Mini Template System is a software package dedicated to – and exclusively made for osCommerce, so, the corporate sponsorship can be considered as a natural consequence, beside the active community presence of our team members

osCommerce is doing huge steps forwards, there is a continuous development going on, great future plans, an even greater community,  and is, in our eyes, the best choice for anyones online store. Keep on the good work osCommerce team

We are glad to have the chance to support this great project in that way too

What is new in this version:

Script upgrades

The bxGallery script has been upgraded to work with jQuery 1.8.0 and 1.8.1. The script is responsible for all product and banner sliders and was showing an incorrect behavior under jQuery 1.8.0

Latest version of jQuery 1.8.1 included

Grid styles upgraded

All 960 grid files have been upgraded to the latest version, please visit the 960gs website for more details. Mini template system offers 10 alternative store widths that you can select via your administration panel

jQuery UI themes upgraded

All included jQueryUI themes are upgraded to the latest jQueryUI version 1.8.23, so you can use them with the latest jQueryUI version

Additional, there are 7 new themes available now, including the 2 themes used in the  template examples due to popular demand

Internet explorer emulation mode

You can now select if you want to force internet explorer to view your website like using a particular version, 8 or 9. This setting may be useful in case of issues with any jQuery versions

Further improvements are done in a smarter depending selection of jQueryUI version and theme, including now also the default template theme

The new version is available to download right away. Upgrade packages have been sent to all mini template system users, as usually free of charge. Please be patient up to 24 hours before asking why you didn’t receive the upgrade.

Existing users, please note, that you can perform the upgrade on any osCommerce version 2.3.1, 2.3.2 or 2.3.3

What is new in this version:

Upgrade to osCommerce version 2.3.3

The “osCommerce package” has been fully upgraded to the latest osCommerce version, for the “modular package” there were not more that 5 files to upgrade:

• catalog/index.php
• catalog/product_info.php
• catalog/admin/includes/template_top.php
• catalog/includes/application_top.php
• catalog/includes/template_top.php

Jquery and jQuery UI upgrades

This is more than a simple upgrade of the script versions used by mini template system, this is a new feature that will let you upgrade Jquery and jQuery UI anytime and without any code edits

We considered this feature as a necessity since both, jQuery itself and jQuery UI, are developing permanently releasing new versions

You can now have several jQuery and jQuery UI versions side by side in special folders and select the versions you want to use for each template in your administration panel. This makes it extremely easy to upgrade the scripts and switch between versions any time.

In the same way you can have several versions of the same theme side by side, the upgrade here is extremely easy too

Depending on the selected jQuery UI version the system pulls automatically the correct themes of the matching version. If, for example you decide to use jQuery UI 1.8.22 the system will pull all themes of that version for you. Changing the jQuery UI version, the system will switch automatically to the matching theme version – in case it exist – if not, it will let you select and other theme of the matching version

The latest jQuey UI version, 1.8.23 has been already included

Further improvements are done for the link manager and the newlyintroduced “all page” banner modules, that show now a much better behavior in case you want to replace the <h1> tag on the product information page

The new version is available to download right away. Upgrade packages have been sent to all mini template system users, as usually free of charge. Existing users, please note, that you can perform the upgrade on any osCommerce version 2.3.1, 2.3.2 or 2.3.3

It is highly recommented to do the upgrade, there are no compatibility issues with mini template system. Since MTS affect just very few files, the upgrade is easy to do

Please be attentive with following files can not be replaced but need to be edited manually, since they have been modified for the needs of mini template system:

• catalog/index.php
• catalog/product_info.php
• catalog/admin/includes/template_top.php
• catalog/includes/application_top.php
• catalog/includes/template_top.php

The changes required by the osCommerce upgrade are not related to MTS at all, so, it should be easy to figure out what you have to do. There are however a couple of points that we would like to focus on, that could cause a confusion during the upgrade process. You can download a quick upgrade help guide here Please note that instructions provided here apply only to mini template system users

In case you need any further help, please get in touch, we’ll be happy to assist you

The osCommerce package of Mini Template System (MTS) is based already on the new version, we are probably one of the first in the industry, if not the first, who offer a templating solution based on the latest osCommerce version

The upgrade is a major security improvement for osCommerce that improves the customer password forgotten routine.

