OGG Encoding for HTML5 Audio

By Ammon | January 13 2012

The html5 <audio> tag needs an mp3 file and and ogg file to be cross-browser compatible. For best results, only encode raw, wav, or aiff files this way. Mp3 to ogg will look like it works, but the file won't play on Firefox.

Encode

  1. Install oggenc: $ sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
  2. Encode: $ oggenc -q 6 input.wav -o output.ogg

The HTML:

<audio controls="controls" preload="auto" autobuffer autoplay id="player">
    <source src="http://alialujah.com/files/3513/2641/1365/a-house-a-home.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
    <source src="http://alialujah.com/files/3813/2648/7285/a-house-a-home.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />
    Aw dang! Your browser does not support html5.
</audio>

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.htaccess for Magento pretty URLs

By Ammon | October 11 2011

I was pulling my hair out over this because Magento failed to produce an .htaccess file after I enabled url rewrites on my local dev server. I searched the old internets and found nothing! I ended up using the same .htaccess arguments as I do for WordPress and it worked great.

To enable url rewrites, go to System > Configuration > Web > Search Engines Optimization > Use Web Server Rewrites and choose yes.

Copy the following into a blank file and save it in the root of your Magento install as “.htaccess”:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

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And the eCC compatible shopping cart winner is…

By Ammon | September 7 2011

Opencart! No wait… it was actually LiveCart.

Ed. Note 9/8/11: LiveCart made me a liar.  Turns out its broken, the community is non-existent, and the documentation is incomplete.  After struggling with PHP error after error for hours yesterday, I’ve given it up and my search for an eCC compatible shopping cart continues.  I remain impressed by Opencart though, and I’m hoping like hell that I get Quickbooks integration through consolibyte. I found them through the Opencart forums and their web connector is in beta. Here’s hopin’!

 

But not because it’s the best.  Its just the only one that actually works with eCC and Quickbooks.  The reason?  Variations.

Variations are everything

Quickbooks gives all items (the QB name for products) a unique item number. Variations on a product (like size and color) also get an item number. So if I am selling widgets, I would go into Quickbooks and add a new item called Widget, and Quickbooks would assign Widget item number 1. I have all different kinds of widgets so I’d leave the inventory amount at 0. Now I have to add a style (QB’s word for variations) for each kind of widget I’m selling. I have large widgets and small widgets and they come in green or red. So I add a style for each combo, large red, small red, large green, and small green.

When I save and look at the list of all my items, I find that I now have an entry for Widget with no styles, and an entry for each widget combination. Large red widgets are item number 2, small red widgets are item number 3, and so on. Quickbooks treats every variation as a unique product, which makes a lot of sense when you think about how hard it would be to track inventory otherwise. Unfortunately of the three carts I tested (Opencart, Livecart, and Prestashop), Livecart is the only only that works like this. And this is essential. So Livecart it is!

But Opencart was soooo good!

If Quickbooks integration wasn’t an issue, the winner would be Opencart by a mile. It’s really nice to use. The admin area (and the frontend while we’re at it) was super fast and just beautiful. Adding products and variations was a breeze. The workflow was so smooth and well thought out. Everything just made so much sense! I can’t say that about Livecart or Prestashop, which are both pretty slopping in comparison.

Code-wise Opencart was a big stand-out as well. No smarty templating to deal with, the code is clean, and the directory structure makes sense. Themeing is straight forward. All in all an exemplary MVC application. If only I could use it!

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Livecart 500 Internal Server Error on Install

By Ammon | September 1 2011

I just installed Livecart on my local development machine and got a 500 Internal Server error when I visited the site. My permissions were set correctly. The Apache log was showing this error: livecart/.htaccess: Options not allowed here

Never seen that one before! I fixed it by following tristanC’s advice on this forum post.

Just edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/userdir.conf and add Options as the last argument on the AllowOverride line. Then restart Apache and you’re golden!

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eCC compatible shopping cart reviews

By Ammon | August 17 2011

I have a client who uses eCC for quickbooks integration with their webstore. Originally we had them on the WP E-Commerce plugin, but the new version (3.8) is badly broken, and after a horrendous couple days trying to fix it I’m forced to abandon ship. So I went through the list of eCC compatible shopping carts hoping to find a suitable replacement.

