In the new version 2.2 we added new features such as page group, SEO improvement, multi select product attribute, digital downloads, user referrers and two new server blocks: download button and content group list.

Forums module has been created on top of DotShoppingCart CMS platform. Our DotShoppingCart Forums have also been migrated to the new Forums module.

DotShoppingCart CMS page is comprised by the server blocks, which are the pre-built server side controls. The out of box software comes with a handful of common blocks. The article is going to talk about creating your own server block.

1) Create the Standard ASP.NET stardard User Control and derive it from DotShoppingCart.OpenSource.Core.BlockUserControl

In the Page_Load method add the following code.

 public partial class YourCustomControls : BlockUserControl {
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        EnableViewState = WebUtils.IsPageEditorEnable();
        editor.BlockUserControl = this;
        if (ShowEditor) {
            pnlBlockContent.CssClass = "BlockEditPanel";
            editor.BlockTitle = string.Format("Your Custom Control {0}", BlockId);
        }
    }
}

In the ascx file add the following code.

 <%@ Register tagprefix="dsc" tagname="BlockEditor" src="/Controls/Blocks/BlockEditor.ascx" %>

A simple example is to check web\controls\blocks\Search.ascx and Search.ascx.cx files.

2) Hook up the new block in DB

Insert a new entry to dbo.DSC_Block_Type_lkp table e.g. INSERT INTO DSC_Block_Type_lkp (type, virtualPath) VALUES ('My Block', '/Controls/Blocks/MyBlock.ascx')

Insert a new entry to dbo.DSC_Block_Type_Group_Block_Type_Map

Download from here. Check out the V2 new features.

I had many people asking how to add return policy or other information to the checkout page. Here is the video shows how to do it.

Page editor is the new feature to V2. It enables you to customize the look and feel of every single page of your site. View Demo

In Global.asax, the following code starts the orderpipeline when application starts.

    void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        OrderPipelineController.Start();
    }

It would load DataRefresh task defined in your web.config.

    <taskConfiguration defaultProvider="">

        <providers>

            <add name="DataRefresh" type="DotShoppingCart.OpenSource.OrderPipeline.DataRefreshTaskProvider, DotShoppingCart.OpenSource.OrderPipeline" />

        </providers>

    </taskConfiguration>

DataRefresh would update your category  counter every 2 hours.

    protected override void RunTask(string host, IConfigurationSource cfgSrc) {

        Category.UpdateProductCount(host);

    }

Click to see how easy you can create a post via our CMS implementation.

An install guide video has been uploaded to our server. Watch to see how easy it can be set up.