Drupal 7 / Ubercart Video Tutorial 10 of 10: Launcing your sitem Ubercart Reports, Drupal Themes and Add-on Modules

Hullo and welcome to the tenth video tutorial in this ten part video tutorial series about creating ecommerce sites using Drupal and Ubercart. I am Peter Yaworski, the Toronto website developer specialising in Drupal. Like all the video tutorials in this series, this is brought to you as a collaboration between myself and the Ubercart.org team who thought it would be a great idea to have a video tutorial series out there to help people get their ecommerce sites off the ground. [00'21"]

So, just before we finish-up, we are obviously going to covering going-live. We are going to be looking at some reports. And then we will check-out taking your site to the next level.

Next series: cron developer tools, a theme, ssl connections, mass product import, and views.

Just recently, Ubercart and I started having some conversations, and we have decided to move forward with the second video tutorial series, in which we are probably going to look at things like theming - theming your site - so we will look at less css [style sheets]; we'll probably look at some cron developer tools, we will probably walk through a theme that we are going to show you here, which was specifically developed for Ubercart. Then we will also be stepping into the world of ssl, so how to secure your site if you going beyond [the option of] Paypal. We will be looking at modules like feeder modules to import masses of products: if you have a few thousand products you obviously don't want to create those one at a time. The feeds module will help you out with that, so we will probably have a dedicated video on that. We will also be looking at some advance Views - how to use the Views module. Obviously, being the most downloaded module, that is something pretty important.

Oopps! I forgot to show you how to update your site in this tutorial (ie Drupal core and modules). This will definitely be the first topic in series 2.

This Ubcart video tutorial series

1. So that will be coming out, hopefully pretty soon. I look forward to it. But, until then, this is just a brief re-cap on this series. In video one we first configured our server, created the database for drupal, created a database user, uploaded our site and got Drupal installed. Wham, bam, thank you ma'm.
2. In the second video tutorial we talked about stepping back from our site to talk about some common Drupal terminologies including blocks, themes, modules, nodes: just things that you are going to need to know when you are in the Drupal world.
3. In the third video tutorial we started looking at some module functionality. Such as looking ad Drupal.org, looking at what you need to know. Downloading those modules and getting them up onto our site.
4. In the fourth video tutorial we started configuring those modules. That was everything but Ubercart [which is a module]. Specifically we looked at a lot of search engine optimisation, so, if you have not watched that video tutorial, go back and look at it because you want Google to drive traffic to you.
5. In the fifth video tutorial we started looking at Ubercart itself, and configuring some minor changes. I don't know - store name, your store email address, that kind of thing.
6. Then we stepped into the real vegetables of everything in video tutorial six, where we started looking at configuring shipping quotes, flat rates, paypal, taxes.
7. And then we took that  a step further in video tutorial seven, where we began configuring products. We have shippable products, purchased roles, downloadable products, and we looked at the catalog that starts, or rather comes with Drupal.
8. In tutorial 8 we took a sidestep and we started to look at the world of Views. We looked at taxonomy term pages with the Views modules and then started looking at [the question] "how do we do that for our catalogue?". And obviously Views is pretty powerfull; it is the number one module downloaded. So there is a lot of power there, and that is actually something that is being incorporated into Drupal 8 which is pretty exciting. So, with the next major release of Drupal, you are going to have Views in there [the core code]. So: a good thing to know how to use.
9. In the previous video tutorial - video tutorial 9 - we looked at product kits, store stocks, order states. Just getting a little bit more of a fine-grained control over our website before we launched. So that takes us to video tutorial number ten we are actually launching. So that is pretty exicting. [03'11"]
   
   Transcribed videos: -
   [Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 6 of 10 showing how to set UPS, Paypal, and conditional taxes]
   [Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 7 of 10 showed how to use the default catalog module]
   [Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 8 of 10 showed an alternative flexible method of showing a catalog]
   [Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 9 of 10 shows how to use product kits, stock, and order states]
   [Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 10 of 10 shows a simple checkout, reports, and suggests a theme]
   

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Simplest payment method: a remote-hosted checkout such as Paypal Payment Express

>store >configuration >checkout

So, to jump right into that, the major things we are going to have a look at are payment methods.
So we will go over to >configuration and we will have a look at the payment methods that we have setup right now. So  right now we have Paypal Payments standard. This is the actual checkout where a customer is providing information on your site. Now, if you do not have ssl set-up, it might not be a good idea to do this, because you are actually taking personalised information on an unsecured page.  So what I prefer to do when I am doing paypal and I do not have an ssl installed is just to have Paypal express checkout.

