So today is a collection of  40 Awesome Works of Art  that are all made out of paper. Paper, an everyday facet of our lives, in a different light. Enjoy the perspective!

So, lets get started..

You’re going to want to download the latest release from the osCommerce website and be sure of the location that you download the files to (ex: your desktop.) This tutorial will be working with the osCommerce Online Merchant v2.2 RC2a version.

Once you have located where your .zip file is, you’ll want to extract the files. You can use any software to unzip. In some cases you can right click on the .zip file, and choose from the options of how to extract the files. Here you will see that our .zip file is located on the desktop.

We’ve chosen the Extract Here option, which will unzip the files and insert them into a new file that you will also find on the desktop. Either way,  be sure that you take note of the location you unzip those files to. Next, you’ll want to locate the catalog folder that you’ll find in the newly unzipped folder.

Every folder and every file that you find in the catalog folder will need to be uploaded to your website, the rest of the files you can leave as they are more for documentation then use. You may use any program to upload the files (ex: FileZilla) in this case, you’ll see that we are using Dreamweaver.  Be sure to have your FTP username, password, and hostname ready to insure that you can access your FTP server correctly. If you already know how to set this up in Dreamweaver, then dont bore yourself, and scroll past the next three figures. Otherwise, once Dreamweaver is launched, choose the Site option from the top navigation and find the New Site option.

A  window titled Site Definition will then present itself, in which you’ll need to input the name of your URL into the HTTP field, and choose the siteroot option just below it. The siteroot window will require you to point the siteroot towards where the files are that you’d like to upload to your site. In this case, we point the siteroot at the catalog folder that is located inside our unzipped folder.

Next, choose the Remote Info option on the left hand side of the window, in which a drop down menu will show, and you’ll want to choose the FTP option.

This is where your FTP username, password, and hostname will need to be implemented, and you can even test the connection to be sure that all of the information you have provided is correct. Once you have a sucessful connection, you’re ready to begin the upload of the catalog folder onto your website.

The remote and local sites window will need to be opened, which is usually indicated by an icon that looks like the one below.

Once the window is displayed, you can drag all of your files from the catalog folder on your local site to the designated folder/area that you have on your remote site.  This process will take anywhere from roughly five to ten minutes, depending on your connection, so feel free to check your email or do some blogging… But! Keep this window open as you will be needing it in the final steps of the completion to this shopping cart.

Once the upload has finished, open your browser and go to your web address, specific to where you uploaded the files to. If you made a seperate folder on your site, something like ‘http://www.mysite.com/osCommerce,’ be sure that you type in that address.

If everything has gone according to plan, you’ll see a webpage with ‘Welcome to osCommerce Online Merchant v2.2′ on it, along with a continue button towards the bottom.

Click the continue button, and by doing so will redirect you to a new page for your shopping cart. You’ll notice that there are two warnings that are displayed at the top of this  new page. Both of these warnings should be stating that there’s a problem with the configure.php file, that is located in two different places on your webserver. These configure.php files will need a very simple change made to them, as far as the permissions are concered.

So you’ll want to go back to the window where you did your FTP at, in our case, the dreamweaver FTP. Locate the file called configure.php that is inside the includes folder, and right click on the file to bring up the next drop down list of options. Towards the bottom, you’ll see Set Permissions, and want to click it to change the permissions.

Pretty much every box located under owner, group and public permissions will need to be checked- you’ll know you have it correct when the numeric value is set to 777.  Be sure to click the OK button when finished.

The same attributes are going to need to be applied to the file also called configure.php, but this file is located in the folders admin/includes.  This is probably one of the easiest steps in the whole tutorial

When finished setting all of the correct permissions, go back to your broswer and navigate to your website once again. If everything was uploaded and edited correctly, you should see a page that has New Installation followed by a continue button, on it.

The Database Server Window is what you’ll be presented with following the click of the continue button, and its where you’ll need to input all of your server information.

If you already have a database set up, go ahead and input all of the required information. You may skip the next two figures if you’ve already got a database. If not, then we will be using hostgator to set up our database.

Open a new window/tab and log in to your hostgator account. Locate the option called MySQL Databases.

It will redirect you to the MySQL database creation page, where you’ll be able to  name your own database.

So input the information required, and click create database… And thus, your database is created (yes, it was THAT simple.)

So now you can go back to your browser window where you were setting up your database information, and input the required information. Once that step is complete, go ahead and hit the continue button.

You’ll continue on to the Web Server window where you will be inputting your WWW address and your webserver root directory. Once you’ve entered the required information, go ahead and hit the continue button again.

You’ll then continue on to the Online Store Settings window, where you can pick all of your own information. Just be sure you remember everything you enter into these fields, especially your Admin name and password!!

