Well, version 2 actually, rather than a Rod Stewart/Tina Turner duet.

YAK version 2 has just been released (the WP site should update shortly). This is a major release, with a large number of changes. Most important to note for upgraders, is YAK now uses WordPress’s shortcode API and also supports multiple shipping options. See the change list below for what this actually means, but before upgrading, I recommend taking a note of your current shipping configuration, and taking a backup of your WP environment (just to be safe).

Changes include (note, read braces {} below as square brackets []):

• Updated the codebase to use WordPress’s shortcodes API. This means the old parameter style (e.g. {yak_price type id}) is replaced by the new style {yak_price id=”" type=”"}. For example, {yak_price small 23} becomes {yak_price id=”23″ type=”small”}. {yak_quantity medium} becomes {yak_quantity type=”medium”}
• Renamed {error_message} tag to {yak_error_message} (for consistency’s sake)
• Added a {yak_sku} tag. This takes the id and type parameters (same as yak_size). For example, {yak_sku type=”small”}
• Added a facility for loading custom modules
• Added “Proceed to checkout” link to yak order widget
• Added support for multiple shipping options (this means you’ll need to reconfigure your shipping settings — on the plus side, YAK now supports more than one shipping option). Shipping is now configured in a separate screen (YAK Shipping), and is broken into 3 tabs – Basic (the basic config settings, including where you can specify what shipping options you support), Zones (specify which country belongs to which zone), and Options (where you can set the price of shipping to each zone for each option).
• Added a test facility for the confirmation email message
• Added (very) basic low stock notification
• Changed “Buy” button on the initial cart page to “Checkout”
• Added an option to include the price on Buy Button drop-down (i.e. multi options)
• Changed ID on the buy button so that it’s unique
• Added “PAYMENT_PROCESSED” option to the orders screen — for orders which have been (manually) paid (either manual credit card or deposit/cheque, for example) but not yet shipped.
• Added “DELETE” option to the orders screen — only allows orders which are CANCELLED or in ERROR to be deleted

ADDENDUM: there was a minor Javascript bug I missed fixing (and meant to before the release), so version 2.0.1 will be on the update site shortly.

YAK version 1.8.0 was released yesterday. This release includes the following changes:

• Add a discount override, to allow for discounts on a per-product basis (useful to get rid of old stock, for example)
• Add option-selection to products. This differs from the categorisation-method of specifying different types of a product, and allows you to setup a selectable range of options (multi-select). Thus you might have a mix-and-match product, where a customer can select 3 out of 10 options, and so on.
• Split installation code into separate file
• Fix a compatibility problem with the exclude-pages plugin
• Add more logging to product update process
• Add threshold-based promotions — promotions which are triggered by the value of the order, rather than by a promotion code/voucher.

I’m currently in the process of updating the handbook to take into account the new features. Those who have previously purchased the handbook will receive an updated copy as soon as it’s done.

Version 1.7.7 of YAK for WordPress has been released.

This release includes mainly bug fixes, including the following:

• Hopefully fix a problem with glob (on some PHP installs)
• Move order widget into separate file
• Change “Espana” into “Spain” in English files.
• Fix problem with country missing from shipping address in confirmation email and in order screen
• Add a new tag [phone] to confirmation email
• Fix a problem with address in order export
• Add message to Credit Card entry notifying the customer that they have a final chance to confirm/cancel the order
• Updated German translation, provided by Joern

This release has been tested on both WP and WPMU.

I’ve noticed what seems to be a predilection, by those who write reviews of WordPress shopping cart plugins and themes, to stick YAK at the bottom of the list. Probably because the number of downloads is below the others. But the final result is something along the lines of:

WP-Ecommerce: feature, feature, feature, feature…
Shopp: feature, feature, feature, feature…
Eshop: feature, feature, feature, feature…
YAK: [gawd I'm tired of listing features... let's not bother with it any more... what can come up with instead... oh I know] it’s a simple plugin!

It’s getting old. Frankly.

So, this is an attempt to come up with a reasonably objective comparison of the shopping cart plugins for WordPress, without excluding the one at the end because someone-got-bored-before-they-finished-writing. You might be wondering how I can be objective when I develop one of those very plugins — well, we’ll see how I do, I guess.

