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Some Important Information on Hosted Shopping Cart Software Posted By : Mark Rick

Nowadays mostly every website which features products for sale has hosted shopping cart software. This software allows the customer to place the products they want to buy in order just like we take shopping carts when we go to supermarkets for groceries and other items. This usually makes it very simple for customers to buy products online. You have two options that either you rent out an auto responding company to manage this software for you or you can also purchase the software and manage it on your own. Mostly people buy this software as it is a one time investment and you don’t have to pay the companies to handle it for you.

But what mostly smart people do is that they rent out auto responding companies and help them to take care of your website’s shopping cart and delivery of emails. This will not help you in getting expert services in your business but rather will prevent you from facing technical problems leaving you ample time to concentrate on function and operation of your business.

Hosted shopping cart service providers are also known as application service provider (ASP). They have relieved the tension of small and medium companies. There are various reasons to prove that hosted shopping cart software is beneficial rather than stand alone software. One of the reasons that it is considered better than your personal shopping cart is that you do not have to install the software in your IT department and manage it as it is a very complicated procedure. Secondly, if you think it is a one time job of installing the software then you are mistaken as the software needs to be upgraded whenever the latest version is available and plus upgrading it is very time consuming. Hosted shopping cart software removes all the problems and technicalities that you face while installing and managing it as this software is pre installed for every user. Another reason to opt for hosted shopping cart software is that it very less cost effective than your personal shopping cart software as the cost is shared by several users using the same server.

People use to pay attention in buying their own shopping cart software rather than go for the hosted one rather than concentrating on their managing and sales techniques, and this is where they use to face problems in marketing strategies and eventually their sales declined.

Hosted shopping cart providers keep your system up to date and add new features that have recently been introduced to it and keep it safe from any kind of technical faults and mishaps. They provide special security of the data and information of the customer and also keep the backup of all the data in order to save them from the recovery cost incase something goes wrong and they loose all their important data. Hosted shopping cart providers are considered as a blessing for people who market and sell products online. Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com

Search Engine Optimization Company offer SEO Shopping Cart Software.

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DotNetNuke vs Kentico vs Umbraco - Leading ASP.NET CMSs Compared Side by Side

WebmasterFormat.com: DotNetNuke, Kentico, and Umbraco are all among the top CMS options available using the .NET framework. But even after you have reviewed each one of them independently, it can be difficult to gain a truly comparative insight into what each product has to offer. By arranging all 3 products into one feature-based table, it becomes easier to analyze similarities and highlight any beneficial features.

Here is a head to head comparison of DotNetNuke, Kentico, and Umbraco.

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Some Important Tips to Consider before Starting an E-commerce Shop Posted By : Pixelcrayons

Profits from an E-commerce store do not start when you initiate selling on it but much before that. How?

You imagine a single product which you want to buy and type the related keywords. You will find a long product list on your search engine page with some product specialized websites, review websites & blogs. And, the product is just a click away to purchase.

Now consider the same in real world where one has to first setup a shop. But this establishment includes land cost, infrastructure cost, warehousing, expenditure in marketing & promotion of the products/service and other overheads. Whereas, setting up an E-commerce shop does not require scalable expenditure.

Since the inception of Internet, many development and advancement of technologies have taken place. Some were normal and some revolutionary. And E-commerce is one such revolutionary development in the online arena which has made business just a click away.

What adds to its achievement is that it provides convenience to both the parties—Consumer & Service Provider. A service provider or a product supplier can very easily ask for customer’s feedback, supervise its inventory, take care of its marketing & promotion and etc. On the other side, a consumer can compare products, review the products, write and give his rating to the purchase he/she has made, convenient tracking of the product shipment and many other such overwhelming features.

The only thing which you need to have, before starting an E-commerce solution, is good platform with better design, and a little bit of planning. If you could not plan for E-commerce software, it would turn frustrating and time consuming. And many neglect this planning part and later pay for it by reinstalling new software.

The other important thing which can assure you the correct establishment of your online shop is to hire a highly professional company which provides E-commerce Solution & software implementation as their expertise. Hiring a service provider ensures you the desired result and fully functional online shop.

Once you get the right kind of vendor who can design and develop your store, fitted with desired features you are left with the marketing and promotion part of your store. Service providers with professionals as their work force do provide you help even with this and help the shop owner to gain momentum.

So if you have decided to put an online shop then, a right E-commerce Solution providing company is a necessary step. Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com

PixelCrayons is an industry leader in providing bespoke Ecommerce Web Development solutions. Here, you can hire dedicated Magento Developer and OsCommerce Developer on hourly basis.

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Employee Benefits, Grievances, and Termination: EDM and Workflow Help Manage HR

Life can be intense. Every day, employee dramas enter the workplace unsolicited. Some of the greatest workplace concerns we face as HR professionals, employees, and caring colleagues are making sure:

Health needs are met and costs are covered as anticipated.Everyone is treated fairly by managers and co-workers, able to work without discrimination or harassment.No one makes (or must endure) threats in the workplace, idle or real.

Intentional wrongdoing, inadvertent employee mishandling, shoddy record keeping, or a manager or worker with a hidden agenda can devastate company finances, reputation, and employee morale. Noncompliance penalties, unemployment insurance, time-consuming training programs, lower productivity, and other HR costs can pull strongly on the bottom line as a result. So what can you do to:

… help staff members comply with corporate policies?

… improve confidence, trust, and satisfaction with your HR department and company?

… discourage workers from wrongdoing and prevent acts of poor judgment?

… protect your organization and its workers from engaging in and getting away with---or experiencing---harassment, unjust treatment, false accusations of such activity, or other harm?

… guard your organization against false accusations?

The answer lies in timely, complete, accurate documentation…along with the ability to organize, associate, and handle information appropriately, consistently, and quickly when you need it. The challenge: gathering it from diverse places including your HR software, document repositories, payroll systems, email, voice messages, and more, and maximizing its use everywhere it has value.

Web-accessible electronic document management (EDM) software functions like a wide-mouthed funnel, giving you access to relevant data found throughout your organization so you can retrieve it directly within your HR application. Web services integration between your HR system and EDM gives you one-click access to documents and other structured content as well as unstructured information such as emails and handwritten (scanned) correspondence. When auditors, compliance officers, or the courts demand information---or even a staff member--- EDM’s inherent indexing and search capabilities let authorized persons find what they need instantly from within your HR application. With the click of a mouse, voila!--- scattered information materializes onscreen for easy viewing, giving searchers a quick, holistic overview.

Business Process Management (BPM) complements EDM’s funnel-like efficiency, serving as a 3-D conveyor belt to push, pull, and transport information from one system to the next while complying with your rules-driven processes. Behind the scenes, it references EDM for information about your files and your processing rules, enabling smooth, secure information transfer. Stored data (such as the date of an annual performance review) is pushed and pulled wherever it’s needed, at the right time, helping people to make informed decisions and accelerating turnaround times dramatically. As people, positions, and policies change, just update the rules governing the flow of work, and BPM automatically complies, eliminating errors and simplifying the enactment of change.

EDM and BPM collaborate behind the scenes, sending information to authorized persons at the right time within standard business processes, and ensuring they can access, view, edit, approve, delete, or otherwise act on content according to pre-set permissions. By adding BPM functions to HR screens, staff can execute routine commands and act on incoming information in real time, accessing information they’re authorized to retrieve and manage within seconds. Routine processes advance quickly and efficiently.

Let’s take a closer look at two typical HR scenarios.

Stella is a new employee for a large manufacturer. At her first eye doctor checkup, she forgets whether new frames she needs are covered. Since she relocated and just started working, discretionary cash is limited. Stella needs her Vision Service Plan (VSP) details so she can decide what she can afford to purchase. Stella calls Molly, HR manager, hoping for guidance.

Results using EDM and workflow:

Molly accesses Stella’s records using the HR application, which is linked to the EDM repository. With a one-click query, she sees all related documents. She reviews Stella’s contractual benefits, coverage, and co-pay requirements, including her VSP. Since everything is centrally accessible via the repository, Molly answers Stella’s questions instantly, helping Stella make an informed decision. Seconds later, Stella’s health coverage documentation is packaged and forwarded via an embedded link. Files she needs for future decisions are accessible via her secure logon.

What’s going on behind the scenes:

The HR application is integrated to the EDM repository, enabling instant, secure access to all pertinent documentation, correspondence, etc.A customized button on the appropriate screen in the HR application lets Molly access Stella’s benefits documents with a single mouse click.Molly informs Stella the plan will cover half the cost.Stella purchases frames she can afford.Molly chooses the appropriate benefits inquiry email template, embeds a link to the VSP and other documents, and sends the message to Stella, creating an audit trail for future questions.

