I was pleased today to learn that the e-commerce module set has been released for Drupal 4.7.

Naturally many of us have been waiting patiently for this release. We are extremely grateful for the many Drupallers who have put in their own time to get the new version to the release stage. Evidently there are still a few issues to iron out.

I am anticipating utilising the modules soon in one or two projects on my drawing board.

In the future I would like to be more involved on the work that goes on producing such Drupal Enhancements but to date that has not been practicable for me. I am pleased to be able to begin promoting Drupal in Australia and consider that task to be one of the small ways I give something back to the community.

The Drupal community is an outstanding example of how the internet enables co-creation on a scale hithertho unknown on this planet and perhaps any other. It is exciting to be part of this venture.

Here is the text of the e-commerce 4.7 release announcement as it appeared at drupal.org on 7 June 2006 AEST:

We're proud to announce the release of a E-Commerce 4.7, which contains a large collection of new features and improvements. The E-Commerce project is a Drupal project containing over 30 modules, and 5 developer APIs.

We've been working hard to release the 4.7 version of E-Commerce. For example, the number of code changes per month is up from 45 in 2005 to 120 in 2006.

We hope you like the improvements, because there are plenty more on the way for E-Commerce 4.8.

New Features Added

• Full HTML email notifications
• Improved transformation of content like audio, images and other files into their own products
• Shipping from multiple distribution centers via Fedex, UPS and USPS
• Develop your own address book, or integrate with CiviCRM
• More robust transaction auditing
• New documentation at the E-Commerce handbook
• New payment gateways
• 4.7 E-Commerce modules now automatically install their own tables
• Support for PostgreSQL installations

Usability Improvements

• A more robust and streamlined checkout system
• Improve transaction search page that is easier to use and more flexible
• Store settings are better organised and easier to find

Developers

There has been a general strengthening of the E-Commerce APIs with a couple of new ones around the corner.

• The shipping API has been improved by Goodstorm and Bioneers and now facilitates additional shipping modules.
• The pricing API has been streamlined and is now better-integrated into the cart. This has improved the ease of writing price-adjustment modules.
• The documentation in CVS has been cleaned up, new documentation is begin written for each of the E-Commerce APIs, and new documentation is on the way to help developers write their own modules.
• E-Commerce has multiple maintainers, lead by Gordon Heydon, to help you keep your SQL and code tight and your documentation up to date and user-friendly.
• There is increased networking among E-Commerce developers, utilising a mailing-list, an E-Commerce group and IRC (#drupal-ecommerce).
• Some additional unofficial tricks such as sending PDF invoices.