It’s taken 10 months of development to birth a completely fresh e-commerce solution engineered to solve some of the most common problems that plague people trying to setup online storefronts. That vision is finally here.

Be sure to check out the features page and if you’re more of a picture-person take a look at the tour of Shopp.

Before You Buy

Before you buy, you should be absolutely certain that your web hosting service meets Shopp’s technology requirements. You might want to grab a copy of the Shopp Requirements Check Plugin to be absolutely sure.

You’ll notice the Shopp core comes in two flavors: Single-site and Developer.

• Single-site — $55
  For a single install of Shopp that you want to keep up-to-date. Low-cost of entry to test things out and get a feel for how to work with Shopp. Easy to pass on the cost (with a profit margin) to your clients on a per-project basis.
• Developer — $299
  When you’re ready to commit to Shopp as your ongoing e-commerce solution, the developer key provides automatic updates across all of your Shopp installs. Sorry, single-site purchases do not count toward the purchase of a developer key so you’ll want to be sure Shopp is the right solution for crew.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who has helped me get this thing to release. Finally. It’s been a long time and a whole lot of hard, but fun, work. I want to specifically thank my family for dealing with my workaholic syndrome to make sure the project actually got launched. Thanks to my parents and in-laws for their love, encouragement and support throughout the process.

And of course, to the participating members of the Shopp Beta Team. Those of you that regularly reported bugs, ran into the problems and helped me find solutions. You have earned your update key and made Shopp so much better than I could have on my own.

If you are using RC1 to try an auto-update to RC2, you’ll notice there is rather major bug in the auto-update system where checking for updates shows the available updates, but there is no button to install the updates. There is a workaround available. Simply deactivate your key, check for updates and install them. This bug does not exist in RC2.

As always, here’s the rundown of what’s changed in this release:

• Fixed issues with loginname-based logins
• Fixed an issue with attaching a pre-existing WP account to Shopp customer account information
• Fixed number formatting problems in PayPal Pro
• Fixed issues with IE7 being able to view admin screens (still requires JS debugging work)
• Fixed issues with multi-menu product variations and disabled options in IE7
• Corrected a problem with product downloads not being set when a product is added to the cart
• Updated the purchased item download link to use the new global URI setting
• Updated the subcategory list tag to use the new global URI setting
• Enhanced the cart to allow for multiple product additions at the same time
• Further enhanced the auto-update system
• Removed deprecated category-product tags
• Added credit card payment type preferences for all local checkout gateways
• Added the ability to login with a login name in the checkout tags
• Added new Purchase shopp() tags for more flexibility in the receipt
• Added new shopp_download_keygen action hook
• Added product-variation shopp() tags

If you are using your own custom Shopp theme templates, you’ll want to note that the removal of deprecated category-product tags means that if no products show up in your categories after updating, you’ll need to re-write or update your category template file. We’ll have detailed instructions in the Beta Team forum.

This will in all likelihood be the last pre-release version before the official release barring any critical flaws. The Shopp website is setup and ready to begin sales as soon as the final release is ready.

Notice about auto-updating to the Release Candidate: If you are using the built-in auto-updating, please note that there will be an issue that pops up caused by the Test Mode gateway. You can avoid the issue altogether by removing it from your install before you auto-update.

The bug reports have been fantastic and are really helping to polish Shopp into an incredibly solid piece of software. Even before RC status, we’ve had live stores coming online, so that says something about the state of the project, and the strict quality being enforced to make sure things are stable and reliable. It also shows that Shopp is ready for prime-time use.

There are a lot of new tidbits in the Release Candidate, and here’s a brief rundown:

• A new, more secure auto-update system is in place that now handles addon updates in addition to the core
• A welcome screen has been added that shows up after each activation with some helpful reminders (it can be disabled)
• Enhanced customization capability with new tags and tag options
• Fixes to the product gallery to make it compatible in multiple product listing scenarios like categories
• A huge amount of minor bug fixes (the largest amount in a single release so far)

Beta Keys

Beta testers, please be aware that your update keys will become invalid as soon as the final release ships. It won’t stop Shopp from working, but it will prevent further updates of Shopp through the auto-updater or the manual download page. I will be giving a free key to each beta tester that has been providing regular feedback, posting issues on the issue tracker, participating on the forums or working with me directly on issues. So please, if you have a beta key, participate! The whole benefit of getting in on the beta is the free key for the release version! Otherwise, you’ll be left with last version of Shopp before the release and you won’t have access to any of the cool updates planned for version 1.1!

Beta Program

Along those lines, the Beta Program will no longer be accepting new applications as the release is literally right around the corner. However, I am still looking for skilled developers who are willing to do quality testing on pre-releases for future updates. If you’re interested, please get in contact with me.

Language Translations

A lot of time has been poured into internationalization support and a new, updated language file is included in the release candidate. If you’re interested in creating a translation of Shopp, now is the perfect time to start. Touch base with me on the forums and I can direct you on how to get started.

