Sofa's blog about design, code everything else.

After weeks and weeks of hard work we're proud to announce the latest update to Enstore. This is by far the biggest update since the beta release of Enstore. Up until this point we've only fixed bugs, added small usability and visual enhancements, supported more countries, and tried to solve all the issues our loyal beta testers reported. Thank you all for helping us make Enstore the best e-commerce solution out there.

Still, this update is only a tip of the iceberg of what we've got planned for Enstore. We can ensure everybody that Enstore will only get better and better as time progresses. But for now, here's what this update includes.

Custom Templates & Enstore Designer

Enstore templates are now totally customizable with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Enstore Designer is a new, free Mac application that lets you create and preview templates on your own computer. Dive into the template code and start editing. You can see the result in your browser right away, without uploading your template after every change. We've written extensive documentation on how to use Enstore Designer and on how to customize templates. Find more information about Enstore Designer here.

Landing Page / Welcome Page

Sometimes a list of products isn't enough. You now have the option to welcome your customers on a beautiful landing page (customizable of course). You can write and style an introductory text for your welcome page, complete with images and links. To feature products on the welcome page simply tag them "featured".

Custom Pages

Next to the welcome page you can add custom pages to your store as well. Create a terms and conditions page, or one with your contact details and return policies. All from the new Pages tab in your Enstore admin.

Main Navigation

Your store's main navigation menu is now completely customizable too. So, instead of just having Home, Shop and Contact, you can now add anything you want, in any order. To set up your new navigation menu go to the Navigation pane in your Enstore Admin.

More templates: Mocca and Indiana

We're introducing two new templates that you can select in your admin's Templates tab. Curious? Take a look here and here.

Beta API's

Developers may find it interesting to hear that we're opening up our APIs. We've created a REST API that will allow you to add, modify and delete items, like orders, customer records and products programatically. This means you can make your application talk to Enstore directly. The very same API is used by Checkout, AccountEdge and Enstore internally. You could for instance build a reporting application or integrate other desktop applications with Enstore. API access is currently limited, if you have a cool idea, get in touch.

The other API we're opening up is the Javascript API for our Shopping Cart. It allows you to modify the contents of an Enstore shopping cart or start a checkout session from any of your own websites.

Better Checkout Page

Although the checkout page was updated a week ago, we feel it's worth mentioning nonetheless. We've improved the error messaging on the checkout page, giving you and your customers a better understanding of what causes something to go awry. As an extra bonus we've spent quite some time optimizing the checkout page for all major browsers. Now it even works as it should on IE6.

New Support Site

We built a better support site that has a clear overview of all our new documentation, popular support topics and smart search that will help you get answers quick from any of our support resources.

And...

• Faster Admin
• Sync Issues Solved
• Display price including / excluding tax
• Lots of template refinements (variation images)
• Minimum cart order amount
• Hosting status page
• User definable store landing page