Blog posts of '2016' 'August'

nopCommerce is driven by Microsoft SQL database and every single scrap of information is stored in that SQL database. Information like products, orders, customers, plugins, blog posts, comments, product reviews, pages etc; everything is stored in that SQL database.

Sometimes you may need a quick fix for a specific problem or need to change some information (or data) across the board in nopCommerce. When you are dealing with a ton of information (or data), it is not feasible to go through each and every record because it can be a very tedious process. By running a few SQL queries against your nopCommerce database, you can easily make necessary changes without any kind of manual effort.

In this article, we will go over 3 time-saving nopCommerce SQL query snippets.

A widget is an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays information which can be changed by the user or store admin. nopCommerce has several built-in widget plugins such as Google Analytics and Nivo Slider etc. When adding a widget to the public store, site administrator needs to define (or select) a widget zone. Now, you must be wondering, what is a widget zone? A widget zone is part of the UI (user-interface) in the public store where the widget can be displayed or rendered. For example, you can place Live Person chat widget on the left column or on the right column widget zone. Widget zones are basically the pre-defined locations in nopCommerce public site that makes it easier for the store admin to display any information.
Learn how to create a custom widget from scratch.

In the first part of this series, Beginner's Guide to nopCommerce Plugin Development, we learned the basics of nopCommerce plugin including how to develop a sample test plugin. The main aim of this series is to create a definitive guide so that you have a single point of reference for properly developing your custom plugins.

To continue with the series, today we will go over some advanced features and functionality that any developer can accomplish by nopCommerce plugin.

These are the topics that will be covered in this article:

- How to add a menu item from your custom plugin into the administration section 

- How to override a default view from your customer plugin

- How to add JS and CSS references in your custom plugin