Till now, upon clicking on “password forgotten” on the login page, the system was sending a random password to the customer via email.

Now, in version 2.3.2, the system e-mails a personal link to the customer and gives them 24 hours to change their password. If they do not, they can continue to use their existing password.  The personal password reset link is disabled after 24 hours. The generated password is much “stronger” now, to use simple terms. You can check Harald’s personal blog for more information about

New also is, that the whole password reset routine is now protected via a special “action recorder” module. The default settings limit the generation of password reset links to 1 every 5 minutes. Both values are customizable via admin, so you can set it to 1 password reset link every 60 minutes etc

All mini template system stores should perform the upgrade as soon as possible. The upgrade is very easy to do, and does not affect any of the mini template system files. If you don’t have any other addons installed, you can just copy paste the upgrade files to your installation. It won’t take you more than 5 minutes

• Upload the files of the upgrade package to your server. (you need to check and and merge manually in case you have other addons beside MTS installed)
• go to your admin>modules>action recorder and enable the new module that is called “customer password reset”. You can change the default settings if you want

In case you need assistance with the upgrade, please get in touch

This is the best way to demonstrate how important it is to keep the core code-base clean. Since MTS does affect just very few core files, upgrades like this are very easy to do. We rae happy that we took special care of this during development

What is new in this version:

New module group: All pages modules

This is a completely new group of modules. As their name say, that are modules that display on all pages but the front page. First set of modules within this group are banners

What are the modules of this group good for? In short: You can display any banner, and in future any of the other modules, on any page you like

Configuration settings for the banner modules are same as for the front page banners, new are the positioning options: Each module can display in following locations on your page

• top full width
• top within content area before the the page title (h1)
• top within content area replacing the page title
• top within content area after the page title
• bottom within content area
• bottom fullwidth

All modules are compatible with page profiles, so you can display a banner on all or on selected pages as you like. Using page profiles, you can set for example a specific banner to display only for a specific product. At the same time you can use the same module to display an other banner for example on the contact us page at another location of the page. Or you can have separate banners per category or per product

New Breadcrumb module

The long time promised breadcrumb module is ready. Like all MTS modules, the breadcrumb module is completely customizable through the admin panel: You can do various settings for the fonts, the colors, the container around the breadcrumb, you can set the separator symbol as you like, you can turn the links into button style,  you can do settings about the content, like eg if you want to have the products name or products model in there and finally you can position it wherever you want on your page: Top, bottom, within the columns or outside. Please read more about the breadcrumb module and the configuration options it offers

The module is of course compatible with page profiles, so you can include it or exclude it from any page you like and set its position individually for each page if you want

Front page modules improvements

• 2 more banner modules created for the front page
• 2 more possible positions added for all front page modules: You can now place each module to the top of the page (before the columns start) just after the header or the bottom of the page (after the columns end) just before the footer. The module will occupy the full page width
• New setting “respect margins”: Having a module set to display full width, you can decide if you want it to go really till the edge of your content or if you want it to “respect” the 5 pixel margin left and right
• New setting “equal margins”: This setting will use the same margin that you have between the boxes on your front page also for the distance of the boxes to the adge of the container. Say for example, you display 3 products on the front page in grid mode and set a margin of 10 pixels. Till now the result was that boxes will have a distance of 10 pixels from the container edge but 20 pixels between them. Using the new setting you can have an equal margin of 20 pixels
• New setting for detail adjustment of the slider control arrows: You can now have them either within the container or outside. You will find this setting very useful when it comes to finetune the aligment of the modules
• Various settings added to give you a much better control over the container border and the module titles. Both can now adjusted in various ways. You’ll be able to create some really nice layouts that way
• Separate pricing per customer (SPPC) compatibility added. In case you use this addon, the MTS modules will dedect this automatically and will display the correct customer group price