The way that you do that is to go to
>store >configuration >checkout
Here we have enabled checkout. [checkbox: Enable checkout. Disable this to use only third party checkout servicesn, such as PayPal Exress Checkout of Google Checkout} So if we disable this, we can only use third parties like the Paypal Express Checkout. So, I tend to do that. [[save configuration]

It is a personal preference, however there are some concerns about collecting personal information on an unsecured page. It is entirely up to you: this provides the option to do that.[4'45"]

So now if we step back, over to our >payment methods, we can go and - we may as well uncheck that cand [save configuration] - and now we can go to the
[link in a line of text "settings"
settings for paypal express checkout.  Now, if you remember, we were using the sandbox. So we want to change that [dropdown menu, live or sandbox] to live. At the same time we want to make sure that our paypal email address is updated. [5'00"] So: I am at torontowebsitedeveloper dot com. And then my API credentials [from a box of three text boxes ] these are all on my test site. So, what you are going to do is to log in to your live account. It is going to look something like this. It will be in "my account" [tab]. And you awnt to go to "profile. Then when you are in profile you want to go to "my selling tools". Here you are going to have API access, so you are going to hit "updtate". This will typically say, you know, we need to verify your account, so once you have verified that, you are going to come here and you are going to request API credentials  , and then it will actually provdie you with your API information. Then you will take this, and you will copy it back to your site. So once you do that you are going to have [5'53] live server, you are going to have your [api] username, password, and signature. Here you are going to use the credit card submission form.  This ensures that when users are checking-out, they don't have to have a paypal account, and then these [check] boxes here ...
...these are what is going to show up after the user provides their payment. So they will be brought to your site. back to your site and you will see these boxes.

we do have shipping options, so we want to be able to allow the user to check that
we don't want them necessarilly to have a company name, because not everyone is going to be associated with a company
we do want a contact phone number
and we are going to allow them to enter some comment text
so we will go ahead and [save configuration button]

now I'm just going to put my [site] back to sandbox [dropdown option] because I am obviously not going to be doing all that.
And so we are good.

The next thing that we are going to check-out [consider] is our actual shipping quotes and making sure that our actuall UPS module is configured to "live". So we do that but - obviously - having our information here. that we got from UPS when we were setting-up our account.

We are actually going to put our server mode [drop down on this page] into "production". And then we would [button] save our configuration [7'00"] and that way our link-up with UPS is complete. We are essentially live on payments and shipping. So that's that. Once you do that, your site is live and ready to go.

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Testing with a real $1 order

What I personally like to do, once I have done that, is actually test an order. So I do that using Chrome. I hit control+shift+N and this will bring-up an in private browsing screen. The reason why I do that is because I like to keep my logged-in site , in case I need to change something, but also to be able to have the anonymous user browsing experience. So here I will go back to uc.torontowebsitedeveloper.com , and now it doesn't recognise m e as being logged-in. So, once I do this, I will go ahead and I will [add to cart]

