Narga

Magento – eCommerce Software for Growth

2009-07-12T19:40:36-07:00

Magento is an Open Source ecommerce web application launched on March 31, 2008. It was created by Varien, building on components of the Zend Framework.
Magento is available under the Open Software License version 3.0. Since version 1.1.7 some parts are licensed under the Academic Free License version 3.0.
Magento Enterprise Edition, a paid for version of Magento aimed at larger companies, was launched on April 15, 2009.
Magento supports installation of modules through a web based interface accessible through the administration area of a Magento installation. Modules are hosted on the Magento eCommerce website as a PEAR server. Any community member can upload a module through the website and is made available once confirmed by a member of the Magento team. Modules are installed by entering a module key, available on the module page, into the web based interface.
Obviously a free, full-featured, shopping cart and e-commerce solution is great concept. I mean, really, one can’t bitch too much about something that is free (notwithstanding, say, venereal diseases or OScommerce…)
Magento’s feature list is comprehensive: coupons, specials, multiple checkout and shipping options, tiered pricing, layered navigation, etc. Unfortunately, when you are neck-deep into anything, you get a better sense of the minor and major flaws lurking just under the rosy surface. Take a look after the jump at some of its more vexing problems.

Homepage: http://www.magentocommerce.com/
Demo: http://demo.magentocommerce.com/
ACP (username is admin and password is 123123)
http://demo-admin.magentocommerce.com/

Installing Magento

Linux or another UNIX-compatible operating system
Apache web server (1x or 2x)
PHP 5.2
MySQL 4.1
A sendmail- compatible Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)- if not Megento connects to SMTP server.

Magento’s documentation could use some work. Installation instructions do not come with the download and the directions for installing Magento on their website are not accurate or complete. It took me a while to get Magento to install.
Magento installed without difficulty, but it requires users to experience.

Search Engine Optimization

100% Search Engine Friendly
Google Site Map
URL Rewrites give full control of URL’s
Meta-information for products and categories
Auto-generated Site Map for display on site
Auto-Generated Popular Search Terms Page

Magento is ready to go for SEO. The cart makes SEO as simple as any cart I’ve used and that’s a major plus. You have complete control over the product URLs and that’s amazing. And it’s not an file edit, you can change the URL in Magento’s administrator access panels. However, in a short time experiment test the efficiency of the process is not really clear.

Site Management and Style

Magento’s usable interface allows for efficient management of your online channel. Manage multiple stores from one administration panel, including the ability to manage localized/international versions of your sites.
Magento’s one-click upgrade process allows for seamless upgrades to new Magento version, while the Web Services API and pre-packaged integrations allow Magento to fit the way you do business.

These are a few summary comments after a very brief trial time. So, there you have it, like it or not, my first reaction to Magento Commerce. Overall, I’m excited to see what’s to come, it looks very promising, and I can’t wait to transition some sites.

No related posts.

Separate pings from comments in WordPress v2.7+

2009-07-10T17:00:18-07:00

One of the greatest disruptions to the conversation that goes on in comments are the trackbacks. They’re great, and I love it when people link to my blog. I always want to separate them because they really detract from the discussions that my readers are having, and they sometimes can make it difficult for a new reader to follow. How about you? This tutorial will show you how to separate Trackbacks/Pings and Comments in WordPress

What is the Difference Between a Comment and a Trackback?
A comment is an interaction between a reader and the blogger about the blog post. A trackback is a link to this post published on another blog post.

The thing it, it’s a little bit different in WordPress 2.7+ than in previous versions, so I had to look up how to split the comments from trackbacks. I started off by making some modifications to the comments.php and functions.php files. Now, comments show up on top, and trackbacks show up below.

