Index: openacs-4/packages/ecommerce/www/doc/ecommerce-features.adp
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/openacs-4/packages/ecommerce/www/doc/ecommerce-features.adp,v
diff -u -N -r1.1 -r1.2
--- openacs-4/packages/ecommerce/www/doc/ecommerce-features.adp	20 Apr 2001 20:51:14 -0000	1.1
+++ openacs-4/packages/ecommerce/www/doc/ecommerce-features.adp	26 May 2002 04:36:50 -0000	1.2
@@ -1,235 +1,232 @@
-<master src=master>
-<property name=title>Features of the Ecommerce Module</property>
+<!-- <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> -->
 
-Some of the high-level features of the Ecommerce Module:
+<master>
+  <property name=title>@title@</property>
+  <property name="signatory">@signatory@</property>
 
-<p>
+  <h2>@title@</h2>
+  <table width="100%">
+    <tbody>
+      <tr>
+	<td align="left">@context_bar@</td>
+      </tr>
+    </tbody>
+  </table>
 
-<b>Products</b>
+  <hr>
 
-<ul>
+  <h2>Some of the high-level features of the @package_name@:</h2>
 
-<li>Products are divided into categories (like books, journals, ...),
-subcategories (computer, fiction, ...), and
-subsubcategories (operating systems, web publishing, ...) which are set
-by the site adminstrator (if desired).  Products
-can belong to as many categories/subcategories/subsubcategories
-as needed.  Users can search by category/subcategory/subsubcategory and the site
-administrator can make product recommendations by category/subcategory/subsubcategory.
+  <h3>Products</h3>
 
-<p>
+  <ul>
 
-<li>Via simple forms, the site administrator can upload any desired
-information about products either into the Oracle database or into the
-file system.
-Standard product information such as product name, regular price, etc.,
-and admin-defined custom fields are collected in the database.  Pictures
-of the product and other formatted info like sample chapters, for instance, are uploaded into the file system.
-<p>
+    <li>Products are divided into categories (like books, journals,
+      ...), subcategories (computer, fiction, ...), and
+      subsubcategories (operating systems, web publishing, ...)  which
+      are set by the site adminstrator (if desired).  Products can
+      belong to as many categories / subcategories / subsubcategories
+      as needed. Users can search by category / subcategory /
+      subsubcategory and the site administrator can make product
+      recommendations by category / subcategory / subsubcategory.</li>
 
-<li>Users can input comments and ratings of products.  The site administrator
-can choose to: a) allow all comments, b) allow comments after administrator approval, or c) disallow all comments.
+    <li>Via simple forms, the site administrator can upload any
+      desired information about products either into the database or
+      into the file system.  Standard product information such as
+      product name, regular price, etc., and admin-defined custom
+      fields are collected in the database.  Pictures of the product
+      and other formatted info like sample chapters, for instance, are
+      uploaded into the file system.</li>
 
-<p>
 
-<li>The site administrator can input professional reviews of the products.
+    <li>Users can input comments and ratings of products.  The site
+      administrator can choose to:</li>
 
-<p>
+  <ol type="a">
+    <li>allow all comments,</li>
+    <li>allow comments after administrator approval, or </li>
+    <li>disallow allow comments.</li>
+  </ol>
 
-<li>The site administrator can specify whether the product should be
-displayed 
-when the user does a search. For example, they might not want the product
-to display if the product is part of a series or if the product is the hardcover version of a book that also exists in paperback
+    <li>The site administrator can input professional reviews of the
+      products.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>The site administrator can specify whether the product should
+      be displayed when the user does a search. For example, they
+      might not want the product to display if the product is part of
+      a series or if the product is the hardcover version of a book
+      that also exists in paperback.</li>
 
-<li>Links between products: the site administrator can specify that one
-product always links to other product(s) on the product-display page.
+    <li>Links between products: the site administrator can specify
+      that one product always links to other product(s) on the
+      product-display page.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>Products can be listed before they are available for sale.
+      The site administrator decides whether customers are allowed to
+      preorder items or if they are not allowed to order until the
+      date that the products become available.</li>
+    
+    <li>A product can have a lower, introductory price.  It can also
+      have a limited-time sale price, and a limited-time special offer
+      price which is given only to those who have the special offer
+      code in their URL.</li>
 
-<li>Products can be listed before they are available for sale.  The site administrator
-decides whether customers are allowed to preorder items or if they are not allowed
-to order until the date that the products become available.
+    <li>The site administrator determines the geographical regions in
+      which tax should be charged.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>Shipping costs are determined by the site administrator as a
+      base cost + a certain amount per additional item, or the cost
+      can be based on weight.  Additional amounts are charged for
+      express shipping, if allowed. Alternatively, the shipping costs
+      can be obtained from an implementation of the <if
+      @shipping_gateway_installed@ eq 1><a
+      href="/doc/shipping-gateway"></if>Shipping Service Contract<if
+      @shipping_gateway_installed@ eq 1></a></if>.</li>
 
