Software Development:
Individual Programming

Goal

It was planned to extend the existing medienrettung.de website by a fully automatic promotion price system. The idea was to be able to schedule separate promotions for each main and secondary service. Promotions start and end automatically based on the scheduled data. One condition was the ability to schedule an unlimited number of promotions ahead of time. Expired promotions were supposed to be shown in a history feature to be able to see what price applied at the time of purchase. During promotion periods, prices of the relevant services were supposed to be highlighted as promotional prices, automatically and wherever they appeared on the website. The ordering system was supposed to show customers the expected total price of the service depending on the promotion price, quantity scale and additional options.

In addition, a shipping charge exemption threshold was to be set up for all services, that is not only attributed to the standard price, but can also be set separately for any new promotion.

Screenshot: Price administration system medienrettung.de, create a new special offer

Implementation

Many overlapping, complementary or independent services with various different quantity scales of main and secondary services needed to be managed. It was necessary to take into account an unlimited number of promotions in the past, present and future. In addition to that, the medienrettung.de website uses multiple currencies and is capable of distinguishing between net and gross customers.

programmed a promotion system for the existing website based on PHP and the Smarty template engine. New tables were inserted into the MySQL database and an administration page was set up on which the website operator can select a service entered into the MySQL database. Initially, the website operator sees the standard price for the respective service and the current price (if a promotion is in progress) as well as the expiration date of an ongoing promotion. A table on the price management page shows all past, present and future promotions ordered by date. These promotions can be edited or deleted. It is also possible to add future promotions. The promotion period can be selected quickly and easily using popup calendars.

The data entry mask contains comprehensive plausibility tests for creating, editing and deleting promotions. It is also tested whether the promotion period overlaps with a previously scheduled or ongoing promotion. Gross prices are converted into net prices in real time. The price entry fields only permit correct decimal entries. All price management features possess multi-currency capability, i.e. entering a price in Swiss Francs will cause an automatic conversion into Euros in the price system. It is impossible to create implausible promotions.

In addition, a function was programmed to control the shipping charge exemption threshold in dependence upon promotions. If an order in the ordering system exceeds the shipping charge exemption threshold, the ordering system shows that the order will be shipped free of charge, taking into account competing shipping charge exemption thresholds for different parts of the order.

Screenshot: Price administration system medienrettung.de, history

Work Hours & Price

The promotion price system was added to an existing dynamic website within ca. 22 hours. The total costs were approximately 1,200.00 US$ without VAT

Client¹

medienrettung.de
Thomas Böttcher
Allee der Kosmonauten 32b
D-12681 Berlin

www.medienrettung.de 

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