Padloper 2: Early Alpha Preview + Roadmap

[kongondo]

Announcing the current status, planned release, roadmap and preview of Padloper 2.

Status

• Feature freeze.
• Full multilingual support.
• Only PHP 7.2+ supported.
• Support for ProcessWire 3.0 only.
• Backend support for modern browsers only (that support JavaScript ES6 modules).

Current Work

• Finish work on admin/backend.
• Work on installer and uninstaller (including configurable availability of some features).
• Work on UI/UX improvements.
• Start work on documentation with special focus on technical documentation.
• Continue work on Padloper API and data/model component.

Roadmap

Please note that these ARE NOT hard and fast targets. The roadmap may have to be adjusted to accommodate technical and non-technical constraints.

Q1 2021

• Inbuilt support for (latest) PayPal (full rewrite, no external modules required).
• Additional work on Padloper API.
• Invite a limited number of early alpha testers (fully-priced product).
• Soft and closed release of Padloper 2.

Q2 2021

• Start work on relaunch of Padloper website.
• Inbuilt support for Stripe (no external modules required).

Future Plans

• Support for more Payment Gateways.
• Support for order, customers, etc imports and exports.
• Support for AdminThemeReno and AdminThemeDefault.
• Separate fully-featured frontend shop module.
• Consider support for multiple currencies.

FAQ

1. Have you abandoned this project? 
No.

2. When will Padloper 2 be released?
First early alpha release is scheduled for Q1 2021. This target may change depending on circumstances! Access will be by invite only for this first release.

3. What is the pricing model of Padloper 2? 
Three licences: Single Site, Developer and Agency licences (12 months’ updates and VIP support).

4. How much will Padloper 2 Cost?
No price has been set yet. It will cost more than Padloper 1.

5. Can we upgrade from Padloper 1?
No.

6. Will existing users of Padloper 1 get a discount for Padloper 2?
No, this will not be possible. Apologies for the earlier announcement. It was unrealistic and unworkable.

7. Can we pay for Padloper 2 in advance?
No.

8. Does Padloper 2 render markup/templates in the frontend?
No. Access to all data you need to build your shop’s frontend is via the Padloper API.

9. Can we keep sending you ‘Are we there yet’ messages?
No, please.
 

Preview

Here is a video preview of the current state of the backend/admin of Padloper 2. Please note the following:

• This is early alpha. There are bugs!
• It even includes WIP/notes!!
• FOUC, misaligned things, etc.
• The video shows the near-raw implementation of Vuetify UI. The UI/UX improvements work is yet to start.
• What you see here is the development version. 
• Some of the incomplete features may not be available in the early releases.
• Most of the features you see will be optional to install.

 

 

[Sevarf2]

Can't believe it, it's not a dream. YEEEEES.
How can I get the invitation? 😅

[alexm]

@kongondo This is looking phenomenal. Amazing work. I would gladly get involved in the Alpha release if possible, with great pleasure!!

This is most exciting. Made my morning! Haha.

[webhoes]

Looks very amazing. Wish I could use it for a site I am working on now.

Also interested in being an alpha tester.

[jensweigel]

Great to hear! My current project with Padloper 1 will be released in the next week. So maybe I should convert it to Padloper 2 in future.

[HMCB]

This is so much more than I expected. Truly. Amazing job @kongondo

One wish: That PayPal and Stripe timelines were reversed.

[desbest]

Which PayPal API will be supported? Will it support PayPal IPN? I like PayPal IPN.

Which Stripe API will be supported? Will it support Stripe Checkout or Stripe Payments? Will it support stripe.js v2 or v3 with elements?

Will it use the embeddable stripe form that looks like this?

 

[PWaddict]

@kongondo I would really appreciate if you could answer the following questions:

Will it have pre-order feature for physical and digital products?
Will the whole process of ordering (add to cart, edit cart, checkout, PayPal payment etc.) ajaxified?

[Marco Ro]

Really an impressive job! Except that in this preview I have already seen everything an e-commerce needs, and even more.
Can't wait to see how the APIs work!!
This year we already had in mind to redo the site, it could be the kick in the ass we needed!

[Jonathan Lahijani]

Looks great. Random question: how does a piece of data like order notes get stored? Is it PW fields or custom Padloper tables?

[kongondo]

Hi all,

To those who have asked questions, just noting here that I have seen them and will answer you when I get a bit of time. I will respond by editing the first post, whenever possible, just so we have Q&As in one easy-to-find location.

Thanks.

[gornycreative]

There are three areas I would plan to explore personally, depending on the hooks/API calls available. These are three areas that, aside from payment processing, represent the logistic challenges of most e-commerce platforms on the market today - external logistics integration (third party warehousing), order shipment boxing, sales tax calculation.