-<li>A product can have a lower, introductory price.  It can also have
-a limited-time sale price, and a limited-time special offer price which is given only to those who have the special
-offer code in their URL.  
+  </ul>
 
-<p>
+  <h3>Personalization</h3>
 
-<li>The site administrator determines the geographical regions in which
-tax should be charged.
+  <ul>
 
-<p>
+    <li>Users are recognized, if possible, when they enter the site.</li>
 
-<li>Shipping costs are determined by the site administrator as a base cost
-+ a certain amount per additional item, or the cost can be
-based on weight.  Additional amounts are charged for express shipping, if
-allowed.
+    <li>Users can be placed into user classes (student, publisher,
+      ...)  either by themselves (with site administrator approval) or
+      by the site administrator.</li>
 
-</ul>
+    <li>Members of user classes can be given different views of the
+      site, different prices for each product, and different product
+      recommendations.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>A user's purchasing history as well as browsing history is
+      stored.  Product recommendations can be made based on both
+      histories.</li>
 
+    <li>Frequent buyers can be recognized and rewarded.</li>
 
-<b>Personalization</b>
+    <li>The site will automatically calculate what other products were
+      most popular among people who bought a given product.</li>
 
-<ul>
+  </ul>
 
-<li>Users are recognized, if possible, when they enter the site
+  <h3>Ordering</h3>
 
-<p>
+  <ul>
 
-<li>Users can be placed into user classes (student, publisher, ...)
-either by themselves (with site administrator approval) or by the
-site administrator.
+    <li>Shopping cart interface: users select items to put into their
+      shopping cart and then go to their cart when they want to "check
+      out".  The shopping cart is editable (similar to Amazon.com).</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>If a user is not ready to order yet, they can store their
+      order and come back to it later (similar to Dell.com).</li>
 
-<li>Members of user classes can be given different views of the
-site, different prices for each product, and different product
-recommendations.
+    <li>User receives an acknowledgment web page and email when their
+      order is confirmed.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>The user can reuse an address for billing or shipping that
+      they previously entered on the site and, if the site
+      administrator has chosen to store credit card data, they can
+      reuse previous credit cards.</li>
 
-<li>A user's purchasing history as well as browsing history is
-stored.  Product recommendations can be made based on both
-histories.
+    <li>The user's credit card is authorized at the time that they
+      confirm their order.  The card is billed automatically only
+      after the site administrator marks that the order has been
+      shipped. With the exception of items that do not require
+      shipping (so called 'soft goods'). Soft goods are billed
+      immediately after the card has been authorized for the soft good
+      total amount.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>The site administrator can issue electronic gift certificates
+      to users.</li>
+    
+    <li>The site administrator is able to give refunds to a user if
+      the user returns all or part of their order.</li>
 
-<li>Frequent buyers can be recognized and rewarded
+    <li>Customers can view their order history and track their
+      packages.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>Customers can purchase gift certificates for other people.  A
+      random claim check is generated at the time of purchase and
+      emailed to the recipient.  The recipient is then able to use
+      their gift certificate when they make purchases on the site
+      (until the certificate expires).</li>
 
-<li>The site will automatically calculate what other products were
-most popular among people who bought a given product
+  </ul>
 
-</ul>
+  <h3>Community</h3>
 
-<p>
+  <ul>
 
-<b>Ordering</b>
+    <li>Users can sign up for mailing lists based on the product
+      categories they are interested in.</li>
 
-<ul>
-<li>Shopping cart interface: users select items to put into their shopping cart and then go to their cart when they want to "check out".  The shopping cart is editable (similar to Amazon.com)
+    <li>Most importantly, since the @package_name@ is tied in with the
+      rest of the Open Architecture Community System, a more complete
+      picture of the customer (Q &amp; A forum postings, Classified
+      Ads, etc.)  is known than in a stand-alone ecommerce
+      system.</li>
 
-<p>
+  </ul>
 
-<li>If a user is not ready to order yet, they can store their order and
-come back to it later (similar to Dell.com)
+  <h3>Customer Service</h3>
 
-<p>
+  <ul>
 
-<li>User receives an acknowledgment web page and email when their order
-is confirmed.
+    <li>A complete customer service submodule which allows customer
+      service reps to: </li>
+    
+  <ul>
+    <li>Receive and respond to customer inquiries via email (includes
+      a spell-checker!).</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>Record all customer interactions and issues (whether by
+      phone/fax/email/etc.).</li>
 
