The main point of note is that YAK is now being tested against WP3 only. 2.1.7 is still supported for WP2 users, for the moment, and I’ll make bug fix releases against that version as necessary.

Changes (in this latest release) since 2.1.1 include:

2.1.2

• Fix bug with sales tax via manual CC entry, along with removal of spurious <td>
• Fix bug with sales tax via accounts receivable entry

2.1.3

• Fix sales tax in PayPal Std checkouts

2.1.4

• Fix processing problem with failed Authorize.net payments
• Fix rounding issue with sales tax values sent to PayPal

2.1.5

• Fix bug with confirmation email (missing sales tax, totals wrong)

2.1.6

• Add back missing code to handle unlimited quantities

2.1.7

• Fix problem with incorrectly calculated shipping after validation error
• Increase timeout on Authorize.net connections (occasionally seems to cause a problem)
• Fix problem with unlimited quantity handling
• Add shipping type to email flags
• Add check for the address_entry function existing (seems to cause an incompatibility with another plugin)

The next release (which may not include any major changes at all), will be 2.2.0, which will be the first official version tested against WP3.

In terms of new features, I’ve added public key encryption for storage of CC details. With the recent news about WordPress blogs hacked on a shared host (http://blogcastfm.com/announcements/warning-massive-number-of-godaddy-wordpress-blogs-hacked-this-weekend/), and various comments about many people on shared web hosts who don’t secure their WP config files properly, it seems prudent to provide the facility for more security for users of the manual CC payment feature. YAK settings are now split into 4 separate screens (General, Shipping, Sales Tax, Advanced) — on the Advanced tab you’ll find a button for generating a public/private key. The public key can be used for encrypting CC numbers, and the private key for decrypting. I’ll be adding some more detail to the FAQ at some point soon.

I’ve also added the facility to require a login for certain products, added more values to the third-party-integration event, and also incrementing item quantity (rather than displaying an error message) when the customer clicks on the buy button for an item which is already in the cart (configurable, of course). The biggest feature addition is the first version of sales tax calculations. This works in a vaguely similar way to shipping (except without the zones), but also provides for federal and state based taxes for the US. If your country has a similar requirement (state versus federal taxes), let me know, and hopefully I can fit that into a subsequent release.

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.

• 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.

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

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

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…

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.

• 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!

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…

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…?

I’m finding I have little time to work on YAK lately, for anything other than for bug fixes. There are a bunch of features I’d like to add, but unfortunately no time to work on them.

If you’re interested in helping out, and/or have features you want to add yourself — get in touch.

This is not the only change. After much internal cogitation, I’ve decided to dump the forum, and use Google Groups for further discussion on all my projects. Along with moving the hosting of those projects elsewhere. In short, this blog now becomes more of a blog. The distinction makes sense in my head anyway.

While the old forum messages can still be found here: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/forum, check below for where you should submit comments from now on.

YAK for WordPress
The main project page will now be at WordPress: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yak-for-wordpress/.
General discussion will now be held at: http://groups.google.com/group/yak-discuss.
Bug reports can be posted to: http://groups.google.com/group/yak-bugs.

stomp.py
The main project page is at Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/stomppy/.
The discussion group can be found here: http://groups.google.com/group/stomppy.

Proton Template Engine
The project page is at Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/proton-te/.

Snake Wrangling for Kids
The project page is still here: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/.
The discussion group is here: http://groups.google.com/group/swfk

More to come…

The following changes are included in these 2 releases (note: replace { } with [ ] in the tags below):

• an override setting for confirmation email subject
• 2 new tags: {yak_back_to_cc} and {yak_back_to_address}, to be used on an authorize.net or paypal error page (when payment processing returns an error)
• initial support for Google Analytics (including new tag {yak_google_analytics} for the final confirmation page).
• support for html confirmation emails
• removed __autoload which was colliding with another plugin
• add proper monetary formatting to total on cart
• facility to override the message displayed when the customer’s basket is empty
• facility to embed customer details in the final confirmation page (after confirming order).
  The following tags are now available:

