VendingBox Plugin Support Thread

This is the official support thread for the VendingBox plugin.

The plugin is available at:
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1888

This plugin allows you to connect your Zen Cart site to the service at VendingBox.net. The service provides you with a mobile customizable storefront, written in Flash, which can be placed on Facebook, blogs or any other website.

When a customer shares one of your products to a Facebook wall, a mini-store appears on the wall through which other customers can purchase or share the products. Purchases made through the VendingBox can appear alongside your other orders in the Zen Cart admin section.

The plugin is installed by extracting the zip file and putting the vendingbox_feed.php file in the main directory of the Zen Cart site.

Once you have opened an account at:
http://www.vendingbox.net/?ref=zen
you can specify the url of the vendingbox_feed.php file in the Configuration->Cart Integration section and click "Import All Settings".

Currently, only PayPal is supported. We plan to add support for other payment systems such as AuthorizeNet, 2CheckOut and Google Checkout in the coming weeks.

Only radio and drop-down attributes are supported right now. We will add support for checkbox attributes soon. Also, only table rate, flat rate, zone and per-item shipping information is imported. We hope to add support for UPS, USPS and Fedex soon.

Please let us know which features are most important to you; we will prioritize the implementation of features that are frequently requested.


Many Zen Cart users will have installed other add-ons which change the database structure and cause problems when importing information to the VendingBox. If anybody has problems like this, please let us know, and tell us what add-ons you have installed. We can usually modify the code to make it compatible with other add-ons once we know what changes they involve.

Other unforeseen problems will occasionally occur, but we can fix them relatively quickly once they're brought to our attention.


Yours,
The VB Support Team.

Hi There,
Great Addone idea, thanks!:clap:

But it is not working for me
When clicking import all settings i get:

Quote:

---

"No valid feed could be found at the specified URL. Please ensure that you have installed the correct plugin and have entered the URL correctly. "

---

I have uploaded the file into our root folder so i think it might be an addone issue, we have installed the following addones:
Ceon URI Mapping
Easy populate
image handler
Zen lightbox
Sitemap XML
Google Base datafeed
Site bBackup
Mailbeez

Zen cart version is 1.3.9
themineralmiracle.com.au

Thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gal_op

Hi There,
Great Addone idea, thanks!:clap:

But it is not working for me
When clicking import all settings i get:


I have uploaded the file into our root folder so i think it might be an addone issue, we have installed the following addones:
Ceon URI Mapping ...

---

Hi gal_op,

We're getting 404 (not found) errors when we try to import your products. This is probably caused by the Ceon URI Mapping add-on.

We'll try to fix this by making changes on our server. If that doesn't work, we'll release a new version of the VendingBox plugin which can deal with the complications of Ceon URI.

Yours,
VendingBox Support.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gal_op

Hi There,
Great Addone idea, thanks!:clap:

But it is not working for me...

Zen cart version is 1.3.9
themineralmiracle.com.au

Thanks

---

Hi,

The problem with Ceon URI Mapping can be solved by putting the URL of the vendingbox_feed.php file into the list of URL's which are to be excluded from remapping.

The way to do this is to log in to the admin section, go to Modules -> Ceon URI Mapping (SEO) Config, and then enter:

/vendingbox_feed.php

into the Excluded Files box at the end. If there are already files listed in the box, add /vendingbox_feed.php to the end of the comma-separated list. Then click Save and the VendingBox imports should work.

For users who have their Zen Cart folder in a subdirectory, they should use the full path to the vendingbox_feed.php file. For example, if the store is located at http://mystore.com/store/ then you would add /store/vendingbox_feed.php to the list of excluded files.

Many thanks to gal_op for finding the issue. We'll add these instructions to the installation instructions for the next release of the plugin.

Best regards,
VB Support.

Thanks!

Thanks working great

Hi,

I am trying to configure my store with Vending Box but every time I try to Import All Settings, I get the following error message:

No valid feed could be found at the specified URL. Please ensure that you have installed the correct plugin and have entered the URL correctly.

My website is www.modernhejab.com

I have also added /vendingbox_feed.php to the excluded files for Ceon URI Mapping (SEO)

Please let me know what I am doing wrong. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Hi,

The file seems to be there but is redirecting to your main site for some reason. We'll communicate with you through email to solve the problem and put the solution here so that others can make use of it if the same thing happens to them.

Best regards,
VendingBox Support.

This problem arises when the .htaccess file is set to redirect requests to the index.php script.