-<li>The user can reuse an address for billing or shipping that they
-previously entered on the site and, if the site administrator has 
-chosen to store credit card data, they can reuse previous credit cards.
+    <li>Categorize issues.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>View complete customer interaction and purchase
+      histories.</li>
 
-<li>The user's credit card is authorized at the time that they confirm
-their order.  The card is billed automatically only after the site administrator
-marks that the order has been shipped.
+    <li>Send email using the "canned text" system which allows them to
+      automatically insert commonly-used paragraphs into their
+      emails.</li>
 
-<p>
+    <li>"Spam" groups of users based on various criteria (date of last
+      visit, number of purchases, pages they've visited, mailing lists
+      they've signed up for, etc.)</li>
 
-<li>The site administrator can issue electronic gift certificates to users.
+    <li>Edit email templates that the system uses when sending
+      automatic email to users (e.g. "Dear &lt;insert name&gt;, thank
+      you for your order.  We received your order on &lt;insert
+      date&gt;, etc.").</li>
+    
+    <li>View statistics and reports on issues/interactions
+      (e.g. interactions by customer service rep, issues by issue
+      type).</li>
 
-<p>
+  </ul>
+  </ul>
 
-<li>The site administrator is able to give refunds to a user if the user returns all or
-part of their order.
+  <h3>Other</h3>
 
-<p>
+  <ul>
+    <li>Data entered or modified by site administrators is audited, so
+      you can see:</li>
 
-<li>Customers can view their order history and track their packages.
-
-<p>
-
-<li>Customers can purchase gift certificates for other people.  A random claim check is generated at the time of purchase and emailed to the recipient.  The recipient is then able to use their gift certificate when they make purchases on the site (until the certificate expires).
-
-</ul>
-
-
-<b>Community</b>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>Users can sign up for mailing lists based on the product categories they
-are interested in.
-
-<p>
-
-<li>Most importantly, since the Ecommerce Module is tied in with the rest
-of the ArsDigita Community System, a more complete picture of the customer (Q &amp;
-A forum postings, Classified Ads, etc.) is known than in a stand-alone
-ecommerce system 
-
-</ul>
-
-<b>Customer Service</b>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>A complete customer service submodule which allows customer service reps to:
-
-   <ul>
-   <li> receive and respond to customer inquiries via email (includes a spell-checker!)
-   <li> record all customer interactions and issues (whether by phone/fax/email/etc.)
-   <li> categorize issues
-   <li> view complete customer interaction and purchase histories
-   <li> send email using the "canned text" system which allows them to automatically insert commonly-used paragraphs into their emails
-   <li> "spam" groups of users based on various criteria (date of last visit, number of purchases, pages they've visited, mailing lists they've signed up for, etc.)
-   <li> edit email templates that the system uses when sending automatic email to users (e.g. "Dear &lt;insert name&gt;, thank you for your order.  We received your order on &lt;insert date&gt;, etc.")
-   <li> view statistics and reports on issues/interactions (e.g. interactions by customer service rep, issues by issue type)
-   </ul>
-
-
-</ul>
-
-<b>Other</b>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Data entered or modified by site administrators is audited,
-so you can see:
-
   <ul>
-  <li>who made the changes
-  <li>when the changes were made
-  <li>what changed
-  <li>the history of all states the data have been in (so your data are never lost)
+    <li>who made the changes</li>
+    <li>when the changes were made</li>
+    <li>what changed</li>
+    <li>the history of all states the data have been in (so your data are never lost)</li>
   </ul>
   
-<p>
+    <li>All of the user display pages are templated. This allows
+      designers to change the look and feel of the site without
+      mucking around in Tcl or SQL code.</li>
 
-<li>All of the user display pages are templated, with templates stored
-in a separate directory from the rest of the site.  This allows
-designers to change the look and feel of the site without
-mucking around in Tcl or SQL code. 
+    <li>The system logs potential problems it encounters (e.g. failed
+      credit card transactions) and allows site administrators to view
+      the problems and mark them "resolved".</li>
 
-<p>
-
-<li>The system logs potential problems it encounters (e.g. failed credit card
-transactions) and allows site administrators to view the problems and mark them "resolved".
-
-</ul>
-
-<b>What's Coming in the Next Version</b>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Support for multiple retailers. (Includes an extranet for approved retailers
-to upload price and stock information about products they have for sale.)
-<p>
-<li>Integration with the ACS Graphing Package to show colorful sales reports.
-<p>
-<li>An online Help system.
-</ul>
-
+  </ul>
