Product Personalizer for OpenCart

Overview

Sell engraved, embroidered or printed products without a designer tool. Customers type a name, a date or their initials on the product page, pick a font and a position and see the text on the product photo while they type. The fee is shown before they add the item to the cart, every value is checked again on the server, and the personalization travels with the line through the cart, the checkout, the order, the invoice and a printable production sheet for your workshop.

• Text and monogram fields: up to 6 fields per template, 1 to 4 lines, character limits, allowed characters (letters, numbers, basic punctuation), capital letters only, required or optional
• Monograms in Classic (first, LAST, middle), Block, Circle or single-letter style
• 12 fonts: 8 bundled fonts (SIL Open Font License, loaded only when used) and 4 system fonts
• Live preview on the main product image with up to 5 positions per field (center, top, bottom, upper or lower third) and 5 preview finishes (engraved dark or light, gold, silver, black ink)
• Fees: free, a fixed fee per item or a price per character with free characters; taxed with the product's tax class, never discounted
• Templates per product or per category (the deepest category wins; a product's own choice always wins)
• Offensive-word filter: built-in English list plus your own words; catches look-alikes ("sh1t"), repeated letters, plurals, spaced-out letters and initials
• Everywhere OpenCart shows options: cart, mini cart, checkout, order confirmation, customer order history, order e-mails, admin order page, invoice and shipping list
• Production sheet under Sales: open orders, every detail (text, monogram as engraved and as typed, font, style, position, finish), "done" marks, print view
• Quantity: one cart line per personalization; the same text added twice raises the quantity, a different text becomes its own line; the fee is charged per item
• No core file changes and no OCMOD: OpenCart events plus a standard order total; works with Bootstrap 5 (OpenCart 4) and Bootstrap 3 (OpenCart 3) themes
• OpenCart 4.0.2.0 – 4.1.x and 3.0.3.8 – 3.0.5.x, one license for both

Installation

Requirements

OpenCart 4

1. Extensions > Installer: upload kv_product_personalizer.ocmod.zip, then click Install next to it.
2. Extensions > Extensions, type Modules: find Product Personalizer and click Install (green +).
3. Click Edit, open the Settings tab, set Status to Enabled, enter your license key on the License tab and click Save.

Installing the module also installs the order total Personalization (Product Personalizer) (sort order 2, after the sub-total and before taxes). Keep it enabled: it charges the personalization fees.

OpenCart 3

1. Extensions > Installer: upload kv_product_personalizer-oc3.ocmod.zip.
2. Extensions > Modifications: click Refresh (the package contains no file patches; this only lists it).
3. Extensions > Extensions, type Modules: install Product Personalizer, then Edit, enable it on the Settings tab and save.

After installing

1. On the Templates tab click Use example: Engraving or Use example: Monogram (or Add template) and adjust the fields, fonts, positions and fees.
2. Choose where the template applies: the Categories tab for whole categories, or Catalog > Products > edit > Personalization for single products.
3. Open a product page: the form appears above the quantity field, and the text is drawn on the main product image.

Sales > Personalization sheet appears in the admin menu, with the number of open personalized lines.

Upgrading

OpenCart 4: Extensions > Installer, uninstall and delete the old package, upload and install the new one. OpenCart 3: upload the new package over the old one and refresh the modifications. Templates, assignments and production marks stay as long as you do not uninstall the module.

Uninstalling

Extensions > Extensions > Modules > Product Personalizer > Uninstall removes the events, settings, the order total and the extension's tables (templates, assignments, saved personalizations, production marks). Orders already placed keep their personalization text (it is stored with the order options) and their Personalization total line.

Configuration

Extensions > Extensions > Modules > Product Personalizer > Edit. Amounts are per item, excluding tax, in your default currency, like the product price field.

Settings tab

Templates

A template is the form customers fill in. Use example creates a ready-made template, Copy duplicates one (inactive until you switch it on), Delete removes it (products that used it become not personalized; orders keep their personalization).

Template options:

Field options (up to 6 fields; move them up and down, the order is the order on the product page):

Fonts, styles and positions are offered as choices only when you tick more than one.

Fees

The fee of one item is the sum of its fields. Per character: spaces and line breaks are never charged, and the first characters can be free. Example: $0.40 per character with 4 free characters, "The Millers" = 10 characters − 4 = 6 × $0.40 = $2.40.