When your finished doing this, you’ll be able to continue, and actually view your newly installed shopping cart!! Yay!! Beyond that, there is just a few more steps you’ll need to do to ensure security of your shopping cart and database.

You might have noticed that there are a couple of warnings that popped up at the top of the page (again,) however, these warnings are important, and should not be ignored. One will say that the install folder will need to be removed, which is an easy problem to solve. Simply visit the program you’ve used for your FTP (in our case, dreamweaver) and locate the install folder on the remote site, and DELETE IT.

The configure.php file found in the includes folder will need to have permissions changed (for a final time) to the numeric value of 644, where each execute box is uncheck for owner, group, and public permissions, and the write boxes unchecked under group and public permissions.

Next, you’ll have to locate the configure.php file once more, the one located in admin/includes, and right click to change the permissions (once again.) Uncheck the execute and write boxes under owner, group, and public permissions. The numeric value on this should read 444.

The images folder will also need one minor change, so locate that folder on the remote site of the FTP program, and right click on the images folder to choose Set Permissions. You’ll want to check all of the boxes for read, write, and execute for all of the owner, group, and public permissions.

The numeric value of this should be 777. The same will need to be done to the backups folder and the graphics folder which you should find just above the images folder. Just be sure that the numeric value is set to be 777.

Once you have made all of the necessary changes to all of the folders and OK’d them, go ahead and go back to your browser page for one last time. You should be able to just refresh the page to see that the warnings have been removed, and your shopping cart is finally installed with nothing more to worry about! Yay!! You did it!!

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which generally means optimizing your website by improving internal and external aspects so that the site has incoming traffic from search engines. Lets face it, if no major search engines like Google or Yahoo can find your site, your only other options are by word of mouth (ie: your clients, your friends, etc.) Dont leave it up to them! Whether your website provides music, text, videos or sells things, search engines are most likely going to be the primary method of navigating around the worldwide web.

Why SEO? 

The major search engines like Google are always working hard to make their search results turn up better, more relevant information, based on what the user typed into the search bar. When taking this into consideration, knowing the right moves to make will set you apart from every other web developer. Not knowing the right things to do could be potentially fatal to your site, and even worse… no one will know you’re out there. Its an online abyss! The online environment has become increasingly competitive, so, those companies that choose to implement SEO will have a greater advantage. Lets take a  look at how a search engine operates, to get a full understanding of why we should code using SEO.

1. Web Crawling

Search engines operate automatic programs called ‘Bots’ or ‘Spiders’. These ‘Bots’ have a hyperlink structure that enables them to sort of ‘crawl’ through web pages.

2. Indexing Documents

Once these ‘Bots’ crawl a certain page, that page’s content is “indexed”, meaning it will be stored in a big database of documents that makes us a search engines “index.” These indexes need to be tightly managed so that they can return the most relevant results with the click of a button.

3. Processing Inquiries

When people type something in the search bar of a search engine, its called ’submitting a query.’ Once that happens, the search engine searches through its index and returns all results matching what was originally typed in by the user. This happens millions upon millions of times a day. One excellent thing to note at this point in time is that search engines disregard the word ‘and’, so it would be useful to leave that word out of your search to better your results.

4. Ranking Results

Once the search engines find results that best match the query, it uses a mathmatical equation to determine the most to the least relevant. This is supposed to aide the user in selecting which page would best fit their goal, based on what they originally typed in the search bar.

Two other things you have to consider when thinking about how your website will rank with Google, are Relevance and Popularity.

Relevance – the degree to which the content of the documents returned in a search matched the user’s query intention and terms. The relevance of a document increases if the terms or phrase queried by the user occurs multiple times and shows up in the title of the work or in important headlines or subheaders.

Popularity – the relative importance, measured via citation (the act of one work referencing another, as often occurs in academic and business documents) of a given document that matches the user’s query. The popularity of a given document increases with every other document that references it.

 

While search engines are analyzing just what’s in your code, they look at whether or not the search terms are found in important areas of the document – title, meta data, headline tags, and body text.

Search engines also do whats called ‘Link Analysis’, where they look at who is linking to the site and what they are saying about it. This gives search engines a good idea of who you are affiliated with, and just how popular they are. It definitely goes to show that its all about who you know!

Hopefully, this information has given you some insight on how SEO works, and how to go about your next web design project. The users and potential clients are your number one priority, so let nothing stop you from reaching them. If you are someone looking to have a website built, understand the need for a developer that knows SEO. It could make a huge difference in your relevance and popularity…

A new user will decide within the first 15-20 seconds of visiting your website whether it meets their goals or not. Which means that it is vital to the success of your site or app to follow usability rules. Dont turn off your users by making things harder for them to see or find. Besides eye-grabbing logos and beautifully designed navigations, websites need to be easy, functional, and simple to use.  Was that your answer to the first question I asked? Possibly.