None of these are dealbreakers, and most solutions have contingencies for shipping and taxes. I think what you already have in place should work really well.

However, these are areas I will personally look into as optional extensions to the system.

1) Support for external order ID field - this would allow me to wire up an external Amazon FBA transmission/status workflow to a post-payment-success hook. I'm guessing I could add a text field to the order page type, and it would also need to be able to generate shipment pages for a given order that include status.

2) Allow for a postage calculation/package tracking bypass - An external hook for shipped order products prior to the internal process, that could get wired to a service like Shipstation. In the past I have used systems that include case freight tables, where if a person is buying both pick/pack items and casebound items, the case freight can have box dimensions and weights set in place in advance - a case acts like a variant in this case, but unlike single items, the dimensions are important as they go straight to the postage calc api. Unless you are going to pull a CS-Cart where they let you put in box dimensions and it calculates how many boxes you will need to ship an order - but that gets pretty crazy. In our case, we used the weight of single pick pack and general dimensions to develop a calculation for the shipping box sizes we'd likely use.

3) Allow for a tax calculation bypass - An external pre-shipping/post-shipping hook could connect to a tax calculation service api. I realize some locales charge sales taxes on shipping costs as well as the product (ugh, sorry) so it would make sense to toggle pre- or post- shipping calculation.

That being said, I can't wait to start working with this. I had just started digging a little bit into padloper integration but I think padloper 2 is going to be a lot easier to manage for end users.

[MateThemes]

Hello kongondo!

Really amazing work!!! I have an ecommerce project for my own use in working progress and I really think of to not use processwire, coz there was no infos on padloper 2. Now, I know I will stay with ProcessWire and wait for the release of Padloper 2. It would be an honor to be an alpha tester!

One question I have so far: I didn't see in the video for sure, if there are also virtual/downloadable products (My ecommerce project will only have virtual goods) or did I miss something?

Once again: RRRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAALLLLLLYYYYYY AMAZING WORK!!!

[kongondo]

On 11/29/2020 at 11:11 AM, Sevarf2 said:

How can I get the invitation? 😅

I will send out an expression of interest request nearer the time. I haven't yet decided on a criteria for selection.

On 11/29/2020 at 4:35 PM, desbest said:

Which PayPal API will be supported? Will it support PayPal IPN? I like PayPal IPN.

Current plan is PayPal IPN due to its multi-notifications types. However, I may also do PDT, but not 100% sure at this time.

On 11/29/2020 at 4:35 PM, desbest said:

Which Stripe API will be supported? Will it support Stripe Checkout or Stripe Payments? Will it support stripe.js v2 or v3 with elements?

Will it use the embeddable stripe form that looks like this?

No decisions made yet regarding Stripe's implementation.

On 11/29/2020 at 8:57 PM, PWaddict said:

Will it have pre-order feature for physical and digital products?

All frontend implementation is up to the developer. You will have the API at your disposal to do whatever you need to do. In the backend/model, orders can have different status (paid, unpaid, complete, partial, etc). Order line items also have individual status (returned, delayed, refunded, etc). This means you should be able to implement a pre-order feature yourself by, for example, marking an order as unpaid, in progress, etc. 

On 11/29/2020 at 8:57 PM, PWaddict said:

Will the whole process of ordering (add to cart, edit cart, checkout, PayPal payment etc.) ajaxified?

Padloper 2 does not render anything in the frontend. It is like ProcessWire. There will be no more in-built Padloper templates. You implement Padloper 2 however you wish using the API. I will, however, as part of the technical documentation, write a tutorial on ajaxifying the frontend. In addition, a separate frontend commercial module (fully functional frontend shop) is in the works.

On 11/30/2020 at 3:52 PM, Jonathan Lahijani said:

how does a piece of data like order notes get stored? Is it PW fields or custom Padloper tables?

Good question :-). Padloper 2 does not utilise a single ProcessWire field, nor any custom ProcessWire fields, nor any ProcessWire pages (except just the one for the Padloper Process Module). All data is stored in custom Padloper tables. Having said that, it uses ProcessWire selectors just the same way you are used to, offering the same security and ease of use you are used to. You won't have to learn a new syntax. In addition, it is fully multilingual (descriptions, titles, etc). I plan to do a write-up of this when I'm done, a sort of 'the making of Padloper 2', the iterations, decision made, etc.

On 12/1/2020 at 1:52 PM, gornycreative said:

I'm guessing I could add a text field to the order page type,

No, you won't be able to do this. Not this way. There are no (ProcessWire) pages in Padloper 2 :-). That said you would still be able to use hooks.

You've got some very interesting (albeit very advanced) ideas/thoughts there. Whilst not yet planned, when the dust settles, I'd like to further discuss/explore  some of these with you. I cannot make any promises as to the outcome.