Thanks to the automatic upgrade function for all modules  (the feature got introduced in version 1.4), there is no need to unistall any module in order to get the new settings. One click is enough, the rest is done by the system itself

All the improvements are of course already included in the new modules, breadcrumb and “all pages”

Link manager improvements

• Improved navigation through the link groups including a breadcrumb trail. This can be very useful in case of deeply nested link groups and/or link groups with identical names
• Auto update of all menus in case a product, category or manufacturer is deleted from the system.
• Auto update of all menus in case a linked internal file does not exist on the server anymore
• Repair actions added to sanitize possible wrong entries in the menus
• Correct SSL status applied to links (SSL/NONSSL)
• A couple internal improvements of technical nature

Page profiles improvements

Beside various internal improvements to the whole page profiles system, there is a new setting that affect all MTS modules: Boxes, front page modules, element modules and the new “all pages” modules

The setting is called “general display” and allow the options “yes” or “no”.

• “yes” mean that the module will display on all pages unless there is an other setting via page profiles. In other words the module display on all pages and you can use page profiles to exclude it
• “no” mean that the module won’t display anywhere unless there is a setting in page profiles. In other words, the module don’t display on any page and you can use page profiles to include it

This is a very useful setting, in case you have modules that you want to display only on a particular page, for example a banner that you want to have on a single product page: You can set the general display to “no” and then, using page profiles, you can enable the banner for the particular page you want

The new version is available to download right away. Upgrade packages have been sent to all mini template system users, as usually free of charge.

What is new in this version:

Dynamic page profiles

Page profiles is a system that let you organize your pages into groups and attach them to profiles. You can create in that way individual layouts for any page, doesn’t matter if it is a product, a category at any level, the front page or a information page.

For each profile you can do individual settings for any of the modules. You can set for example the position for the boxes (left, right, both columns, not at all), their order and even their content (only for mini template system boxes) specifically for each page profile. Same you can do for banners and any other modules.

You can create of course an unlimited number of page profiles and assign to them any page, any product, any category and any manufacturer.

You could put for example all your information pages into one page profile and display on the left column a menu about any other information pages you have. Same you could do with the account pages and display there the same box on the right column and with an other content, say a menu about any other account pages.

You could say that you want products of category “hardware” to display the “new products” box and products of category “software” not to display any boxes. Or you can pick a particular product and make individual settings just for this one

Please check here about how to use page profiles

Automatic module upgrades

Till now, the only way to upgrade a module, say a banner module or a box etc in order to add or change any settings was, to disable it and enable it again. In that way all previous settings got lost

The new system allow to upgrade modules without uninstalling them, the module upgrade by itself, the new settings are available and all old settings are kept. All you have to do is to click once on each of the installed modules.

Many new settings, that have been on a “waiting list” can and will be implemented now in the coming weeks

MailBeez intergration

Since we discovered a very strong demand for powerful email marketing tools, we decided to include a real good one by default: MailBeez.

MailBeez is a modular system for the implementation of fully automated after sale email campaigns that gives you the tools to create fully automated and personalized eCommerce email marketing campaigns, easily administered from within your store’s existing admin area.

The system is completely integrated into the store and all you have to do is, to enable it in your administration panel

Additional module settings

Using the new auto upgrade function right away, we created some nice new settings for already existing modules

• Superfish menus (The fly-out link boxes and the drop down main navigation): You can now set the speed of the animation and the time the menu stays visible on the screen after the mouse moves away
• Template: You can now set the background color of the header content, this is the area covered mostly by a header image, it can be however that you have either some html text in there or a transparent image, so the background color setting can be very handy.
• Template: You can set the horizontal margin for the store logo, additional to the already existing vertical positioning, so you can now place it perfectly to anywhere you want
• Front page banners: Due to popular demand, there is a new setting to set the order the banners appear, to be either fixed (according to the sort order set at the banner manager) or random. This makes perfectly sense for the front page, since it can be that you don’t want your page visitors to see always the first banner of your banner group

Custom Script files

In the same way as it is done already for custom css settings, there are now 2 new files available for each template to be used for any custom scripts you want to use on a specific template.