Manuel works for a government agency, where he has reported harassment. He complains to Sven, the HR director, verbally. The situation escalates. Manuel is fired by his manager, Marcia, who says she dismissed him because of inadequate job performance. Manuel argues there is ethnic bias and claims his dismissal was undocumented. Allegations result in a lawsuit. The agency is subpoenaed for documentation.

Sven must demonstrate:

The agency informed employees about corporate policies regularly, including grievance procedures.The grievance was heard, documented, acknowledged, and handled following written policies, including escalation procedures.Manuel’s supervisor obeyed firing policies, and gave documented warnings.Supervisor claims of inadequate performance were filed promptly, and a prompt response ensued.Results using EDM and workflow:

A detailed transactional audit trail highlights the sequence of communications and events. Emails, subsequent interviews, and other documentation from employees verify Manuel’s claims. Although his performance may have been lackluster, Manuel was fired inappropriately, and company termination policies were not followed. The court demands the agency reinstate Manuel. Marcia is reprimanded, since a review of her emails and other communications- --available via a few clicks--- underline she understood her managerial responsibilities but failed to act on them. She is moved to another position.

What’s going on behind the scenes:

HR software, integrated to the EDM repository, ensures instant, secure access to HR and policy documents, grievance and dismissal forms, emails, faxes, voice mails, images, and more.Manuel completes grievance forms online via an employee portal. Rules-driven eforms ensure date formats and other data are compliant and submissions are 100% complete. As he chooses his name from an employee drop-down list, contact information is extracted from the HR files and pre-fills the document. Submitting the form date/time stamps it the grievance.A face-to-face meeting is held following agency policy. Manuel signs the meeting summary, confirming agreement.Since email communications are indexed by subject line, sender, and date, pertinent messages are associated with the grievance.Documents and communications pertaining to the grievances and dismissal are indexed, enabling secure, on-demand retrieval. A digital query assembles corporate policies and relevant documentation in seconds. BPM packages and sends everything to the right person for review.Agency termination policies are associated with, and compared to, Marcia’s written communications, which fail to demonstrate just cause for firing. The court rules in Manuel’s favor.

The dramas of life vary greatly. EDM and BPM respond appropriately, ensuring people and processes are handled consistently and appropriately. Technology can’t end the ongoing challenges of life. It can, however, make the process a lot faster, easier, compliant, and more cost effective.

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Great e-Guide to Mystery Shopping. Great product for hard times!

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Start your own online clothing shop Posted By : ManojG

E- Commerce has occupied large section of the Internet shopping. E-commerce is nothing but purchasing and selling products and services online. Customers also prefer e-commerce over regular shopping which invites lot of inconvenience. With the expansion and advancement of Internet and computer technology E-commerce has spread in almost every household which has boosted online trade and business.

Today, online clothing shop has also become a growing trend among people. The clothing business is progressing rapidly; people are ready to spend heavily on clothes. They prefer to have different apparel and attires for different occasions. Therefore, to start your own online clothing shop is indeed a fruitful business. If you are good at designing clothes and accessories but not able to open your own boutique then online clothing shop is an appropriate way to showcase your designed clothes to the people and also earn an income out of it.

A large number of customers search online for their different needs and requirements; clothing is one of them. Buying from a designer shop or showroom cost heavily on your budget therefore, online clothing shops are huge hit for their wide varieties of clothes and accessories at reasonable rates. You can begin your online clothing shop with in the comfort of your house. The sale of your apparel depends entirely on your prices. If you keep reasonable rates then certainly there is arise on your products and vice-versa. Online clothing store is an apt way to earn money. You could either go for full time or part time basic in online clothing shop. There are few steps required to open an online clothing shop, which are essential to remember. They are-

If you do not have your own designed clothes and looking for a wholesale clothes supplier then make sure he is reliable and genuine supplier of clothes. You should always consider the quality and durability of the clothes he is selling you. A poor quality in clothes would make you lose your customers and your business suffers consequently.

Finding a right web host is very imperative for your online clothing. An appropriate web host would make your content accessible which increases the number of visitors on your website.

An important thing to remember before starting online clothing shop is that what do you want to sell? You can begin from bridal wear to children’s clothing; you just need to be sure what you want to showcase. However, if you are an amateur in online business then it is advisable to start with small clothing line. You can gradually raise your stock once you have firmed your feet into the market.

You must also consider which section of the society you are targeting and the prices of your apparels. If you are targeting the large masses then your prices should match up with their budget and affordability.

Advertisement and promotion are very crucial fro any online or offline business. It also applies for your online clothing shop as well. Try to rank up your website in Google and other search engines. Online promotion and advertisement of your online clothing site is required for robust sales of your clothes.

Selection of a location is also important for online clothing. Avoid a distant and aloof area which makes difficult for customers to reach up to you. It is advisable to select a prime location for your business and to increase customers.

There is no doubt that online clothing business requires lot of hard work, determination and patience at the beginning. But with the course of time it gives you vibrant and fruitful results indeed. Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com

Find Shops Online provides Online Shopping Information about Compare prices, research product and Shopping Deals .Just type in anything you are trying to find online.

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Escher CMS 0.9.0 Released

We're pleased to announce general availability of Escher CMS 0.9.0. Escher CMS is a new content management system built especially for web designers and developers creating client websites.

Escher CMS focuses on building beautiful, powerful and flexible sites. If you have used Textpattern or Radiant, you will immediately feel at home with Escher CMS, as it draws inspiration from those as well as other popular CMS products, while also adding its own unique features and capabilities into the mix.

Escher CMS is a free open source self-hosted solution, featuring an intuitive web-based administration area where web designers/developers build the site and clients can manage it once deployed.

A sampling of Escher CMS's powerful feature set:

Consistent, easy-to-understand semantic modelFull control over your site's URL structure, nesting of sections and pages to any depthEscherTalk XML-based page design languagePowerful per-page templating system with inheritanceGlobal design elements ("snippets") for organizing and reusing template codeUnlimited nested categories for organizing contentUnlimited per-page content elements ("parts")Global content elements ("blocks") can be shared among multiple pagesClean separation between design elements and content elementsBuilt-in theming engine with theme inheritanceRole-based access control and granular user permissionsSupports SQLite and MySQL databases3-layer caching architecture for lightning-quick page generationForm-building with field validationMultiple sites from a single installationEasily extended via robust plugin mechanism

To learn more, see a demo or download Escher CMS, visit the Escher CMS Project Site: http://eschercms.org/

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How To Start Your Own Quilt Shop

Comprehensive Business Guide Shows You How To Start, Run, And Market A Successful Quilt Shop.

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The Integration of Facebook Amazon Posted By : Priyanka Gupta

A Fortnight back, Amazon introduced a new feature that allows users to get into their Facebook network. Users can check out the recommendations from friends, see upcoming birthdays and wish lists, find gift ideas on the basis of their Facebook profile or get purchase ideas from profile based friends with similar interest. This looks very powerful and has the potential of social media to drive e-commerce move ahead. The integration of Facebook and Amazon is itself is huge, as Amazon is the E-commerce giant and Facebook the social media king. Facebook may not always reign in social media, but for now it is with more than half a billion users and still counting. Amazon’s step will show the masses what is possible and others will soon try to follow this strategic move.

People recommending to each other can prove to be very powerful, but this not the only reason through which this integration can be helpful. With the web now allowing social connections through Facebook, twitter and other sites, a new movement of collaborative consumption is developing and is fostering personal connections in a way that has not been happening before. Facebook may add a trust factor to the E-commerce websites so that people don’t have to think twice before buying a thing. "According to Facebook, three times more visitors will login to their Facebook account on an e-commerce site than would create an account/register. That’s significant," says SeeWhy Founder Charles Nicholls. "Visitors don't like creating accounts everywhere. They forget how to login and don't like sharing personal details unless they are willing to trust the site."

In the future, Facebook's own role in all of this may increase dramatically through advertising. It's already playing a huge role on Facebook's site. The more users share, the better Facebook can target ads to them. Facebook's ads already target you based on your activity, like what's in your profile. The "open graph" which lets you "like" stuff all over the web will only continue to spark this. This might create a AdSense like platform for Facebook. Such a scenario would obviously compete with Google's AdSense, and it's no secret that the competition between these two companies is already heating up. Whether, Facebook goes that route or not, the competition is definitely going to prevail.

