March 3, 2010
I posted photos from the Big Boy EXPO in Estero, Florida on Flickr and FaceBook.
View them on FaceBook
Website Design Blog
February 15, 2010
I think everyone involved would agree the show was major a success this year. It was a pleasure participating this year and meeting so many of you at the show. I really was impressed at the number of activities and attractions, the amount of visitors and the quality of the exhibitors. If I didn’t get a chance to talk to you at the show please drop me a line and we can talk about your experience at the show. See you in Charlotte in September and back at Germain in October!
February 10, 2010
There are multiple options when accepting payment online. This post will focus on 3 of the most popular payment methods: PayPal, Authorize.net, Google Checkout and the possibilities that exist for using all 3.
PayPal offers 3 methods to use their service to accept payment online: Express Checkout, Website Payments Standard and Website Payments Pro.
PayPal Express Checkout
PayPal Express Checkout allows visitors to pay using their PayPal account. The visitor must have a PayPal account to use Express checkout. This option will be chosen by a visitor who is comfortable using PayPal versus entering their credit card information. If you have Website Payments Pro or Website Payments Standard integrated it is required to offer Express Checkout as a payment option. PayPal Express Checkout may also be offered in addition to Authorize.net, Google Checkout or any other merchant service you may use.
PayPal Website Payments Standard
When a customer pays using website Payments Standard they temporarily leave your web site and go to PayPal to enter their credit card information. This process is relatively painless but may not be ideal depending on your situation. The benefits of using PayPal Website Payments Standard include: easy set up, no monthly fee and a SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is not required on your site since the actual shopping cart and checkout page is hosted on PayPal and not your web site.
PayPal Website Payments Pro
PayPal Website Payments Pro is PayPal’s merchant service that allows you to accept credit cards directly on your site. The funds from the transaction will go to your PayPal account. As with most merchant accounts there is a monthly fee associated with Website Payments Pro (currently $30.). PayPal Express Checkout must be included as a payment option with PayPal Website Payments Pro.
Authorize.net provides a payment gateway for you to accept credit cards directly on your web site. The benefits of Authorize.net include low cost and direct integration using a trusted merchant service provider. Authorize.net can be used to process credit cards in addition to offering PayPal Express Checkout and Google Checkout.
There are a variety of ways to integrate with Authorize.net. Typically Web Site Design By, LLC will integrate Authorize.net directly with a shopping cart or custom checkout application on your web site. We are an an Authorized.net affiliate reseller. Please use the button below to start your application process. Start now by creating a login.
Google provides another payment option for shoppers who prefer to checkout using Google Checkout. Visitors must have a Google Checkout Account or register for one to pay using Google Checkout. With Google Checkout, Google simply stores the visitors credit card information and transfers the funds to your bank. There is a fee associated with each transaction. Google Checkout can be implemented in addition to PayPal and Authorize.net.
February 6, 2010
I have been using authorize.net as a merchant service provider for many years. They provide a payment gateway that enables you to authorize, settle, and manage credit card and electronic check payments. Their payment gateway can be integrated into your web site to accept payment online, or you can use their virtual terminal to process credit cards manually.
Are you ready to get started with your authorize.net application process?
If you would like more information about authorize.net or accepting credit cards on your web site please contact us.
September 26, 2009
You can now log in to post comments on my blog using FaceBook via WP-FacebookConnect.
September 10, 2009
This example uses the php class developed by Mark Sandborn (now hosted at code.google.com here). I made a couple slight modifications to the class. Using Marks’ class I created this form to serve as a starting point for you to present your user with various UPS shipping options and their associated costs to integrate into your own shopping cart.
download my sourcecode for the form
Rates and Service Selection XML Tool Developers Guide from UPS
Happy coding!
September 7, 2009
Loading data from the server via AJAX is an efficient and increasingly popular way to present content from a user request. After starting out by writing my own AJAX functions I started using the prototype framework. I am currently using the jquery load function as jquery is a very powerful and easy to use framework that can handle the nuts and bolts of a variety of other javascript functions and effects.
Part of implementing an AJAX request is to have a message displayed while the request is being made to the server to let the user know exactly what is going on and give your application a more professional and responsive appearance. In the past I have found myself spending too much time hand creating an animated loading indicator that spins with just the right colors and size. Fortunately someone out there has had the same experience and chose to share their solution. Here is a very handy tool to use to automatically generate a professional AJAX loading indicator GIF animation. ajaxload.info lets you define the foreground and background color and generates a perfect, professional AJAX load indicator every time!
September 3, 2009
Today I updated the portfolio section to load posts from a Word Press category instead of using the ‘pages’ feature. I like the portfolio organized more like a blog instead of a static page. Some new items have been added and I will continue to update now that I have the formatting updated.
August 27, 2009
I realized yesterday my iPhone still is not capable of displaying Flash content. After Googling some articles on the subject I did not come up with anything more recent than February of this year when Bloomberg spoke with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. It sounds like Adobe is on the case, but what Jobs is thinking may be another story.
CEO Steve Jobs said last March that Flash runs too slowly for the iPhone, and a slimmed-down version, called Flash Lite, “isn’t capable enough to be used with the Web.”
