Thanks for all your support in the past

Best,
Sheri

I have been working closely with Rich of www.cregy.co.uk to come up with a plugin that would allow many of his clients to receive correspondence through their Wordpress sites and to be able to act on that correspondence in a way that makes managing communication easy and swift.

This is the result: http://www.cregy.co.uk/crm-wp-plugin/

This plugin allows the admin to create any form of their choosing - without prior knowledge of HTML. If the admin knows how to fill out a form… then they can create forms!

To make responding to form submissions easier, there is the ability to assign each form submission to a category which the admin has previously created. Why though?

For an example:

• You run a web solutions company (original eh?)
• You have created a contact form that the user fills out to request more information about the various aspects of your business
• You don’t want to respond to EACH request individually (time is money!)
• You put each request into different categories: design, development, branding etc.

Now you can send one email to all the people who want to know about what is involved in “Branding”. Easy!

One email? Yup. The plugin provides an area for you to create email templates that can be used over and over again. Or, just to be used once. Whichever you need.

The email template system is, in my opinion, unique (to Wordpress anyway!). In that it allows you to “personalize” each mail that is sent while still only creating one email body. It does this by using placeholders. All of the fields within the form you created are made available for use within the template. Eg.:

“Dear [+first_name+] [+last_name+],
We received your mail on [+date+] requesting information about our [+web_solutions+].
yada yada yada.”

Where those placeholders ( all instances of [+ … +] ) represent fields that have been filled out by the user when submitting the form.

The email template system allows you to use html or plain text for your mail. The html option will include a plain text version for those email client that do not accept html. Still just one template… the html is stripped when the mail is sent.

It also allows you to specify how you want to send the mail: php mail() or smtp.

When it comes time to email all those people who have filled out a form, you can mass mail by choosing all those who will receive the same template…or you can mail one person.

Check it out! Rich has kindly made this plugin available for the Wordpress community.

http://www.cregy.co.uk/crm-wp-plugin/

Let me rectify that now!

My current project is an e-commerce shop for WordPress. It’s being funded by Rich of www.cregy.net and www.cregy.co.uk . To Rich I humbly bow! Thanks It promises to be a great addition to the WordPress community.

A quick preview of the features that will be included in the first rewrite of the plugin:

*shop front highlighting newly added products (sounds familiar?)
*ajax shopping cart
*sidebar category(product) and product menus
*unlimited products
*unlimited categories
*customizable pagination for product listing
*multiple images using “greybox” technology
*template system
*paypal payment gateway utilizing Instant Payment Notification(IPN)
*customizable shipping options
*customizable tax options
*viewable orders in the admin
*integration into the existing WordPress user registration system
*single page checkout (keep your fingers crossed for this one!)

And that’s all I can remember for now.

I’ll keep you udated.

Best,
Sheri

The idea for the ‘rating system’ came to mind when I created the separate bookmark category menu. I love feedback of all sorts. It’s how I grow as a designer and developer. Just because I like something doesn’t mean it’s everyones cup of tea and I would really like to get a handle on all the different opinions that pervade peoples minds on topics of interest.

So, I have implemented a rating system for my bookmark category posts. I started with a great little plugin called Rate My Stuff to enable me, from the administration side of the site, to place a rating on any post. I will only be using it for bookmark sites that I post but the ability is there to place a rating on other items — if I ever feel the desire to rate anything else!

Now, it’s nice that you know my opinions but that’s only half the story. If you take the time to comment, you should also be able to share your ‘rating’ opinion. I like to be fair!

Now you can. On every bookmark post you will be able to comment and rate the site. The rating is a general overall rating. As time wears on it might become necessary to split things up. We can then have different categories within the rating system such as design, usability, content, support etc. But for now, this is a good start! The rating system is from 1 to 5. I didn’t bother to go below 1. A rating of one star is all that is needed to tell the world that you think the site sucks the big one. From there on it proceeds with half stars.

I hope to get some ratings in the comments table as I have a lot of bookmarks I want to share with the world. There are some awesome sites out there and of course some that make me want to gag.

There are those out there that share my views with regard to the functionality of the e-commerce open source solution.