If your .htaccess file looks like the following:

# Don't rewrite any URIs ending with a file extension (ending with .[xxxxx])
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.[a-zA-Z]{2,5}$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \.(html|htm|php)$ [NC]
# Don't rewrite admin directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/zc_admin [NC]
# Don't rewrite editors directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/editors [NC]
# Don't rewrite cPanel directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/cpanel [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/frontend [NC]
# Handle all other URIs using Zen Cart (index.php)
RewriteRule .* index.php?%{QUERY_STRING} [L]


then you need to add the following two lines just above the "# Handle all other ..." line:

# Don't rewrite VendingBox feed request
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/vendingbox [NC]

This will prevent mod_rewrite from intercepting requests made to the vendingbox_feed.php file.

Thanks to mmadany for finding the issue.

Support for AuthorizeNet and SagePay have now been added.

There have also been improvements for dealing with large numbers of products. The categories are loaded at the time that the user clicks into them if the number of products exceeds 1,000, so there won't be a huge delay in loading the VendingBox if you have 20,000 products.

Also, a number of users have been putting the checkout_success, checkout_process or even the ipn_main_handler.php scripts as the Return Url.

This isn't advisable because the Return Url is the URL to which the user will be brought after the purchase is complete. If the user is brought to the checkout_success script after making a purchase from the VendingBox, the Zen Cart site will say "Oops, your session has expired", because it doesn't recognize the user.

If you don't have a specialized page that says, "Thank you for your purchase", you can use the following URL:
https://www.vendingbox.net/payment_successful.php

Nice idea but not so good for me!
I managed to get it installed on second try and it appeared to work on my facebook page. However, my sales pages have many attributes (needed) and VendingBox would not show them all.

Hi Rizla,

Can you send me a PM telling me your username at VendingBox?

Once we know which account it is we can set about solving the problem for you.

Best regards,
VB Support.

Checkbox, file and text attributes are now supported. Thanks to Rizla for encouraging these features.

It will be necessary to re-import the product catalog for the newly-supported attributes to appear in the VendingBox. This can be done from the product list or from Configuration -> Cart Integration.

i am too getting the error when importing my products, i dont use any seo rewrite mods at all so im not sure what the issue could be?

Hi bonnit,

Can you PM me with your VendingBox username?

We'll get it working for you as soon as we can.

Regards,
VB Support.

Thanks for the help, the product feed and preview is sorted now, all is done, however when i add it to my facebook page and click on the tab i get a coming soon image show up, have i missed a setting? i have tried adding a welcome page and a splash page but no avail

thanks x

Hi,

If you're logged in to Facebook as the admin of the page with the coming soon logo, you should also see a "Launch Store" button. Once you click that, it will be able to associate your Facebook page with the VendingBox, and the next time you look at the Facebook page, it should show your VendingBox instead of the Coming Soon message.

Best regards,
VB Support.

I am using this feature at the moment and have made some sales via it.

My query is, does the product list automatically update (like shopmania) or do we have to manually update when we add, remove or otherwise change our stock?

If it automatically updates how often does it occur?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paul...the...first

I am using this feature at the moment and have made some sales via it.

My query is, does the product list automatically update (like shopmania) or do we have to manually update when we add, remove or otherwise change our stock?

If it automatically updates how often does it occur?

---

Hi Paul,

Yes, if you schedule an import then it will automatically fetch the products from your Zen Cart catalog. You can do this by going to Configuration -> Scheduled Imports and choosing when you want the imports to occur. The maximum frequency is once per hour, but since there's a minute or so of downtime when the import is proceeding, it's probably better to do it once or twice a day.

You can also have it delete non-imported items so that if something disappears from the Zen Cart site, it also disappears from the VendingBox.

Best regards,
VB Support.

I checked my VB account recently and the stock list is not auto updating.

Is there an additional file I need to add to my web site?

I have the settings set in VB to update everyday at 3am.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paul...the...first

I checked my VB account recently and the stock list is not auto updating.

Is there an additional file I need to add to my web site?

I have the settings set in VB to update everyday at 3am.

---

Hi Paul,

According to our log, an import was executed at 3 am this morning.

Could you PM me with an example of a product that should have changed but didn't? It might be a problem with importing a specific product or it could be something as simple as a failure to connect to your server when it tried.

Best regards,
VB Support.

Hi Paul,

I think the problem is that we currently don't have an option to hide products which are out of stock. They appear in the VendingBox but the customer is informed that the item is out of stock if he or she tries to add it to the cart.

In this case the items were successfully updated to out-of-stock but still showed up in the VB.

We'll add a feature which makes it possible to hide out of stock items in the next few days.

Thanks for helping us to improve VendingBox!

Best regards,
VB Support.

I get these warnings when I view the Zen cart customer admin screen for customers created from VB. I cannot edit or otherwise amend customer details. All I can do is delete them directly from the database and then the warnings go away.

Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #1 is not an array in /home/xxxxx/public_html/pets/xxxxx/customers.php on line 1099

Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array in /home/xxxxx/public_html/pets/xxxxx/customers.php on line 1101

Warning: reset() [function.reset]: Passed variable is not an array or object in /home/xxxxx/public_html/pets/xxxxx/includes/classes/object_info.php on line 29

Warning: Variable passed to each() is not an array or object in /home/xxxxx/public_html/pets/xxxxx/includes/classes/object_info.php on line 30

xxxxx = admin name

If I click on a customer who used my site directly I do not get the warnings.

Is there something I need to change to allow your customers details to be displayed correctly, or do you need to change something at your end for when customers place orders?

Apart from this small issue the addon works perfectly and I am receiving orders ok.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for letting us know about the problems.

Can you PM me with the details of your Zen Cart installation (version number and any add-ons that might affect how orders are stored)?

We'll try to get rid of those warning messages as soon as we can.

Best regards,
VB Support.

I am using CEON SEO URLS Version 4.07 - the ability to exclude certain files from being remapped has been removed. When I try to access the feed in my browser I get this error: unauthorized access error. So how can I get this to work correctly? Thanks for your help with this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by vb_support

This is the official support thread for the VendingBox plugin.

The plugin is available at:
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1888

This plugin allows you to connect your Zen Cart site to the service at VendingBox.net. The service provides you with a mobile customizable storefront, written in Flash, which can be placed on Facebook, blogs or any other website.

When a customer shares one of your products to a Facebook wall, a mini-store appears on the wall through which other customers can purchase or share the products. Purchases made through the VendingBox can appear alongside your other orders in the Zen Cart admin section.

The plugin is installed by extracting the zip file and putting the vendingbox_feed.php file in the main directory of the Zen Cart site.

Once you have opened an account at:
http://www.vendingbox.net/?ref=zen
you can specify the url of the vendingbox_feed.php file in the Configuration->Cart Integration section and click "Import All Settings".

Currently, only PayPal is supported. We plan to add support for other payment systems such as AuthorizeNet, 2CheckOut and Google Checkout in the coming weeks.

Only radio and drop-down attributes are supported right now. We will add support for checkbox attributes soon. Also, only table rate, flat rate, zone and per-item shipping information is imported. We hope to add support for UPS, USPS and Fedex soon.

Please let us know which features are most important to you; we will prioritize the implementation of features that are frequently requested.


Many Zen Cart users will have installed other add-ons which change the database structure and cause problems when importing information to the VendingBox. If anybody has problems like this, please let us know, and tell us what add-ons you have installed. We can usually modify the code to make it compatible with other add-ons once we know what changes they involve.

Other unforeseen problems will occasionally occur, but we can fix them relatively quickly once they're brought to our attention.


Yours,
The VB Support Team.

---

Hi.

If you're getting the unauthorized access error message then it means that you can successfully access the plugin at that url. The reason that it doesn't allow access to the plugin is to prevent unauthorized people from retrieving information about your store through the plugin.

You should be able to use the plugin as normal. If you use the url which gave the unauthorized access message in the Configuration -> Cart Integration section of the VendingBox website, then you should be able to import your products and settings.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
VB Support.

vending box installed go to page and hit launch it just loops and loops between facebook and vendingbox website sending different tokens each time??

Also wondering if theres any update to google checkout payment option as i dont like paypal and dont have sage or authorise.
Also have cardsave as a payment option that would be good to see under card processors. ill pm you my email so you can assist

Hi,

Thanks for letting us know about your facebook-vendingbox looping behavior. We're investigating it right now.

Unfortunately, support for google checkout or cardsave is not planned at this time. We'd be happy to send you a private message or email if we do implement either of these payment options.

Best regards,
VB Support.

Hi Xbox Memberships,

Your VendingBox should now be accessible and visible from your Facebook page. Our apologies for the glitch.

Please let us know if you encounter any further issues.

Best regards,
VB Support.

When is VendingBox going to have a 1.5 version available?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kazulanth

When is VendingBox going to have a 1.5 version available?

---

Hi kazulanth,

We'd very much like to implement a version of the VendingBox plugin for ZenCart 1.5, but we're not sure when this will happen. We'll be sure to post here with updates.

Best regards,
VB Support.

I am a new user to zencart and am slowly making my way through the features and abilities with it. I have attempted to integrate vending box into my zencart installation but vending box configuration continues to say the url I provide is inaccessible. I uploaded the .php file into the store directly and per the suggestions in this thread attempted to modify the main directories .htaccess with no success. When i directly link to the url through my browser i get an internal server error (500). Any help would be appreciated. I'm working with zencart 1.3.9e.

Hi Garrett,

Thank you for bringing this to us. We may need more information to troubleshoot this problem properly.

Can you send me a PM with the apache error log from visiting the vendingbox_feed.php url, along with the version of PHP you are using on your zencart site and a list of any zencart plugins you have installed?

Best regards,
VB Support.