DPD Update: Localized Checkout, CSV Customer Export, Address Collection, Admin Updates, and More

  • Jason@DPD
  • January 21, 2010
  • No Comments

We’ve just published and update to DPD that incorporates the following new features, changes, and bug fixes as well as lays the groundwork for a couple major features coming soon. Please read on to learn whats new and coming up with DPD:

Localized Checkout

We’ve been running a beta of the localized checkout system with several vendors for the past few weeks and it’s now available to all. DPD Vendors can now select a default language for the shopping cart and/or instant checkout experience as well as the PayPal checkout process locale. Buyers will always have the option to override the displayed language if it is not in their native tongue.

All alternate languages have been professionally translated by a trusted 3rd party translation company.

This will allow vendors to create products and stores targeted at different countries and markets- For example, a US vendor can create a product or store targeted at the French market with the cart + all PayPal pages being presented in French, etc.

This is a storefront level setting for storefront products and a product level setting for instant checkout products.

Available languages include:

  • English (default)
  • French
  • German
  • International Spanish
  • Italian

If you would like to see DPD in another language please make a request via support ticket. We’ll be adding more languages regularly based on your requests.

Address Collection

DPD vendors can now choose to collect an address for PayPal transactions. This is useful if you offer a download + physical delivery product. The address is stored and displayed both within PayPal and with the DPD transaction record inside DPD. This is our first step toward full physical product support that is in development.

This is a storefront level setting for storefront products and a product level setting for instant checkout products.


The available options for address collection include:

  • Do Not Collect Address (Default – all current products are set to this value)
  • Address is Optional
  • Address Required

CSV Customer Export

Vendors can now export customers from the Customer Center to a CSV compatible file for import in to other programs and services such as mailing list managers, accounting programs, and support systems.

We’ll be adding the export feature to the transaction look-up tool- Coming Soon™.

Admin Updates and Tweaks

New File Uploader

A few weeks ago we switched to a new java based file uploader that can handle files up to 2GB in size. The new java based uploader is much more reliable and causes less issues than the old flash based uploader did for many people.

Better Download Limit Control

We’ve changed the download limit from a simple “Check here to limit to 2 attempts” to a drop-down with multiple options. Vendors can now give buyers more attempts to download the product before the download URL is disabled. As always, you can disable the download attempt limit and rely on only the download time limit function or vice-versa.

Free Download URL Display to the Vendor

When you send a free delivery of a product DPD will now also display the customer’s free download URL to the Vendor. In some instances the recipient failed to get the email from DPD’s servers due to their mail server settings or spam controls- now vendors can send the URL directly with their own personal message.

Minor Fixes and Tweaks

  • Various text edts / typo corrections
  • New sales site pages describing new features
  • Fixed a couple buttons that were not displaying correctly
  • Minor performance related back end changes
  • Minor adjustment to s3 file delivery and caching for better performance

Groundwork for New Features

Google Checkout

In this update we made some “under the hood” changes to DPD code to prepare for adding Google Checkout as a payment processor. DPD is currently working toward Google Checkout certification as an advanced hosted shopping cart provider. Google Checkout is a great alternative to PayPal for US and UK vendors and we think you’ll like it a lot.

This feature is Coming Soon™.

PayPal Donation Support

We’re adding support for PayPal Donations with automatic product delivery. This will allow you to give a thank you gift to donors after they pay any amount or a set minimum. DPD will support “choose your own donation amount” as well as fixed amount donation buttons.

This feature is Coming Soon™.

Merry Christmas from DPD!

  • Jason@DPD
  • December 24, 2009
  • No Comments

We want to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This year has been great for DPD with hundreds of new vendors- we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you. Thanks!

Due to the Christmas holiday we’ll have limited support staff on duty December 24-26. Please forgive us if non-critical service issues and general questions take longer to get answered during this holiday period- as I’m sure you will all understand we want our developers to have an opportunity to spend time with their families too.

We will have a developer on call throughout the holiday to monitor the DPD system and help vendors with critical issues, so we’ll make sure the buy buttons keep sending you money throughout the holiday 🙂

Once again, thank you all and Merry Christmas!

DPD System Update- Login Bug Fixed

  • Jason@DPD
  • December 23, 2009
  • 1 Comment

At approximately 4:30AM EST we needed to apply a security and system update to the DPD servers. When we must install critical updates to server software that has the possibility to disrupt services for vendors we always try to do it at our lowest traffic periods in the middle of the night to minimize the impact on users.

While this update was being installed a few users experienced difficulty logging in to their DPD accounts. We’re sorry about the inconvenience and full account access has been restored to all vendors.

Thank you for your understanding, and if there is anything we can do please don’t hesitate to submit a support ticket after logging in for priority support.

New Feature: Multilingual DPD Cart

  • Jason@DPD
  • November 22, 2009
  • No Comments

We’ve had numerous requests to make the cart and delivery pages of DPD multilingual to facilitate selling in non-English speaking countries.