The comments loop in Wordpress 2.7+

<?php if ( have_comments() ) : ?>
<h3 id="comments"><?php comments_number('No Responses', 'One Response', '% Responses' );?> to “<?php the_title(); ?>”</h3>
<ol class="commentlist">
        <?php wp_list_comments(); ?>
        </ol>
<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php previous_comments_link() ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php next_comments_link() ?></div>
</div>
<?php else : // this is displayed if there are no comments so far ?>
        <?php if ('open' == $post->comment_status) : ?>
                <!-- If comments are open, but there are no comments. -->
        <?php else : // comments are closed ?>
                <!-- If comments are closed. -->
<p class="nocomments">Comments are closed.
        <?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

As you can see it is much simpler than the old comments “loop”. The majority of everything that is happening is now done via the function wp_list_comments.
To show separate trackbacks and pingbacks on a page in Wordpress 2.7 or above, you can change the code in the default comments.php with the following:

Remove pingbacks and trackbacks in comments list

Open comments.php then find
1
<?php if ( have_comments() ) : ?>
Add the following codes after it:
1
Add the following codes after it.
Then find
1
<?php wp_list_comments(); ?>
Make it change like this
1
<?php wp_list_comments('type=comment'); ?>
last step is write this code below after the wp_list_comments function.
1
</ol><?php endif; ?>

Display pingbacks and trackbacks

You can do it with similar previous step about

<?php if ( ! empty($comments_by_type['pings']) ) : ?>
<h3 id="pings">Trackbacks/Pingbacks</h3>
<ol class="commentlist">
<?php wp_list_comments('type=pings'); ?>
</ol>
<?php endif; ?>

Now we need to style the pingbacks and trackbacks list by add new functions to functions.php

Make change

1	<?php comments_template(); ?>

1	<?php comments_template('', true); ?>

in single.php

Add new functions to functions.php

<?php
    function list_pings($comment, $args, $depth) {
           $GLOBALS['comment'] = $comment;
    ?>
            <li id="comment-<?php comment_ID(); ?>"><?php comment_author_link(); ?>
    <?php } ?>

You need to call $listping functions (new style of list pingbacks) in single.php

1 2	<ol class="pinglist"> <?php wp_list_comments('type=pings&callback=list_pings'); ?>

Full loop code below

<?php if ( have_comments() ) : ?>
	<?php if ( ! empty($comments_by_type['comment']) ) : ?>
	<h3 id="comments"><?php comments_number('No Responses', 'One Response', '% Responses' );?> to &#8220;<?php the_title(); ?>&#8221;</h3>
 
	<ol class="commentlist">
	<?php wp_list_comments('type=comment'); ?>
	</ol>
	<?php endif; ?>
 
	<?php if ( ! empty($comments_by_type['pings']) ) : ?>
	<h3 id="pings">Trackbacks/Pingbacks</h3>
       <?php
           function list_pings($comment, $args, $depth) {
           $GLOBALS['comment'] = $comment;
       ?>
            <li id="comment-<?php comment_ID(); ?>"><?php comment_author_link(); ?>
       <?php } ?>
	<ol class="pinglist">
	<?php wp_list_comments('type=pings&callback=list_pings'); ?>
	</ol>
	<?php endif; ?>
 
	<div class="navigation">
		<div class="alignleft"><?php previous_comments_link() ?></div>
		<div class="alignright"><?php next_comments_link() ?></div>
	</div>
 <?php else : // this is displayed if there are no comments so far ?>
 
	<?php if ('open' == $post->comment_status) : ?>
		<!-- If comments are open, but there are no comments. -->
 
	<?php else : // comments are closed ?>
		<!-- If comments are closed. -->
		<p class="nocomments">Comments are closed.</p>
 
	<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

This is how we have separated the trackbacks/pingbacks from comments, hidden the trackbacks and styled our comments in WordPress 2.7.

Most attractive diagram, chart and graphs online creator

2009-07-08T00:07:17-07:00

In some articles, slide-shows or review, we need create a chart (diagram, graphs) to convey a message to your readers effectively. Whatever type of data presentation you prefer (pie charts, bubble charts, bar graphs, network diagrams etc.), you can create charts in graphic editors manually or use special desktop-software instead or online services.
Naturally, a document presented beautiful always attractive readers, helping them more engaged in your post. There is a variety of conventional ways to visualize data – tables, histograms, pie charts and bar graphs are being used every day can be beautiful, elegant and descriptive, in every project and on every possible occasion.
However, once you’d like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. Or maybe you just want to offer your visitors not a simple image, but a powerful dynamic chart.
That’s not flexible.
Why do not you try using the service-based web, it can use in anywhere with connection to the internet. Sometimes you can find these services are higher quality software.