On 12/9/2020 at 7:18 PM, MateThemes said:

One question I have so far: I didn't see in the video for sure, if there are also virtual/downloadable products (My ecommerce project will only have virtual goods) or did I miss something?

Yes. There are four types of products (housed under Shipment Type).

1. Physical Products that require shipping.
2. Physical Products that do not require shipping (POS, etc).
3. Digital Products.
4. Products that are Events or Services (e.g., booking system).

 

----------------------

I hope I have managed to answer all your queries. I decided to just do it inline. I might reference some of the responses in the first post if I need to.

Thanks.

[nabo]

Hi @kongondo

thanks for your work, I really appreciate and have waited for a long time 🙂
I'm really excited to test PadLoper2.

I have some questions

1) since PadLoper product are separated by PW pages, are you planning to do an Inputfield for select PL2 product? It could be useful if you want to use a richer product page modeling it with PW fields.

2) PL users are different from PW users? 

[kongondo]

1 hour ago, nabo said:

1) since PadLoper product are separated by PW pages, are you planning to do an Inputfield for select PL2 product? It could be useful if you want to use a richer product page modeling it with PW fields.

There is no such plan currently. With respect to ProcessWire fields, are you perhaps referring to complex fields such as repeaters? Apart from such fields, I can't think of any other reason you would need a ProcessWire field for your products. As an aside, to display Padloper products and to have a 'URL for them' you would need to use a template with URL segments, e.g. /products/my-pl-product where products is a ProcessWire page and /my-pl-product is the segment referring to the Padloper product. These will all be covered in the documentation.

1 hour ago, nabo said:

PL users are different from PW users? 

Yes but they are connected. In a sense, PL users are an extension of PW users. If your store/shop does not require users to register/log in, then such users will not be PW users and neither PL users. Those are considered guest checkouts. Only their order records are kept as per the law/regulations. If they are registered users, then they will be PW users, with authentication processed and passwords stored by PW in the usual manner. They will also be PL users to the extent that they have extra fields/properties, e.g. addresses, tax exemptions, etc. The extra data is stored on the PL side, not PW.

Edited December 14, 2020 by kongondo

[Mikie]

Hey @kongondo I think the question was a page select field for products, eg featured products on homepage.

[kongondo]

14 minutes ago, Mikie said:

Hey @kongondo I think the question was a page select field for products, eg featured products on homepage.

Yes, I did get that but now I realise my example of repeater fields was not clear enough. By complex fields I also meant page fields (page reference fields). 

@nabo,

By complex fields I also meant page reference fields since they don't just output simple values. Either, way there are no such plans. However, a custom FieldType/Inputfield field should be able to accomplish this.  All the field would store are the IDs of the product. The Inputfield would display the title of the selected products. In the frontend you can use the Padloper API to get those products using the saved IDs.

[kongondo]

9 hours ago, Mikie said:

eg featured products on homepage.

By the way, and I know this was just an example, but in my book, this is something that should be handled from the shop side. Surely, it is a bit much to build a whole custom Fieldtype/Inputfield just to show featured products on the home page 😄. 

[Mikie]

 

43 minutes ago, kongondo said:

in my book, this is something that should be handled from the shop side

Hey maybe I am missing something, sorry if I am confused. In a current padloper site I have a multi page select field on the homepage so editors can select products and change them regularly. Also have something similar on editorial articles for “shop this story” style functionality on the front end. When you say this should be managed shop side what do you mean?

Im not at all objecting to whatever technical decisions you’ve made, and a custom select field sounds like the right choice.

can also envision the need for something more complicated, like a lister with multi filtering like lister pro to replicate the automated collection functionality of shopify. Eg editors can create a collection page and then filter products by any combo of tags, product types, price, sale status etc.

[kongondo]

16 minutes ago, Mikie said:

When you say this should be managed shop side what do you mean?

I am saying you can use the shop itself to manage your featured products. Conversely, you also have the flexibility of pulling anything you want from Padloper into your ProcessWire pages (for GUI edit). In such cases though, you will have to develop the Fieldtype/Inputfield yourself. Padloper will provide the API necessary for the pulling of the data. In a nutshell, I meant, you choose what is convenient for your use case :-).

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by kongondo
clarification

[flydev 👊🏻]

[angelo, italy]

I can't wait to try it out!!!

[palacios000]

Thank you for providing this great work, there's no doubt the forum is craving to install this module, me included.

On the roadmap there is no mention of the proper release, you mention only soft and closed release for the selected few, am I right? Or the full release is going to be on Q2?

I know dates are not fixed yet and I don't wont to be pushy, but demand for e-commerce is high now and we need to make decisions on which platform to use for our clients. Thanks!

[kongondo]

3 hours ago, palacios000 said:

Or the full release is going to be on Q2?

No. That date has not yet been set :-).