The increased competition between Google and Facebook will also likely drive online purchasing. Leena Rao at TechCrunch speculates that Google Checkout could get a huge injection of usage from several elements, such as Google's newfound interest in social gaming (one of the major areas where the company appears to be going after Facebook). Another (while is still theoretical at this point) concept she mentions would have Google letting businesses and customers engage in direct transactions from Place Pages, which Google has also been putting an increased amount of focus on lately. Some consumers will continue to express concerns about privacy with regards to how businesses tap into their Facebook or other social data, but that discussion really won't be much different than the basic discussion around Facebook's Open Graph as a whole. Facebook doesn't get your buying history. Sites don't get your Facebook info. Facebook provides your Facebook info while you're on other sites. That can add a lot of convenience to your shopping experience. That can help businesses drive sales. Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com

This article is provided by courtesy of SEO Australia a SEO provider company. For more information on search engine optimisation contact SEO Experts

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Giving thanks to CMS Report's November sponsors

Our November sponsors deserve a round of applause. Sponsorship helps CMSReport.com pay for the bills we receive from our host provider and internet service provider. Sponsorship also funds the purchase of any software or hardware needed to support this site. Without sponsorship, niche sites like this one simply wouldn't be able to run debt free.

CMS Report continues to provide great content on a wide variety of content management related topics. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, you can purchase banner space at this site through BuySellAds. For those times that we have sold out on our banner space, BuySellAds does offer sponsors the ability to put themselves on a waiting list to advertise on our site.

CMS Report wants to thank our current sponsors for their support.

Acquia's Drupal Gardens - Building Drupal websites just got easier with Acquia and Drupal Gardens. Launch a product, promote an event, engage a community - You can create socially smart websites and microsites that accelerate your business with Drupal Gardens.

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Mollom - Mollom is a free web service that helps you stops spam and profanity on your site. And best of all? It is free!

Sourcecoast:  JBFConnect by Sourcecoast. Joomla plus Facebook - Simplying social integration for your Joomla! site.

Webvanta: Free ebook for Web designers - Five Tips for better Websites. This free ebook distills what Webvanta has learned from working with dozens of designers.

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How to market content effectively for both genders

We all know men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and the differences between men and women are far too varied and extensive to detail in any one place. Yet to effectively tailor your content marketing strategy to reach the desired audience, be it male, female or both, you need to understand what each is most likely to respond.

Tips from Writing on the Web advise us that that for every 1 word a man says each day, a woman will say 3 times as many - supporting the old myth that women like to talk, discuss and debate matters before forming their opinion.  Men tend to live in the present, making snap decisions based on absolute facts.

Thus, the way you market your content must be adapted for each gender. For women, your content needs to speak to them directly, addressing their individual requirements and explaining how you will meet them now and in the future. It's not just about the content, it's also about how it can nurture theirs and their family's personal development - speaking to their core values.

Meanwhile Business Week claims that where 58% of women are annoyed by the way their gender is represented in advertising, 79% of men don't even recognize when an advert is portraying their gender.  They are focused not on the visualization of the content, but the content itself -which needs to say "this is what we'll do, and this is how much it'll cost...". 

Returning to Writing on the Web, we have the suggestion that to play to the typical male's goal-orientated attitude, provide clear, linear content that is headed towards a finish line. To attract your female audience, focus on value and convenience within your content, and encourage them to participate - making an effort to understand their needs.

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Mystery Shopping is Hot Again! Earn 75

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THE Richest Blogger In The World Posted By : Arland

Real Blogging to the bank is an art that comes to some of the most prolific writers of modern times, then there are the others who are in it for the money and the fame.

Many celebrities and artist all around the world have taken big time to micro blogging at twitter, with some stars who have a fan following that runs into millions. However its time to also reveal the 'Big Money Side' where the new generation make use of modern technology to conquer the entire writing and blogging process. Outsourcing the writing process comes at a reasonable cost and seems like a worth while investment to some when they are also backed up by a traffic generating software.

Moral of the story is that it all can be revealed to you at a price. There are several ghostwriting service operators, who can churn out articles based on the key word recommendations made by the blog owner. It doesnt stop there as this process seems to be accepted by many directory services as long as the 'works' are only used by the blogging site and no other third party.

Most 'blogging for fun' types do not know the financial potential of the little things that they pen down every day. Armed with the right tools this newbie writer can turn into a formidable force and in the long run even earn a decent income from the same blog being viewed by millions of readers all across the world. One such blogger was Rob Benwell who is the classic story of rags to riches.

Rob Benwell a small time store clerk ventured into blogging in and around 2005, Now this was the time his only earning scope was minimum wage. Following this low stint he went on to create the Click bank best seller ' Blogging To the Bank 2010, which has recently broken all time records set by earlier blogging products.

His most recent introduction is the 'Blogging Espionage' which looks extremely promising on the click bank top hundred digital products.

I have subscribed to several techniques prescribed by Rob Benwell and must say that they have brought me some mean money.

I got his book as soon as I could and it covers quite a lot of new information and techniques to adapt your blog to the new demands of the major search engines. Many of the techniques in the old book are now dated and don’t work so well. This is why Blogging To The Bank 2010 is a godsend.

Also this guy doesn’t consider himself to be a “guru”, he’s just a normal guy who wants to help the little guys out. I find this a nice change as he doesn’t talk “down” to you like most of the other guys do. He explains everything in a nice simple manner so everyone can understand.

Finally the ultimate decision is yours to make:if you are out there in the blogging world and want to make money the easy way then I highly recommend Blogging To The Bank 2010. Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com

Arland is avid researcher of blogging and technology that effects various social networking forums. visit his bog at www.buyhyperfbtraffic.com

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PHP for Beginners: Part 3 – Email with PHP

Today We are continuing our PHP series. One of the major uses of a server side scripting language is to provide a way of sending e-mail from the server and, in particular, to take form input and output it to an e-mail address. In this part I will show you how to send e-mail messages using PHP.

E-mails in PHP can be easily sent using the library function ‘mail’. This function takes four arguments to send E-mails from a PHP web page and returns ‘true’ upon successful delivery of Email. The parameters of this function are as follows:

Recipient E-mail addressE-mail SubjectE-mail message (body)Headers and additional parameters

Syntax:

mail( string to, string subject, string message [, string additional_headers [, string additional_parameters]] );

The section $headers is used for any additional e-mail headers you may want to add. The most common use of this is for the From field of an e-mail ( Sender E-mail address ) but you can also include other headers like cc and bcc.

This function returns the boolean value ‘True’ if the mail is sent successfully, otherwise it returns ‘False’.

Before sending your mail, if you are using variables, you must, of course, set up the variable content beforehand. Here is some simple code for sending a message:

$to = "demo@example.com";$subject = "PHP Rock";$body = "PHP is one of the best scripting languages around";$headers = "From: phpcoder@example1st.com\n";mail($to,$subject,$body,$headers);echo "Mail successfully sent to $to";

This code will actually do two things. Firstly it will send a message to demo@example.com with the subject ‘PHP Rock’ and the text:
PHP is one of the best scripting languages around
and the e-mail will be from phpcoder@example1st.com. It will also output the text:
Mail successfully sent to demo@example.com
to the browser.

Something you may have noticed from the example is that the From line ended with \n. This is actually a very important character when sending e-mail. It is the new line character and tells PHP to take a new line in an e-mail. It is very important that this is put in after each header you add so that your e-mail will follow the international standards and will be delivered.

The \n code can also be used in the body section of the e-mail to put line breaks in but should not be used in the subject or the To field.

PHP validate email script is an easy way to validate an email address. Use this quick and simple PHP regular expression for email validation. This is also case-insensitive, so it will treat all characters as lower case. It is a really easy way to check the syntax and format of an email address. Function will return TRUE if address is valid and FALSE if not.

function isValidEmail($email){return eregi("^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$", $email);}

The e-mail above could have been sent using different variable names (it is the position of the variables in relation to the commas, not the name of them which decides on their use). It could also have been done on one line using text like this:

mail("demo@example.com","PHP Rock","PHP is one of the best scripting languages around","From: phpcoder@example1st.com\n");

But that would make your code slightly harder to read.

As anyone who has been scripting for a while will know, it is extremely easy to make mistakes in your code and it is also very easy to input an invalid e-mail address (especially if you are using your script for form to mail). Because of this, you can add in a small piece of code which will check if the e-mail is sent:

if(mail($to,$subject,$body,$headers)) {echo "An e-mail was sent to $to with the subject: $subject";} else {echo "There was a problem sending the mail. Check your code and make sure that the e-mail address $to is valid";}

This code is quite self explanatory. If the mail is sent successfully it will output a message to the browser telling the user, if not, it will display an error message with some suggestions for correcting the problem.