The idea of an iPhone specific version of the FlashPlayer makes sense and I am hopeful Adobe will deliver a solution that is agreeable for users, developers, Adobe and Apple. As a developer I would even accept having to publish to a separate version of Flash content for iPhone users.
If Jobs’ primary concern is the speed of content delivery on the iPhone he should direct his focus focus on AT&T, not Adobe Flash Player.
June 5, 2009
I know it’s lazy, but it’s handy…
date(“Y-m-d H:i:s”);
| format
character |
Description | Example returned values |
|---|---|---|
| Day | — | — |
| d | Day of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros | 01 to 31 |
| D | A textual representation of a day, three letters | Mon through Sun |
| j | Day of the month without leading zeros | 1 to 31 |
| l (lowercase ‘L’) | A full textual representation of the day of the week | Sunday through Saturday |
| N | ISO-8601 numeric representation of the day of the week (added in PHP 5.1.0) |
1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sunday) |
| S | English ordinal suffix for the day of the month, 2 characters |
st, nd, rd or th. Works well with j |
| w | Numeric representation of the day of the week | 0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Saturday) |
| z | The day of the year (starting from 0) | 0 through 365 |
| Week | — | — |
| W | ISO-8601 week number of year, weeks starting on Monday (added in PHP 4.1.0) | Example: 42 (the 42nd week in the year) |
| Month | — | — |
| F | A full textual representation of a month, such as January or March | January through December |
| m | Numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros | 01 through 12 |
| M | A short textual representation of a month, three letters | Jan through Dec |
| n | Numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros | 1 through 12 |
| t | Number of days in the given month | 28 through 31 |
| Year | — | — |
| L | Whether it’s a leap year | 1 if it is a leap year, 0 otherwise. |
| o | ISO-8601 year number. This has the same value as Y, except that if the ISO week number (W) belongs to the previous or next year, that year is used instead. (added in PHP 5.1.0) |
Examples: 1999 or 2003 |
| Y | A full numeric representation of a year, 4 digits | Examples: 1999 or 2003 |
| y | A two digit representation of a year | Examples: 99 or 03 |
| Time | — | — |
| a | Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem | am or pm |
| A | Uppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem | AM or PM |
| B | Swatch Internet time | 000 through 999 |
| g | 12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros | 1 through 12 |
| G | 24-hour format of an hour without leading zeros | 0 through 23 |
| h | 12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros | 01 through 12 |
| H | 24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros | 00 through 23 |
| i | Minutes with leading zeros | 00 to 59 |
| s | Seconds, with leading zeros | 00 through 59 |
| u | Microseconds (added in PHP 5.2.2) | Example: 54321 |
| Timezone | — | — |
| e | Timezone identifier (added in PHP 5.1.0) | Examples: UTC, GMT, Atlantic/Azores |
| I (capital i) | Whether or not the date is in daylight saving time | 1 if Daylight Saving Time, 0 otherwise. |
| O | Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) in hours | Example: +0200 |
| P | Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) with colon between hours and minutes (added in PHP 5.1.3) | Example: +02:00 |
| T | Timezone abbreviation | Examples: EST, MDT … |
| Z | Timezone offset in seconds. The offset for timezones west of UTC is always negative, and for those east of UTC is always positive. |
-43200 through 50400 |
| Full Date/Time | — | — |
| c | ISO 8601 date (added in PHP 5) | 2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00 |
| r | » RFC 2822 formatted date | Example: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200 |
| U | Seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT) | See also time() |
MySQL DATE_FORMAT
| Specifier | Description |
%a |
Abbreviated weekday name ( Sun..Sat) |
%b |
Abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec) |
%c |
Month, numeric (0..12) |
%D |
Day of the month with English suffix (0th,1st, 2nd,3rd, …) |
%d |
Day of the month, numeric (00..31) |
%e |
Day of the month, numeric (0..31) |
%f |
Microseconds (000000..999999) |
%H |
Hour (00..23) |
%h |
Hour (01..12) |
%I |
Hour (01..12) |
%i |
Minutes, numeric (00..59) |
%j |
Day of year (001..366) |
%k |
Hour (0..23) |
%l |
Hour (1..12) |
%M |
Month name (January..December) |
%m |
Month, numeric (00..12) |
%p |
AM or PM
|
%r |
Time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss followed byAM or PM) |
%S |
Seconds (00..59) |
%s |
Seconds (00..59) |
%T |
Time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss) |
%U |
Week (00..53), where Sunday is thefirst day of the week |
%u |
Week (00..53), where Monday is thefirst day of the week |
%V |
Week (01..53), where Sunday is thefirst day of the week; used with %X
|
%v |
Week (01..53), where Monday is thefirst day of the week; used with %x
|
%W |
Weekday name (Sunday..Saturday) |
%w |
Day of the week ( 0=Sunday..6=Saturday) |
%X |
Year for the week where Sunday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %V
|
%x |
Year for the week, where Monday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %v
|
%Y |
Year, numeric, four digits |
%y |
Year, numeric (two digits) |
%% |
A literal “%” character |
% |
x, for any“ x” not listedabove |