FusionCharts Free

FusionCharts-Free

FusionCharts Free is a Flash charting component that can be used to render data-driven & animated charts for web applications and presentations. It is a cross-browser and cross-platform solution that can be used with ASP.NET, ASP, PHP, JSP, ColdFusion, Ruby on Rails, simple HTML pages or PowerPoint Presentations to deliver interactive and powerful flash charts.

Gliffy

Gliffy.com is a free web-based diagram editor. It enables you to create and share flowcharts, network diagrams, floorplans, user interface designs and other drawings online. Registration is required.
With Gliffy online diagram software, you can easily create professional-looking flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, technical drawings, and more. Our online diagram editor makes it easier than ever to create great looking drawings.
Gliffy allows you to collaborate with other users by sharing your flowchart in a public workspace. Brainstorming sessions, marketing demos or just a clear plan on how to implement a hardware or software rollout in a large company become quick and easy — there’s no desktop client to install or site registration to think about.

amCharts

amCharts: Pie & Donut

AmCharts is a set of Flash charts for your websites and Web-based products. AmCharts can extract data from simple CSV or XML files, or they can read dynamic data generated with PHP, .NET, Java, Ruby on Rails, Perl, ColdFusion, and many other programming languages.
amCharts offers a flexible and easily customizable solution for generating charts “on the fly”. There are 4 sets with predefined Pie & Donut, Line & Area, Column & Bar and Scatter & Bubble. Generated Flash-files are dynamic and can be presented in 2D or 3D. Some flash-charts also have animation effects.
amCharts is linkware which means that you have to place a link to the source if you’d like to use it for free. You can also purchase a single site license for 85 Euros (~$117). We’ve already reviewed amCharts online store.

amMap

The beginning of amCharts and amMap was in 2004, when the first version of amMap was made.

amMap and amCharts

AmMap is a tool for creating interactive Flash maps. You can use this tool to show locations of your offices, routes of your journeys, create your distributor map, etc. Photos or illustrations can be used as layers and backgrounds of maps, so you can make different presentations, e-learning tools and more.
With amMap, you can:

customize every detail of your map – sizes, colors, disable features you don’t need;
create multi-level structures;
create map charts (heatmaps);
load icons or other custom movies or photos on top of your map;
use your own custom map textures;
draw lines and add text;
set the start-up zoom level and position;
use it as zoomifyer to display big pictures;
control the map with JavaScript (reload data and settings, set and get data and separate parameters, register clicks);
export the map as an image.

AnyChart

AnyChart is a flexible Adobe Flash based solution that allows you to create interactive and great looking flash charts and dashboards. It is a cross-browser and cross-platform charting solution intended for everybody who deals with creation of dashboard, reporting, analytics, statistical, financial or any other data visualization solutions.
Attractive data visualization is an essential part of any service or application. Ubiquity and performance of Flash technology makes it, probably, the best solution for charting needs.

AnyChart Examples

From individuals to Fortune 500 companies, we treat our customers with respect and give them all our attention and support. Many well known companies, government organizations, and educational institutions have selected AnyChart for their business needs. Here is a list of some names you may recognize: Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, NXP Semiconductors, 3M and Rolex. AnyChart is an advanced Flash based data-visualization solution, allowing everyone to utilize power of animation and ultimate interactivity.