In addition to my previous Zend Framework tutorials, in this section i will introduce you another cool feature of that amazing framework, working with emails.

The Zend Framework’s Zend_Mail component, when coupled with the Zend Framework’s approach to minimizing redundancy and maximizing portability, offers the ideal solution for configuring and transmitting email through PHP-driven webpages. In this section, we will be using the Zend_Mail component.

First, within the application’s config.ini file, I define various parameters used to configure the transmission solution:

; emailemail.smtpserver = smtp.gmail.comemail.username = demo@example.comemail.password = strong_passwordemail.support = support@example.com

Within the bootstrap.php file, I configure Zend_Mail’s transport mechanism, drawing upon the parameters defined in config.ini:

$mailConfigs = array('auth' => 'login','username' => $config->email->username,'password' => $config->email->password,'ssl' => 'tls');$tr = new Zend_Mail_Transport_Smtp($config->email->smtpserver,$mailConfigs);Zend_Mail::setDefaultTransport($tr);

Although this executes with each request, the overhead required to do so is minimal and will not affect performance. Finally, I invoke code similar to the following from within the appropriate controllers:

try {// Create a new mail object$mail = new Zend_Mail();$mail->setFrom($this->config->email->from_admin);$mail->addTo("user@example.com");$mail->setSubject("Your account has been created");$email = "Thank you for registering!";$mail->setBodyText($email);$mail->send();$this->view->success = 1;} catch (Exception $e) {$this->view->errors[] = "We were unable to send yourconfirmation email. Please contact{$this->config->email->support}.";}

If you’d like to add an attachment, all you need to do is invoke the $mail object’s createAttachment() method:

$mail->createAttachment("file.pdf");

If you want to send HTML-formatted email, just use the setBodyHtml() method instead of setBodyText():

$mail->sendBodyHTML("Thank <b>you</b> for registering!");

Sending email from your PHP-powered websites is easy once you’ve been provided with the necessary background, so hopefully this tutorial helped alleviate any initial confusion you had in this regard. For further information, check out the following resources for more information about sending email using PHP:

In part 4 I will continue covering mail by showing you how to build a simple form to mail program in PHP. And will tell you some final notes :) So, see you in next part.

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PHP Membership Script & Shopping Cart Script

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Open Source versus the Enterprise Solution

Let me start by clarifying a few things:

1) I work for a CMS vendor, for an enterprise CMS.

2) I am also a big fan of open source.

Yet, I am attempting to write this article with all bias aside; with all generalizations thrown out the window. Without feeling like I am trying to justify this article, I think it is also worth mentioning that the CMS vendor that I work for produces a product that I would avidly use even if I didn’t work for them.

Every vendor, whether they are enterprise or open source do research on their competition. Although the internal information that these vendors have are usually pretty good, there is not a lot of thorough comparisons readily available on the net. When I look on the web, all I see are generalizations. I want to get rid of this, drop biased opinions and give you the hard, honest truth. Sure, I can only talk from my experience, and I have not used every CMS under the sun, but I have had the pleasure (and sometimes pain) of using a diverse range; enough, I would say to be able to stoke the fires. To back this up if someone asked me:

What is the best photo editing software? I would give an honest answer of Photoshop. But Paint.net is free and so is Gimp, I hear you say. Although expensive, it is the best tool for the job.What is the best Media Player? I would say VLC! But Microsoft had dedicated teams to build Windows Media Player, I hear you say! Doesn’t matter, VLC is free and the best tool for the job.What is the best Developer Environment? I would say Visual Studio? But I don’t use .net, I hear you say! Great, because you should choose the best tool for YOUR job…..the whole point I am trying to get across with this article.What is the best FTP Client? I would say FileZilla!What is the best browser? There is no ONE tool for the job.

I think it is important to first define what the two systems are in order to be able to thoroughly compare the two options.

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. The public is allows to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology.Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of its owner. The purchaser, or licensee, is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, but restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.

From a high level perspective you could argue that both have advantages and disadvantages. It is only when you analyze the functionality of the two systems when the decision on what way to go is made that much easier.

I think it is also important to highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages of each system

Open Source FreeCommunity DrivenMany more sites are running on Open Source than Enterprise, but not necessarily enterprise level websites.Lots of Modules built by CommunityBroader Developer BaseSupport level is not guaranteedMoney runs the world, and without investment open source products can’t evolve as much as they couldSecurity fixes are not guaranteedRapid DeploymentA lot of bloat ware….pack everything in so that you can compete with the vendorsEnterprise License CostBetter documentationQuicker response to Security HolesDedicated roadmaps for releases and updatesBetter supportDedicated training by the vendorLarge customers feel safer with Enterprise SolutionsEnterprise vendors usually have local presencesUpgrade paths are usually much smoother instead of e.g. getting the latest release from an SVN repositoryThe process of choosing a CMS is made much smoother by an Enterprise level as they are able to guide you through the process.Accountability…a big factor. One neck to choke.ScalabilityVendors usually make strategic alignments with third parties to make integration easier, instead of having to create custom connectors to talk to different systems. A vendor will typically work with the third party to establish a connection pointBottom-line is, upper management will usually feel safer paying for a license for a big project rather than starting a project on the cheap. How often do you here, “I am so happy we chose open source because we saved money” versus, “I knew choosing free software would end in a disaster”

To add to the complexity of decisions you have to make above, when choosing a CMS, you are usually fronted with the following feature request list, which also plays into the decision of which system to go with:

Level of functionalityImplementation Language (PHP, C# ASP.net, Ruby)PriceComplexity and ExtensibilityUser SimplicityLevel of SupportPerformanceManagementInteroperabilityBuilt-in ApplicationsEnvironment (Apache, IIS)

As you can probably gather, these decisions should not be taken lightly and enough time should be designated to run the software through its paces.

I promised I would offer the honest truth and discard any generalizations that are out there, so let’s highlight the generalizations and expose the truth.

1.       Developers that work for an enterprise vendor are better developers and get paid accordingly.

There is nothing magical about developers working with Enterprise that make them release better products and be better coders  than Open Source and vice versa. This idea spawns from the fact that that there are dedicated product teams that work to build, extend and test all components of an enterprise CMS, modules etc. This does not translate to better developers. In fact, with Open Source, people are more likely to make cleaner and better code as they know it will be modified and scoured over by developers in open format.

2.       Enterprise is more expensive.

Enterprise is not free upfront, but look at the ROI, and evaluate the overall return of investment of the entire life cycle. Upfront license costs are one thing, developer costs are another and maintenance is sometimes even worse. (Compare Open Source projects versus Enterprise costs)

3.       Enterprise means better.

Of course not! In fact, in my opinion, some of the worst CMS’s have a license cost involved in them. It is not about that, it is that an enterprise CMS has a greater chance of being an excellent CMS because they can usually throw money at more developers to get a product released on time, tested or extended.  It takes an excellent CMS and an excellent organisation to make a good product.

4.       Open Source Support is terrible.

This will vary from product to product but there is a tendency to think that Open Source support is only people from forums. Not only is this incorrect, but who says that is bad? I probably work with hundreds of different developers every year, and the number of times I have heard that support for enterprise CMS software is beyond shocking may surprise you.

5.       Community built applications are bad quality.

Once again, this is untrue. Some of the best pieces of software are Open Source.

6.       Open source feels cheap in quality and build.

I actually understand this feeling and I know that most of the companies I consult with hold this mentality as well. Without exposing the spoiler, this is definitely ammunition playing into the whole meaning of this article, being that, price should be the last thing on your mind when choosing the right CMS for you.

7.       I don’t use enterprise because Open Source is free.

Let’s face it, most developers have a computer at home where they have software without the proper license, whether it be that you are running Office on more computers than it should be installed on, or every piece of software you own is pirated. Take things out of the equation, such as “I have license software; you have to pay for it”. Well you don’t, and if the tool was good then your workplace would buy it, full stop. If you could prove that a piece of software would make your work more efficient, more productive and get projects done before schedule, with better quality output and reusability then I guarantee a good organization would buy you two licenses just for you, just in case you ever feel like installing it at home as well to play around with. If not, then I would say that your business or place of work is less embracing of innovation and productivity than they should be and that perhaps choosing between Open Source and Enterprise is not the first problem you need to solve.