The fees of all lines appear as one Personalization line in the order totals (fee × quantity), taxed with each product's percent tax rates, converted to the customer's currency and shown with tax when your store shows prices with tax. Coupons and specials do not reduce the fee.

Categories tab

Add category, pick the category and the template, then Save. A product uses the template of its deepest category that has one, looking up the category tree (parents count too).

Product tab

Catalog > Products > edit > Personalization: Use the category template, a template of its own, or Not personalized. The hint below shows which template the product uses now. OpenCart 4 variant products follow their master product unless they have a choice of their own.

License

Enter the key from your Kavio Labs account on the License tab and click Check now. The extension works without a key for 14 days after installing. Without a valid license the product page form is hidden and no new personalizations are accepted; lines already in carts keep their text and fee, orders keep their personalization, and the admin keeps working.

Usage

What customers see

1. On the product page the form sits right above the quantity field. With an optional template, customers tick Add an engraving (your title) to open it.
2. They type their text. It appears on the main product image in the chosen font, position and finish; a counter shows the characters used, and the fee updates while they type.
3. Wrong input is explained under the field: too long, too many lines, characters that cannot be engraved, a word that is not allowed, too few or too many initials for a monogram style. Add to Cart stays blocked until the input is fixed.
4. Add to Cart checks everything again on the server and adds the item. The same personalization added again raises the quantity; a different one becomes its own cart line.

Products whose template is required cannot be added from category pages, search results or modules: the add-to-cart button there opens the product page instead.

Cart, checkout and orders

The cart, the mini cart and the checkout show each field ("Engraving: The Millers (Great Vibes, Lower third)") and the fee per item; the totals show one Personalization line.

The order stores the personalization as order options, so the order confirmation, the customer's order history, the order e-mails, the admin order page, the invoice and the shipping list show it like any other product option. The admin order page also gets a Personalization card with every detail and a link to the production sheet of that order.

Production sheet

Sales > Personalization sheet lists the personalized lines of open orders (your processing statuses that are not complete statuses) with the full specification: text, monogram as engraved and as typed, font, style, position and finish.

• Filter by date, show all orders, include lines already produced.
• Tick Done when a line is produced; it leaves the open list (use Include produced lines to see it again).
• Print prints a clean sheet without the admin menus; produced lines are struck through.

Editing orders in the admin

The admin order editor shows a Personalization ID under each personalized product. It keeps every personalization with its product while you change the order: two boards with two different names stay two lines, and the fee stays in the totals. A product you add to an order in the admin is added without personalization.

FAQ

Does it change OpenCart core files or use OCMOD?

No. It uses OpenCart events and a standard order total. Your theme does not need changes: a small script places the form above the quantity field and draws the preview over the main product image.

Does it work with my theme?

It is tested with the default OpenCart 4 and 3 themes and with our Pantry theme. Themes that keep the standard product form (#form-product / #product, #input-quantity, #button-cart) work. The preview needs the main product image of the product page; without it the form still works.

Why is the fee a total line and not part of the product price?

OpenCart has no event inside the cart library. A total line works on every OpenCart 4 and 3 store, together with coupons, vouchers, payment gateways and extensions that replace the cart, such as our Sell by Weight & Length. The cart shows the fee of each line next to the personalization.

Can customers change the price in the browser?

No. The fee is calculated on the server from the checked values and the template saved with the cart line. Every add to cart is checked again (template, limits, characters, offensive words); anything else sent by the browser is ignored.

What happens when I edit a template later?

Carts and orders keep the template as it was when the item was added (fields, labels and fee).

And with OpenCart's own product options?

They work side by side: required options are still required, option prices are added to the product price, and the personalization is added to the same cart line.

Which fonts are included, and may I use them?

Playfair Display, Cormorant Garamond, Cinzel, Montserrat, Great Vibes, Alex Brush, Pinyon Script and Dancing Script, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (the license texts are in the package next to the font files). The license allows using them on your site. Georgia, Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New are the visitor's system fonts. Fonts are downloaded only when a template uses them.

Why are "<" and ">" refused?

They are never accepted, so no markup can reach e-mails, invoices or the admin.

Does it slow down my store?

The script and styles (about 20 KB) are added only to product pages that have a template. The fonts load only when they are offered.

What happens when I disable or uninstall it?

Disabled or unlicensed: the form disappears and no new personalizations are accepted; lines already in carts keep their text and fee. After an uninstall, orders keep the personalization text and the Personalization total line.

Can I change the texts?

The extension ships English texts in standard OpenCart language files, which you can change in Design > Language Editor.