Version 3.8: Inventory and API Updates
Version 3.8 brings a lot of small improvements to FoxyShop. The inventory system and the FoxyCart API connections are now easier to work with. Here’s a rundown of the new stuff you’ll find in 3.8:
Inventory Updates
There’s been a new helper function added for developers to update inventory levels. You just have to pass in the item code, the new inventory level, and an optional product ID, and the function finds the correct product and updates the inventory level. This makes it much easier to integrate into a third-party inventory system. Speaking of which, there is some code available for SmartTurn and ConsoliBYTE inventory integration so please let me know if you are interested in this code. The ConsoliBYTE integration will be officially supported soon.
Self-Hosting Your Download Files
FoxyCart supports downloadable items, but they only offer 100MB of download space for free and you have to store the files with them. If you have a lot of files you need to offer, you’d want a way to self-host your downloadables.There is a script at the FoxyCart wiki which helps you setup a self-hosted download, but it is a little involved and takes some integration to work directly with FoxyShop.
The guys at FoxyCart are planning to add native self-hosting in the future so I’ve been reluctant to build in any official support for self-hosting files as it is a little hacky. But if you need to build a site now, here’s a guide on how to do it. Note that setting this up requires a moderate level of PHP proficiency. If you aren’t comfortable working with PHP you may get a little disoriented. (continue reading…)