9/27/2024

Boy, working on this website is some arduous work!  This is probably the last “Blog-style” entry I’m going to have on the main page.  This whole dialogue and any subsequent entries will be moved elsewhere on the site, as soon as I have a chance to clean up the “Home” page a bit.  I’ll also be dropping the Beta language from the portal logo, because I’m pretty comfortable and confident in the site now, to where I wouldn’t describe it as being “In Beta Testing” anymore.  We’ll continue to improve of course, and I think I have a pretty good idea the direction I want to go which is described in the 9/13 entry.  This requires a pretty massive database overhaul that will take unspeakable hours from yours truly, while running a company that barely gives me 5 minutes to relax!  But we’ll get it done; The fixes and improvements Sumit & I (To be honest – Mostly Sumit) have instituted in the last several weeks have spawned a series of scripts we can run in the background, which not only streamline MY process for generating weekly site updates and E-blast, but also simplify some of the other processes enough that I’m beginning to delegate some of those responsibilities.  I couldn’t be happier with the direction it’s going, and please ALWAYS feel free to give feedback on the site, anything you think would make the browsing/ordering process more accessible, easier, more efficient.  

To recap the recent changes:

** Most importantly, the website now has a “Specials” page that accurately lists current specials, as well as denoting items on special in the Full Item & Category lists; These prices carry over to the cart and order to keep cart totals accurate.  Winning!

** I’ve recently cleaned up the main page menu bar links, breaking out the “Member Area” / Logged In links in a way that I think makes it a little more convenient to navigate; I’ve also created the first main-page link to our New & Noteworthy area

** One of the aforementioned scripts has made updating the availability profoundly simple compared to how it used to be; As such for the first time this week, I did a Wednesday “Update” on the availability, which will prove extremely helpful for especially later-week deliveries, as the list will now reflect what’s run out or arrived in the meantime since the original list was generated.

I did notice just today one little “Bug” whereby as soon as one week’s specials “Expire,” the “Specials” list reverts to showing every item we have in stock (at regular price).  Weird, but I doubt it was that way for very long and don’t know if anyone even noticed.  Once I ran the scripts this morning (A task usually done Thursday evening) and uploaded the new specials, it appeared to mitigate the problem and revert the specials area to functioning properly.  If this persists I’ll find a fix, but I don’t think it will be an issue at all as long as the usual Thursday tasks are done on time.

Stand by for more, and look out for design changes in the next several days-to-weeks!

9/13/2024

Well I just sent out the Eblast about an hour ago, and during that time we seem to have gotten the “Current Specials” page working!  Awesome!  I noticed that in the Full Item List (Formerly “Products,” which is where I think you default upon login) the special price does NOT display… But when you click it or add it to your cart, the special price does indeed apply.

We’ll continue working through this on our end… Sumit and I have put quite a few hours into programming and database management, zoom calls and the like, over the last week to first correct the problems from the week prior, then keep driving because fixing the issues gave me the fever to finally get specials to display.  We’re done with web design for the weekend, at least I definitely am, but we’ll be back at it next week with the next step which I envision as a series of additional “Special” menus – Top Sellers, Cichlids, Newest Items, things like that.  Stay tuned, and hoping the latest improvement is helpful for your browsing/ordering experience!!

9/10/2024

The website now appears to be working correctly, sorry for the inconvenience. If you happened to have read the 9/9 entry (or read it now), I’m not entirely clear who fixed it; The request was made to 2 entities and neither has taken credit for the fix.  But as of this morning it appears the portal is back online.

Thanks for your patience, standby for more updates!

9/9/2024

**IMPORTANT – ONLINE ORDERING CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE** Resolved! 

What started as a media issue a week ago Monday has ballooned into a slightly larger issue.  Our hosting company finally concluded earlier today that the media issue was being caused by certain quotas being reached, and that an upgrade was necessary, which normally would be a mixed batch of news!  Yeah we had to pay a little extra, but growth is a good thing, right?

Well the upgraded service and the “Support Plan” they fishhooked me into in the process seems to have fixed the media issue (See the updated New & Noteworthy), but in the process, they broke our item list.  Categories oddly enough display correctly, but beneath each category and the full list under ‘Products,’ nothing shows.  As is typical and apparently acceptable in services industries now, their response to the web page that they broke – The fix for which is probably fairly simple – They have put me in a queue with other customers requesting design changes to correct the web page they broke, when they get around to it.  To describe my current demeanor as ‘incensed’ would be an understatement.