I’m going to take a look at the major e-commerce plugins (not themes, because this probably should be an apples-to-apples comparison). First up, let’s bundle all those features together into one nice big list and see who does what… this might end up being a work-in-progress, because in some cases, it’s not immediately obvious whether the features are included. If I’ve missed something, let me know.

Hard to draw any real conclusions from this matrix — WP E-commerce probably leads in terms of features, but those features come with a (resource) cost. Shopp looks like it might come second (in terms of featureset), and certainly covers the most payment gateways, but it’s also a reasonable investment (particularly purchase of a developer license). Given it’s commercial-only, it’s impossible to know what performance or memory usage is like.

Given that no single plugin covers all the possible features, I guess it’s very much a case of identifying the things that are important to you, then choose the plugin which best covers that featureset.

…At least, until YAK2 comes out, because that will do everything.

That’s a joke by the way.

More to come later, and do let me know if I’m made some glaringly obvious omissions.

Update #1: Added number of downloads, and project links.

Update #2: Changes to eShop features, kindly provided by Rich.

Update #3: Added info on WP E-commerce product search.

Update #4: Added info on Shopp, provided by Jonathon.

Update #5: Added iDeal to wp-ecommerce, i18n to eshop.

Update #6: Added 2 new YAK features

Just a minor bug fix release this time. Sorting the following issues:

• fix an incompatibility problem with Contact Form 7.
• fix a problem with Google Analytics tag ()

YAK 1.7.4 includes a fairly major change, to do with the storage of options. This is significant enough to post a health warning on the box (so to speak): Before upgrading, make sure you backup your database. At the very least, note down any major settings (PayPal, Authorize.net config, etc), just in case.

This release fixes a major problem in WordPress MU, and also a minor issue with the sidebar widget. Which reminds me, I really must update the Handbook to include details on using the Widget. If you’ve purchased the handbook in the past, expect a copy in the (e)mail in the next day or 3…

…try, try again.

Release 1.7.1 managed to introduce a couple of bugs — my automated tests didn’t quite provide the safety net I was hoping for, in this case. Hence, versions 1.7.2 and 1.7.3 include the following fixes:

* fix a problem with PayPal IPN
* fix a problem with Accounts Receivable payment
* fix a problem with (manual) Credit Card payment
* reduce memory usage
* add instant update of pricing promotions in the first page of the cart (after hitting update)

Note: I’ve had one report of weird issues when upgrading. It doesn’t seem to break anything, but please let me know if you do have problems, because I’m yet to identify exactly what the cause might be.

YAK version 1.7.1 has just been released. This release (and the previous 1.7.0) includes the following changes:

• Fixing a problem with Authorize.net url
• Add checkbox for Authorize.net test mode
• Separate PayPal Pro return url (from Standard)
• Refactor payment types into separate classes to allow for easier extensibility
• Minor change to ipaddress sent to PayPal (only affects internal testing)
• Add ‘demo’ payment gateway
• Fix promo date saving problem
• Fix promo price calculation (causing problems in PayPal)
• Automatically create the Checkout page on activation
• Automatically create the “products” and “default” categories on activation
• Fix (hopefully) an odd error_log problem in certain environments

Enjoy!

YAK version 1.6 has just been released. There are mainly minor changes (a custom out-of-stock message, removing the link back to the project page, and minor restructure), apart from one fairly major enhancement — to support WordPress MU.

At the moment, I’d say this feature is “beta” quality. The full YAK test suite runs without problem, but I haven’t really spent a huge amount of time checking that there are no issues between multiple blogs. More testing is definitely recommended for anyone who decides to enable this on an MU install…

Is there a market for a hosted version of YAK? Configured for you, with PayPal standard as a base, products loaded (perhaps from Excel or something else) out of the box?

A few years ago, back when the project was a lot less mature, I had one tentative query along those lines. But I wasn’t in a position back then to do anything about it. I am now, but I wonder is there a market for it? After all, every “man-and-his-dog” has a hosted shopping cart solution — and some are a lot more comprehensive than YAK is, even now.

Gut feeling says, probably no, but perhaps worth asking the question…?