What are Events on our site?
As a part of special care for ours customers, Istok has implemented an outstanding feature called Events. This code is for customers, who believe planning is the right way to success.
Whenever you have in mind a special event (church feast, clergy anniversary, baptism, wedding, etc.), we have a tool right for you. Imagine, you need to renovate your church, replace broken censer or purchase new vestments for clergy and altar boys? Often, it is a problem to collect sufficient funds. But now we can help you. From now on you can create and name a relevant event and send whomever you wish an invitation to participate in purchasing the things you or your church need.
Registering an Event is very easy. Just click on the Gift Registry link in the Your Cart section and you will be able to manage put off products (Wish list) and:
- sort out products by event according to what products you'd like to buy for this or that occasion;
- inform your friends about your plans and wishes;
- keep track of products being bought.
Gift Registry supplements the Wish List and increases its functionality with a number of new features. Namely, you get the ability to:
- create and manage 'events'. Each event has the following set of characteristics:
- status: public/private/disabled,
- date of event,
- title,
- description shown to the guests in the events list of Search results and in the Wish List of the event,
- HTML-card which is customized HTML content created by the author of the event (for example, detailed info about place and time of an event) which is opened in a pop-up window when a guest visits event wish list,
- create 'event wish lists' - sets of products you would like to be bought for a particular occasion (including Gift Certificates and configurations),
- control who may access event information and event wish lists.
- create 'recipients lists' - lists of names and e-mail addresses of event participants to whom notifications of the event and event wish list contents will be sent,
- edit and preview the e-mail notification content,
- import/ export recipients list in CSV-format ( the option may be switched off in General settings/Gift Registry options),
- use guest books where visitors can leave messages regarding this or that event ( it may be disabled),
- move products between event wish lists and the main wish list ( any product may be added to the event wish list only through the main wish list),
- track the amount of purchased products in event wish list.
Below is a detailed Manual for you and your friends.
Event Creation
You can create an Event in one of these ways:
- Through the main wish list: Wish List menu >click on New Event link
- Through Gift Registry: Gift Registry Menu> click on New Event link
To create an event you are supposed to fill in the following fields:
- Status
- Title
- Event Date
Status field displays the current state of an event and sets the access level for visitors of the site.
- public - all visitors can see and buy products from the event wish list.
- private – only registered users whose e-mail addresses were entered in the recipients list can see and buy products from the event wish list.
- disabled - the event is not accessible to users.
Note. Until an event has some products in wish list and recipient list you’d better assign ‘disabled’ status to this event.
In HTML-content field you need to enter the code of the HTML page which will be opened in a pop -up window when a user visits this page. The contents of this field will be displayed in the pop-up window without any changes and additions, that’s why you are supposed to have some knowledge and skills of HTML language to create HTML pages. You can also use Microsoft Frontpage for making HTML pages.
Note: You need to check the way an HTML page looks when transferring it to HTML-card. You can use a link in event list in “HTML-card” column for it.
A page that was correctly displayed on a local computer may be distorted when transferred to HTML-card due to loss of images or other objects. That is why you should use only HTML formatted text in HTML card or place image files on some other site and give correct links to them.
Adding Products to Event Wish List
You can add products and Gift Certificates to events wish list only through the main wish list:
- First, a product is added to the Wish list (‘Add to wish list’ button)
- Then in the Wish list this product may be partially of fully moved to the wish list of a registered event.
Note. By partial moving the following is meant:
There is a product N quantity=5 in Wish list:
Main wish list: product N (quantity=5)
You can move some items of the products to event wish list ‘Birthday’
Main wish list: product N (quantity=3)
‘Birthday’ event wish list: product N (quantity=2)
Note: If you change the amount of product items in event wish list, for example
‘Birthday’ event wish list: product N (quantity=1)
then the amount in the Main wish list will not be changed, i.e. you’ll get:
Main wish list: product N (quantity=3)
‘Birthday’ event wish list: product N (quantity=1)
and the total amount of product items will be changed.
The functionality of event wish list is the same as of the main wish list, thus you can:
add a product to cart
delete a product from the wish list
change the amount of product items
see detailed info about a product.
The maximum number of events that a user can define is limited by administrator.
Recipients List
Recipients list contains info about all recipients of an event including:
- e-mail;
- name;
- current status
Recipients list can be filled in manually or imported through the corresponding interface (the feature can be disabled by administrator). The maximum amount of recipients in the list is limited by administrator.
To avoid spam each recipient should confirm their participation in the list of event delivery. You should perform the following actions:
- Mark checkboxes opposite the recipients
- Send a request to confirm the recipients' participation by clicking on ‘Send confirmation request’ link.
The current status will be displayed in the field ‘Status’: “Sent” and the date of the last status change.
The notification contains the offer to confirm or cancel your participation in delivery list, for example:
Mr. [Sender name] has sent this invitation for you.
_____________________________________________________________________
Dear [Recipient name],
Your e-mail address has been included into the Gift registry's mailing list for this event.
Please confirm or decline your participation by clicking on the links below.
_____________________________________________________________________
Click here to confirm:
http://www.istok.net/customer/giftregs.php?cc=782ab3a60469e12499e13259519e252d
Click here to decline:
http://www.istok.net/customer/giftregs.php?cc=c72ce5192251b1fb9f9ff1eea0c94a96
--
Thank you for using
Our shopping system
Istok Church Supplies
Phone: 1- 855-999-5-111
Fax: 1- 888-661-5975
URL: WWW.ISTOK.NET
After the recipient chooses one of the variants, his participation will either be cancelled or confirmed, and the confirmation date will appear bes ides the current status (‘Confirmed’ or ‘Declined’) in the field ‘Status’.
Guestbook
Recipients can leave their messages and comments regarding any event in the Guestbook. To post a message to the Guestbook a recipient is supposed to enter:
- his name;
- subject;
- message text.
- Filling in all the fields is a must.
- The owner of the event can answer and delete messages. His replies are highlighted.
- Messages are displayed in the reverse chronological order.
- The Guestbook can be disabled by the owner of the event.
E-mail Notification
To successfully send a notification about this or that event there should be at least one recipient in the recipient list who confirmed his/her participation.
On ‘E-Mail Notification’ page you can edit the text of the notification, indicate the subject of the e-mail and the way of posting, which can either be HTML page or plain text. It is highly recommended to preview your text message before sending.
Event Search
All site visitors can search for and look through the events that have ‘public’ status and buy products included in event wish lists.
Only registered users whose e-mails are included in recipients list of this event can look through ‘private’ events.
Event search is fulfilled by the following criteria.
- template of the event owner’s name
- event owner’s e-mail
- a key word for search in the header and product description
- event status
- timeframes of an event.
If no search criteria were assigned, all events of the database will be delivered.
Event Viewing and Purchase of Products
To enter an event page and see the wish list the following conditions need to be met:
- An event has “public” status
- An event has “private” status if a visitor is a registered user and his/her e-mail is included into Recipient’s list of this event.
Only registered store users have the ability to add products from event wish list to their cart.
To add a product to your cart you should click on ‘Add to cart’ link. The product will be placed in your cart with the options and number of items defined in the wish list. If a customer is not satisfied with these settings they can be changed right in the cart.
After checkout is successfully finished, either the number of bought items is displayed below the corresponding products in event wish list or ‘All items already purchased’ if the whole product is bought (such a product cannot be added to cart from event wish list).
Shipping and taxes cost calculations are made depending on the customer’s location and the purchased products are sent to this address.