Links from the home page and New & Noteworthy pages to view & download availability are still accessible, and we are here to take orders by phone/fax/email as per usual.  I also have a message in to our usual designer Sumit in case he can fix it faster; A new entry will appear above this one as soon as the portal issues are corrected.

As for our hosting company, which I’m not gonna put “On Blast” but let’s just say rhymes with FlowCaddy, never again once our contractual obligations are fulfilled.  Please bear with us and we’ll have the portal up and running ASAP.

7/14/2023

The last of the “Minor” revisions are complete!  By popular demand, you can now submit product notes that are attached to the product itself; For example, if you’re ordering hamsters and you want female only, you can make that designation directly in the cart or item page, rather than having to fit all special instructions in the “Delivery Notes” Section in checkout.  That’s probably the only major revision a typical user is likely to notice; Rendering has been improved on the emailed order slip as well but I doubt anyone would notice the difference had I not pointed it out.

I still have a few more changes to make myself (including removing the “Lorem Ipsum” text that still appears in a few areas of the site lol) but next week, the site will be mirrored into a staging area or “Sandbox,” and future changes will be big ones!  Since the staging site will ultimately be copied and overwrite the original site, any minor changes become impractical because I’d have to perform them on both sites.  The reason this is being done is that the forthcoming changes will require coding that could result in website crashes or other irregularities; Performing the changes in this way will prevent interruptions to service.  So what you’ll see in the future is tranches of changes that are fairly notable when they occur.  In no particular order, we’re looking to provide the following services (on our short list):

1. Blue Sheet Specials to appear in the lists & cart;

2. A series of specialty lists, e.g. Specials, (new & improved) New & Noteworthy, Nano Fish, Top Sellers, & the like;

3. Rendering options for the user within the lists; Eg List Only, Large Icons, and clearer designations/hover options for viewing pricing matrices;

4. The ability to “Reorder” items directly from previous orders (Similar to Uline, if any of you use them); and

5. New Submission forms for special order/item requests, price comparison requests, and credit requests.

This has been a heck of a ride, starting out what was really not all that long ago with a request to a programmer for a “Very simple ordering portal,” and I am thrilled with the outcome so far.  It’s a tremendous amount of work but feedback has been resoundingly positive and improvement requests have been completed seamlessly by our designer.  I don’t expect you guys to be as excited about it as I am but hopefully you’re enjoying the functionality and experience, and as always please let us know how to make it better!

6/23/2023

At this time – Blue sheet specials will still not be reflected in your cart – That’s next, along with a new and improved new & noteworthy section!  However, today, I added a button to the top of the page just below the header area where you can view and, if desired, download the brochure; This button will appear for all logged in users.  This way, you can at least view the specials all in one place, without having to go back and forth between the email and the website.  This will also be updated more quickly than the e-blast going out, as generating the current brochure and updating the website is only the first of many steps required to generate and send the E-blast.  Basically this just means you can check the website much earlier in the day Friday (or in some cases even Thursday afternoon) and obtain current specials & availability hours before the eblast is sent.  We’ll be improving and synergizing (is that a word?  Spell check says it is) this process in the very near future.

Most Recent Updates (aside from the foregoing!):

   – Prices are now shown as a range, from lowest-discounted price to single-lot price, for items that have quantity discounts (which is most of them), in full-item as well as category view.  This was a huge sticking point for us and a huge programming/design hurdle!  Shout out to our programmer, Sumit, for accomplishing this when previous designers have told us it’s “Not possible!”  

   – Shopping Cart view, checkout view, and emailed order (Both the copy you get and the copy we get) have received rendering updates; Price per item is now shown in these views, and they are now sorted by Category/SKU, which makes for a cleaner look and easier/more organized referencing in these views as well as the document it sends to you.    

Many product images have been uploaded but many, many more remain!  We’ll be working diligently on our end to get these done, as well as improve functionality.  In the meantime, enjoy the ride and thanks for taking us for a test drive!  Please feel free to provide any feedback!