  {yak_customer_name}
  {yak_customer_phone}
  {yak_customer_address}

• fix table charset/collation so table creation is consistent with WordPress
• add Swedish translation provided by Marco
• add Polish translation provided by Marciej
• fix more PayPal shipping issues
• new facility to add product types from the Products screen and when editing a post
• fix a problem with zero-total orders still being submitted to the payments gateway
• if the customer is logged into WordPress, record the user_id against the order (for future changes)
• add the facility to choose the type of order number: either generated (randomised) or plain sequence (linked to the order record).
• change [yak_quantity] and [yak_price] tags so that they also take params (product type and product id), for example: [yak_quantity large 25]
• fix a problem with single-quotes (‘) in addresses

I’ve also added a bunch of Selenium tests to automate the testing process, and hopefully eliminate any bugs that creep in when relying on manual tests.

I think the reviewer probably has a valid point in regard to user-friendliness, but otherwise hasn’t appeared to put a huge amount of thought into his review. In fact, it was negative enough that I feel the need to post a rebuttal both here and in a comment on his post. I don’t mind constructive criticism (as I said, I tend to agree on the user-friendliness front), but I’m less than impressed with criticism that’s based on a fundamental lack of research.

Here’s my comment (hopefully it doesn’t come across as too defensive…):

A question for you: did you happen to scroll down the YAK project page (here: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/projects/yak-for-wordpress/)?

In the distant past, I was one of the editors of a (printed) technical journal in the US. Generally if we were reviewing a product, we’d contact the company in advance for review copies (giving them the opportunity to provide additional information if they wanted). In this case, and for any future reviews you decide to write, I believe you’d be better served contacting the developer (or developers) and give them that same opportunity. It is perhaps a better form of journalism not to rubbish a project or product without actually doing a little research in advance…

Since then, I’ve come across a few negative comments about YAK on various forums — interestingly, in none of these cases has the poster actually contacted me. All too similar to the original troll.

The usual process, when there’s been a real issue with YAK, is that someone lets me know, I fix said issue (or otherwise try to resolve), and release a new version. So far, I’ve only been notified about one legitimate hole in the code (quickly fixed), and (at least, as far as I can recall) haven’t left any major flaws outstanding for great lengths of time. So I haven’t been enormously worried about the odd malcontent.

That said, I occasionally google to see what’s being said out there, and came across the following gem (from the aforementioned plugin developer).

If you want to throw up an image with a price in a page or a post then by all means use YAK. But if you want the real deal then [competing-plugin] is built on years of e-Commerce knowledge and has plenty of important features for people wanting to SELL Online – such as the ability to interface with many payment gateways, the ability to interface with shipping companies, and much much more

(Note: I’ve removed the name of the plugin because I’ve thus far tried to avoid actually naming the individual involved).

This was posted sometime after May last year, but I do feel the need to make a couple of comments, even though it’s almost a year old:

1. What’s your definition of important feature? Get a group of users together, and I guarantee they won’t come up with the same list.
2. YAK now supports a number of payment gateways (PayPal standard, PayPal Pro, Authorize.net and basic Google Checkout integration)
3. Okay, it doesn’t directly interface with shipping companies — but the shipping calculation is relatively flexible, and I’m always open to suggestions.
4. YAK as a project has now been actively (if intermittently) developed for 3 years. So I’d say it also fulfills the assertion: “built on years of e-Commerce knowledge”.

UPDATE: here’s another interesting comment (by someone called Mccormicky) which I came across after posting this:

Yak cart is another you might consider if you don’t mind repairing tables in mysql. I did it and I am no expert.
Yak is not that supported either-there isn’t even an onsite tutorial for setting it up and the readme contains nothing about where to put the hooks! I was amazed.

It looks like fairly obvious trolling, given that (at the time it was posted) there was certainly a basic tutorial for YAK setup, and at the time I don’t recall being contacted about any “table repair” problems. Weird.