Using a WordPress action you can include PHP global variables in your html without having to modify any theme files.
Read MoreYet another WordPress filter provided the ability to use a regular expression to add to the title parameter of the WordPress menus. Potentially good for SEO.
Read MoreAt Sun Microsystems I enjoyed submitting build fixes to the GNOME community. And I got a nerdy trill seeing my name in the ChangeLog files. After using the Display Posts Shortcode in the 4tec site, I submitted a patch to enhance that plugin.
Read MoreThe Zeus web server that Register365 use on their shared hosting servers requires that index.php be in all urls. Some code doesn't expect this - woo_pagination is in that group, but it gave me a really easy way to fix it.
Read MoreA very old recipe for flapjacks, with added seeds for use on long training cycles and reduced sugar to be suitable for children.
Read MoreAn irresistible oats based shortbread cookies and super easy to make. Warning - once you start eating them it can be hard to stop!
Read MoreI am building an online store for a client with OpenCart. I needed to import data from an existing osCommerce store so I purchased an osCommerce to OpenCart script.
The script was a great help but it needed a lot of changes to work nicely and fail gracefully. I emailed the changes back to the script author. At my request he has added a credit link to the script page.
Below is a summary of the changes I made:
- Add mysql_query() query string to error messages to help track down problem query.
- Use one strtr() call instead of multiple calls to str_replace() when creating $seo urls.
- Do not add the product_id (or category_id or manufacturer_id) to the SEO url unless there is a url clash.
- Count the number of products/categories/manufacturers copied to OpenCart and display at the end.
- Don’t die() when a mysql_query() fails – store the error and display it later (for product/category/manufacturer copying).
- Put “Back” button inside ‘p’ tags.
- Added ‘manufacturer_to_store’ table to the TRUNCATE list.
- Reformat list of tables to truncate to make it easier to read.
- Added setting at top of script to disable copying of image files (my osCommerce and OpenCart databases were on different servers).
I am currently developing an online store and using OpenCart. It is quite different from osCommerce as it uses MVC architecture but it is also modular so core files (generally) don’t need to be modified.
Some OpenCart Extensions do require modifying core files and this is obviously bad practice and will make upgrades to the core code difficult.
One of the OpenCart developers, Qphoria, developed an amazing add-on that allows developers virtually modify files, including core files, with XML files. vQmod is a Virtual File Modification System. It is fantastic!
Instead of modifying core files to include an extension, you use vqmod xml file to make the changes. It’s a bit more initial work but definitely worth it.
I am using Facebook Like button extension to put a Facebook Like button on the product pages. It required modifying the product page’s template file. This would make theme upgrades painful and error prone so in steps vQmod.
Numerous typos on a bogus used clothing collection sticker
On Monday morning the sticker shown arrived in my door. It has 3 obvious typos/errors and some other strange stuff too. A long time ago I emailed the email address given (clothescollection@gmail.com) but never got an answer.
The first typo is “gratefull” which should be “grateful“. Then “clothings” should be “clothing“. At the end, “ENCLOSED” should be “ENCLOSE“.
As for errors, “day indicated below” is wrong as the collection day is listed above that sentence.
The “some other countries” bit is amusing – it’s as if they couldn’t be bothered to make up other destination countries. It must be difficult to continually have to make up new text for these stickers. At some stage I expect them to use “yada, yada, yada.”
The lonely “EXPORTED” word, combined with the lack of a full stop at the end of the sentence above it (about not “enclosed (sic) a bag”) made me think that they left out a few words e.g. “of being“. This would make “…your children and pets can be put as risk of being exported”
1 typo and 2 apostrophes, both unnecessary
When I was younger the local supermarket had a noticeboard that people could list items for sale, rooms for rent or services available. My local convenience shop has a noticeboards but it is behind the front door and I doubt that many people see it or even know that it is there. Of course I am a bit strange.
The van and driver ad caught my eye because it offended within 4 words – “Avaiable” is missing the “l” and should be “Available”. The apostrophes in “Kind’s” and “Service’s” are simply wrong.
Maybe van driving is the advertiser’s speciality and not spelling. Or maybe s/he is actually very clever and made deliberate mistakes to stick in the reader’s mind. This approach worked, though my photography skills weren’t good enough to capture the entire phone number.