Preparing for IOS

In order to build a site for the Timestone Software Internet Ordering System, the following is required.

• a name for the site

• credentials for the customer’s preferred payment gateway

• an email address to be used as the FROM address in emails sent by IOS

• a company logo to be used in the top left corner of the site

• the company’s time zone

Further information, such as custom text strings, can be provided once the site is built.

The site name

Each site requires a unique name, which will form the basis for the URL (web address) where customers will go to place their orders.

Timestone Software owns two domains for this purpose. You simply need to provide us with your desired hostname, which we append to the front of these domain names.

orderphotos.online and orderphotos.store

Examples

Consider a company, Acme School Photography. They may elect to use:

acme.orderphotos.online
acmephotography.orderphotos.online
asp.orderphotos.store

Using your own domain name

Although it is possible to use your own domain, it is strongly recommended you use the Timestone Software domains above. Doing so provides a significant performance advantage. Moreover Timestone will take care of all DNS matters and maintenance when using the above domains. On the other hand, Timestone Software cannot be responsible for any matters arising from DNS issues if using your own domain.

SSL certificates

Timestone Software takes care of SSL certificates needed for the site.

Labs hosting IOS for photographers

A lab hosting IOS on behalf of photographers needs a name for each of the photographers, along with a name for the lab. The latter will  be used by the lab to connect the apps, while the former is used by the photographer’s customers for ordering.

Provider Codes

Each photographer site will need a Provider Code (by default the photographer’s Account Code in tsAdmin).

Provider Codes allow the lab to automatically upload jobs to the correct site, then help the lab differentiate orders from different photographers. Provider Codes also prevent a customer from one photographer, inadvertently ordering on the site of another photographer.

Example

Consider a lab, Imaging Services Pro, offering IOS to two photographers, Acme Photography and Photographer Joe. Timestone Software would need a name for each of these companies. Examples could be:

isp.orderphotos.online
acmephotography.orderphotos.online
pj.orderphotos.online

The lab would connect its apps to https://isp.orderphotos.online

Acme Photography customers would browse to https://acmephotography.orderphotos.online  to place orders

Photographer Joe customers would browse to https://pj.orderphotos.online to place orders

Payment gateway information

IOS integrates with several payment gateways such as Stripe and Authorize.Net.

Below is a list of supported payment providers, together with the parameters required from your account.

Note, many payment providers are regional, while others, such as Stripe, are available in most countries.

Email address

An email address is required to act as the FROM address in the various emails sent by IOS. These emails include:

• order confirmation email to the customer when an order is completed and paid

• an ‘advice’ email to the photographer

• emails with links to download digital products

• pose confirmation email when selecting a yearbook pose

• various reminder and abandoned cart emails

Improving email deliverability

Warning

It is strongly recommended the email address be for a domain you own rather than third party providers such as Gmail or Hotmail. This will greatly improve the deliverability of the emails sent by the system particularly when combined with SPF and C records as described below. The likelihood the emails will be treated as SPAM is therefore greatly reduced.

Adding an SPF record to the domain

To improve deliverability, an SPF record should be added to the domain of the FROM email address. This is needed when emails are sent with a FROM address that is different from the SMTP provider.

IOS used SMTP2Go as its SMTP provider, and so the SPF record is added as:

include:spf.smtp2go.com

Adding CNAMEs to the domain

To further improve deliverability, three CNAMEs should be added to the domain. These authenticate the emails with DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signatures.

The screen grab below shows the three CNAME records to be added to the domain, along with the value for each name.

Company logo

Each site is built with a small logo that appears in the top left corner of each page of IOS. The logo should be approximately 120px × 35px and be supplied as a PNG.

Note

It is possible to add a larger logo or company graphics to any page of the site by doing so as a snippet

Timezone

The photographer’s time zone is needed to establish a ‘site’ time. This enables parameters such as the date and time of an order to be correctly displayed.