For the convenience purposes of the readme, first process of creating new group deal will be covered.

To create a new deal navigate to Group Deals > New Deal and click button.

At this stage it will be suggested to select the product that one wants to create a group deal for.

Once the product is selected it will be suggested to specify Linked Product Visibility for this product:

• Not Visible Individually;
• Catalog;
• Search;
• Catalog, Search.

These represent native Magento visibility settings. Visibility settings can prove useful if you do not want the product to be available for purchase along with the deal.

Hit button to proceed to the General Section of the deal settings.

General Section contains most important group deal settings:

• Product name - represents the name of the product the deal has been created for;
• Store view - allows defining the store view(s) the deal should be available at;
• Is active - allows enabling/disabling the deal;
• Is featured - defines is the deal should be considered featured and represented in the Featured Tab at the frontend of the store;
• Qty to reach deal - defines how many purchases should be made for the deal to be considered successful;
• Maximum allowed purchases - defines if the deal should be available only for a limited number of purchases;
• Available from - defines the deal start date. If the start date is set to any date in the future the deal will be considered Upcoming and displayed in a Upcoming deals tab;
• Available to - defines the deal end date;
• Deal price - allows specifying the price for the product on the deal;
• Automatically close deal on success - defines if the deal should be closed automatically once the product has been purchased for Qty to reach deal times;
• Url key - allows adjusting the deal unique URL.

The Details section responds for the deal content:

• Name - allows setting up the deal name;
• Short description - short description of the deal displayed below the deal name at the deal page;
• Image - allows uploading image for the deal;

• Description - deal description available under the main deal block.

Coupons section of the deal configuration has been implemented to cover the needs of store administrators that require physical coupons printed for customers:

• Enable coupons - defines if the coupons should be available for this deal;
• Coupon expires after has been received, days - defines the period the coupon will be valid for. If the expiration date set, an email with the coupon code sent will have a coupon expiration date;
• Coupon prefix - allows defining the coupon code prefixes;
• Generate coupons - allows generating set amount of the coupon codes for the deal. When generating coupon codes please make sure the number of the coupon codes generated corresponds with the Maximum allowed purchases value, to prevent any issues with customers not receiving coupon codes.

Customers can also look through the coupon codes for the deals purchased under the My Deals section of the customer account.

The Orders section of the deal represents an order grid with all the orders placed for the deal listed. The grid comes with the following columns:

• Order#;
• Purchased From (Store);
• Purchased On;
• Bill to Name;
• Ship to Name;
• G.T. (Base);
• G.T. (Purchased);
• Status;
• Action.

The Information section of the deal details represents overall report on the deal:

• Product name;
• Product price;
• Condition;
• Time to start (if set);
• Time to finish (if set);
• Purchases to complete.

Group Deals general and notification settings can be found under System > Configuration > AheadWorks extensions > Group deals.

Along with the general settings the configuration represents different Group Deals tabs e.g.: Active deals tab, Closed deals tab. These tabs share common set of settings, for convenience purposes this readme will cover all four (4) tabs in a single section.

General settings section controls the most basic aspects of the extension's functionality:

• Enabled - defines if the extension is enabled or disabled (same as System > Configuration > Advanced > Advanced > AW_Collpur);
• Show deal menu in top links - defines if the 'Deals' menu should be available at the top links along with 'My Account', 'Log In' and other links;

• Thumbnail size, px - defines the deal thumbnail width for catalog (thumbnail height is adjusted automatically);
• Deal view image size, px - defines the deal image width for the Deals page (image height is adjusted automatically).

The extension introduces several Deals 'categories'/tabs that can be accessed by clicking the Deals in the top links menu. There are four (4) tabs each having a predefined role:

• Active Deals - in this tab only currently active and featured deals are displayed;
• Upcoming Deals - in this tab that only the deals scheduled for a particular date are displayed;
• Closed Deals - in this tab the deals that have been successfully closed or reached the end date are displayed;
• Featured Deals - in this tab the deals that have been marked as Featured are displayed.

The tabs share the same set of settings:

• Enabled - defines if a tab should be enabled on the frontend;
• Sort order - defines the tab position (the tab with the lower Sort order value is the leftmost);
• Title - allows adjusting the tab title.

The Notifications configuration sections represents a set of email templates that (if enabled) are fired to store administrator/customers on a particular extension related event:

• Enable - defines if the email notifications are enabled;
• Email sender - allows defining the default sender of the notifications that will displayed in the From: field;
• Administrator email - allows defining the email address all admin notifications should be sent to. Leave empty to send notifications to the email address specified in General Contact;
• Deal succeed template for admin - defines the email template that should be sent to the store admin upon deal hitting 'successful' status;
• Deal succeed template for customer - defines the email template that should be sent to the customer upon deal hitting 'successful' status;

• Deal failed template for admin - defines the email template that should be sent to the store admin upon deal hitting 'failed' status;
• Deal failed template for customer - defines the email template that should be sent to the customer upon deal hitting 'failed' status;

• Notify admin before deal expires, days - works in conjunction with the Notify about deal expiration template setting; defines how many days before the deal expiration the notification email should be sent to the store administrator;
• Notify about deal expiration template - defines the email template that should be sent to the store administrator before the set number of days before the deal expiration.

All administrator templates receive the whole deals model object and can contain the following variables:

{{var deal.getName()}}

deal name

{{var deal.getProductName()}}

related to deal lined product name

{{var deal.getEditPage()}}

link that leads to the deal edit page

{{var deal.getAvailableFrom()}}

GMT date time stored in DB format (Y-m-d h:i:s)

{{var deal.getAvailableTo()}}

GMT date time stored in DB format (Y-m-d h:i:s)

{{var deal.getDescription()}}

short deal description

{{var deal.getFullDescription()}} 

full deal description

{{var deal.getQtyToReachDeal()}} 

qty needed for deal to be considered successful

{{var deal.getMaximumAllowedPurchases()}}

the maximum allowed purchases

{{var deal.getPrice()}}

deal price

{{var deal.getIsFeatured()}}

weather deal is featured (1 - featured, 0 - not featured)

{{var deal.getProductId()}}

linked product id

All customer templates receive deals model object (see administrator variables) and complete Mage_Sale_Model_Order model object. Meaning that in addition to the variables above, customer templates receives the following variables:

{{var order.getAccountLink()}}

link to customer account page

{{var order.getCustomerFirstname()}}

customer first name

{{var order.getCustomerLastname()}}

customer last name

{{var order.getCouponCode().format('html')}}

coupon code(s) if enabled

{{var order.getCouponExpireDate()}}

coupon expiration date if available

{{var order.getCustomerEmail()}}

customer email

{{var order.getStoreName()}}

store name

Group Deals extension introduces the Deals category to the top links of the store and My Deals customer account section.

My Deals section represents the most information on the all deal the customer has purchased.

By clicking view link of a particular deal customer is redirected to the deal details screen.

Here all the deal related coupon codes can be found and printed.