Release Imminent

I don’t know the day and hour specifically, but the release is very, very close. Thanks to those of you that have been patiently waiting - I hope you find it’s been worth the wait. I can at least tell you that you’ll have Shopp to play with by sometime next year. Who knows, it might even show up as an early Christmas present!

More news soon. Thank you everyone!

The Shopp plugin has worked very well for our clients e-commerce solution. The OriginOne shop currently utilizes promo codes, flat-rate shipping, and inventory control for out-of-stock items. We’re also successfully using the Authorize.net add-on. The template tags really helped us create our own custom shop without hacking. We were very pleased working with the plugin.

• New bulk product data loader
• Rewritten Category rendering to use the new bulk product data loader; shopp(’product’) tags are now used in the product loop of the category template; shopp(’category’,'product’,'…’) tags are now deprecated
• Faster image serving and faster delivery of other dynamic helper files make Shopp much snappier and less memory intensive
• More WordPress 2.7 enhancements

New Category Rendering

In case that little tidbit was lost on you, you can now access any product data you want in the category product listing template. Want to show the product variation options menus with every product in your category list? Now you can. You can even show all the images for a product, or the product tags, or even get access to all the other categories a product is assigned to.

Performance-minded developers might be asking how does this all affect performance? With some easy options added to your category tags, you can force loading all the information you need up front (in a single SQL query), or if you want your memory throttled a bit more, you can use the product tags to load information as it is needed. It’s up to you. Just remember, the more information you want to use up front, the more memory it will use per visitor.

Next Release…

The flood of critical bugs seems to have all but died down with just minor tweaks and fixes needed. Depending on the number of regressions and types of problems reported with b7.6, we are in all likelihood looking at Release Candidate 1 as the next release.

I’m hearing more and more beta testers bringing Shopp online and launching live stores. Congratulations to all of you and thanks for helping make Shopp so much better!

Shopp literally sells itself here on shopplugin.net. We use a stock Shopp setup with a custom plugin to provide the website services to update other Shopp installs about updates. That highlights just how flexible and powerful Shopp’s architecture is that it can be easily extended to serve as a core management system while custom functionality is wrapped around it.

I’m chewing through the issues on the issue tracker very quickly and efficiently. I’m now convinced that the system is stable enough to power a live shop. There may be little issues that need corrected, and bigger environment-specific issues affecting a small segment of the user base that may need addressed, but in terms of core functionality, I’m confident Shopp can be effectively used to power a live store. That’s a pretty big milestone to hit and I couldn’t have done it without the help and insight of the active beta team. Thanks everyone!

Website Updates

As we get closer to release, I’ll be making some substantial updates to the Shopp website. Most noteworthy of those changes will be the “Showcase” - a gallery for sites using Shopp. I want to do it up right so that you can submit your entries, get your Shopp-implementation rated, and share your story of what features you’re using in Shopp the most.

Beta Keys

Beta testers, please be aware that your update keys will become invalid as soon as the final release ships. This will prevent further updates of Shopp through the auto-updater or the manual download page. I will be giving a free key to each beta tester that has been providing regular feedback, posting issues on the issue tracker, participating on the forums or working with me directly on issues. So please, if you have a beta key, participate! The whole benefit of getting in on the beta is the free key for the release version! Otherwise, you’ll be left with last version of Shopp before the release and you won’t have access to any of the cool updates planned for version 1.1!

• Faceted Product Search
• Full AJAX-enabled/capable cart
• Default catalog view setting for grid or list
• Shopper-controlled product sorting by product title, bestselling, price (high to low & low to high)
• Sub-category list or menu for category template
• Better PHP compatibility now able to support all the way back to PHP 5.0.0
• WordPress filters and hooks added throughout Shopp
• Cart item thumbnails
• New and improved category editor interface with image uploads, settings for product templates and faceted search setup
• Save & Continue and Save (returning to product list) buttons in product editor
• WordPress Post/Page TinyMCE button for inserting categories in post or pages (product tags coming soon)
• Permalink slug editing for products and categories
• Admin search capability for orders, promotions, products and categories
• Many, many bug fixes

The main feature in this release is faceted product search (otherwise known as filtered searching). Setting up product detail templates now has a dual purpose. It provides a template for setting up your products faster and gives a central place to configure your faceted search menus. This is definitely a more advanced feature, and not necessarily “obvious” to setup, but I think the interface does a good job of naturally becoming more complex for more complex needs. You setup faceted search in the category editor, and then you can add a sidebar widget or shopp() tag to display the faceted menu in your theme.

This will be the last major release with added features as we get ready for the beta. A few minor enhancements will make it into the next release but for all intents and purposes, we’re at feature freeze while we fix any new and remaining issues for the first official release. With that, the next release will be our first release candidate. Also, at this stage I’m willing to entertain some beta testers who would like to tryout the Shopp beta to evaluate it for the purpose of writing a blog review. If you’re interested, please get in contact with me through the website chat in the sidebar or on the forums.

Beta Team Auto-update

Thanks to everyone who helped make this release the best one yet! Beta testers can get the new update in your Shopp > Settings > Update screen with a valid and activated beta key.

Enjoy and keep the feedback and bug reports flowing!