So you might wonder how to go about accomplishing all of the above mentioned criteria? Especially if you only have under 30 seconds to make a good impression? Its simple. Come out from the development side of the application or website you are building, and put yourself in the users shoes. Studies have shown that applications and websites that have usability issues are geared more from a developer’s perspective, rather than a user’s perspective. Have you ever recieved an error message from submitting information that returns some ridiculous error like “WARNING 8062 – Auxiliary Device Failure”?? Only a developer would know what exactly that means. So your work really should be focused on the user, and communicating to them on a very simple level. Something more like “Warning – Your keyboard may not be connected,” would get the point across fine. Its a forgiving message with a less negative consequence.

Mainly, you’d like all of your potential users to have a positive experience overall. Even if your site is not what they were looking for at all, your users wont remember your site in a painful way. Ditch all the extra bells and whistles you’ve added to your page that might cause confusion or frusturation. Automatically having music play upon entering a website might catch your users offguard, causing them to hit the back button faster than the beach on a hot day. You need to give your users options. Let them play music on their terms. If you really do plan to have music playing upon entering your site, dont hide the back button. Your users will be looking for it.

Another way to ensure that your users have a successful experience is to streamline repition. If you dont know how to have streamlined reptition, a great example is having forms or information already prefilled out.  How many times have you encountered a problem of re-entering information thats already been asked? Id bet at least twice. Its fairly annoying to have to keep filling out the same information over and over again. If a users email was already entered somewhere on your site or app, its a positive reinforcment to have it already entered in other areas requiring that information as well.

So, as for the importance of user experience, its the number one priority when considering your websites and applications. All stages of development require attention in different ways. Companies have users test websites and applications for days and sometimes weeks before any progressive decisions are made. Never stop focusing on your users and their goals. Make sure that your designs clearly communicate your messages and information. If you follow these tips, you’re bound to have some satisfied users.

Have you ever received an email where, towards the bottom of a closing,  it says “Please consider the environment before printing this email” ? Its truly something to think about because, whether you know it or not, hundreds of trees are cut down daily in order to provide our world with paper. Trees just so happen to provide oxygen as well, so cutting them down must be avoided to ensure our future. You might already pay your bills or do your shopping online, but there are a number of ways to go paperless.

So, no matter your occupation, you can do your part to help preserve our environment in the following ways:

1. Email Instead of Fax

Unless the document you are sending needs to be notarized or signed, you most likely can accomplish your task by email. Even if the document needs a signature, it is possible to create a digital signature that you could send back on the document via email. EFax also provides an alternative to actually using paper and scanning it through the fax machine.

2. Google Calendar

As a professor once told me “Google is the oracle of the web.” And it proved to be true in more ways than one. Google provides a calendar for those of us with busy schedules. Its the answer to our scheduling problems! No more writing things down or flipping through pages of old months. Google calendar is an excellent way to stay on top of meetings and appointments you dont want (or need,) to miss! If you havent signed up for Gmail already, please do so. It makes going paperless easy!

3. Google Document

Besides the calendar, Google also gives you your own place to store notes and important information in a documents section (or, what we webbies refer to as GoogleDocs.) This really comes in handy when you need to take notes while listening to a lecture at a conference or in a classroom. You can even create spreadsheets, forms and presentations! Not to mention having the ability to share these documents with others that also have gmail accounts. Sharing information paperlessly in a simple way.

4.  Send invoices electronically

Keeping track of how many hours you work on projects, as well as billing clients for them, is something that can be done paperlessly. Besides emailing your client every time a change within the project is complete, you can document your progress (and pay check) with programs like Freshbooks.com. What’s awesome about Freshbooks is the fact that you can get clients and contractors to view progress and invoices, making things easier and manageable. So if you havent already signed up for a paperless billing way of invoices, sign up already!

5. G.ho.st

Boo!! Okay, just kidding, its really pronounced “g-host” and its a really good way to keep all of your files together without having to print anything out. If your desk is filled with all sorts of things that you need on a daily basis but can be kept track of electronically, then step to it! Your address book and emails can be easily uploaded to this form of a desktop away from home. G.ho.st. No need to print out that memo you didnt have time to read from your children’s teacher, read it later by saving it on your virtual desktop.

So as you can see, there are ways of going paperless and thus saving trees and preserving our quality of life. Although I’ve only listed five different ways, there’s tons of others to be discovered. Just be sure you do your part daily in going paperless.