EV-OldVersion

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Revision as of 23:02, 16 April 2018 by Aphrodite atlas (talk | contribs)
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EasyVend is still in BETA! Expect to find bugs! Documentation is in progress, but is NOT complete yet!

EasyVend is an expansion pack for CasperVend, which provides rapid setup of products and vendors in-world with no website access required.

It's designed as a drop-in replacement for E2V vendor scripts, however, E2V is not required - EasyVend can be used out of the box.

Features

  • Drop-in replacement for E2V vendor scripts
  • Drop-in replacement for E2V store controller to support profit splits, sales, price groups
  • Drop-in replacement for E2V inventory server for remote delivery
  • Obeys E2V naming rules for item matching
  • Supports DropBox delivery, local vendor delivery and folder delivery
  • Automatically creates products in the CasperVend system

Caveats & Limitations

  • NOT SUPPORTED: E2V's "partners" feature
  • NOT SUPPORTED: Group discounts (that's only supported with the full CasperVend)
  • CV Gift Cards: Accepted, but will not work with local/folder delivery
  • The EasyVend does not display textures - if you want automatic texture management use the full CasperVend
  • You can't manage what displays on the vendor from the web
  • You can't manage profit shares or store credit awards from the web
  • If you use local vendor or folder deliveries, customers will be unable to claim redeliveries using the automatically created products. However, you can edit the product on the web interface and designate a packaged version (and set "copy" perms to allow redelivery) for that product to use for redelivery.
  • Like E2V itself, EasyVend cannot be used as affiliate vendors

E2V Items NOT Used by CasperVend EasyVend

You will NOT need to rez or use any of these items from the E2V vendor pack when converting to EasyVend:

  • Delivery Relay
  • Payments Object
  • Transaction Relay

Important: If Contacting Support...

If you are using EasyVend and you need to contact support (or use the support group) for help, you must TELL US that you are using EasyVend to avoid support confusion!

Where are the Scripts?

Redeliver your PAID CasperVend pack - either "Premium" or "Fat Pack". EasyVend is NOT in the free commission vendors!

FatPack

  1. Rez your fresh FatPack crate
  2. Unpack your FatPack into your inventory
  3. Look for the "Premium Vendors" crate in inventory
  4. Rez the "Premium Vendors" crate
  5. Unpack to inventory
  6. Look for the EasyVend box, rez and unpack that

Premium Vendors

  1. Rez the fresh "Premium Vendors" crate
  2. Unpack to inventory
  3. Look for the EasyVend box, rez and unpack that

E2V Migration: Drop-N-Go

Using the Scripts

  1. If you use the E2V Inventory Server, delete the E2V script(s), then drop the "CasperTech DropBox" script into each E2V Inventory Storage box (not the root prim)
  2. Delete the E2V scripts from your E2V Store Controller and drop in the "CasperVend2 EasyVend Store Controller" script
  3. Delete the E2V scripts from each vendor you wish to convert, and replace them with the "CasperVend2 EasyVend".

That's it!

E2V Migration: Fresh Setup

This is intended ONLY for merchants migrating TO CasperVend who are used to E2V's workflow and ways of doing things, and have a lot of vendors to get changed over to the normal CasperVend format. These instructions allow these merchants to continue adding products to their product line while they take the time to get the hang of how the normal CasperVend system works.

Create Your Settings Notecard

The Store Controller's settings note card contains the options for the vendors you have on THAT sim/region.

The note card is roughly divided up into 4 sections:

  • Defaults
  • Price Groups
  • Sales
  • Splits

For example: 

# Defaults
N-Reward=2%
G-Reward=5%

# Price Groups
PriceGroup=one,50
PriceGroup=two,100

# Sales
Sale=
ExcludedGroups=
SpendCreditDuringSale=false
EarnCreditDuringSale=false

# Splits
Split=

Defaults Settings:

N-Reward
Specifies the default non-group buyer's reward value to be used for each vendor, if the value is not specified either on the vendor, or in the vendor's price group. This value can be either a percentage (if you include the % sign) or an absolute value. This value can be either a percentage (if you include the % sign) or an absolute value. Leave this blank, or use a 0, to prevent any default value from being used.