8.       It isn’t the right tool, but we need to have something.

Budget restrictions also restrict innovation, and suffocating innovation means a dull product. If you have identified the right CMS and it is out of budget, then perhaps go back to the drawing board.

9.       I have $200 to spend, which tool should I get?

There are thousands of productivity tools out there. Some Open Source, some require a cost, so which do you choose? Easy, take money out of the situation and simply pick the best tool. Most of the tools might cost $500 a license, buying a $400 tool that is not exactly what you need will end in a developer spending a lot more than $100 on making it do what you want.

10.   Open Source means no licenses.

This is another generalization that is untrue. Open Source does not mean you still don’t have to manage licenses. Sure, you might not pay for them, but you still have to keep them out of expiry.

11.   Exposing code in an Open Source manner equates to fewer vulnerabilities.

This is also incorrect. If you don’t believe me, simply head to major security houses and take a look at known vulnerabilities in Linus versus Windows. This also plays into the idea that this is usually only the case because proprietary software have dedicated teams to fix vulnerabilities.

12.   Open Source means free.

If the definition of Open Source didn’t make it clear enough, maybe the proof is better to analyze. Check the maintenance costs, some “Open Source” CMS’s have huge maintenance costs which are far greater than any Enterprise CMS. The overall price may still be cheaper, but this of course depends on how many years you plan to keep the CMS and continue to pay for support.

13.   Enterprise vendors, means expensive support.

Open Source Freelancers can charge like a wounded bull because they know they don’t HAVE to support their software. When you sign up for most Open Source tools, they stipulate in their terms and conditions that they hold no responsibility for support. Vendors will usually have dedicated support options which can be far less expensive than that of an Open Source developer.

Summary

So after all of this, who stands as the winner? Open Source, or Enterprise? The answer is both. There is a time and place for each. A common theme that you can get out of this article is that cost should be the last thing on your mind when trying to find the right CMS.  Free is a bonus, but not a decision maker. I work with a lot of web agencies as a consultant and the question of which CMS to go with will always arise. There is a simple answer to the question of choosing a CMS. Find the best tool for the job, if it is within budget, great, if it is not, push for a bigger budget highlighting the ROI that would be expected with an early investment. These could be in the shape of less developer cost, less maintenance cost, less configuration and hosting cost, less stress.

There is so much more to think about than just the initial investment. The truth is, although we see a lot of CMS’s moving towards it, no CMS is the best at everything. There are some that are perfect for Ecommerce, some for Learning Management, some for Document Management and some for Web Management. Choose the best tool for the job and leave the cost out of it. There is a commonly known paradigm for building projects, “Cheap, Good, Quick…choose two”. I think this translates well too many things, including this topic. Happy CMS hunting, I hope these tips help you make the right decision.

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TikiFest Berlin Wrap-up

The Tiki Community completed its most recent TikiFest (code sprint) in Berlin last week. TikiFest Berlin (co-located with [http://wikifestbln.org|WikiFestBLN] Nov 12-14 in Berlin, Germany) provided an opportunity for Tiki developers, end-users, and supporters to meet and plan the the future of Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.

Many topics were discussed and much work was done for the upcoming Tiki 6.1 release including:

Improving Tiki.org server infrastructureGentoo build for Tiki distributionWYSIWIG strategyNon-interactive TRIM (Tiki Remote Instance Manager)Multi-level content and Tiki structures, based on perspectives and dynamic groupsRegistration procedures for parent-child and teacher-student scenarios

Additionally, several interesting talks were held, including a presentation on collaborative ecosystems by Dr. L. Marighetti and a basic datachennels presentation for beginners. For complete details of TikiFest Berlin, see http://tiki.org/TikiFestBerlin2010 .

As things were wrapping up in Berlin, final planning was taking place in the UK for TikiFest London, planned for Nov 22-24. This is the sixth TikiFest in London. In addition to a Tiki Boot Camp for new users, there are plans to work on topics of interest to "power users" such as Project Management, Tiki Workspaces, and Profiles.

For complete details of TikiFest London, see http://tiki.org/TikiFestLondon6 .

About Tiki

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware is a full-featured, web-based, multilingual (35+ languages), tightly integrated, all-in-one Wiki+CMS+Groupware, Free Source Software (GNU/LGPL), using PHP, MySQL, Zend Framework, jQuery and Smarty. Actively developed by a very large international community, Tiki can be used to create all kinds of Web applications, sites, portals, knowledge bases, intranets, and extranets. Tiki is managed by the Tiki Software Community Association. For more information, visit http://tiki.org.

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WordPress wins Hall of Fame CMS Award

Birmingham, UK. 19 November 2010 - Packt Publishing is pleased to announce that WordPress has won the Hall of Fame Award in the 2010 Open Source Awards. Hall of Fame CMS is a category introduced to the Award last year, which features a competition between the previous winners of the Open Source CMS Award; Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress.

With this award, WordPress has gone from winning the Open Source CMS Award last year to winning the Hall of Fame CMS category, reserved for the biggest projects in the Content Management Framework industry.

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg told Packt, “On behalf of the entire WordPress community I'm honored to accept this award, it's a great recognition of all the hard work and effort we've invested into WordPress. We envision a day when every man, woman, and child will be able to have an effortless beautiful website powered by Free software."

“It has been my experience that most people that use CMS software want one thing above all, which is simplicity. WordPress is not only simple to use, it allows users to add, edit, and delete content and enables users to change the look and feel of the website with maximum ease.” Added Mark King, technology consultant and one of the judges for the Hall of Fame CMS category. “WordPress is easy to use, has great support from its community, improved extensibility and high performance which allows it stand out from other content management frameworks.”

This final announcement marks the end of the 2010 Open Source Award. The Award continued to be a great success with over 7,000 nominations received and over 24,000 votes received across six categories.

For more detailed results across all the categories and more information about the Award, please visit: https://www.packtpub.com/open-source-awards-home.

About the Open Source Awards

The Open Source Awards is an annual online event held by Packt Publishing to distinguish excellence among Open Source projects. The Award, formerly known as the Open Source Content Management System (CMS) Award, is designed to encourage, support, recognize and reward a wide range of Open Source projects.

About Packt Publishing

Packt is a modern, unique publishing company with a focus on producing cutting-edge books for communities of developers, administrators, and newbies alike.

Packt’s books and publications share the experiences of fellow IT professionals in adapting and customizing today's systems, applications, and frameworks. Their solutions-based books give readers the knowledge and power to customize the software and technologies they’re using to get the job done.

For more information, please visit www.PacktPub.com

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[Updated] How to Add ReCAPTCHA to Your Contact Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form

Over the years, I have received many requests from webmasters to add some sort of spam filtering capability to the contact form script generated by the Free Feedback Form Script Wizard. The reason, of course, is that spammers nowadays send automated computer programs, called "spam bots", to scour the web for feedback forms to dump spam into. As such, if your email software or email service doesn't have extensive spam removal facilities, you will probably be inundated by spam submitted through your own contact form.

This article teaches you how you can add a basic spam reducing facility, called the CAPTCHA test, to the feedback form generated by the wizard. You've probably encountered such tests before: after filling in a contact form, you are usually required to enter some string of letters or numbers to prove that you are a human and not a spam bot. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at one such form at the Feedback Form with CAPTCHA Demo page.

CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". The idea is to create a test that any human can pass easily but computer programs will fail. It is useful for things like feedback forms since you want humans to be able to send you feedback, but you don't want spam programs to send you its junk.

There are many different types of CAPTCHA tests around. One type, which is the sort we will use here, places a series of words in a graphical image and asks your human visitor to enter the words he/she sees. The hope is that most computer programs won't be able to "see" the words (since programs can't actually "see" anything) and so will be unable to give the correct answer.

Of course this is not foolproof. There are a number of ways to defeat this, such as to incorporate optical character recognition (OCR) technology into the spam bots, or to employ cheap (human) labour to decode it, etc. However, the plan is that having such a test will at least reduce some of the spam entering your mail box by weeding out the less sophisticated spam bots wandering around the Internet.

This article is for the ordinary non-technical webmaster, who simply wants to add a CAPTCHA test to their web form. It is NOT for the programmer who wants to learn how to implement their own CAPTCHA test.

If you are a programmer, looking for a way to create your own CAPTCHA test, you may want to check out the following, more relevant, articles:

If you don't want to reinvent the wheel, you may also be interested in checking out the Free PHP CAPTCHA Scripts page to see how others have implemented the CAPTCHA facility for their form. For the curious, I have simply used the ReCAPTCHA script linked to on that page for my form.