In the shopping cart revamp that I am undertaking I hope to address..no I WILL address the issues raised by this ever so subtle osCommerce review.

osCommerce lacks a client-side theme system

AGREED!! This has always driven me mad when dealing with this cart. I have in the past rewritten every page, spending hours on end attempting to find the containing table tags for each “if or elseif or else” so that I could turn the darn cart into something that didn’t look so CHEAP. In order to resolve this issue I will be using Smarty to separate the content from the design.

osCommerce does not have a well implemented OOP structure

Again AGREED!! osCommerce does not make good use object oriented programming. An example would be the box class. Here is some further reading about just what OOP is A-Beginners-Crash-Course-into-Object-Oriented-Programming Object-oriented_programming

Installing modules means editting osCommerce files

Does it ever! I can’t tell you how I came to depend on WinMerge when first attempting to customize an osCommerce site. This is not to bash the contributors at all, because hey I AM ONE, but it is the structure of the core script itself that creates the need to modify everything in every file. I still wake up with chills in the middle of the night.

osCommerce is very outdated

You betcha. It’s a dinosaur…until of course the next version comes out…but that has been promised for…a minimum of 2 years. Not likely any time soon.

The blog goes on to recommend Zen Cart .

While I have no experience with Zen Cart, the author of the post seems to be pleased with the cart. I’ll have to download it and get my hands dirty. From first glance I find it so difficult to understand why something which is hailed as a ‘better’ cart STILL uses that horrid osCommerce default design. After that much work to have it’s capabilities squash the osCommerce’s like a bug, one would think that theywould offer a default design that remained as far away from osCommerce as possible.

Customers don’t see how fabulous or horrible the code is but they do see colors and graphics.

In response to Frank’s query, Otto42 came up with a little known parameter that can be used in the ‘wp_list_pages’: the ‘include’ parameter.

This does work! but I like to keep on my toes and this seemed like a simple little thing to accomplish, so I took a stab at it.

This also works. I included a call the database that can be cached. And if someone were to already have my wordpress menu installed, you could use the already cached function called ‘get_pa_ge ()’ to load up the page array needed to create this little side menu by replacing this line :
‘$these_pages = get_the_pa_ges ();’ with ‘$these_pages = get_pa_ge ();’.

As I gaze into my crystal ball, I can tell what you are thinking: “If Wordpress natively supports ‘inclusion’ in the function….why use your function?”. And the answer from beyond this realm is quite simple. Page Load Time. The wp_list_pages function parses at least 183 lines of code through the various functions required to produce the list while my function uses 21 lines.

I created a new function for the addition by modifying the original code a little to allow re-placement of the url with the post title. All was well until I changed my base url option to include the World Wide Web (www) prefix, and then changed my permalinks to Apache’s mod-rewrite .

ARGH!

So now, the stats in the popular mod were waaay off. They only reflected the results for one url per post rather than the multitude of urls now populating my database. Another wonky problem was the original code for Fire Stats. It populates the url table using php’s predefined variable $_SERVER[’REQUEST_URI’]. This variable grabs a hold of the ENTIRE uri including any parameters which might be tacked onto the end. When displaying the “popular post” I was only displaying the count of direct links to the post–no parameters, no www, and no mod-rewrites were included in the count.

If you know me then you know that this problem was getting under my skin and I couldn’t just let it be!

Earlier this evening I finished a brand new function that tracks down all the various url’s for each individual post, combines the counts, then displays the links with “true” counts for reference. The function took a little fiddling around and a lot of testing but I am very happy with the result. No matter where the link originated, what is attached to it or what format it is presented in…it will be counted!

This has got to be one of the best posts on the internet’s ’social’ phenomena. What the hell is all that anyway? That boat has sailed without me.

And that is a GOOD thing. While I do partake in forums, they must have a specific purpose, which for me usually revolves around some internet application that I am currently testing out or use on a regular basis. Writing in forums with no goal in mind but to ‘chit-chat’ is as Sean puts it “…f*ckin’ weird.”.

Take a gander at his post. You could say he took the words right out of my mouth.

Uncle Sean’s take on social networking sites

In fact, peruse through the rest of his site as well. He is very funny.

The operative line reads: zlib.output_compression = 4096

I really didn’t bother to read what exactly this means…I just know that it speeds up my site.

To test out the compression I entered my url into a form found on this page:

G-Zip
Test my page for yourself! What a difference a day makes

Each file within osCommerce first calls ‘application_top’. Within ‘application_top’ comes the calls to every other file needed to make the script function as intended. It also makes use of the ini_get() function to determine whether globals or on or off—and it requires them to be ‘on’!! Argh.

Allowing the script to run with php 5 is at the top of the list of modifications to make.

