Installation

Requirements

• CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.17.2 – 4.21.x (tested on CS-Cart 4.17.2, Multi-Vendor 4.17.2 and Multi-Vendor 4.21.2 with PHP 8.3).
• PHP 7.4 – 8.3, as supported by your CS-Cart version.
• A storefront theme based on Responsive (Responsive, Bright theme, or a child theme such as Nova, the 4.21 default).
• Working outgoing e-mail (Settings → E-mails). Alerts are sent with the store mailer.
• Recommended: a cron job (see Configuration).

Install from the package

1. Open Add-ons → Manage add-ons in the admin panel.
2. Click the gear icon → Manual installation and upload kv_price_stock_alerts-1.0.0.zip.
3. Find Price Drop & Back-in-Stock Alerts in the list. The add-on is installed and set to Active.
4. Open the add-on settings, check the General and Privacy tabs, and copy the cron command from the Sending tab.
5. On the License tab of the settings, enter your license key and save. If you bought the add-on on the CS-Cart Marketplace and entered the license number in Add-ons → Manage add-ons, you can skip this step. Until a key is verified, the add-on works for 14 days (see License).

Installation creates:

• the tables cscart_kv_psa_subscriptions and cscart_kv_psa_queue;
• four e-mail templates in Design → E-mail templates (Price drop, Back in stock, Low stock, Confirmation), listed under the add-on;
• a random cron access key;
• the menu item Products → Stock & price alerts.

The package mirrors the store root:

app/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts/
design/backend/templates/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts/
design/backend/css/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts/
var/themes_repository/responsive/templates/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts/
var/themes_repository/responsive/css/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts/
var/langs/en/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts.po
js/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts/func.js

On install, CS-Cart copies the storefront templates and styles into design/themes/<theme>/ for every installed theme. Child themes without their own copy fall back to responsive.

Custom themes not based on Responsive

If your theme does not inherit from Responsive, copy these folders into the theme after installation:

var/themes_repository/responsive/templates/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts → design/themes/<theme>/templates/addons/
var/themes_repository/responsive/css/addons/kv_price_stock_alerts       → design/themes/<theme>/css/addons/

The widget is placed through the products:product_detail_bottom template hook. Make sure your product template calls it. Then clear the cache in Administration → Storage → Clear cache.

Existing core subscriptions

If shoppers already used the core Notify me when back in stock form, open Products → Stock & price alerts and use the gear menu:

• Copy core “Notify me” subscriptions creates back-in-stock alerts for them and leaves the core list as it is.
• Move core “Notify me” subscriptions does the same and removes them from the core list, so nobody gets two e-mails.

Upgrading

1. In Add-ons → Manage add-ons, upload the new package with Manual installation.
2. CS-Cart sees that the add-on is already installed and offers two ways:
   • Use the dangerous way (tick I know the risks… first) replaces the add-on files and keeps all add-on data. Choose this one. Despite its name, it is the normal way to upgrade this add-on.
   • Use the safe way uninstalls the add-on first. That deletes the settings, all subscriptions and the alert queue, then installs the new version from scratch.
3. Open any page of the admin panel. On that first page view the add-on completes the upgrade by itself. It adds any new database tables and columns, new settings (with their default values), new language variables and e-mail templates. It also updates the version shown in Add-ons → Manage add-ons. Existing data and setting values are kept.

When files are uploaded over an installed add-on, CS-Cart resets the add-on’s language variables to the texts in the package. If you edited them in Administration → Languages → Translations, apply your edits again.

If you bought the add-on on the CS-Cart Marketplace, you can also upgrade it in Administration → Upgrade center. Steps 2 and 3 then happen automatically. The Upgrade center closes the storefront while it works. Reopen the storefront afterwards; the e-mail the Upgrade center sends links to the right page.

Upgrading to 1.1.0: this version adds the license check. After the upgrade the add-on keeps working for 14 days; enter your license key on the License tab of the settings within that time.

See the CHANGELOG for what changed in each version.

Uninstalling

Add-ons → Manage add-ons → Price Drop & Back-in-Stock Alerts → Uninstall removes:

• both tables (all subscriptions and the queue);
• the settings, language variables and e-mail templates;
• the add-on’s runtime keys in cscart_storage_data (last run, scan position, Telegram offset, error log).

The core product_subscriptions table is never changed by uninstalling.