[rtd]

Hi,

We are sponsoring an event this week where we are donating 50 gift certificates/coupons into gift bags. In our old system, we used to manage this by creating 50 unique coupons in the system (sequentially numbered) so that a coupon can only be used once ever. (we had to do this via a sql add record query, btw)

This minimizes our exposure from people posting our coupon codes (offering free product) on the internet.

Our coupon codes would be setup like: XYZ10700, XYZ10701, XYZ10702, etc.

Is there a way to setup a coupon that has a wildcard value in like XYZ107?? (assigning 100 valid coupon codes essentially), or some other method of setting up a series XYZ10700 - XYZ10750 that all have the same value and rule set?

We do know the following:

• We can manually setup 50 different discounts and assign 50 different coupons (but that seems overkill, and would be very tedious to setup all those manually)[/*]
  
• We can setup one discount, assign one coupon code and limit the number of uses to 50. This still allows a person who received a gift certificate/coupon to post that number publicly to be used by people who did not attend the event[/*]

Any ideas on how we could do the above? Thanks!

[Aleksey]

Hi, rtd!

The coupon series feature is not supported, unfortunately. I added it to the roadmap. At the moment you can use any of the approaches you proposed. You can create 50 discounts programmatically, with a SQL query. Basically, you first need to create a single discount and look how it is looks in the database (shop_cart_rules table). Then create a script which will be populating the table with similar records referring to different coupons.

The coupon series is a good idea. We will add it to the system for sure.

Thank you

[rtd]

ok. thanks Aleksey.

[rtd]

One other suggestion we'd like to add. it would be nice to have a couple different views of the items in the discounts area as well as a search function. Over time, we will add in many discounts, and coupons for special/promotions going on throughout the year. In our last system, we had hundreds of them over the course of a couple years.

We already have 5 discounts setup (some with coupons, some without) and it already fills up the screen horizontally.

May we suggest a few options:
1. table view of all the discounts
2. possibly filtered view - discounts with coupons, and those without
3. a search/filter function like LS has in other portions of the site.

If we put the above 50 coupons, in the system or as the number of coupons/discounts increase over time, it will be a little difficult to navigate the discounts page in its current form.

Thanks for considering the above.

[rtd]

Hi Aleskey,

So we tried your recommendation of setting up a discount with coupon the way we wanted to, pulling the information out of the table identified above, then trying to add multiple additional coupons with a sql query and it did not work.

It seems as though there are at least one or two other adjoining tables that go along with creating a discount with a coupon. We identified one, which was shop_coupons, but we can't seem to isolate where the discount rule "conditions" are stored. They don't seem to be stored in the shop_cart_rules table. It appears the actions are stored in this table, but not the conditions.

Can you point us in the right direction?

[Aleksey]

Hi!

Thank you for suggestions. I posted them to our internal list.

Conditions are stored in another table - shop_price_rule_conditions. Each discount action should have at least 2 records in this table - one corresponds the Conditions tab and another corresponds the Product Filter section on the Action tab. Conditions have a field (rule_host_id) which refers to the discount action record. The rule_parent_id field is needed for maintaining the condition hierarchy.

I hope this helps

Thank you

[rtd]

Thanks Aleskey. We'll take a closer look and see if we can work through the table relationships.

[reganshepherd]

Hi,

Has anyone got any further with this?
I need to create 300 sequential coupon codes and I'm about to start digging through the database.

[rtd]

Hey regan - We wound up creating the coupons manually due to time constraints and because our dba was not available to look into the table relationships in time.

This post has been edited by rtd: 22 November 2010 - 06:38 AM

[reganshepherd]

Hey rtd,

Thanks for your reply.
I think I'll try find a script to duplicate all of the coupons through mysql.
So I'll end up making 300 shop_coupons and 300 shop_cart_rules.
It shouldn't take too long.

Let you know how I go…

[reganshepherd]

Hi Alesky,

I want to implement the sequential coupons feature.

Is it best to develop a module to achieve this?

Could you run me through the steps to do this?

[Aleksey]

Hi!

I think that I can implement the wildcard solution within a few days. You will be able to create coupons like this: XYZ107**, and this will correspond to values XYZ10700, XYZ107AA, XYZ107Z8... Is it OK for you?

Thank you

[rtd]

Hi Aleskey,

Wanted to chime in here to include our feedback about the above. If you're saying that you can set a beginning sequence number, specify the number of coupons to generate, and LS generates them sequentially, that would definitely satisfy our needs.

XYZ10700 (start), 300 (number of coupons) -> LS generates XYZ10700, XYZ10701, XYZ10703....up to XYZ10999

If the last two wild card values are totally random, that would be good and helpful for generating mass coupons, but we might have problems with having unique coupons printed through our printer. It is our understanding they only support sequential numbering.

Oh, may we offer one other quickie suggestion for coupons/discounts? A Copy/Duplicate coupon function would be very helpful to quickly generate new coupons with the same configuration as another.

Thanks again Aleksey!

This post has been edited by rtd: 02 December 2010 - 03:34 PM

[Aleksey]

Hi, rtd!

Your solution is more complicated than I was hoping. Unfortunately, I cannot implement it right away and you will need to wait until we reach this task in our roadmap. But I analyzed the discount engine code and realized that there could be implemented a custom approach. So, if you are interested, you can develop your own coupon series feature.

When you are ready, I will add a new event to the discount engine - shop:onIsCouponApplicable. In the event handler you can check whether a coupon specified by a customer is applicable for a specific discount action. The handler will have the following parameters: the discount action object, the entered coupon value, the coupon code specified in the action. Basing on this information you can decide whether you should allow the entered coupon code.

You will need to implement a custom module, which will be handling this event. Also, there should be code for generating coupon series (it should create real coupon records in the database). You can develop a custom user interface for it, or just a set of functions, which you can call from a hidden page, when you need to generate new coupons.

When you define a new cart rule, you will be selecting a first coupon in the series, in the coupon drop-down list. Then, in the event handler you will only need to check which coupon is specified in the rule, which series it belongs to, and whether the coupon entered by the customer belongs to the same series. And if it belongs, return true.

Let me know when you are ready and I will add the new event to the system.

Thank you

[rtd]

Makes sense Aleksey. When we're ready for it we'll contact you offline and work out the details.

As for your original proposal

Quote

I think that I can implement the wildcard solution within a few days. You will be able to create coupons like this: XYZ107**, and this will correspond to values XYZ10700, XYZ107AA, XYZ107Z8... Is it OK for you?

While it might not be the perfect solution for us, it just might be for reganshepherd. Lets see how they respond to your proposal.

[yourLUME]

Hi,

I was wondering how this task was coming. We are looking to do a Groupon or Social Living promotion and will need a way to import the Groupon codes that are provided by a generated CSV upon completing the promotion. Updates would be great?

Best,

Andrew
yourLUME

[rtd]

Hi yourLUME,

We found a way to support this kind of functionality indirectly. Contact Phil and ask him about the Coupon Module he developed for us.

Although it doesn't have an official "import" function like what you need for the Groupon/Living Social, I have no doubt it would be easy enough to either 1) add bulk coupons to the coupon table, or 2) slightly modify the coupon module to support that.

We could use that as well, so maybe Phil will put that together for us. Will let him know about this post too

[Phil]

Hi yourLUME,

I would be available should you need me to build you something related to coupons and mass-generation of codes. PM me directly for more info.

Cheers!

Phil