Before you rush out to add the CAPTCHA test, note that there are important disadvantages to adding this CAPTCHA test.

By default, the basic feedback form created by the Feedback Form Script Wizard (when you don't enable the CAPTCHA test) is totally self-reliant. That is, as long as your website is running, your feedback form will also be running. If your website is down, then of course your form will also be down. But then, so will the rest of your website, so you don't have to worry about visitors going to your feedback form and finding that it doesn't work.

If you enable the CAPTCHA test in the feedback form, however, your form will become dependent on a third party service run by the Carnegie Mellon University and Google, called ReCAPTCHA. They supply the pictures that will be shown in your form. When your form is displayed, the feedback form script requests a new picture from ReCAPTCHA. After your visitor enters his/her answer to the "security" challenge test, the letters/words typed by him/her will be sent to the ReCAPTCHA website. They will then respond by telling the feedback form script whether or not the answer is correct.

(Don't worry. Only the "secret" words, the CAPTCHA words, are actually sent to ReCAPTCHA. Your visitors' messages are not transmitted to them.)

This means that if the ReCAPTCHA service is bogged down in some way, the display of your feedback form will become very sluggish (because the pictures won't load). If the network connection between your website and the ReCAPTCHA service has problems, your form will not work (since the script won't be able to get the answer checked). If the ReCAPTCHA service ever closes, your visitors will no longer be able to successfully send you feedback.

And you can't rely on your users to tell you that there's a problem with your feedback form. After all, it's your feedback form that has problems so they won't be able to reach you at all.

Having said that, before you give up in despair, the ReCAPTCHA service appears to be used by tons of websites all over the world, seemingly without problems. It has also worked flawlessly when I tested it. But that doesn't mean bad things can't happen in the future. You'll just have to decide for yourself whether you want to take the risk or not.

Most CAPTCHA tests have a major flaw. Because of their visual nature, the blind are unable to enter those cryptic words in the pictures. The good thing about the ReCAPTCHA test (and one of the main reasons why I chose this particular CAPTCHA implementation over the others) is that it has an audio facility for the blind. A blind person, encountering your form, should theoretically be able to click the audio file link and hear an audio message which he/she can transcribe into the test field. So in that sense, the ReCAPTCHA test does not exclude the blind from using your form.

Unfortunately, in spite of this, it still excludes those who are both deaf and blind, who surf the web using tactile displays (eg, Braille displays). That is, if you can neither see a picture nor hear words spoken in the audio file, the form is completely inaccessible to you.

Please bear this in mind before you rush out to enable the CAPTCHA option in the Wizard. As you scrabble about under an avalanche of spam, looking for a way to solve your spam problems, remember that this solution may cause others problems. It is not ideal, since it excludes some people from your form.

If your email server and software has sufficiently good spam filters that has warded off spam in the past, and you think you don't really need the CAPTCHA facility, perhaps you should consider holding off on it. Otherwise, you may be introducing a problematic cure for a non-existent disease. But it's up to you, of course. I just wanted to make sure you have enough information to make an informed decision.

To enable the CAPTCHA option in the feedback form generated by the wizard, do the following.

Go to the ReCAPTCHA website, and sign up for an account. The service is free, or at least it was when I wrote this article. (If it ever stops being free, please let me know and I'll modify the wizard to use a different CAPTCHA facility.) You'll be required to supply a username, password, your email address and your website's domain name.

When you've finished signing up, you will be given two strings of cryptic letters and numbers. These are your public and private "keys". You will need to enter these keys into the Feedback Form Wizard, so I recommend that you keep the ReCAPTCHA web page open, so that you can just copy and paste the strings. Don't type them manually or you may introduce typing errors and give the wrong keys to the wizard.

Go to the Free Feedback Form Wizard. Read the instructions and the terms of use and fill in the details requested. (You'll have to choose the PHP script because I haven't got around to implementing the facility in the Perl version.)

When you reach the "Advanced Options", enter your ReCAPTCHA public and private keys in answer to the question "To enable the CAPTCHA test, please enter both your ReCAPTCHA Public Key and your ReCAPTCHA Private Key". Be sure to enter them into the correct blanks: that is, make sure that your public key goes into the "Public Key" field and your private key goes into the "Private Key" field. These keys have to be integrated into the form and script that is created by the wizard, which is why they are requested. (Don't worry. Like all the other data you enter into the wizard, they are not recorded anywhere, not even in my web logs. As the ReCAPTCHA site so aptly puts it, I'm trying to help you block spam, not introduce it.)

Follow the rest of the instructions in the wizard to create your feedback form HTML code and feedback form script. Do not close this window.

Since you enabled the CAPTCHA facility, the feedback form script needs an additional program file provided by the ReCAPTCHA website. (Note: if you did not enter your public and private keys into the wizard, you do NOT need to get this file. This file is only needed if you have enabled the CAPTCHA test.)

Go to the ReCAPTCHA library site and download the recaptcha-php-1.10.zip file. That is, just click the link labelled "recaptcha-php-1.10.zip" to get the file onto your own computer. Save it anywhere on your computer (eg, your desktop). This applies to you whether you are using Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or whatever.

When the file has been successfully downloaded, open the zip file. On Windows XP and above, this is done by simply double-clicking the file. A folder window should open, showing another folder called recaptcha-php-1.10. Double-click that folder as well. You should now see 5 files listed in your window.

Drag the file named "recaptchalib.php" from the window to the same location where you saved the "feedback.php" file generated by the Feedback Form Wizard. Later, when you publish/upload your feedback.php file, you will need to publish/upload this file as well. It is to be uploaded to the same folder as your feedback.php file. Let me say that again. The recaptchalib.php file is to be placed in the same location as your feedback.php on your website.

You can ignore all the other files in the zip file. You don't need them. In fact, once you've copied the recaptchalib.php file, you can delete the zip file if you want.

(Note: if you use Windows, and can't find the "recaptchalib.php" file, it's possible that Windows has hidden a part of the filename [namely, the file extension] from you. Consider configuring Windows to show you the full filename instead of hiding it. As a webmaster, you have to deal with all sorts of files with different extensions that have different behaviour depending on the extension, so it's best not to blind yourself to the true filename.)

Do the rest of the stuff mentioned by the feedback form wizard for creating your feedback.php file and inserting your form code into your web page. Then upload (publish) everything (including the feedback.php and recaptchalib.php files) to your site. Detailed instructions for doing this can be found in the usual feedback form tutorials (as well as in the results page of the Feedback Form Wizard):

Note that those tutorials do not mention the recaptchalib.php file, since they only deal with the main feedback form script. However, as I said above, just copy the file to the same place you saved the feedback.php file, and upload it together with the rest of your website.

You may also want to modify your "Error" page to help people failing the CAPTCHA test (it happens). See the error page on the Feedback Form with CAPTCHA Demo for an example of the sort of things you can say.

That's it. Once the form is "live" on your website, test your form by sending yourself a message.

If you ever want to remove the CAPTCHA test from your feedback form, you will need to return to the Feedback Form Wizard to generate a new form and script. Do not use your web editor to delete the picture from your web page. Doing so will only remove the picture; the feedback form script will still be expecting a CAPTCHA code answer. You need to regenerate everything, that is get a new script that doesn't test for the CAPTCHA answers and new HTML form code that does not have the CAPTCHA picture. This time, when you use the wizard, do not enter your public and private ReCAPTCHA keys, or the wizard will think you want the CAPTCHA test.

It's all free, so don't be lazy, or you'll waste even more time trying to get your self-made modifications to work.

From my testing of the ReCAPTCHA test, it seems that if you enter the wrong words in the CAPTCHA test and get the error page, you cannot simply return to the form and enter the same set of words again, this time correctly. Once you fail the test, you will have to reload the CAPTCHA picture to get a new set of words. Otherwise the ReCAPTCHA site will continue to tell the script that you failed the test. (Yes, even if you entered the right words the second time around.)

This probably won't affect many real visitors, but it will definitely affect you, the webmaster, since you're likely to want to test your form by entering the wrong words. (Real visitors usually just enter the correct words if they can. The owner of the site, however, needs to test the "fail" scenario.)

As mentioned above, the CAPTCHA facility needs to be able to connect to the ReCAPTCHA site for the latter to check the CAPTCHA answers made by your visitors. Many free web hosts do not allow PHP scripts to open any connection to other sites. As such, if you use a free web host, there is a chance that enabling the CAPTCHA option will cause your form to fail to work. In such a case, go back to the wizard and generate a new form and script, this time without CAPTCHA support (that is, don't enter your ReCAPTCHA public and private keys into the form).