You can tell just how very old this script is by taking a gander at this definition found in ‘app_top’:

define(’BOX_WIDTH’, 125);

This seemingly innocent little definition was created to control the width of the outer containing table cell for each and every “infobox” within the shop. Yup, the OUTER TABLE CONTAINER.

Take a look at this puppy (more…)

For awhile anyway.

The member section mod is up and running. Available through the Members menu, it takes you to a page where all sorts of member info is listed — that is, the info that the member chooses to list, besides the basic name, reg. date, and comments posted info. The display preferences can be chosen from the profile page page after log-in.

I had a little bit of a rough go with this one. It’s because I am so aware and some might say obsessed, with sql queries namely the number and efficiency. Try as I might - joins flying in all directions - I could not get this mod working in one query. It is because of the layout of the Wordpress mysql tables. While selecting information from the users table returned a few plump little multidimensional arrays with all the values I could ask for in a single row, the users meta table forced me to retrieve many more rows to get the information I needed - resulting in many scrawny little arrays. To illustrate my point more clearly: (more…)

After carefully scanning the Wordpress Source Cross Reference I came up with a

(more…)

Wordpress allows the user to select a name from the many stored in the database to display publicly when they post a comment. Well, the drop down menu pulls all the names and places them in a drop down list whether they are different or not. Quite annoying to see “joe” written out 4 times!

So I hacked the code…again.
(more…)

I have used these plugins: (more…)

08/03/07: Clarification:

UPDATE! Please download the sitemap fix for version 2.0.3. All new downloads, please also download the fix and overwrite the file. The next version will be available as soon as my main site has finished it’s facelift.

The What

The Webdezine Pure CSS Horizontal Menu is a dropdpwn, cross browser multi-level (nested) css navigation system for Wordpress that can be displayed across the top of your header area. It includes support for Pages, Categories, Archives, Blogroll and Meta Links. The menus can be used in place of or in addition to the default Wordpress fuctions wp_list_categories, wp_list_pages, wp_get_archives, wp_list_bookmarks, and meta data that is contained in the sidebar.php. The menu is currently compatible with Wordpress 2.1.* and will soon be available to 2.0.* Wordpress users. The menu is as always, free for personal use, although support is greatly appreciated. Commercial users (including developers) should download the commercial version of the menu.

The Screen Shots

The Demos

• Menu Demo - All menus displayed with Titles
• Menu Demo - Pages and Categories displayed without Titles

The Features

• The Menu
  • The menu is entirely CSS based. It does not rely on client-side scripting such as Javascript to hide or reveal the menu levels.
  • The menu is based a degradable unordered html list
  • The menu can be nested to a maximum of 4 levels (do the users really want more than that?).
  • The menu is compatible with PHP4+
  • A sitemap is connected to the title links in case of menu failure (unlikely).
  • Each menu or nested level can be styled individually if you wish
  • The css classes are based on divs and links for maximum compatibility
  • You can now choose which menus to display and how
  • You can exclude pages or categories from your menus
  • You can display page, post or link counts in your menus
  • You can organize your blogroll into multiple top-level categories
  • …………etc.
• The Sitemap
  • The sitemap is also based a degradable unordered html list
  • Each menu or nested level can be styled individually if you wish
  • The css classes are based on divs and links for maximum compatibility
  • A sitemap page is created upon activation
  • If you already have a great sitemap, you can detour this one and link your menu to the one already in place
• The Admin
  • The admin is now a pimped up wonder
  • Tabs separate the option sections
  • Display the options in English, French, Spanish, German, or Italian
  • Choose to display the titles (Pages/Categories/Archives) or spread the top levels across the header. Each menu is individually customized - e.g. display the archive title, but not the page title
  • More options for the menu - Choose the date format for the archives, exclude categories, ….
  • Input your old sitemap url and the menu takes care of the rest
  • Edit the CSS directly from the option page (and the IE6 css!)
  • Preview your changes in the option page (I got tired of refreshing my development site - this is much better)
• The Machine
  • Nonce security has been added
  • Personal and Commercial License payments are now accepted through the option screen
  • Licensees are automatically registered for the in-depth support forum for help with customization, support and feature requests
  • If caching is enabled the calls to the database are cached
  • If a new category or post is created the cache is refreshed allowing your visitors to get the newest information instantly.
  • Upon activation, the plug-in loads up the default values - Upon deactivation, the plugin removes all options/sitemap from the database….almost like it was never there.