The List

Here’s the full list of eCC compatible shopping carts from their website:

  • Avactis
  • osCMax
  • BigCommerce
  • Pinnacle Cart
  • ClaimTheWeb
  • Prestashop
  • CRE Loaded
  • Shop-Script
  • CS-Cart
  • Ubercart
  • CubeCart
  • ViArt Shop
  • Interspire
  • BigCommerce
  • VirtueMart
  • LiveCart
  • Volusion
  • Magento
  • WordPress
  • Mal’s eCommerce
  • X-Cart
  • OpenCart
  • Zen Cart
  • 3d Cart
  • osCommerce

The Criteria

Open Source

First of all, non-open source carts were taken out of the running immediately, with the briefest of overviews if they looked interesting. In addition to the cost, I’ve learned from harsh experience that closed-source shopping carts are a nightmare to work with (xSilva anyone?). If I can’t get into the guts of the thing, its not worth wasting my time.

Pretty Backend

Since I actually have to sell this thing to a client, its got to look good. I don’t have time to do customisations on the admin area. Its got to be attractive and usable out of the box.

Good Documentation

Its hard to find, as many projects have moved over to the “knowledge base” style of not-really-documentation, but its pretty important. If the docs are bad or non-existent, its got to have a good forum and an active community.

MVC

Once you go MVC you never go back. Shopping carts are way to complex to use old coding styles.

The Losers

Closed Source and Closed Core Losers

The standout among closed-source carts was Interspire. I didn’t use it but it looks super slick. Probably a good turn-key solution (as if that ever really works). I also included closed-core carts (i.e. “97% open source!”) in this losers list because they tend to be just as useless as closed-source.

  • Avactis
  • BigCommerce
  • Pinnacle Cart
  • ClaimTheWeb
  • CRE Loaded
  • Shop-Script
  • CS-Cart
  • CubeCart
  • ViArt Shop
  • Interspire
  • BigCommerce (Interspire’s hosted solution)
  • Volusion
  • Mal’s eCommerce (Free, but hosted only)
  • X-Cart
  • 3d Cart

Open-source Losers

Carts that made this list include those that didn’t make the criteria above and carts that are based on a CMS, like Drupal and Joomla. They may be great, but my bad experience with WP E-Commerce has soured me on those.

  • osCMax
    • No updates since 2010
    • Drupal based
  • Ubercart
    • Drupal based
  • VirtueMart
    • Joomla based
  • Magento
    • A sea of terrible reviews that site code bloat, bad load times, overly complex markup
  • WP E-Commerce
    • I was really excited about this project initially. Latest upgrade (3.8) was a huge step in the wrong direction. I'm of the opinion now that WordPress is not an appropriate platform for e-commerce.
    • Hard to customise
    • Documentation has disappeared
    • Basic functionality broken out of the box
    • Confusing backend
  • Zen Cart
    • MVC based, but…
    • Messy documentation
    • Ugly, outdated backend
  • osCommerce
    • Also MVC based (Zen Cart was based on osCommerce) but again…
    • Bad documentation
    • Ugly backend

The Preliminary Winners!

I’ve narrowed it down to 3:

  • PrestaShop
    • MVC
    • Small & Fast (according to reviews)
    • Actual documentation!
    • Active community
    • Smarty templating (boo!)
  • LiveCart
    • MVC
    • Passable backend
    • Smarty templating (blech!)
    • Concrete5-style blocks
    • Backend not compatible with IE (uh-oh!)
  • OpenCart
    • MVC +L
    • Very little documentation
    • Feature poor according to (old) reviews
    • Active community
    • PHP templating! No Smarty to learn
    • Really slick backend, the best of the bunch
    • Lots of ajaxy javascript animations in front and back

Now I have to download and install the winners. Check back for the grand finalist!

Posted in Musings | Tagged | 3 Comments

Disable WP E-Commerce scripts and stylesheets

By Ammon | August 15 2011

This comes straight outta the getShopped forums: http://getshopped.org/forums/topic/disable-all-wpsc-javascript-and-css-files-3/ via cannobbio.