This doesn't mean that the CAPTCHA-less script will work either, since a large number of free web hosts also do not allow scripts to send mail either. If this is the case, you may either have to dispense with a contact form, or move your site to a commercial web host.

If you test your form and get the following error messages (the exact details such as path and line number may differ):

Warning: require_once(recaptchalib.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /path/feedback.php on line 106
Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'recaptchalib.php' (include_path='.:/path/php') in /path/feedback.php on line 106

it means that you either did not get the recaptchalib.php file that I mentioned above, or you did not upload it to the same place as your feedback.php file. Go back to that section and complete that step.

The ReCAPTCHA private key that you enter in the wizard is embedded into your customized feedback form script (the program). The public key is inserted into the feedback form itself (the HTML code for the web page). The public key is used to get the CAPTCHA words from ReCAPTCHA for display. It's called the "public key" because it's not really a secret. It is only used to retrieve the pictures. The answer to the pictures will not be supplied to any program using that key. The private key, on the other hand, is used by the feedback form script to tell ReCAPTCHA that it is really your own legitimate feedback form that is asking it to check the answer. ReCAPTCHA needs a private key so that it can distinguish between a legitimate program running on your website from a spam bot sneakily trying to find out the CAPTCHA words.

You don't have to worry when you see your public key in your HTML form code. That's the way it's supposed to be. However, if you see your private key in your HTML form code, that means you've entered the wrong keys into the wizard. That is, you may have entered your private key into the public key field in the wizard. Note that the wizard is not omniscient. It doesn't know what your keys are supposed to be. It blindly uses whatever you enter. If you supply it the wrong keys, then your form and script will contain those wrong keys.

This item is for those who get the following message on your feedback form page:

You are at this page because you loaded the JavaScript free version of reCAPTCHA, but it looks like you have JavaScript. We need to prevent this for security reasons. If you are testing out the JavaScript-free version, turn off JavaScript in your browser.

Although this message seems to suggest to a number of people that there is a problem with their browser settings, my experience is that this is not the case. However, if you don't believe me, there's a simple way to rule out your browser as the cause: go to the CAPTCHA demo page in the same browser that showed the error. The CAPTCHA demo page uses the unmodified code that is generated by the wizard. If you don't see any error message on that page, but see one on your own feedback form, it means that it's not your browser settings that is causing the problem.

As far as I can tell, this error message is issued by the ReCAPTCHA service when you incorrectly modify important parts of the HTML form code generated by the Feedback Form Wizard. The solution is to return to the wizard and generate a fresh copy of the feedback form HTML code. Plug that pristine copy, unmodified, into your form page and test again. The error should disappear. Then, if you really must modify the form, use one of my detailed feedback form tutorials as a guide so that you don't accidentally change critical portions that are needed for it to work properly.

If the entire CAPTCHA test does not appear in your feedback form, and all you see is the plain feedback form without any CAPTCHA test at all (the whole CAPTCHA section is missing), it probably means one of two things:

You created your feedback form (at least) twice. The first time you did it, you created a form without the CAPTCHA test and tried it out on your site. Then you changed your mind and created a new form with a CAPTCHA test. However, the second time round, you failed to update everything.

If you change your mind and switch from a CAPTCHA-less form to one with a CAPTCHA, you must update everything on your website: the feedback.php and recaptchalib.php script as well as the HTML code for your feedback form. To reiterate, not only must the new php files be uploaded, you must also change the HTML form code on your web page. The code is different.

The second possibility is somewhat similar to the first. You created your feedback form at least twice, the first time without the CAPTCHA and the second with it. Your web browser could be showing you an old copy of your web page, from the time when you didn't have the CAPTCHA test. Web browsers usually save a copy of recent web pages you accessed in their internal cache. If you revisit a page you recently checked, it's possible that your browser is still displaying that cached version. You will need to reload (or refresh) the page in your browser. On most browsers, hitting Ctrl+R should do the trick (where "Ctrl+R" means to hold down the Ctrl key and type "r").

If you change the domain name of your website, you will find that ReCAPTCHA will refuse to test the CAPTCHA words on your new domain. For example, you may get an error message like "Input error: Invalid referer". This error occurs because the ReCAPTCHA service expects a different set of public and private keys for every domain. To solve this, do the following:

Log into your ReCAPTCHA account and go to the page on their system that lists all your sites using ReCAPTCHA. At the time I write this, that page can be found at this link.

Add your new domain to that list using the appropriate link on that page. At the time I write this, there is a button or link on the page that says something like "Add a new site". You will be given a new set of public and private keys that will only work on that new domain.

Return to the Feedback Form Wizard and generate a new form and script using the public and private keys for that domain.

Insert the new form code into your web page, and republish (re-upload) both that web page and the new script that is provided.

If you encounter other types of errors or problems, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Feedback Form Wizard.

The CAPTCHA test is probably one of the most frequently requested feature for my feedback form script, probably because there are so many beleaguered webmasters struggling with spam. Following the steps given in this CAPTCHA guide will allow you to add the test to your web form without having to learn any programming at all.

Copyright © 2009-2010 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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How to Add a CAPTCHA Test to Your Feedback Form Script: Reducing Spam in Your Contact Form

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Last updated: 18 October 2010.

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Why Designers Should Stay Healthy And Happy

Many times you should have experienced bursts of creative ideas, of things you want to do and for the world to see just after the lady of your dreams accepts you as her man. Happy moments give birth to extraordinary ideas, of things one can’t hope to have when lonely and sick.

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” –  Benjamin Franklin

Surely, most healthy people are happy with their lives and vice versa. Being unhappy for more than the normal amount of time is life-wrecking. Some day you just have to get up and stir yourself to life again and take on the challenges that awaits you no matter how grave the thing you must rise up from. Then there are people who are neither happy nor sad, they simply don’t care about things. What will you expect from a designer who is oblivious of things, who is apathetic? No client would want another Van Gogh (I love Van Gogh, seriously). Although in the past most creative geniuses are used to locking up in the attic or in their basement alone for months at a time to create artworks that are now sold for thousands of dollars, what the world needs today are artists who can communicate well with people and can express emotions no matter how macabre or jolly the design should be.

If you live a healthy and happy life then chances are you will do well in most of the things you do, no matter what the outcome is. However, success does not always entail being victorious in every thing you do but means how able are you to recuperate and continue.

Just look at the very successful people in their own trade today, they are happy with their lives and are living a healthy lifestyle which is reflected in their works. Isn’t that noble?

First you must asses yourself if you are lacking either or both.

Designers should always have fresh ideas, as such it is important to have a fresh experience as soon as time permits. Creation is a continuous process, this applies to movies and book releases too. It wouldn’t hurt to treat yourself to the movies once a month or buy and read a book that interests you, aside from fulfilling your little “cravings” you are automatically making your mind open to new stimuli. Hit the gym a couple of times a week, walk your dog, go swimming, destroy a friend’s house; just be happy and your health will follow.

Easier said than done but there’s a fun way to combat procrastination and ill-will by creating a list of things you want to do. “I want to drink a gallon of vodka in 10 minutes” ? Let’s set some ground rules for you to follow to avoid gulping a gallon. Steps first.

Steps:

Write things that you really want to do –  no restrictions.Write things you think are fun to do (even if you really don’t want to).Be realistic.Consider various things like the food you wish to eat, someone you’d like to reconnect with, a place where you want to go, et cetera.No editing, yet.

Filtering:

Cross out the things that will put your health at risk.Remove things that might hurt others.Do not cheat by removing the things that will tire you out.Remove all work-related items. The goal is to have fun!

Execution:

Set a specific date when you should have accomplished all the items.Execute them little by little.Enjoy.

Watch The Bucket List if my explanation is not clear.

The trick is to maintain your daily routine, less risky and is proven to work. But as everything wears and tears, so does your routine’s effect on you. The things that you are currently doing to stay healthy and happy should evolve with you as you mature. Consider it like eating your favorite pasta every day for a month. The excitement of finally eating it after a day’s hard work wears off slowly and the taste will be less delicious than what it used to be, correct? This is the reason why the experienced, and happy people, are always saying to do new things whenever possible.

Once in a while do things that are out of your comfort zone. Are you so used to designing in front of your computer that doing your art in another medium would be a waste of time? Try doodling on the sand, simple things such as this will hopefully spark that creative genius inside you.

Exercise and eat foods that will boost your health. Your mind is more active and is more flexible when the body it is in is strong and happy! Try smiling now, come on! Did you just smile? It’s fine smiling while you are alone but not always. *laughs*

Now, share your thoughts!