G-Reward
Specifies the default customer group's buyer reward value to be used for each vendor when the customer has the same group tag active that the vendor object is set to, if the value is not specified either on the vendor, or in the vendor's price group. This value can be either a percentage (if you include the % sign) or an absolute value.

Price Groups

Price groups allow you to define a single set of vendor options, in one place, then use those options on as many different vendors as you want. Changes to the price group only need to made to the group itself (in the settings notecard) and all vendors using THAT group will be updated automatically.

You can also put specific groups on sale simply by changing their prices, while the rest of your products remain unchanged.

Each group is defined on a new line that begins with: 

  PriceGroup=

and consists of at least two items: the name of the group, and the price of the group. You can also specify buyer's reward values on the group, by adding them after the group's price.

Here are some examples that you would find in the the Controller's notecard: 

N-Reward=2%
G-Reward=5%

PriceGroup=boots,250
PriceGroup=jackets,175,0,10%
PriceGroup=hats,50,,12%

In the above examples, any vendors in the "boots" group will be priced at L$250, and will use 2% and 5% for the reward values (they aren't defined because they aren't any different from the default.) Vendors in the "jackets" group will be priced at L$175, and will give no rewards to non-group members, and 10% to group members. Lastly, vendors in the "hats" group will be priced at L$50, and will use 2% and 12% as the reward values.

To place a vendor in a Price Group, you use the group's name instead of a price in the vendor options, such as: 

  [boots]

You can still override the reward values of a Price Group, if needed: 

  [boots,0,0]

Omitting a Value vs Explicit Definitions

When you don't supply a value for buyer's rewards, you are indicating that you want to use the default values (if they exist elsewhere in the settings notecard).

This means that leaving them blank is NOT the same thing as using explict 0's. For example: 

N-Reward=2%
G-Reward=10%

PriceGroup=socks,100
PriceGroup=shoes,100,,8%
PriceGroup=pants,100,0
PriceGroup=shirts,100,0,0

The above settings will result in the following values: 

socks ... n-reward: L$2, g-reward: L$10
shoes ... n-reward: L$2, g-reward: L$8
pants ... n-reward: L$0, g-reward: L$10
shirts ... n-reward: L$0, g-reward: L$0

Sales

You can place all of your vendors on that region on sale by putting either a percentage or a flat amount into the Sale field. Once the settings are saved and loaded, the controller will restart all the vendors, and they will take on the sale pricing.

You can exclude certain pricing groups from the store-wide sale by adding their names, separated by commas, to the ExcludedGroups line.

The SpendCreditDuringSale option controls whether customers will be able to to buy on-sale items using their store credit or not. Put "true" or "false." Note that vendors in groups that are excluded from the sale are not affected by this setting.

The EarnCreditDuringSale options control how buyer's rewards behave during the sale. Use "false" to prevent on-sale vendors from issuing buyer's rewards.

Splits, Profit

Profit splits in the controller's settings notecard are simply a place to DEFINE any existing splits. Listing a split in the notecard does NOT automatically mean that they'll actually be used everywhere. Where a split gets USED depends on what you key into the vendor object's description field.

BE CAREFUL! You are responsible for the amount of profit splits you set up - if you're not careful, you may end up sending, for example, 150% of a product price out in splits, and losing money!

Components of a Profit Split Definition

There are 3 parts to a split. They are:

  • Split Name
  • Split Target
  • Split Amount.

Split Name
You need a short, easy to remember name for what you're doing with this split. Are you paying rent? Are you paying your CSR? Paying your manager, or co-designer? Making a donation? Whatever it is you're doing with the split, you'll need to call this split something.

Split Target
Next you'll need the UUID of the avatar you want to pay. You can get an avatar's UUID from their profile.

Split Amount
Lastly, you'll need the amount you want to give this avatar on each sale. This is typically written as a percentage, like 25% or whatever amount you choose.