Today we’ve published our first update to address multilingual checkout. Visitors to the storefront cart on your web page will now be presented with a language dropdown in the top right corner to change to their native language. The current language choices are English (default), Spanish, and French. This will change the cart language, currency display format, and delivery page language.

We’re not done though- we plan to add the following features to the multi-language checkout over the coming weeks:

  • Additional Languages – German and Portuguese
  • Vendor selectable default language- Right now the default is English, but soon vendors will be able to set their own default from the list of available languages.
  • Instant Product delivery page language selection
  • A few miscellaneous messages that are not currently translated
  • Error pages that are not currently translated

If there is a language you would like to see DPD in that is not currently supported or planned please tell us about it- we’ll be adding languages based on your requests. This is by no means a complete feature and we plan to improve it over the coming weeks.

Cart view in international Spanish
Cart view in international Spanish

DPD Has Gone Green

  • Jason@DPD
  • November 20, 2009
  • No Comments

Its no secret- here at DPD we love being able to breathe. That’s why we’ve partnered with CO2Stats to to offset our emissions with EPA-Certified, audited renewable energy. Digital delivery is already the most ecologically conscious delivery option on the planet- no trees get chopped down, no gasoline is burned in delivery trucks, and no fuel is consumed keeping inventory climate controlled.

We’ve taken it one step further by offsetting our CO2 emissions with clean renewable power.

CO2Stats calculates the combined electricity used by computers visiting this site, the servers providing it, and the networks that connect them. CO2Stats then helps to make this site more energy efficient (and load faster), and purchases renewable energy to neutralize the carbon emissions due to generation of that electricity.

CO2 Stats calculates the CO2 footprint of the DPD servers, vendors using the service- even the buyers who purchase products! We then offset these emissions with EPA-endorsed green energy certificates, effectively powering the site with renewable energy from wind and solar farms.

so its not very exciting yet, but we just turned it on. be patient!
so its not very exciting yet, but we just turned it on. be patient!

You can always check out the current consumption and offset by clicking the Green Certified logo in the bottom right of every page. Now everyone can help offset carbon emissions by using DPD.

Interface Updates- Everything in One Place!

  • Jason@DPD
  • November 19, 2009
  • 1 Comment

Several months ago we added the DPD Storefront system- our own twist on multi-item checkout. DPD Storefronts allow any DPD account to have an unlimited number of customized shopping carts, allowing you to use one DPD subscription to sell on many sites all with their own customizations.

However, this new Storefront system was not compatible with the legacy Standalone “Buy Now!” single product purchase buttons. This lead to being two separate product creation flows, two seperate product lists (Storefront and Standalone), and a lot of duplication. We always kinda hated that- it’s pretty confusing to new users. To correct it we’ve released a minor update to DPD that unifies the product lists and product creation process.

When DPD vendors log in to the Dashboard they’ll see a new set of options down the side- one “Create New Product” link and one “View Products” link:

the new, simpler dashboard sidebar
the new, simpler dashboard sidebar

The new Create Product page will now explain the two types of products and ask you which type of product you’d like to create:

creating a new product gives you a choice now
creating a new product gives you a choice now

And the new Product List page will show both your Storefront Products and your Instant Checkout Products:

...and all your products are in one place
...and all your products are in one place

You may have noticed from the screenshots that we’ve changed “Standalone Products” to “Instant Checkout Products” throughout. You see, developers see things differently from most people- we tend to name things by how they function or how they interface with the rest of what we’re doing, not what would make sense to a laymen or non-developer. I’m going to admit that calling instant “buy now!” products “Standalone” was probably one of those bonehead developer moves. Our bad.

Well, on the bright side we corrected it! Now Standalone Products are called Instant Checkout Products, i.e. “No cart- go straight to checkout with one item.” Hopefully this will make more sense to everyone.

DPD is Moving Product Storage to S3

  • Jason@DPD
  • October 30, 2009
  • No Comments

In order to provide expanded product storage space to DPD as well as provide for faster, more reliable downloads for vendors we’re in the process of moving product storage to Amazon S3, a distributed content delivery network.

Amazon “Simple Storage Service” (S3) is a highly scalable, reliable, fast data storage and content delivery network that uses the same infrastructure Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites.

What does this mean for DPD Vendors?

  • More reliability. Using a unqiue caching strategy DPD will maintain and sync local and S3 copies of files to prevent any network or hardware related issues. This will also reduce load on the DPD server, providing better service to DPD users.
  • More download speed. Instead of customers competing for bandwidth on the DPD servers when there is high demand, now every customer will download at the full speed of their internet connection from S3- even when there are hundreds or even thousands of other customers downloading at the same time.
  • DPD will still continue maintain backups of all products. We’ve got dedicated backup servers that maintain copies of all products in our system.
  • There will be no additional cost. S3 product storage and all the benefits that come with it are included on every DPD plan with no additional costs.
  • And most importantly, DPD vendors will not need to do anything differently when creating or selling products. Nothing changes for you except for more reliability and a better experience for your buyers!

