Address Validation

• USPS address validation error handling has been improved.
• The new error, controlled by prompt RATEX.PostalCodeLookupService.RBS.CustomError, specifically says that the address failed USPS validation.
• For more information on USPS Address Verification, please see our manual page here.
• Validation which checks for PO Boxes was improved.
• This prevents an issue where some addresses were incorrectly flagged as containing a PO Box when they actually did not. Prior to this change, Configuration DisallowShippingToPOBoxes could prevent valid addresses from being entered by the shopper.

Booklist

• The Booklist has been redesigned for improved user experience.
• These changes are targeted at providing a cleaner interface, making it easier to gauge how far one is in the book selection process, and simplifying the progression towards checkout.
• During this update a longstanding issue was identified around Course Requirement Choices. Please see the manual page here for information about the issue, under heading Known Issues and Workarounds - Course Requirement Choices. A fix for this issue will be coming in a future release of eRatex. 
• Improved HTML support in short descriptions displayed on the Booklist page.
• Prior to this change, it was not possible to include multiple HTML tags in a short description.
• Configuration RATEX.Booklist.MaximumDescriptionLength is used to adjust the size of the short descriptions. 
• For more information on configuring the Booklist, please see here.

Email Notifications

• An optional new Product Rating email notification can be sent when a shopper rates and reviews a product.
• Action Required: In order for the new email to be sent, Configuration Email.ProductRatingAdminNotification.SendTo must have a valid email address.
• New Configuration Email.ProductRatingAdminNotificationTemplate sets the Topic used to populate the new email. Topic Email.Templates.ProductRatingAdminNotificationTemplate is used by default.
• Details on this new optional notification have been added to the Managing Ratings manual page, here.

Performance and Maintenance

• Configuration ClientResources.Script.DeferredRenderingEnabled, which adjusts the rendering of scripts to improve site performance, now works properly in conjunction with the Pre-Order Course Selection page (/preordercourselist.aspx).

• Action Suggested: By default, ClientResources.Script.DeferredRenderingEnabled is false. Enabling this configuration improves the performance of your site, but may conflict with some site customizations. If choosing to toggle this setting to true, please make sure to verify that your site still functions as you would expect.

• Improved performance of the Dynamic Related Products feature. 
• Dynamic Related Products are also now sorted randomly, instead of using a fixed order.
• Now preventing an issue where invalid Unicode text could be sent to VR through Order Notes.
• Fixed an issue where the mini-cart would sometimes not show on pages after items were added to the cart.
• Newly created Gift Cards now no longer expire.
• Gift Cards receive an expiration date of 300 years in the future after purchase.

Promotions

• Group Promotions are now available.
• Group Promotions allow shoppers to add themselves to privileged customer levels in order to receive discounts and special offers. 
• The basic flow is:
• Please see the Group Promotions manual page here for more details.

Improvements to Guided Navigation Add-on

• VR Section and Entity imports are now able to automatically prepare a site for Guided Navigation browsing, including support for color and size attributes.
• Action Required: To take advantage of the helpful Guided Navigation (now with automated data mapping) following the release of eRatex 1.19, you will need a VR patch to be installed. Please reach out to support at PrismRBS for help.
• For information on Guided Navigation, please see the manual page here.

• Guided Navigation is available as a subscription-based add-on. Please contact PrismRBS for more information.