Sorry. Before I do this, I usually change the product [price] to $1. So I would come in here. I would go to super saver. Edit this product .... looking at the product kit there. Super awesome product. Edit this. [sell price]. And we will make this $1. You will just want to note what your original price is. [save] The reason why I do this is because  (ha- we need a product type. Of course] The reason why I do this is because I always like to walk through, actually ordering a product from an anonymous user point of view, to make sure that we don't have any errors. So I will actually go forward and pay paypal, complete the order, and do the full payment processing, to make sure that I understand the user experience, and that there are no hidden issues throughout that [experience] that I might not be aware of if I do not actually complete an order. Because it is only $1, paypal is going to take their 33 cents from me, but I am going to have that peace of mind that the site that I am building - either for myself or for a client - is working properly. So I am going to go ahead and [add to cart]. [9'06"] Obviously you want to do this before you actually launch the site or make it accessable to people because you don't wan them buying a product for one dollar. Or, do it in the middle of the night. So, here I am going to do this with a test site. I am going to walk you through, just so you can see what it looks like. But you would obviously be doing this on a live site. And checking out. [9'30"] Alright. So you go ahead and continue. And this is what I was referring to before when we configured that checkout-page. We have configured paypal so that they bring us back here. Here is our contact phone number that we are going to enter. [order comments] "great site, looking forward to recieving my products". [button: continue checkout] Finalise by submitting. [button: continue order] There we go. So we are going to return to the front page. Now, if I minimise this, [10'21"] I can go back, checkout [consider] my store orders, and I can see here that I have got a dollar; I can go into my actual order settings, checkout what is going on, and I can go and I can finalise the payment, and we are good to go.

So: that is walking you through the order. I highly recommend that you do that just to check that nothing is problematic. Obvously, now we would go through, finalise the transaction, notify the user, make sure that she knows that everything is working properly, but you can do all that [without a video].  So that's it. Once you do that, you are live. You are ready to go. Your site is online. So: in the afternoon that it took you to watch this entire video tutorial series , you went from nothing but having Drupal and Ubercart to having your ecommerce site online and that is the power of using ubercart and using Drupal, and leveraging the drupal community. [11'20]

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Reports in Ubercart

>store >reports >customer reports

The last thing that I want to show you, just quickly, is - I lie: a couple of things I am going to show you.
The last thing about Drupal is reports >store >reports >customer profile [for example]
thiese are pretty nifty; pretty handy. You can actually checkout here. These are the different customers that have placed orders, right? So you can see that I have got one order showing zero because we have just created it and we have not actually finalised it. Zero products because not completed - right? I am not entirely sure why I am seeing my name twice here. Obviously the customer is different. But it is the same information. So if anyone has got any thoughts on that, leave a comment; let me know. I just could not spend the time trying to figure it out

Ubercart products report

In terms of some of the other - some of the other powerful reports that you have got: you have got your products report. This is nice when you really start selling on Ubercart. .  because you can see how your products are doing, what is the highest selling, as opposed to - you know - the worst selling. It also breaks it down by your specific SKUs, so, if you remember, we had Pete's CD Y: that was yellow. If we look down here we have [12'17"]
aanother CD so if we want to compare different colours, to see what is most effective, it is possible to do that. We also have the ability to customise these reports, so if I want to look at specific dates I can do that. If I want to look at a particular comment, or whether it is pending, or, you know, mayber there is something: people are abandionding the checkout because they have got to see - on certain products: you now - why is that?

Ubercart sales report

From there we have got the sales report. Obviously a very important report where you can actually checkout your dollars over the years, and where our orders status is at, so we can checkout how many are abondoned. So if we have an issue going on here, we can start looking at that process: why are people not understanding; why are they leaving? There has got to be something there. So we can really nail that down. Again, you have the opportunity there [13'00"] to customize these reports and look at things specific to what your needs are. Specific months. Specific years. And the order statuses, right? Probably not earth-shattering, but the last thing I am going to show you is the sales tax report. Remember we set up our tax report for Ontario HST [Ontario HS Tax] So you can see that if we look back here, I have got my total taxable amount and the total tax collected, mainly for when you are doing your income taxes. So those are pretty much the reports. Pretty straight forward. Nothing too earth shattering. Hopefully they help. I just wanted to touch on them because obviously they do come with ubercart and they are helpful, so you should know about them.

