Simple web-to-print products can be created in bulk from imported web-to-print templates, but they still need to be configured with prices and options.

See our web-to-print for Magento demo for more links and info.

We are switching over from one host to the other right now. Your web-to-print portal is on the move.

The old web-to-print site displays a temporary page informing visitors why the site is down.

Once the new web-to-print site is up and the DNS has been updated you should continue using it as nothing happened.

Anyone accessing the old web-to-print site will be redirected to a page explaining how to update their DNS settings.

Check if any web-to-print files are missing after the switch-over.

Update: the site is up and running at the new location.

We are still testing the new location and synchronizing new files. The switchover is planned for approximately 6am GMT on Tue.

The site is likely to go down for about an hour or two. This is how long it takes to re-sync the database. Having less downtime will increase risk of data going missing.

Please, do not upload new templates, fonts or stock images until we are running off the new location, unless they can’t wait.

We are migrating all web-to-print portals to the new location right now.

Anything you upload will be queued up for synchronization and may take many hrs if not day to re-sync.

Please, wait until end of Monday or contact us directly if your upload is urgent.