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SmithShop Features

Self-hosted ecommerce platform

SmithShop Feature Reference

This editable CMS page is included as a permanent reference for store owners, admins, and demo users. It replaces the old standalone smithshop-features.html page and can be edited, hidden, or deleted from Admin > Pages.

Server And Deployment

  • Runs on Apache or Nginx with PHP-FPM and MariaDB/MySQL.
  • Web root points to /public, with installer cleanup reminders and sample server configs.
  • Shared-host friendly for small shops and ready for VPS/dedicated hosting as catalogs grow.
  • Supports separate private admin-v and public SmithShop/demo installs with separate databases, storage, uploads, and settings.

Storefront And Checkout

  • Catalog, categories, product pages, cart, checkout, customer accounts, order lookup, and digital downloads.
  • Guest checkout stays primary, with optional account creation for order history, downloads, and saved address.
  • Checkout collects name, phone, email, and billing/location address for every order, including digital orders.
  • Terms agreement, reviews, comments, CMS pages, visitor insights, and policy pages can be toggled on or off.

Products And Catalog Scale

  • Physical and digital products, variants, options, product images, galleries, tags, SEO fields, dimensions, and weights.
  • CSV import/export, duplicate SKU checks, bulk price/category/status edits, inventory adjustment, and safe product deletion tools.
  • Indexed and paginated catalog/admin paths tested with large generated catalogs around 10,000 products.
  • Automatic WebP thumbnails, multiple image sizes, lazy loading, cleanup tools, and CDN-ready upload paths.

Payments

  • Stripe, PayPal, and Square have tested checkout flows that create normal orders only after payment succeeds.
  • Authorize.Net can be used through hosted card checkout after credentials are configured.
  • Payment events log gateway starts, failures, captures, refunds, webhook events, and admin payment changes.
  • Customer-safe decline/error messages show in checkout while detailed diagnostics stay in admin logs.

Shipping

  • UPS, USPS, and FedEx carrier credentials can be tested directly from Admin > Shipping.
  • Carrier-returned rates can replace estimated fallback rates at checkout.
  • Expanded UPS, USPS domestic, and FedEx service choices are available through admin toggles.
  • Freightview LTL and WARP Freight are paid add-ons for carts that cross heavy or oversized thresholds.

Admin And Operations

  • Admin dashboard, grouped top navigation, full-width contextual side navigation, content editor, design controls, CMS pages, email templates, and help guides.
  • SMTP/sendmail settings, masked secrets, test email, live email logs, log viewing, and log cleanup.
  • Database backups, file backups, browser updates, clearer rollback/restore tools, update history, update-available badges, and 2-hour emergency restore links.
  • Accounting reports can summarize monthly and yearly taxable products, non-taxable products, discounts, tax collected, shipping charged, refunds, gross totals, and net totals.
  • Update history can be cleared from Admin > Updates after old entries are no longer needed.
  • Production checklist covers HTTPS, installer removal, demo cleanup, payment mode, email delivery, license identity, and writable paths.

Security And Licensing

  • CSRF checks, upload validation, anti-spam throttles, private download storage, configurable admin URL, and no-store headers for dynamic pages.
  • Customer builds use full-feature 30-day trials. After the trial, unlicensed stores keep running but are limited to 10 active sellable products until a valid key is activated.
  • Private license creation and issued-key management stay only on the SmithShop authority/admin copy.
  • Release safety scanning blocks secrets, .env files, storage, uploads, private marker files, database dumps, raw keys, and private license-authority tools from customer release zips.

Add-ons

  • Add-ons area supports priced modules such as Freightview LTL, WARP Freight, ShipStation, Google Tools Suite, social product feeds, Advanced Importer, accounting export, and wholesale pricing.
  • Advanced Importer is a paid $24.95 add-on for importing products, downloaded images, variants, options, option images, customer accounts, and historical order records from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, CS-Cart, Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop, Squarespace, Ecwid, Volusion, Square Online, or universal CSV exports.
  • Google Tools Suite has a dedicated admin page for Merchant Center product feed, Google Ads, GA4 Analytics, Tag Manager, Search Console verification, visitor stats, and conversion totals.
  • ShipStation has a dedicated admin page for connection settings and the future label-printing workflow.
  • Paid add-ons show Buy Now links to matching SmithShopCommerce product pages and remain locked until purchased/licensed, keeping configuration fields hidden from customer builds until the module is active.
  • Enabled add-ons also appear in the closest admin category menu so freight, shipping, commerce, and accounting tools are easier to find.
  • SmithShop can receive tested add-ons later through the browser updater from smithshopcommerce.com.

Customer Download Copy

  • The current public installation zip is approximately 4.2 MB; exact package size may vary slightly by release.
  • Production checks now handle long environment values and SmithShop API routes more cleanly so review messages stay readable.
  • Admin Help includes an Installing SmithShop guide, with a plain INSTALLATION.md reference included in release packages.
  • Optional flat SEO URLs can expose products and CMS pages at clean one-segment paths such as /product-slug or /smithshop-features.
  • Public product, category, and CMS pages include a compact breadcrumb trail between the header and page content for clearer navigation.

Owner Notes

  • Before updating, back up the database, .env, public/uploads, and storage/downloads.
  • After uploading or installing a release, run Admin > Production > Run database update.
  • If a browser update breaks admin access, use the 2-hour emergency restore link from the update email to restore files only or files plus the matching database backup.
  • Before going live, remove the installer, remove demo admin access, test checkout, and replace starter policies with your own terms.