Resources: Are you lacking enthusiasm? Read How to Maintain Enthusiasm for Work! Perhaps you are feeling uninspired? Find Inspiration!

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Save Thousands Grocery Shopping

This site sells an information packed ebook about saving money grocery shopping

Check it out!

The Start-Up Guide To Drop-Shipping Posted By : Jane M Dawson

The path to drop-shipping success is riddled with many challenges. Over 95% of start-ups in this business do not make it past their first year. Beginners love the ease and convenience of drop-shipping, which includes no inventory, no outdated stocks, and the freedom to specialize in as many niches as you prefer. In addition to these advantages, drop-shipping is a perfect work-from-home business, allowing you to set your own schedule and be your own boss.

However, you need to follow certain guidelines if you want to avoid becoming yet another statistic among thousands of failed drop-ship businesses. The hype surrounding the business makes people believe that drop-shipping requires zero investment and provides unrealistically quick returns. The successful seller is willing to learn the ropes and work on building the business. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

Market Research

All serious attempts at creating start-ups require you to assess the market and find out which products are in demand. You can start by studying the most popular items on eBay and Amazon. Go through drop-ship forums to find out what people are discussing, and get a few hints on what to sell. Identify your own preferences: technical, cosmetics, fashion, collections, or electronics.

No business is complete without a business plan. A business plan often differentiates the successful seller from the failed drop-ship aspirant. Creating a business plan may look difficult, but it is an essential part of any successful venture. The plan includes investment estimates, sales strategies, and supplier projections.

Finding Suppliers

Next, see if the products you short-listed can be acquired through suppliers. Unless you have a supply of products, you cannot sell them. Good suppliers are unfortunately few and far between. Many wholesalers do not want to get involved in drop-shipping. Other suppliers charge exorbitantly, often exceeding the retail value of the product. If manufacturers do not deal directly with wholesalers, they may direct you to local distributors. Therefore, approach manufacturers directly if you cannot find a supplier for a preferred product.

Sometimes, you have to create your own supply lines. Small manufacturers or distributors are often unaware of the concept of drop-shipping. Don’t ignore them. If you explain how you can have a mutually beneficial business arrangement, they may allow you to sell products for them.

Drop-shipping scams can ruin businesses. Do not deal with suppliers you don’t find trustworthy. If possible, insist on sampling the product before placing orders. Be very careful not to invest in items that are not genuine. Discuss issues such as shipping charges, seller commissions, and return policies.

In a drop-ship enterprise, a lot depends on the relationship between the supplier and seller. This is all the more important considering there are very few reliable sellers who offer quality products at wholesale prices. Some unethical wholesalers demand fees to work with sellers; always look for sellers who do not charge anything.

How Much to Invest

You can start a business with zero investment, particularly a home-based, online business. However, building your business quickly is easier if you opt for certain paid services, such as website development and online advertising. Spend your money wisely. Don’t buy kits that promise drop-shipping nirvana by setting up your business in 24 hours and getting you the first $2000 in 3 days.

A big debate on drop-shipping forum centers is on the relevance of paid drop-ship directories. A paid directory is good only if it gives you access to existing suppliers and their contact details. Many directories are months, even years, old. Therefore, you lose money by purchasing the directory. Some drop-ship directories are available free of cost, and there is no harm in trying them.

Setting Up an Online Store

An eBay, Yahoo!, or Amazon store is very easy to set up. In the initial stages, you do not have to build an e-commerce website dedicated to your products. A blog (try free blog platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, or TypePad) is a great way of keeping in touch with customers. A regularly updated blog assures them that you are the master of your niche and you have been in business for a while.

Unlike most concrete retail stores, online stores have two functions: selling as well as promotion. When you advertise your business through blogs, articles, social networking websites, or newspaper advertisements, you will direct people to your site. This is why an attractive storefront (or layout) with plenty of information on the products on sale is important.

Most auction sites have easy-to-use features. You do not have to be a programmer to set up an online account with them. Good product descriptions and positive feedback from customers is essential for building a strong business.

Sales and Promotion

The Internet is thick with advertising platforms, paid and free. Many people use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to promote products. Build online communities, participate in forums, or comment on blogs of other industry insiders. And, leave a link to your website on each of these forums.

Using paid advertising is another way to draw customers. Facebook, Google, and many blogs run programs that allow small businesses to capture relevant customer base information at minimal cost. How much you pay for advertising depends on the product. Some keywords cost as little as $0.01 per click; others command prices as high as $6 a click.

No matter how large or small your business, customer service should be your first priority. A happy customer is the best publicity. Positive customer feedback on eBay, for example, can spell the difference between a tepid and hot start-up on the Internet. Answer e-mails as soon as possible, provide descriptive product information, and act on fair return requests promptly.

Follow these guidelines, and find yourself on the road to riches (or at least an extra income) in a few months. Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com

Wholesale forum is one of its kinds of online platform for US dropshippers. Here you read various drop ship reviews and can learn about what is drops hipping, how it works.

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Ephox Launches EditLive! 7.5 at Open Text Content World

New version combines Java and Javascript into single editor solution; delivers best of both worlds

PALO ALTO, Calif. — November 8, 2010 — Ephox Corporation, a leading provider of software for optimizing web production processes, today introduced the latest release in its web authoring solution set, EditLive! 7.5. Key highlights in the release include faster loading speeds, new commands for editing tables, enhanced API features and a new option called Select Edit.  The company will demonstrate the latest version of EditLive! at Open Text Content Worldin Washington, D.C., November 7-12, 2010.

Select Edit combines the market's two leading rich text editors, EditLive!and Ephox Enterprise TinyMCE, into a single integration.  Select Edit offers an optimum combination of features and compatibility with Java and Javascript integrated into one complete solution. The new option is designed to auto-detect the best rich text editing experience for virtually any environment.

“The integration of EditLive! and Ephox Enterprise TinyMCE is an exciting milestone for the company, and for the web production market,” said Andrew Roberts, CEO of Ephox. “Now, business users can work with their editor of choice on a project-by-project basis, without having to change editing environments, which leads to increased productivity. Our customers will be able to realize greater efficiencies in the web production process that ultimately contribute to an improved bottom line.”

EditLive! is licensed by some of the leading web content management (WCM) vendors, including Open Text Web Experience Management (formerly Vignette).  

“Companies use Open Text Web Experience Management to provide them with innovative and effective ways of creating highly dynamic websites that give them a competitive edge,” said Marci Maddox, Director of Product Marketing at Open Text. “By offering EditLive! and Ephox Enterprise TinyMCE in a single editing environment, we see a benefit for business users to easily select the best tools for directly creating and managing web content that drives superior online experiences.”

For more information on Editlive! 7.5, please visit http://editlive.com/what-new. 

About Ephox

Ephox is a fast-growing software company focused on transforming the web production experience by enhancing the productivity and quality of website authoring and management.  The company’s technology is licensed by leading web content management vendors including EMC|Documentum, IBM, Oracle, Open Text and Percussion.  Ephox products are used by hundreds of thousands of web content authors in over 1,500 organizations across 35 countries. For more information, please visit www.ephox.com.

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Free Prestashop Themes from iNove WordPress Template

iNove WordPress Theme is one of most popular wordpress theme. Currently I’m using the minified version of this theme for my iLmoe blog. This theme was originally for wordpress and I have seen the blogger version. With this free prestashop theme version you can combine your prestashop store and wordpress blogging system with same template. Although there are already free CMS module for prestashop, but we still need the flexibility of wordpress especially on it’s search engine optimization (SEO) plugin.

The Adobe Browserlab show to us that this iNove free prestashop theme has compatibility to all major browser. Here it’s some screenshots of this quick testing.

View Demo Free Prestashop Theme

or download iNove Free Prestashp Theme here

iNove Free Prestashop Theme (17056)

download the customized wiznav horizontal menu module here :

Customized Wiznav Horizontal Menu Prestashop Modules (2371)

If you have any question or idea, you can leave comments here or reply to this threat :

Indonesia Prestashop Forum – [Free Prestashop Theme] Prestashop Theme dari iNove WordPress Theme

English Prestashop Forum – [Free Prestashop Themes] iNove Free Prestashop Theme

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How To Add Previous and Next Product Navigation in Prestashop Theme

This plugin was based on my previous project on our client prestashop theme. They needs to add previous and next navigation button in their prestashop theme. We have packed all this modification into a ready to use plugin. This plugin add Previous and Next button under the main product image...

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