Any custom scripts will be placed automatically either before the closing </body>  tag or before the closing </head> tag depending on the file you place the script into.

In that way you can add and use any scripts on your website without to modify any of the existing osCommerce or Mini Template System files

Additional to all this, there are several improvements made to almost all areas of mini template system. Thank you all for the valuable feedback

The new version is available to download right away. Upgrade packages have been sent to all mini template system users, as usually free of charge.

The page can be found here and this is how it look like

In case you don’t have it already, you will need to create a google+ profile, that is however very easy to do and wont take you more than a couple of minutes

Mini template system users, please add us to your circles. We created already a special circle for all users of mini template system where we will post all kind of tips, future release plans, stage of development and use it also as a discussion board about anything related to mini template system.

Also available, links to free addos optimized for mini template system, prerelease packages that you can try out as “beta” testers and much more.

Lets meet on Google +

Multi language compatibility improvements: Improved multi language compatibility for banner manager and link manager. There are no issues any more doesn’t matter if an additional language will be installed before or after activating the mini template system modules

Banner manager improvements

• New banner image has priority over existing image. There is no need anymore to empty the “existing image” field manually if you want to upload a new image
• You can now exclude the display of products, categories or manufacturers on the banner edit page for cases with many products. In this case, the radio selection fields are replaced by a input field to enter the product/category or manufacturer id  manually
• The url of an existing banner can be reset. This was a missing feature of the original release

Link manager and menu maker improvements

• Separate menus per language: You have now the ability to create menu’s of different content per language. So you can for example display a particular menu (consisting of links to products, categories or any other links) in English and a completely different one for example in Spanish, depending on the language/country specific preferences of your visitors
• Cross sell menus: You can now create completely customized menus by freely selecting any product, category or manufacturer and of course any internal or external link and adding it to any menu level. Your menus have not to follow your products/categories structure any more.
  This is a very useful feature in case you want to create “cross sell menus” grouping items of different categories into the same menu section.
  If for example, you have a category fruits (lemons, melons, oranges), a category juices (lemon juice, melon juice, orange juice) and a category books (about melons, about lemons, about oranges), the regular display would be to create menu items that follow exactly this structure. What you can do now is, to create a menu item “all about lemons” and list under it the fruit, the juice and the book and any other related links
• You can also exclude the display of products, categories or manufacturers on the link manager page for cases of stores with really many products. In this case, the radio selection fields are replaced by a input field to enter the product/category or manufacturer id  manually
• You can now set a “status” for complete link groups, to easily enable or disable them anytime

Various other changes and improvements, thank you all for your valuable feedback

What is new in this version:

• Maximum fly out levels: The maximum fly out (or drop down) level of the menus can now be set via the module administration. For the link boxes and the main navigation bar, you there are 2 different settings, one for products and categories and an other for regular links and link groups. This is a very useful setting in case a store has a very deep category structure that should not be displayed completely in a fly out menu.
• Smart menu items: In case a menu item link to a category, and that category doesn’t have any subcategories or active products, the link on the menu item becomes inactive automatically. That mean that, even the menu item still exist in the menu, it can not be clicked by the store visitors who would get to a unpleasant “product not found” page
• Various improvements to the parent and active states of menu items. Please note that the state “parent” apply still only to menu items in a categories/products structure. We hope to change this in the near future too.
• Various improvements to the “logic” of the menu creation that will output a correct unordered list even under unusal circumstances.

An email has been sent out to all mini template system users including the upgrade. We would like to thank them all for their valuable feedback. Special thanks for the inspiration to Jorge from ibisstudio who is doing a great job for one of his clients using our system