I’ve been messing around with the .csv files downloaded off of the shopping cart. I’m trying out various solutions to make our workflow better after an order has been placed. Specifically, I’m trying out Bento, Numbers, and FileMaker Pro. I want to create a solution that better integrates the info from the mals shopping cart, with the shipping info from UPS, customer emails, etc. Have any of you experimented with such a solution? I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, and would love to hear what you smart folks have come up with.
Has anyone figured out how to have the new orders automatically
download? I see a QuickBooks option, but that appears to be windows
only. Ideally, I’d like it be download into FileMaker.
Mine just get emailed to me - via cart settings and it never occurred to me
to do more than use them as picklists, base an invoice on them as needed and
file a copy.
I say this just in case you haven’t got the email set to send copies to you
and the customer also.
all the best
Brian
Doty Shepard said recently:
Has anyone figured out how to have the new orders automatically
download? I see a QuickBooks option, but that appears to be windows
only. Ideally, I¹d like it be download into FileMaker.
I’m not looking for the same thing - but I am wanting to find a way into
using a database online for folk dances - where there are innumerable fields
and I want to use it to present the information dynamically - and maybe be
held locally and published into an online database?
Not really being a geek - but only a sort of willing to try and find my way
when a project calls it forth - I manage many things that I could have
otherwise presumed impossible.
This is not paid work but a project of love - and though a certain amount of
head crazing is ok I wonder if anyone can point to ways to find a way in
that I can play with.
My hosting allows me to have a number of MySQL databases if I recall - but
looking at the control panel doesn’t tell me a lot.
all the best
Brian
chuckamuck said recently:
Take a look at this site. Sounds like it could be what you are looking for.
Yes, our get emailed to us, and to the customer as well. But it is not
very helpful for tracking information, say, “How was this year’s
Christmas sales, compared to last year?” My client is manually putting
spreadsheets together and I know there has got to be an easier way—if
I am only smart enough! Ideally, what I’m looking for is a fairly
complicated database I’m afraid. I would like all the inventory,
sales, shipping, and customer inquiries be handled by the same
database. I’d love to type one order number or customer name in one
place and see the order, payment info, tracking info (which is
currently automatically emailed to me), and any questions the customer
has emailed about our special notes regarding the order. Bento comes
close to what I need, but not being able to post it to my website is a
serious drawback.
Anyway, that was maybe more info than you wanted, but that is why an
Mal’s automatic emails don’t get me quite as far as I need.
Thanks for any clues you may offer!
Doty
On Feb 7, 2009, at 12:06 PM, Brian Steere wrote:
Mine just get emailed to me - via cart settings and it never
occurred to me
to do more than use them as picklists, base an invoice on them as
needed and
file a copy.
I say this just in case you haven’t got the email set to send copies
to you
and the customer also.
Dear Doty
I appreciate and enjoy your further information.
If I was on your quest I would explore Mals forums.
The emails are essentially text files and must be parsable for the specific
fields and information thus be gathered and then added to a database that
can then be used by the client as you desire.
And I would expect that somewhere people are already doing so.
Way over my head in practice - but that sort of principle is surely do-able.
all the best
Brian
Doty Shepard said recently:
Thanks Brian,
Yes, our get emailed to us, and to the customer as well. But it is not
very helpful for tracking information, say, ³How was this year¹s
Christmas sales, compared to last year?² My client is manually putting
spreadsheets together and I know there has got to be an easier wayif
I am only smart enough! Ideally, what I¹m looking for is a fairly
complicated database I’m afraid. I would like all the inventory,
sales, shipping, and customer inquiries be handled by the same
database. I¹d love to type one order number or customer name in one
place and see the order, payment info, tracking info (which is
currently automatically emailed to me), and any questions the customer
has emailed about our special notes regarding the order. Bento comes
close to what I need, but not being able to post it to my website is a
serious drawback.
Anyway, that was maybe more info than you wanted, but that is why an
Mal¹s automatic emails don¹t get me quite as far as I need.
Thanks for any clues you may offer!
Doty
On Feb 7, 2009, at 12:06 PM, Brian Steere wrote:
Mine just get emailed to me - via cart settings and it never
occurred to me
to do more than use them as picklists, base an invoice on them as
needed and
file a copy.
I say this just in case you haven’t got the email set to send copies
to you
and the customer also.
Sometime around 8/2/09 (at 20:48 -0700) Doty Shepard said:
what I’m looking for is a fairly complicated database I’m afraid. I
would like all the inventory, sales, shipping, and customer
inquiries be handled by the same database. I’d love to type one
order number or customer name in one place and see the order,
payment info, tracking info
All this is stuff that could - and arguably should - be stored in a
database table on the server. MySQL would be the right tool for this
task, with the form squirted directly into it and some PHP scripts
used to send data searching and sorting requests to the database and
then format the results.
(BTW, first of all think “clever” rather than “complicated”. Then
remember that it isn’t the database itself that needs to be clever,
it is the way you extract and juggle the info.)
This will take a little more work than the simple
print "hello world";
kind of script, but it is all quite achievable if you can put some
time into learning and experimenting. I have beginner’s info for PHP
and MySQL available at http://www.thehelpful.com/php/
I used to do something very much like this for my action sales from FreewayActions.com[1] when I purely used Kagi[2] as the payment processor.
‘Thanks for your purchase’ (TFYP) emails get sent to both the buyer and me and
a mailbox rule in Mail filters these mails out and runs an AppleScript on them
to extract all of the information I need about the sale, amount, date, buyer
details etc. This data is then added to one of a number of FileMaker databases.
I can then easily query these files to see purchase patterns, contact
information etc. AppleScript makes most of this happen and relies on the fact
that both Mail and FileMaker are both highly scriptable.
I’ve since moved on to handling this sort of thing online and migrating the
workflow away from AppleScript to PHP and MySQL. This allows me to control the
admin side of things from anywhere - even while I’m away from the office and my
Mac.
I hope this helps. If you need any help putting a workflow like this together
feel free to get in touch.[3]
Regards,
Tim.
Yes, our get emailed to us, and to the customer as well. But it is not
very helpful for tracking information, say, ³How was this year¹s
Christmas sales, compared to last year?² My client is manually putting
spreadsheets together and I know there has got to be an easier wayif
I am only smart enough! Ideally, what I¹m looking for is a fairly
complicated database I’m afraid. I would like all the inventory,
sales, shipping, and customer inquiries be handled by the same
database.
–
Extend Freeway the way you want with FreewayActions.com http://www.freewayactions.com