Rich Chart Server for .NET

Rich Chart Server generates captivating dynamic Flash charts from ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications. Use the included authoring tool to visually design a rich chart template which can include stunning animation effects, audio narration, text and image elements, links and tooltips, and any other type of visual customization. Apply the chart template to any available .NET data source or XML document to generate an interactive Flash chart with drill-downs, enabling sophisticated data navigation between multiple charts.
Rich Chart Server uses flexible templates to integrate dynamic content from a variety of data sources:

Rich Chart Server for .NET Diagram

Rich Chart Server can generate impressive charts from the included professionally designed Chart, Axes, Animations and Layout styles, examples:

Rich Chart Server for .NET Examples

Flash Charts Pro

With Flash Charts Pro you can easily install attractive stats on your website and make detailed explanation of all scores that come from different digital sources onto your website or application, presenting it as animated diagrams. All you need to do is upload the core SWF files to the server/include them to your project and configure them via XML data files or you can streamline your data directly to Flash Charts Pro using your favorite scripting language. Flash Charts Pro is easy in use; you do not need to be an advanced programmer for using chart library. It requires no server-based software, there are 2 ways for making it work:

You can create a list with all your data and Flash Charts Pro will catch it and display in graphics;
The other way is that you can assign variables and stream all your data into the Flash Charts Pro, so that if data constantly changing all reflections you’ll see on your chart.

Swiff Chart Generator

Swiff Chart Generator is the server-side solution to dynamically serve eye-catching animated charts from ASP.NET forms, PHP scripts or JSP scripts. Query data from a database, apply your own style template created with the Swiff Chart authoring tool and instantly generates high-impact charts in Adobe Flash format, PNG/JPG format, SVG format and PDF format.
Swiff Chart Generator runs in Microsoft IIS and Apache Web Server for both Windows and UNIX platforms. Swiff Chart Generator works with ASP.NET (C# and Visual Basic), ASP, PHP and JSP, giving you the possibility to access any data source and generate dynamic charts for your web site applications.

Open Flash Chart

Open Flash Chart is a collection of Flash applets that you embed in your web page, and which fetch data from the web server to display. In both cases you get nice little refinements as well as animated pie charts, and with a little fiddling you can customise the way your graph appears by changing its colours, fonts and size. And Open Flash Chart is British, so you’re not only encouraging open source but British open source.

Open Flash Chart

pChart

pChart is a PHP class oriented framework designed to create aliased charts. Most of todays chart libraries have a cost, our project is intended to be free. Data can be retrieved from SQL queries, CSV files, or manually provided. This project is still under development and new features or fix are made every week.

pChart

The pChart charting library is providing many ways to reprensent a single or multiple series of data. We’ll try to add screenshots everytime an interesting functionnality is added to the pChart library.

Origramy

Flash graph editor/viewer component. It can be used to create complex graphs presentations, save them and use the same component as graph viewer.

ComponentArt

ComponentArt Charting blows away the competition in terms of overall features, rendering output and ease of use. On top of a great product, the support staff is responsive, knowledgeable and helpful in all areas. This product allowed us to design, develop and deploy a solution that is more usable, manageable and extendable than we thought was possible in zero-footprint chart.

Dundas Chart for .NET

Dudas Chart for .NET

This award-winning component offers the most comprehensive features in the industry, the most complete sample framework, and the best live technical support available. From start to finish, our dedicated team will provide you with the technology you need to make your project successful.
Whether you are implementing charting into internal projects – or building data visualization applications for clients – Dundas Chart offers sophisticated visualization technology to get the most out of your data.

XML/SWF Charts

PHP/SWF Charts offers a simple and dynamic solution for interactive Flash-based charts. Columns, circles, bars and pies can be displayed in 3D. You create an XML source to describe a chart, then pass it to this tool’s flash file to generate the chart. The XML source can be prepared manually, or generated dynamically using any scripting language (PHP, ASP, CFML, Perl, etc.).

XML/SWF Chart

The script requires only PHP 4 support; it is free, however all charts are by default linked to the source — unless you’ve purchased a license.

JS Charts

JS Charts is a JavaScript chart generator that requires little or no coding. JS Charts allows you to easily create charts in different templates like bar charts, pie charts or simple line graphs.
The Commercial License cost 149$ allow you get everything inside the JS Charts free pack plus full support for 1 year.
The commercial license allows you to use this JavaScript charts generator legally on the websites that you own or develop under legal partnership with the owner.