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A theme for Ubercart

Last thing: we will just head over to Drupal.org. Like I said, there is a couple of things that I want to show you here. Go over to https://drupal.org/project/adaptivetheme. Adaptive theme. We have been using Bartik [the name of a theme]. Drupal Core is kind of ugly to be honest with you. And if you look at it: you know you are looking at a Drupal site. Not necesarily something that you always want to have. So what I have gone ahead and got Adaptive Themes [14'03"] It is a kind of a base theme that you can use, and make sub themes off of it. A sub theme that has been created is called the AT commerce theme. If you want to go ahead and download this x.3.1 version, you can upload that to your site slash sites /all/themes , just as we did with our modules in our fist video tutorial or second or whatever it was [the admin user interface allows you to install these things without thinking about uploading and doanloading nowadays as well] You are going to get the Adaptive Theme, and you are going to get - er - AT-commerce , and you are going to download this one as well. So I have gone ahead and I have done that. So we will step over to our >appearance, and you will see that I have got AT Admin AT Commerce AT Core, AT Sub Theme - right? This all comes with the adaptive theme . So I am going to enable as default the AT Commerce [15'01"]

So now, if I go back to my home page, I have just drastically changed the look and feel of my Ubercart or my Drupal and Ubercart site, simply by enabling this new theme. I can click into my product here. I can see that it is theming different things. It has got a different look and feel. [Baily the dog looks very fetching] That is the power of Drupal. You can go on to... - just as you have got modules, you go to these themes, and you can checkout those themes that you like, and that have a different look and feel, and [going to a theme called Binelli ] here, - oh: not a good image - but this is the look and feel that I can install just by enabling a module. Then I can start tweaking it and playing with it. I just wanted to give you a flavour of that because this AT Commerce theme is specifically designed for Ubercart, and it has a lot of powerful things. I am not going to walk through it here, but we are going to be looking at it [or walking through it] in series two. Take a look at it. Maybe you want to play with it.

Responsive: works on a mobile

The one cool thing that I like is this responsive theme: so you can see that my image here [of a the dog Bailey] is shrinking. If I stretch this [browser frame] out, obviously it has gotten [german english] out to the large size, right? So that is pretty cool. That is a mobile friendly web site., that you have, just by installing a new theme.

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Lastly, as I mentioned before, the power of Drupal is that there is this community that is (kind of) helping you out. You can go here and you can [16.36] I go to download and extend; I look at my module categories, and you will see that thre is an e-commerce category. If I click in to that - what is your first module that you see right there? Ubercart. Super-powerful! And then there are a lot of cool modules that I can add-on there. So if I wanted to add-on "recurring payments and subscriptions", I can do that by grabbing tha module [...] enabling it [17'00"] and then more often than not you will see that there is documentation and that is going to help you walk through and in eenabling some of these things. So that is one good one. If we go to the second page, I think there is  UC Variable Prices on there. You will see that UC Variable Price is good for donation sites. If you want a person to pay what they can, enable this module, and you are "off to the races", right?

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Fedex has a shipping module too

You have also got FedEx Shipping . We have done UPS but if you have a Fedex account you can download this module and install that, right? [ in the UK: there is no Royal Mail support for such stuff and best prices depend on other couriers as well as Royal Mail. Royal Mail is best for export, but that depends on converting a customer's country to shopping cart that makes it obvious or default to say which of the four Royal Mail zones she lives in. No such module exists. One advantage of Ubercart here is that it does not have a lot of higly paid staff claiming that it works "out of the box", because neither Ubercart not Commerce is good for UK shipping; it is a question of finding the least bad for complex work-arounds, and a smug sales person saying that something works "right out of the box" just makes the problem more frustrating for users of Commerce.

And then lastly what we are going to the checking out [viewing] in the second [video tutorial series] is [module Ubercart SS. A super awsome module. Enable that and it will secure your pages. Obviously a huge Caveat here: it does not work with the overlay module. I am not too fond of the overlay module, but if you are, and you use it, you are going to have problems there. 

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That's it! That is essentially the video tutorial series. I have kind of walked through everything; I have given you the recap on what this is all about, so hopefully this helps you. Hopefully your site is launched and is making you a little money. And we will see you [lie: it is a one way camera] in video tutorial series number two which should be coming up pretty quickly. Take care.

[Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 6 of 10 showing how to set UPS, Paypal, and conditional taxes]
[Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 7 of 10 showed how to use the default catalog module]
[Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 8 of 10 showed an alternative flexible method of showing a catalog]
[Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 9 of 10 shows how to use product kits, stock, and order states]
[Drupal 7 / Ubercart video tutorial 10 of 10 shows a simple checkout, reports, and suggests a theme]

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