If you do a lot of Emailing back in forth as I often do, you may want to try Google Wave. Google Wave is still an invitation-only beta (Gmail was an invitation-only beta from 2004-2007 years before being released to the public), so you will need an invite to start using it. I have about 10 invites left, so you can drop me a note and I will send you one if you are interested in trying it and promise to post something nice in my wave. Google Wave is hard to describe as I am quite a wave newbie myself. It is an amalgamation of Email, chat, bulletin board, shared document and a live meeting.

Since wave is currently the bleeding edge of technology, you will need a couple things besides an invite to make your web browser Wave ready. First of all I recommend using Firefox, so if you don’t have that web browser go ahead and install it. Next go install gears. Ok you should be all set! Now go visit my wave and try it out.

You will probably need to watch some of the videos and read the instructions at wave.google.com/about.html. If you have other resources and links, please share them in my wave. I am still a little perplexed by it all myself, but see some potential here. Who knows, maybe this thing will be really useful when it gets out of beta in 2013.

Thanks blog.zenika.com for sorting out the details.

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.

Tell us about your specific plans for accepting payments online and we will help you implement the best possible solution.

naturesong.net was redesigned in 2009 to address some issues with the shopping cart, integrate a reseller login so resellers can log in and purchase CDs at a discount and NET 30 payment terms and generally update the look and feel of the site.

The shopping cart and content management system is completely custom. I decided to create a custom system for this site because I had a clear vision of how it should work. The owner, Bill Leverick, wanted to be able to easily update the CDs available for sale. I knew there were off-the-shelf shopping carts and content management systems I could probably have used or customized. Because these products had an ‘audio sample’ component to them that we needed to attach and be able to associate audio files with multiple products, I decided to build it myself. The site integrates PayPal Website Payments Pro for it’s merchant service provider and the UPS API to get shipping information from UPS in real-time for orders with quantities above 2 CDs. The AJAX overlay for each product uses the jQuery framework to handle the JavaScript effects.

In retrospect I am happy with my decision to go completely custom with this site. It allowed me to develop exactly what the client was looking for without excess functionality that he didn’t want or need and might have confused the process. It also allowed me to address his fine-tuning requests quickly and not have to compromise because of an off-the-shelf software limitation.

Here is a quote from the owner:

Ross,
I just logged on to check out the new NatureSong site that you activated today. I am very pleased not only with the graphics, but with the built in ability for me to make necessary changes to the products. You have done a great job and I would heartily recommend you to anyone. Please feel free to use this site and my other web site, Cape Cod & New England Gift Show as examples of your work.
Thanks,
Bill Leverick

View Project

The original site I developed in 1998 can be seen here.

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!

I made a random flickr image loader using phpFlickr.

It loads a random image from based on the search term entered in the text box. Search terms are saved in a database and reused randomly on each refresh.

I have decided to learn as much as I can about different APIs offered by popular web sites such as twitter, facebook, flickr, yahoo, etc…

As the internet evolves and we spend more time computing in the cloud, I think it will be important to be able to pull various pieces together for more specialized applications.