As an example, this in the notecard: 

  Split=mgr,ad7b01b9-9b71-4beb-ba05-0c353ade5952,50%

shows:

  • split name of "mgr"
  • split target being the avatar UUID (or "avatar key" to some people)
  • split amount of 50% .

Pick Which Vendors Use the Split

You can apply a split to any vendor by adding the Split Name to the vendor's description line as part of the vendor's pricing options.

Normally vendor's description line has 3 components to it, which are price, n-reward, and g-reward, written like this.

Yes, always including the [square brackets]: 

 [150,2%,5%]

You can add a fourth component, which is the Split Name, like this: 

 [150,2%,5%,mgr]

A vendor with the above pricing options will pay 50% of its sale price of L$150 to the avatar specified in the split called "mgr" inside the Controller.

In this way, you can easily change the Split Target or Split Amount on many vendors at once, simply by changing the Store Controller, instead of editing every vendor using the split.

Always Remember

You must have FOUR parts to the vendor pricing to use splits! They are price, n-reward, g-reward, and split name.

But what if you're not using Buyer's Rewards? The Split Name still needs to be the 4th item! Here's how to do this if you are not using Buyer's Rewards at all (or if you just want to use the default values from the Store Contoller):

In our example above, the Buyer's Rewards were included in the options: 

  [150,2%,5%,mgr]

You can "skip" writing the Buyer's Rewards as shown in this example: 

  [150,2%,5%,mgr]

But without spaces! This keeps the 4 required places by explicitly defining them as existing, while not giving them a numbered percentage. 

  [150,,,mgr]

Or, you can disable Buyer's Rewards by using 0's: 

  [150,0,0,mgr]

Create Your Store Controller Object

This object will control the settings for all of your EasyVend vendors (not any regular CasperVend ones) on the region where THAT controller is located.

  1. Rez a new prim
  2. Drop in the "3) CasperVend2 EasyVend Store Controller" script
  3. Add in your "settings" notecard that you have created for vendors on that sim/region(see instructions above for how to create this)

That's it!

You WILL need 1 copy of this on each sim/region, with an appropriately edited "settings" notecard, that you have vendors on, just like with E2V.

Create Your Vendors

  1. Rez your vendor object
  2. The name of the vendor MUST MATCH the name of the inventory item, Except:
    • There may be additional text at the end
    • The word "vendor" at the end will be ignored
    • Inventory items may be named with multiple words, such as "mesh red boots"
  3. Edit the vendor's description field to indicate pricing and - if used - buyer rewards (loyalty rewards) and/or splits (see below)

Suffix Rules

Suffixes are handled according to E2V rules:

Your vendor's name must match the name of your product box in the Inventory Server. This match has to be exact, including punctuation, capitalization, and spacing. (The most common misnaming between vendors and boxes is extra spaces somewhere between words!)

There are two exceptions to this rule:

1) A vendor object may contain the word "vendor" at the very end of the name, separated by a space. This text will be ignored when matching the vendor to a product box. Thus "My Fancy Shoes Vendor" will actually deliver a product named "My Fancy Shoes" (your transactions will list this name, as well).

2) The Inventory Server supports the notion of "suffixes" which are a way to add extra text onto the end of a product box, yet not require that text on a vendor. For example, all of your product boxes might carry the text "(Wear to unpack)" on the end of them. But this text isn't helpful on a vendor or transaction listing. For example, using the suffixes feature, you can name your vendor "My Fancy Pants" and name your product box "My Fancy Pants (Wear to unpack)". Note also that if you use folder delivery mode in this example, the customer's folder will be named the same as the vendor - without the unsightly "(Wear to unpack)" which doesn't make much sense in a folder name.

About The Vendor Description Field

The description field may contain:

  1. Price (or name of price group, as defined in controller's settings notecard)
  2. Pricing + loyalty/buyer rewards
  3. Pricing + loyalty/buyer rewards + splits

Remember, any rewards or splits that are not being used need to be explicitly defined instead of being left blank.

See the section on Profit Splits for details on how to pre-set splits.

Important Note

Please remember that scripts cannot automatically detect when a prim's name or description changes. So any time you make a change to the prim name or description, you must also click > get popup > reset the vendor script. You can do this easily by selecting "Reset" from the vendor's popup menu.

