We have just completed integration of the f-commerce module from X-Cart which allows Facebook users to browse your products in from X-Cart in Facebook. They can also add to basket and stay in Facebook. When they are ready to purchase they will be sent through to the X-Cart checkout to complete the order.
Checkout the application working live for Beadazzle Boutique. Live Site | Facebook Site
The new f-commerce product tab in facebook
Dave has been working hard over the last couple of months getting Caine Fashions new site design implemented in X-Cart.
New functionality includes homepage slideshow, animated menu’s, New site look and foooter, RSS feed from social networks showing in footer, Larger thumbnail images, new pop up dialogues for size guides and delivery information.
Here are the before and afters:
Here is a tutorial on how to show an RSS feed on your X-Cart Homepage without javascript. This allows google to see that your homepage is showing updated content regularly.
1. firstly you will need to download the latest version of SimplePie from the simple pie website. http://simplepie.org/downloads/
2. In your X-Cart directory create a folder called ‘simplepie’ inside the modules folder. ie, /modules/simplepie
3. Upload simplepie.inc and LICENSE.txt from the simplepie archive to /modules/simplepie
4. Create a folder called cache inside /modules/simplepie and give this file 755 or 777 file permissions.
5. Edit the file /modules/simplepie/simplepie.inc and find
1 2 3 4 5 6 | /** * @var string Cache location (relative to executing script) * @see SimplePie::set_cache_location() * @access private */ var $cache_location = './cache'; |
change this to
1 2 3 4 5 6 | /** * @var string Cache location (relative to executing script) * @see SimplePie::set_cache_location() * @access private */ var $cache_location = './modules/simplepie/cache'; |
6. Now create a new folder called rss in the modules folder ie, /modules/rss
7. Create a file called rss.php and enter the following information.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | <?php if (!defined('XCART_SESSION_START')) { header("Location: ../../"); die("Access denied"); } include_once($xcart_dir . '/modules/simplepie/simplepie.inc'); $feed = new SimplePie(); $feed->set_feed_url("http://www.zone1creative.co.uk/blog/feed"); $feed->enable_cache(true); $feed->init(); $i = 0; foreach ($feed->get_items() as $item) { $rssitem['title'] = $item->get_title(); $rssitem['url'] = $item->get_permalink(); $rssitem['description'] = = $item->get_description(); $rss[] = $rssitem; //set value to how many feed items to show if(++$i > 4) break; } $smarty->assign_by_ref('rss', $rss); ?> |
Change the line http://www.zone1creative.co.uk/blog/feed to your rss url.
Upload this file to /modules/rss
8. Download and edit /home.php
Find
1 2 3 | if (!empty($active_modules['Gift_Registry'])) { include $xcart_dir . '/modules/Gift_Registry/customer_events.php'; } |
and add below it
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | if (!empty($active_modules['Gift_Registry'])) { include $xcart_dir . '/modules/Gift_Registry/customer_events.php'; } if ($cat == 0) { include $xcart_dir . '/modules/rss/rss.php'; } |
Upload the file again.
9. We now need to edit the smarty template file /skin/{your skin folder}/customer/main/welcome.tpl
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 |
Some search engines (Google for all logged in users, DuckDuckGo, Firefox latest version now also removes keywords, etc.) may not specify the keyword used to reach your website. Piwik will report the keyword as “Keyword not defined”. It means that Piwik has detected that the visitor came from a search engine, but the keyword was not provided in the Referrer URL.
There is no way to access the keyword in this case, and no other web analytics tool can get this information neither.
Have you noticed how adverts follow you around the internet once you have been to an online store. This video tutorial shows you how to setup remarketing ads in google adwords.
clone forest php mysql script
If you have used Code Canyon and Theme Forest, then you maybe interested in setting up your own marketplace. Unlike e-commerce where you need to source products, buy in bulk and then find customers to buy. You could think of approaching it the Etsy or Amazon way.
Setup a market place where others can use your site to sell their creative work.
Clone Forest sell a number of high quality scripts that allow you to setup an online market place to sell code, images, video and docs.
Your sellers pay a selling fee which you collect via paypal and you concentrate on just marketing your site.
Came across this today from a Venezuelan programmer called Emmanuel Garcia. He has put together javascript library to show pages similiar to a real magazine or newspaper. The page also renders well on a ipad and mobile device.
It called turn.js and the site demos the plugin, with a good reference guide too.
I was recently told about this site by a client as they liked the interface and usability of the site. However, www.duedil.com is more than just pretty. Its free to use and lets you look at your competitors accounts very easily. So if you had always wondered how much he or she is making compared to you then I recommend try out duedil.com.
Google has made the latest pre-emptive strike in a complicated war with Apple, Microsoft and BT over the ownership of technology used in their Android Operating system.
Litigation wrangling has been brewing for some years now as the competition steps up in the smartphone war.
Apple has already had to patch things up with Nokia in a patent-dispute that was launched back in 2009. Their dispute was over patent infringement that included touch interfaces, caller ID, display illumination, and 3G and wi-fi technology. Apple counter-sued Nokia, but ultimately the whole shebang was resolved with an undisclosed paycheck to Nokia in June of 2011.
But the latest round of litigation focuses on internet giant Google, and its alleged infringement of patent protected technology. The litigation also affects the mobile platforms on which Android is served: HTC, Samsung and Motorola.
Apple scored a victory in December against Android phonemaker company, HTC, when the US International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed that the company had infringed upon two of Apple’s patents relating to “detecting structures in data and performing actions on detected structures”. This ostensibly refers to the technology employed when, for example, a user taps a phone number in a contact list and the phone then calls the number.
The ITC ruling currently excludes future HTC phones that violate the patent from being imported into the US. However, it is not yet known if Apple will pursue the ruling to include other Android smartphones currently sold in the US. Needless to say, the effects of that on Google’s share of the market could be huge.
BT have also weighed in to the fray with a billion dollar lawsuit against Google Android that covers patent infringement for functionality including “a navigation system which includes a fixed part and at least one mobile part to provide guidance information to a user” ie Google Maps.
So how has Google responded?
Well, if you thought someone might take the high road in all of this, think again. The digital land grab continues unabated as Google has now acquired 217 patents from IBM.
The patents cover wide-ranging technologies such as transferring web apps between devices and using semantic networks to develop a social network (hinting at Google’s continued development of Google+).
However, the more cynical of observers note that mass patent buying isn’t primarily creatively focused but a pre-emptive strike against future litigation, bought with the intention of slowing down their competition.
Ultimately, if the heavyweights continue to focus on stifling each other with lawsuits and countersuits than it will be the consumer who loses out.
But shouldn’t they have a right to protect the technology they have invested in?
And how much is the patent system to blame in what they do and don’t choose to rubber stamp?
We’d love to hear your views, so leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
Beadazzle run two jewellery sites online. One site www.beadazzle.co.uk sells official Pandora Jewellery and the www.beadazzle-boutique.co.uk site sells all other non Pandora Jewellery products. Due to Pandora’s strict selling guidelines, they cannot sell any other products apart from Pandora on a single site.
This meant that if they wanted to buy item Pandora and non Pandora products they would need to place two separate transactions. To make it easier to find products I implemented a Search Suggest feature which is licensed from Code Canyon and modified it to work on Digishop. Then wrote a php script to pull product information from Beadazzle Boutique into the Search suggest script.
Customers can now type in the search box and products from both sites will be suggested to them, and click on a non Pandora product will result in a new window opening for beadazzle boutique. This will hopefully show loyal Pandora customers that Beadazzle sell more than just Pandora.
This script can also be implemented in X-Cart which is what I will be implementing in Beadazzle Boutique.