To disable all scripts and stylesheets, add this code to the functions.php file in your theme folder:


// Remove Styles
function childtheme_deregister_styles() {
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-theme-css' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-theme-css-compatibility' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-product-rater' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wp-e-commerce-dynamic');
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-thickbox' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-gold-cart' );
}
add_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'childtheme_deregister_styles', 100 );

// Remove Scripts
function childtheme_deregister_scripts() {
wp_deregister_script( 'wpsc-thickbox' );
wp_deregister_script( 'jquery-rating' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wp-e-commerce' );
wp_deregister_script( 'jQuery' );
wp_deregister_script( 'infieldlabel' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wp-e-commerce-ajax-legacy' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wp-e-commerce-dynamic' );
wp_deregister_script( 'livequery' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wp-e-commerce-legacy' );
wp_deregister_script( 'l10n' );
wp_deregister_script( 'wpsc-gold-cart' );
}
add_action( 'wp_print_scripts', 'childtheme_deregister_scripts', 100 );

// Remove Product List RSS
remove_action('wp_head', 'wpsc_product_list_rss_feed');

Then expect things to get weird! This will disable a lot of built-in functionality which you prolly want. Fortunately you can easily pick and choose by leaving out the scripts and stylesheets you still need. I found that the most disruptive thing for my customisations was the Gold Cart stylesheet, which I disabled with this:


// Remove gold cart css
function childtheme_deregister_styles() {
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-gold-cart' );
}
add_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'childtheme_deregister_styles', 100 );

Posted in Solutions | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

WP E-Commerce 3.8 and Thematic = no sidebars!

By Ammon | August 15 2011

I just upgraded a client from WP E-Commerce 3.7 to 3.8 and all my sidebars disappeared! This is how I fixed it:

Background info

The freshest software

First of all, I’m using a child theme of Thematic (version 0.9.7.7) and the latest versions of WP E-Commerce (3.8.6) and WordPress (3.2.1). I just downloaded everything today so its all freshy fresh.

The issue

I have widgets in my primary, secondary, and three subsidiary sidebars. They show up on every page on my site except for the products page and single products pages.

I tried everything!

Before this fix I tried disabling all my plugins, which did nothing. Then I tried some other themes: the default WordPress theme Twenty Eleven also had no sidebars on the products page, but Twenty Ten worked fine. This was a clue.

It prolly has something to do with…

This function: dynamic_sidebar() is being overridden or whatever. That’s all I got.

The fix

WP E-Commerce uses the page.php template for the products page and single products pages. To get your sidebars back, copy the page.php file from themes/thematic/page.php folder to themes/yourtheme/page.php. Comment out thematic_sidebar(); on line 10, like this:

// thematic_sidebar();

Then add these lines directly under the code you just commented out:

thematic_primary_aside();
thematic_secondary_aside();

Save the file and view the products page, your primary and secondary sidebars should be there. Now to get your footer widgets back, copy themes/thematic/footer.php to themes/yourtheme/footer.php. Comment out thematic_footer(); on line 16, like this:

// thematic_footer();

Then add the following three lines right under that:

thematic_1st_subsidiary_aside();
thematic_2nd_subsidiary_aside();
thematic_3rd_subsidiary_aside();

Save the file, reload the page in your browser, and all your sidebar widgets should be there!

Posted in Solutions | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Novacut is back!

By Ammon | July 25 2011

Support Novacut, a pro open source video editor! Its an idea whose time has definitely come:

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Milholland Bicycle Company

By Ammon | July 15 2011

Did I ever mention that my brother builds the best bikes in the world? He built a mountain bike for me that is the best thing I’ve ever ridden. Check him out!

Sweet new website: http://www.milhollandcycles.com/

Facebook: Milholland Cycles

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Add Javascript to a Concrete5 template the right way

By Ammon | May 27 2011

jQuery is included by default in Concrete5. Here’s how to add your own script:

Put your .js file in the /js directory in the root of your Concrete5 install. In your theme’s elements/header.php file, add the following just before <?php Loader::element('header_required'); ?>:

<?php
$html = Loader::helper('html');
$this->addHeaderItem($html->javascript('my_script.js'));
?>

If you want to include your javascript file only when the user is not in edit mode, use this instead:

<?php
global $cp;
$html = Loader::helper(‘html’);
if (!$cp->canWrite()) {
$this->addHeaderItem($html->javascript(‘script.js’));
}
?>

Posted in Musings | 2 Comments