Downloads - No More Bypassing Core!

Great that Soren, founder of Virtuemart, commented on my last post.

Soren, your ears must be burning — I’m thinking of you! Soren, it’s time to incorporate my “Shipping Bypass” fixes into VM 1.1.x’s core.

• I am adding too many critical features.
• My theme tweaks should be part of VM’s suite of themes &  all third party themes.
• You should ensure that my critical features are maintained in future releases — and that they do not conflict with future releases.

The critical feature I am adding is: download file handling in checkout.

My “Shipping Bypass” feature simply skips the shipping method when the only products in the cart are download products.

Additionally for VM 1.1.0, I am adding handling for FREE downloads.

Whilst adding these capabilities, I am finding some errors in the VM source. It seems that VM 1.0.x code was re-arranged to accomodate your new themes feature. However, the re-arranged code has some bugs. I don’t know if you are fixing them for VM 1.1.1.

Right now, Virtuemart allows for downloadable products. However, there is no customized handling for downloadable products. None!

What my suite of “Shipping Bypass” features does — these are not finished!

• When the only products in the cart are downloadable products, the shipping method is skipped + the shipping method does not display in the order confirmation screen.
• When the only products in the cart are FREE downloadable products, the shipping method is skipped + my new “FREE” payment method is selected + the shipping method does not display in the order confirmation screen + the download link displays in the email notification.

VM actually has code to sense if the order total is zero (free). However, as the $order_total variable is not recognized in that conditional, the if statement is always false, so the relevant code is always skipped. Also, that code just skips the Payment Method; but, it’s much better to insert a payment method into the tables.

The email notification for free downloads excludes the download link.

In the generic sense, VM needs two things:

1. the ability for users to specify their own custom product type;
2. the ability for users to specify their own custom checkout process for their own custom product type.

This is probably much too ambitious to contemplate right now. My clients would love to demarcate a product’s type and attach a specific shipping method &/or payment method to that product.

At the least, my enhanced “Shipping Bypass” features should be incorporated into the upcoming VM version.

I am not finished; however, I wanted to post sooner than later.

-Bob