The Structure

<ul>
  <li><a href="">LIST NAME
    <table>
      <tr>
        <td>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="">PARENT CAT
              <table>
                <tr>
                  <td>
                    <ul>
                      <li><a href="">CHILD CAT
                         <table>
                            <tr>
                              <td>
                                <ul>
                                  <li><a href="">SUB-CHILD CAT</a></li>
                                </ul>
                              </td>
                            </tr>
                         </table>
                  </a>
                      </li>
                    </ul>
                  </td>
                </tr>
              </table>
              </a>
            </li>
          </ul>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    </a>
  </li>
</ul>
 
Why the tag soup?  To make it compitable with IE of course!

The Compatibility

I need a heads up for non-windows OS browsers. Please drop me a comment listing your Operating System, Browser, Version, whether it’s compatible or not and any issues related to the operation of the menu.Thanks for your help!

The Stats

• Version Download Totals
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu V1.0 (23)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP4 V1.0 (4)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu V1.1 (58)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP4 V1.1 (28)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP4 V1.2 (40)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP5 V1.2 (537)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP4 V1.3 (487)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP5 V2.0 - PERSONAL & COMMERCIAL (20)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP5 V2.0.1 - PERSONAL & COMMERCIAL (17)
  • Webdezine Wordpress Menu PHP5 V2.0.2 - PERSONAL & COMMERCIAL (109)

The Download

The Why

I found the default lists impractical and IMHO quite ugly. I also wanted to use the same menu for my blog that I will be using for my main site.

The How

The Installation Instructions

• Download the .zip file
• Extract the .zip file
• Upload the folder called ‘webdezine_menu’ and the file called ‘webdezine_css_menu.php’ into your plugin directory located in /wp-content/plugins
• Upload the webdezine_sitemap.php page template into your theme file located in /wp-content/themes.
• Add this code to your header file

  <?php
  if (function_exists('get_menu'))
  get_menu('topmenu');
  ?>
  

  It will look like this in the default theme

  <div id="header">
    <div id="headerimg">
      <h1><a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a></h1>
      <div class="description"><?php bloginfo('description'); ?></div>
  <?php
  if (function_exists('get_menu'))
  get_menu('topmenu');
  ?>
    </div>
  </div>
  <hr />
  

• Head over to your admin interface and activate the plugin
• Head over to the webdezine css menu option page and customize to your liking
• IMPORTANT! When using the Blogroll menu you must only use top parent categories to store your links. These are special categories you have created that have a category parent ID of ZERO. You may organize your links into those categories. The links will pop out in a list from each “0″ level link category.

The Upgrade Instructions

• download the current zip
• To UPGRADE:
  

  • From 2.0 to 2.0.1:
    • overwrite the “scr.js” file in the webdezine plugin folder
    • overwrite the “wd_all_the_menus.php” in the webdezine plugin folder
  • From 2.0.1 to 2.0.2:
    • overwrite the “wd_all_the_menus.php” in the webdezine plugin folder

The Customization

The function variables can be changed from the admin option menu. Note: Please remember that should you change the CSS class names available through the option menu, you will also have to change the class names within the CSS file.

The Changes

• 02/25/07: Version 1.0 released - not a plugin
• 02/27/07: Version 1.1 released - not a plugin
  • Missing close bracket at line 198 FIXED
  • Query ERROR: “You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual
    that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax” - FIXED
  • Amended the read_me file to include instructions on how to add the css style information
• 03/12/07: Version 1.2 released - a plugin
  • changed the menu to a plugin to allow more to easily use this resource
  • fixed 2 lines of code that prevented the page menu from displaying the sub-child page names
  • fixed 2 lines of code that prevented the post count from showing correctly in the category menu
  • added support for the blogroll–now a drop-down menu like the others
  • added a variable in blogroll function to allow a separate css class for different styling of links
  • removed the read-me file and placed the information here
• 03/13/07: Version 1.3 released -PHP4
  • Fixed a mismatched file name in the PHP4 version
  • Fixed the missing php tags within the code to add to the template
• 05/01/07: Version 2.0 release - PHP5 only
  • Completely rewrote the functions eliminating all known bugs
  • Added many more options for customization
  • Revamped the admin section
  • Added css editing support from the admin
  • Added page preview from the admin
  • Created a licensee forum for in-depth support
  • Integrated forum registration with Paypal into the option page
  • Created separate personal and commercial versions
  • Worked like a dawg on this plugin
• 05/02/07: Version 2.0.1 released
  • fixed admin javascript conflict
• 05/02/07: Version 2.0.2 released
  • fixed array check in “wd_all_the_menus.php
• 05/08/07: Version 2.0.3 released
  • added PHP4 compatibility
• 08/05/07: SITEMAP FIX FOR 2.0.3
  • overwrite existing file with replacement

The Bugs

Found a bug? I’d be happy to squash it. Just leave me a comment and I’ll do what I can.