Most popular flash image gallery

2009-05-24T10:20:07-07:00

Flash Image Gallery is a great application to publish your photos, it has many features and effects to your photos, but use it more easily than other gallery scripts just as Gallery, 4images … only thing you must do which is embed it to your website.
In my opinion it is divided into 2 main types: Flash Image Owner Hosted Gallery (the author upload their photos to their hosting) and Flash Image Services Hosted Gallery (e.g: images from Flickr, Picasa..) that name is set by me, so it may be different if you want.
Flash Image Services Hosted Gallery
There are many photo sharing services on the internet but only 2 services share and store images more users which is Flickr and Picasa, of course I will refer to 2 for this service.
FlashFlickr PhotoGallery

FlashFlickr PhotoGallery

A photogallery made in Flex2/AS3 using Flickr API.
This application let users to browse your flickr pictures, see your sets, tags and notes.
It’s also implemented the flickr authentication for flickr registered user. In this way registered users can also add comments, tags (if allowed) to your images.
The Flash XML Gallery

The Flash XML Gallery

offers a flexible solution for integration of multiple albums into one single gallery. The script can integrate popular photo sharing communities such as Flickr and Picasa. You can use a wide range of transition effects.

The images can be read from RSS or added manually. To add the images you have to upload them to the specified directory and define them in the XML-file.

Flash-Gallery

Flash Gallery

Flash Gallery is a free application that allows you to create a slideshow on your website easy and fast. You won’t need any programming skills to install or use it. Just embed it into your website and script will automatically form a slideshow from a specified folder or from Flickr photostream.
Main Features

easy installation
forms slideshow automatically
supports Flickr photostream
customizable design
fully resizable

dfGallery

dfGallery

The reason for this gallery to be cool is not just its UI but the way it is built and architected. It has an amazing theme engine built to support custom themes with multiple skins for each. The administration console built on CodeIginter lets you manage multiple galleries and albums of different types.

Features:

Flash Gallery to support both Flickr , Picasa , Fotki, Photobucket and Custom Images.
Enable / Disable “Print Screen” ( requested by Photographers )
Easily Customizable
Full Screen mode. ( on the Right Click – Flash Player 9)
Supports both RSS and Custom Images.
Liquid Layout – Fits to any size you specify.
Background MP3 music.
Multiple language support.
Notifies if a new update is available.
… and its FREE

Polaroid Gallery

Polaroid-Gallery

Polaroid Gallery is a free, opensource flash gallery developed by myself, Christopher Einarsrud, in the year of 2006.
I was originally going to use this for my online portfolio, but I ended up going for something completely different.
I thought that it might come in handy for someone else, so I decided to release it here. After all, I did put some work into it and it would be a pity to see it all go to waste…

Flash Page Flip Photo Gallery template for Picasa

This template is based on the free version of the FlashPageFlip flash engine on www.flashpageflip.com.699 It lacks the advanced functions of the commercial versions but still makes a very nice photo album on your website. You can see and hear the pages flip.

With five Flash Image Gallery above is not the most beautiful and best but it is 5 in the collection is easy to use and popular than other types.

Flash Image Gallery

Flash Photo Gallery
Flash Gallery is a FREE, simple photo gallery built in Macromedia Flash 2004, that uses XML files to store the information about which images to display. The gallery is easy to configure and update since you need to change only the XML file.
Flash Gallery Features

Flash Gallery is 100% FREE!
Easy to implement in your site
Intuitive navigation
Cross platform – Windows/Macintosh/Linux
Supports Latin, Cyrilic, Chinese and any other language you can think of
Lightweight, only 11KB
Image preloader and effects

it looks very professional as paid scripts, a great choice for anyone.

SimpleViewer

SimpleViewer

SimpleViewer is a free, customizable Flash image viewing application.