We’re in the process of migrating batches of products to the S3 based delivery system by consumer demand and popularity. Over the next couple weeks we’ll continue to migrate all products over in a planned, staged roll-out and everyone will benefit from the enhanced reliability and speed of this new feature.

As always, if anyone has any questions or support issues the DPD developers are available to help- log in to DPD and submit a support ticket for 1-on-1 assistance.

Tutorial: Setting up a Single Product Sales Site with a PayPal Standalone Product

  • Jason@DPD
  • October 16, 2009
  • No Comments

Some vendors prefer have a single product website with a simple “Buy Now!” instant checkout button. DPD allows for the creation of Standalone Products to suit this need. Standalone products are commonly found on “Pinch Pages” and for products that use affiliate systems such as ClickBank.

DPD Standalone Products:

  • Function exactly like PayPal “Buy Now!” buttons for the customer- instant checkout without a cart
  • Automatically deliver the customers product after purchase
  • Allow for integration with PayPal and 2CheckOut processors
  • Allow for integration with ClickBank and PayDotCom affiliate systems
  • Do not have coupon codes or multi-item checkout

For multi-item websites we strongly recommend you create Storefront Products for use with the DPD Storefront multi-item cart checkout system.

Important Note:

DPD Standalone Product buttons completely replace all other checkout buttons on the page. You must not have standard PayPal or ClickBank generated buy buttons on the page. If a customer begins checkout through a non-DPD button DPD will be unable to deliver the product!

Setting up a PayPal Standalone Product with DPD:

1. Log in to DPD

If you do not have a DPD account you need to create one. DPD plans >>

2. From the Dashboard, Go to the Products menu in the top blue bar and select “Products List” under Standalone Products.

Select Standalone products list highlighted with the red arrow.
Select Standalone products list highlighted with the red arrow.

3. On the Standalone Products page, click the “New Standalone Product” button in the top right corner.

4. On the New Standalone Product page, enter your product name and click Next.

Note: The product name will be shown to the customer during checkout. Use the product name you want your customers to see when they buy your product.

Name your new product
Name your new product

5. On the Product Setup page, enter your processor options. When you’re done, click next to proceed to upload.

Payment Processor: Select PayPal

PayPal Email: Your PayPal Business account email address.

Product Price: The amount you want to charge for your product. You can also select your currency of choice.

PayPal Product ID: This is your product’s SKU or item number that you make up. It can be anything you want. This causes a lot of confusion for some vendors for some reason, but its very easy- It’s just a part number that you make up for your product. For my example product “My Sexy Product” I might pick “MSP-001” or whatever.

PayPal Locale: DPD is a globalized service and allows you to localize your store to a specific country. For example, if I am in the US with a US PayPal account, but have a product targeted at the UK market, I can set my PayPal Locale to UK. This will make the PayPal checkout appear to be a UK checkout page. Most sellers will leave this “default” to use their home country.

PayPal product setup example options
PayPal product setup example options

6. On the Product Upload page, click the […] button, select your product file on your computer, and then click the Upload button. Once your upload completes, click Next.

7. On the Product Options page, select your product options and click next to complete product setup and get your button code.

There are only two required fields on the product options page: Vendor Name and Vendor Email. Since DPD does not provide customer support for your product, these fields are required and displayed on the customer’s download page. This is so they can contact you with questions about your product.

All other settings are optional. All settings include a description of what they do with their respective option.

8. Get your button code to insert on your sales page

Text Link: At the top of the page a simple text link is provided for use in emails, on forums and other social media sites, etc.

Buy Button Generator: To generate your button code click on the button design you would like to use. Once you have clicked on a button DPD will automatically generate your button code in the box below the example buttons.

Click on the button you want to use to generate your button code
Click on the button you want to use to generate your button code

Copy and paste this button code to your web page where you want the button to appear. You can change the button image by changing the image “src” URL to your own button graphic (hosted on your own website) if you prefer. Do not change the DPD buy URL in the a tag.

Once you have copied your button code to your own website click Finish.

9. Check your product status to confirm

Return to the Standalone product list by going to the Products menu in the top blue bar and selecting Standalone: Product List. You should see your newly created product in the product table with a green “checkmark” status icon- this means your product is set up and ready for sales and delivery.

Completed product with green "Active" status icon

You’re done! While this appears to be a complicated process it is very straightforward after you create your first product. More products can be created in just a few minutes following the same process.

DPD-Cart Plugin Updated

  • Jason@DPD
  • October 12, 2009
  • No Comments

We’ve updated the DPD-Cart plugin with a couple fixes and tweaks:

  • Full IE6 compatibility
  • Corrected a double-slash “//” in some generated URLs.
  • Corrected an API SSL issue some users were having when their host’s server was missing some root certificates.

This is a recommended update for all DPD-Cart plugin users.

To update simply overwrite the dpd-wpcart plugin folder with the new version in the ZIP file. No configuration or template changes are needed.

Get the updated DPD-Cart v1.1 from the DPD-Cart Plugin Page