MaconMacGuy.com:

Putting the tech pieces together
for Macon & Middle Georgia
for "a good while now"

I’ve been using Prestashop for MacMusicGuy.com for several months, and though I’d jot down some views. I was looking for an ecommerce solution that easily allowed downloadable products – this particular shop doesn’t sell physical products – at least for the forseeable future!.

I looked at several different possibilities – Magento, etc – even looked at using WordPress, which could be theoretically doable – but settled on Prestashop because the base store is free, and it comes with a plethora of features. It is easily extensible with add-in modules (similar to the WordPress Widgets and Plugins) – many are free, and there is an active paid developer community as well.

Other attractive features are the options for multiple languages, multiple currencies, multiple shipping partners (which I don’t need for this particular store), and the template design setup.

The shop has been up and running for some time – I am still loading product into the store at odd times, so it will be some time before there are more than a few products available.

Overall, I am pleased with the software. The only two “gotchas” I had to wrestle with were the PHP upload settings on the server – fortunately my host provider (MidGaHosting.com) allows me to change the settings to allow larger file uploads), and needing to unblock some ports on the hosting firewall, which took a bit of trial and error.

Prestashop is available at Prestashop.com. Tell them the MaconMacGuy sent you!

This is a quick-and-dirty summary of how to automatically update your Facebook Page with entries from a blog.

BACKGROUND: I have several website that are WordPress based, and thus have an RSS feed as part of the setup. Several others are using Feedburner to distribute the feed as well.

There are also some Facebook pages setup as an auxiliary web presence – See the HamSandwichTees Website vs. the Facebook Page for an example.

What I wanted to do was to add an entry to the website, and then have it automatically transfer in to the Facebook Page.

Here’s how:

• Login to Facebook
• Click Pages (left menu)
• Click on the Page you wish to edit
• Click EDIT PAGE button – top right
• Click APPS link on left menu
• Find the NOTES app – click the “Go to App” link
• Click EDIT IMPORT SETTINGS link on left sidebar.
• Add in the appropriate RSS link (something like http://hamsandwichtees.com/feed/)

I have been researching several shopping carts as I setup a new online store (MacMusicGuy.com, which will sell downloadable music, sheet music, etc.). It has been interesting looking at the tons of open-source options, as well as the commercial software options.

Some observations:

1. OScommerce has been around a long while, and has a tremendous community built up around it. My impression is that the look is dated, and debugging/configuring  the install will take quite a while.
2. Xcart is something I’ve had some peripheral experience with through a former client. It is commercial software, and is quite capable. I’ve decided for budget reasons to not go commercial, however.
3. OSCommRes is an option available in my MidGaHosting.com host account. There is little info on the web about it, though, and I really do not want to start up a new online store with dead software.
4. Zencart looked interesting – it looks like a more modern version of OScommerce. Several posters commented that it was a better choice than OScommerce, but it would still require significant tweaking.
5. Magento also looked promising. It is an opensource/commercial hybrid – the so called “freemium” model. Unfortunately for me the “Community” edition was missing some features that I need in this store.
6. PrestaShop is what I decided to try. It looks like it will do what I need it to do, and the setup seems to be fairly straightforward. I am still in the midst of configuing the backend, and then will start loading product into the store. At that point I’ll make the shop active.

The short list of my requirements:

1. mysql/php based
2. Easily add downloadable products
3. Some carts can do “multiple stores” inside one install. That might be useful later should this store branch out into shippable products.
4. Backup capability inside the admin panel
5. multiple admin users – I’m going to need some help later!
6. Ability to add free products to the mix.
7. Builtin RSS feed
8. Multiple currency capable
9. Builtin hooks to Paypal and Google Checkout

More later as I continue this journey!

Tip 1

I’m closing in on completing a site for the Society of Clinical Nursing Specialist Educators, a professional organization dedicated to enhancing the education of Clinical Nursing Specialists.

This is a new organization, and their website needed to be clean, easy to navigate, and yet allow for conference registration…. and not cost a lot to develop.

I created several tie-ins with Paypal in the site, working with the groups treasurer. For a new organization cost containment is obviously a critical issue, and we found that Paypal’s pricing for handling the credit card payments was significantly lower than the SCNSE’s bank.

I also added a feedburner tie-in so that anyone can be notified when news is added to the site.

Behind the scenes I am working with the organization’s board to create a communications structure, including email addresses, contact information, and training a “PR” person on adding news to the site.

“Being online” means more than just having a website. It has to integrate into the business (or in this case, the organization) – and that means having a communications process setup to answer questions and comments, add material to the site, etc.

There is a lot of additional activities and features that could be added to the site, but for now what is there is enough to get a new national organization started.

Check it out for yourself:

Society of Clinical Nursing Specialist Educators

I had an interesting conversation with a student who wanted to start a website – but he was very confused about domains and website and such.

Domains

A Domain in just a name given to a particular computer/IP address. [IP address = a numeric address that every box connected to the internet has to have]. MaconMacGuy.com, for example, actually behind the scenes gets pointed to a particular IP address and a particular areas of that particular machine.

When you “purchase” a domain you are essentially “renting” that domain so you can use it. That’s why you have to re-up your subscription every so often, and why it’s a per-year charge.

Hosting

Hosting, on the other hand, is renting space on a webserver where your website live – i.e. where the files that make up your site are stashed. The computer is accessible via the Web, so anyone looking for your site can see it on the web.

DNS

The DNS system is essentially a big phone directory that ties the domain and the IP addresses together – MaconMacGuy.com and 66.40.34.135, for example. This way you can type in the easily remembered MaconMacGuy.com instead of 66.40.34.135.

The Domain purchase and the Hosting purchase are really two separate transactions – which means you can purchase the domain from one place and the webhosting from another. I have had several clients go ahead and purchase a domain – so they already “own” it – before they know what they will do with it. Later, they’ll purchase hosting from MidGaHosting.com, and we’ll have to do a bit of extra work to get the two tied together.

It’s usually easier – and better – to go ahead and purchase the domain and the hosting at the same time, from the same company. You’ll have ONE company to deal with, ONE account, ONE place to go and renew your website or domain, ONE user interface, etc.

I – for biased reasons, mind you! – recommend my company MidGaHosting.com for both. The prices are competitive, and the Control panel is easy to navigate through. It really doesn’t take long to figure out how to get something done [as opposed to the one in GoDaddy, which I find incredibly arcane and annoying to navigate. I frankly don't have that kind of time to waste!]

I had a client recently whose website was put on hiatus – they had forgotten to pay the hosting bill!

Fortunately their domain was good for another year, so all that happened was their site was temporarily replaced with an “account suspended” page – easily fixed by paying the bill.

So why did this happen?

The easy answer is that someone wasn’t paying attention to their emails! After all, the system starts sending out reminder messages a month in advance!

Looking deeper, however, reveals a flaw in the system setup – and this is why I look at the whole system when setting up a new website. There should be a line of communication that is put in place to ensure someone who can react to problems vis-a-vis the site is kept apprised of problems.

This particular client is a homeowner’s association – and as such has a management staff PLUS a volunteer board of directors. Communication lines have not been clear in the past, which made it difficult to decide who needed to know what when originally setting up the system.

As a result, the original setup was for account info be sent to the main office email account….and here is where the flaw was exposed last week. The office does not have a clear communication setup – the website email account is used, but also a additional “off-site” account, which was getting heavy traffic (and thus most of the attention.

The fix? The primary hosting account now is listed as an alias – which automatically forwards everything to the webdesigner, the board’s president, the office, PLUS the communications committee.

A lesson learned with a very small price to pay. You don’t often get those in adulthood!