New actinic add-on utility: "Dispatcher"

[jxm28788]

Actinic 'Dispatcher' is an add-on utility that allows Actinic e-commerce site owners to quickly an easily update their customers with the order status, by e-mail.

Dispatcher maintains a list of orders, which is extracted from Actinic eachtime the utility is run (usually once at the end of each day). You can then select multiple orders, enter a status (eg. order dispatched) and send all of the customers that e-mail with a single click of a button. There are 3 e-mail templates available, which are fully customisable, and optional comments can be added to multiple orders.

The utility marks off dispatched orders as closed, so each time you open the utility you will see a list only of unsent orders. This will usually just be the new orders that day, but it also lists previous orders that have not been dispatched for some reason (eg. the item is out of stock) - this acts as a very good reminder system to make sure that no 'on hold' orders get forgotten!

For more details see my latest site -

http://www.crazy-daves-actinic-shop.com

[Big_Dave]

Hi

Sounds interesting but what advantage does it have over Actinic's built in email? I already have the facility to send an email to say 'dispatched' or 'order delay' by using/creating email templates within Actinic.

regards
Dave

[jxm28788]

Main advantage (unless there is a way of doing this in actinic that I haven't figured out yet (which would be embarrassing...:o )) is that you can do it to multiple orders at the same time.

You have a basic template which can take the name/ordernumber out of each order, and you can just select a bunch of orders and press send - then everyone gets an email customised with their ordernumber and name.

The more orders you have per day, the more useful this is!

Then there is the added advantage of knowing who you have already sent an e-mail to and those you haven't - something which is not easy to do (unless you open the orders one at a time) in actinic.

[Bruce]

John,

This is a nice one, could be very handy for a lot of Actinic users.

Kind regards,

[jxm28788]

wait til you see the next one... ;)

[jxm28788]

I'd be grateful of any feedback on this utility by the way, as it's my first one. It's useful for me (which is why I developed it!) but I have no idea if anyone else thinks it's useful.

And the problem with 30 day free trials is I won't find out if people are interested in buying it for at least a month... :rolleyes:

[george]

Looks like there could be a possible market for v7 add-ons though... :eek:

[jxm28788]

I hope so :D - anyone know what the installed base of V7 is?