Product Delivery - Via DropBox or Vendor?

Your customers will only be able to automatically claim redeliveries for copiable products that are in the DropBox.

Copiable products that you sell via the in-vendor option of folder or locally delivered object, are not added to redelivery by default - you will need to log in to the CasperVend website and choose a package to redeliver from your DropBox.

Remote Delivery - Rez a DropBox

Rez the CasperVend DropBox out of the main Premium Vendors box. (Or alternately, drop a copy of the CasperVend DropBox script into each inventory STORAGE server from E2V.)

Your packaged products - not folders - will need to go in here to be used for remote delivery.

The DropBox will, of course, need to stay rezzed in order to deliver your products, just like the E2V inventory server.

And in ideal situations, you should have more than one set of DropBox(es) on different sims/regions, in order to bypass the occasional bug where the sims/regions stop listening to the outside internet (i.e., delivery instructions from Casper's servers.)

Please note: This is not a "primary vs backup" method. CasperVend "calls" to the DropBoxes on a very efficient basis - the first one (1) that responds, (2) that has the product, is (3) the one that delivers the product.

You can read more about this and other DropBox tips and tricks by clicking here.

Vendor Delivery - Packaged

If the product is stored in the vendor prim's inventory, the vendor script can give it directly to the customer, on the spot. The item must be a single object (e.g. a box, bag or other packaging) named exactly the same as the vendor prim. This item will go into the customer's Objects folder in their inventory

Vendor Delivery - Folder

You can also place a collection of "loose" items inside the vendor prim, which will cause the vendor script to deliver a folder to the customer, named the same as the vendor prim, and containing all the items from inside the vendor prim, minus the vendor script.

Events

If you are using the remote delivery / inventory server model, you WILL need some regular CV vendors rezzed somewhere with permissions granted. The regular vendors do NOT need to be configured with a particular product - just rezzed and have been granted debit permissions.

If you are using local / folder delivery (and have the corresponding Controller object on the same sim), it should work without an issue.

Redelivery

Redelivery terminals in CasperVend always depend on networked delivery. Thus, there always needs to be a packaged copy of your products in a DropBox.

Permissions

Permissions for EasyVend are picked up from the "next owner" perms on the delivery item. (In regular CasperVend, they are controlled by whether you tick/check the box for "copy" permissions in the product listing.)

In the last of local/folder delivery, the default of "no-copy" is applied as a failsafe.

Using Inventory Server

Redeliveries will work seamlessly without any extra setup on your part, as long as you have the DropBox script in your Inventory Server's storage prims.

Using Folder or Local Delivery

  1. Box up your product (if it isn't already)
  2. Place item into a DropBox
  3. Log in to CasperVend account
  4. Find the corresponding product listing
  5. Edit that product listing
  6. Assign the "Deliver an Item" option to the box you placed in the DropBox (#1 in this pic)

Behind The Scenes

The easyvend script automagically creates basic product listings for you. Of course there is only minimal information pre-filled from the vendor objects inworld, and so anything missing (when you're ready to move to regular CasperVend) won't take that long to add.

To Gain All CasperVend Features

Using Remote Delivery (E2V Inventory Server style)

  1. Rez a "Headless" vendor from inventory
  2. Right-click > open > Copy scripts to inventory.
  3. You'll have a Headless folder with regular CasperVend script + MAPPING notecard
  4. Right-click > Edit > Contents on your existing vendor object
  5. Delete the EasyVend script
  6. From the Headless folder, drag the vendor script + MAPPING notecard to your vendor object.
  7. Click > get popup menu > select "Admin"
  8. Log in to CasperVend website
  9. You'll get to the vendor's config page
  10. Select the individual product FOR that vendor object

Using Local / Folder Deliveries

  1. As above, PLUS
  2. Package up your product in a box/bag/etc
  3. Put them in your DropBox
  4. Log in to CasperVend website
  5. Find the product
  6. Edit the product
  7. Point "delivery object" to the packaged product in the dropbox.
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