Here is a link to another way to accomplish a dynamic css menu for wordpress:
side dynamic menu for pages. While not a drop down or one that is used for all links, it does highlight the page links if that is more important to the blog than the other links available.

I have chosen an the Open Source e-commerce software package - osCommerce as the base for my project. While fine and dandy for a very basic store, this software is out-of-date and limited in the scope of it’s capabilities. In a nutshell, what it can currently accomplish is:

• listing an unlimited number of products with titles, pictures and descriptions
• storing those products in a unlimited number and depth of categories
• navigating by category or manufacturer
• a shopping cart capable of customized tax calculations
• a “visitors” shopping cart (pre-login/registration)
• basic paypal compatibilty
• 9 other popular payment gateways
• creating member accounts, that are recalled from the mysql database
• create special prices for specified time periods on individual products
• multiple currencies and languages
• automated listing of “new” products
• customer “review” capabilities for products
• basic download products
• basic search functions
• “tell-a-friend” by email
• email notification of product updates as requested by customer

WOW, you say!! That’s a lot of features. Yes, you are right on the money…but if we went with this package out of the box, we would end up being short changed. Here’s why:

Unlimited product listing is a huge draw but they are accessed through a very, very archaic menu system that relys on groups of no-break spaces to create the ’subcategory’ look. While the categories are also unlimited, the menu system renches a tooth with every click and refresh.

The manufactuer listing is handy as it will allow us to view products either by category or the vender who has posted the item. Again, the navigation for this goes back to “what’s hot” numerous years ago by using a pull-down form menu. Not what I call web2.0!

The shopping cart section is pretty much like any other but the ability for the administrator to assign different tax levies based on the location of the seller and the location of the buyer is an awesome feature. What for it…BUT…the functions that achieve this little slice of heaven operate like a wood-fired oven rather than a micro-wave. They are in desperate need of 100 years of progress.

The visitors cart is fine. No complaints. The software operates using cookies and session variables. If the customer refuses to accept the chocolate-chunk, then the session holds their cart contents. Don’t let them leave the site before creating an account though…or all is lost.

On to the paypal. YUCK, with a capital YUCK. There is no capability for confirmation of payment aside from checking your paypal account every 15 minutes. And if an order happens to be lost in cyberspace between your site and paypal…you have NO CLUE what was ordered. And most importantly, for this “virtual-product” project, the customer can head off to the paypal site to pay, click cancel, return to your site and have access to the product without paying a dime. Not good with a capital turd.

I have not tested the other payment gateways. But if the paypal module is that sparse..I can’t imagine why the others would be any better.

Having to create an account to purchase something has become quite a bone of contention amoungst ecommerce gurus. While everyone knows that it is a necessary part of doing business (the tax man says so), most people agree that the net is a unique environment where the rules of normal transactions just don’t want to be applied. Not only do we all demand to write less (when was the last time you sent a letter by snail-mail?), we are now demanding to type and click less. The gurus fear that the more typing and clicking the user does, the less likely they are to complete the sale. You want to grab their attention with the books opening chapter and then skip to the last page to get to a quick and satisfying conclusion.

Special prices. These are something I don’t really agree with…but the rest of the world does, so we’ll keep the specials but rework how they are displayed, i.e. dispense with the cheesy red font strike-through. We might even add a “countdown clock” to create that sense of urgency ;P

Les devises multiples et la langue est maniable pour avoir. I just wish I knew what it said.

The rest of the features mentioned also need a makeover. As does the separation of code/content/presentation, multiple nested table layout..etc. I could go on but I’d rather get to the code and start creating a usable shopping cart for this project and others.

Good night, sleep tight and squash those bed bugs between thumb and forefinger.
In order to keep the few perly whites I have left, I will be implement a cross-browser, cross-platform css based horizontal drop menu, for easy drilling …another dental reference 8).

Throughout my years of being involved with Montessori education in various capacities, there has been one characteristic shared by all Montessori educators, regardless of education, status, position, or location.

Everyone has shared a strong desire to create learning materials so that they can share the world with each child in their lives. (more…)