Features:

Intelligent image pre-loading.
Intuitive image navigation
Lightweight (17k).
Customizable interface – Set text color, frame color and width, navigation position.
Resizable interface – Interface scales to fit browser window.
Cross platform – Windows/Macintosh/Linux (requires Flash 8 or higher).
Flash 8 detection. Users without Flash 8 are messaged to upgrade Flash.
International font support.
Keyboard Navigation (Cursor keys, Home, End, Page Up/Down)
Mousewheel navigation
Optionally right-click to open image in a new window.
Free!

The author of this SimpleViewer also was creator of other Flash Gallery are also great for displaying pictures of you, it is PostcardViewer.

PostcardViewer

Free Flash & XML Photo Album with Categories

You don’t need the Flash software for editing the gallery. You can easily add, edit or delete pictures and categories by editing a xml file in Notepad. Creating your own Flash photo gallery has never been easier! You can add unlimited number of categories and photos! View the demo below for a Flash and XML photo album with categories. You need Flash Player 8.0 to view this Flash Photo Gallery.

Features of the Entheos Free Dynamic Flash & XML Photo Gallery with categories:

Add unlimited number of categories
Add unlimited number of images
Next and Previous buttons to navigate – The next and previous buttons get disabled when you reach the last or first image.
Images are loaded externally from a photos folder
Nice fade-in and fade-out photo transition effect
Add categories, photos and captions easily in an XML file which can be easily edited in Notepad

Flash Photo Stack Gallery

A simple Flash template that enables you to click through a stack of your favourite photographs. Unfortunately available only as plug-in for Picasa.
Invent Media Flash PhotoGallery

Invent Media Flash PhotoGallery

“Invent Media Flash PhotoGallery” is a free, simple to implement flash photo galley that requires absolutely no Flash or ActionScript skills to implement. The flash file is easily embedded into your webpage and the image files are read from an .xml file that can be easily edited using any text editor.
Zen Flash Gallery

Zen Flash Gallery

Zen Flash Gallery combines simplicity and elegance.

Main Features:

Flash component (cs3) and swf-xml versions available
Elegant author’s design
Smart usability
Multiple image folders
Gallery parameters configuration via XML
Image captions
Slideshow mode
Sound effects
Gallery code is optimized for high productivity
Limit to 10 photos per album for free version

Flash Photo Album 2

Features

It is FREE
Dynamic Picture loading
Easy to install and easy to change content
Show pictures automatically with slideshow
Integrate to any web site
No server side scripting or database requirement
Adds great look and functionality to your web site
Easy to read XML based image captions and configuration file
Ability to add custom links for each image

Wordpress 2.8 comming out!

2009-05-19T13:10:03-07:00

On June 10th, 2009, WordPress Version 2.8, named for noted trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker, will be released to the public. For more information on this enhancement and bug-fix release, read the Development Blog Announcement and see the Changelog for 2.8.

ajaxWrite [Flickr]

2006-09-07T06:17:40-07:00

Narga posted a photo:

Writely [Flickr]

2006-09-07T06:17:38-07:00

Narga posted a photo:

Zoho Writer [Flickr]

2006-09-07T06:17:32-07:00

Narga posted a photo:

Writeboard [Flickr]

2006-09-07T06:17:26-07:00

Narga posted a photo:

Live [Flickr]

2006-09-07T04:30:56-07:00

Narga posted a photo:

Narga

Magento – eCommerce Software for Growth

Installing Magento

Search Engine Optimization

Site Management and Style

No related posts.

Separate pings from comments in WordPress v2.7+

The comments loop in Wordpress 2.7+

Remove pingbacks and trackbacks in comments list

Display pingbacks and trackbacks

Full loop code below

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Most attractive diagram, chart and graphs online creator

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Most popular flash image gallery

Features:

Flash Image Gallery

SimpleViewer SimpleViewer

Features:

Features

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Wordpress 2.8 comming out!

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ajaxWrite [Flickr]

Writely [Flickr]

Zoho Writer [Flickr]

Writeboard [Flickr]

Live [Flickr]

SimpleViewer

SimpleViewer