During the 2021 Miva Town Hall, Miva CEO Rick Wilson and VP of Product Brennan Heyde discussed the exciting features coming to Miva 10.01, MivaCon Digital Day 2021, and other news about what’s next for Miva.
Watch the full Miva Hall Town Hall here:
In this Q&A blog, we’ll answer the questions that we didn’t get to address during the live event and go into more detail about the improvements and enhancements set to launch with the next Miva release.
Miva 10.01: Copy Product
Q: Was the Product Copy module purchased from IDS or was it written from scratch?
A: We built this new feature from scratch. This will allow you to copy far more data than you could with the IDS module.
Q: Are the copied products full copies, or "symlinks" to the same information?
A: They are full copies. The new feature copies everything. It creates a brand new product, and everything is totally unique to the product. The only thing that is actually shared is the inventory variants parts. For example, if you wanted to change the prices on the copied product with variants, you would need to generate variants so new part products are created so the prices are unique to that product.
Miva 10.01: Redis Full-Page Caching
Q: Will there be any conflicts to using both Redis and Cloudflare? Will Redis save bandwidth like Cloudflare does?
A: You will be able to use both. Redis is about server-side performance, while Cloudflare is for the client side. Cloudflare will work with Redis.
Q: I just implemented Redis. Will I need to re-implement?
A: No, you will not need to re-implement Redis. During the upgrade process Miva will automatically transfer any settings from the existing module over to the new built-in version or Redis.
Read full Redis docs here.
Q: If there are any customizations in the page template that are looking for an internal IP, will it be possible to keep those from getting unintentionally cached and served to customers?
A: Yes, there is a template level function you can use to prevent the page from being cached. You will need to go through your code and manually apply this function. Please see the docs here for more information. However, the page will not get the benefit of caching. We would recommend not using IP checks and instead use Miva’s Template Branches to stage new functionality.
Q: Do you have any stats around how Redis caching impacts a site?
A: It will be different for each site depending on a number of factors. However, the biggest impact should come from overall Time to First Byte. Typical TTFB with Redis installed is under 200ms.
Q: How will the Redis caching affect the more dynamic aspects of the MVT scripting and functions?
A: We do not suggest caching something that has dynamic data. For the most part, the Miva platform prevents you from doing so but you may run into trouble if you’re not careful. If you cache a product price for 5 minutes or change a product price, that price can’t be changed until the cache expires. Think through the rules you set up around caching to make sure it suits you and your business needs.
Miva 10.01: Item-Level Sales Tax
Q: Will the tax modules include a service cost?
A: The service costs for these new modules are an additional fee and completely separate from any Miva fees.
Q: For those using TaxJar, how does it integrate with Stone Edge? Should these users stay on the “old” TaxJar module?
A: There is only one TaxJar module. There will be no real difference once you install 10.01 besides having the latest and greatest version.
Q: Avalara and TaxJar are supported in the core software, but are there any plans to add Vertex?
A: We have a number of new technology partnerships in the works. Please reach out to us with any questions!
Q: Does Miva's new Avalara module auto-update the tax when each item is added or removed on an order?
A: The Avalara module still requires users to manually push order changes and refunds back to AvaTax from the Order Detail Screen (please refer to here for more information). It’s likely that this built-in module will get similar changes to TaxJar in the future, where we automate this for customers. However, this is not part of the Miva 10.01 update.
Q: Is it easy to migrate from the "old" non-Miva Avalara module to Miva's upcoming built-in version?
A: Please follow these steps to migrate to the new module from the non-Miva Avalara module.
Miva 10.01: Integrations
Q: Is there any chance there will be a similar integration with Microsoft Dynamics?
A: We’re about to do more research on ERP integrations. Please reach out for more information.
Q: Are there any ShipStation updates or fixes scheduled for Miva 10.01?
A: ShipStation has a new integration API in the works. This will be a JavaScript app instead of a module to Miva. It will support everything that we have out of the box, and it’s an integration we can make updates to easily. This is being actively developed, but it won’t be part of Miva 10.01.
Q: Will there be any updates for Shipworks?
A: Our long-term plan is that the Stamps.com integration will work for all their products, including Shipworks, ShipStation, and ShippingEasy.
Q: What about a Square integration?
A: We have lots of new technology partnerships in the works. Please reach out to us for more information!
General Platform Questions
Q: Anything new for the CLI tooling with the API?
A: There won’t be any updates to the Miva Command Line Tool (MMT) as part of this update.
Q: It’s important to realize that not all businesses have the same holiday season. I’m swamped right now and I really don’t like changes forced on me until at least late July.
A: The new hosting architecture will not be “forced” upon sellers—at least not for the next year or two. We’re not going to require anyone to upgrade for the foreseeable future if they don’t want to. We’ll let you know if we plan to move your site or if there are any changes, but you can assume things will remain the status quo.
Q: Will this update lead to Level III compliance for payment systems like Authorize.net?
A: Level III data is all about sending the item data to the gateway. Historically, we haven’t supported it across most gateways, but we’re always looking at these type of things which can help merchants lower rates in certain cases.
Q: What should users of ReadyThemes do to prepare for the future?
A: 10.01 won’t have a lot of template changes and will mostly include small bug fixes. We will be publishing how-to guides and docs along the way on how to keep up with the latest and greatest version.
Q: Do you have any plans to make customer price groups work with the quote system? If so, what is the timeframe?
A: While we don’t have a timeline currently, we do plan on adding this update in the future. We can tell you though that it’s a high priority.
Q: Is there a reason for moving away from one-page checkouts?
A: If you look at the dominant checkouts in the market, you’ll notice that the entire industry has shifted away from this checkout process. However, you’ll be able to build the checkout experience you want with exposed APIs.
Q: Will it be possible to schedule UI and ReadyThemes components within the scheduling for marketing feature? Can this be done along with scheduling products to be assigned or removed from a price group?
A: Yes, this will likely be tied to Template Branches. If you create a new Template Branch and a custom landing page with lots of components, that branch will be scheduled to push live at a specific time. You can use that scheduling for different areas of the site.
Q: Are there any updates on Page Builder features?
A: Our goal is to have the first iteration of the Page Builder as well as the checkout APIs out later this year.
Q: Do you have an update for Colossus?
A: We’ve spent time behind the scenes changing how we built Shadows, and we’re in the process of doing this with Colossus. It’s on our radar to update this year, which would also tie in the new Page Builder components. Our goal is to have these ship with the core software.
Q: Will there be any updates for Shadows?
A: No, the current version Shadows is the latest and greatest, and will be for as far as we can see. However, with each release of Miva, we include bug fixes and enhancements to Shadows so it’s constantly being improved. Here are the changes to Shadows coming out in 10.01
Q: Are there plans for the Page Builder to work with product descriptions?
A: Not at this time. The Page Builder is not intended to be a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” editor. Its purpose will be to easily create and manage custom content and landing pages like the storefront.
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