Web Designers Blog

Ecommerce Blog

I launched new ecommerce blog to regulary post there knowledgable articles about e-commerce, for those who are going to start their business online, not only newbies, even advanced techs may find there interesting information, and post there their expiriences all about ecommerce.

cPanel’s new Vulnerability

Several bugs and vulnavulnerabilities were found on last cPanel update. Hostgator’s customers were complaning stating that their sites� were not� loaded or some of their pages loaded trojans if they� browsed pages by IE. The issue was solved within� 48 days. As they refered the problems were related with the last cPanel update and� caused by some php mis configurations.

I found many other broken sites within last days, seems there� were “big blust”.
God bless, it pass trhu us.

cPanel is found on about� 2.5 million hosts worldwide. The� application is widely used by many large hostings,� mostly those offering dedicated servers. Its userfriendly interface automates many elements of web site management for resellers and customers.

cPanel� email� their cusomers patch instuction stating as below:

Due to a recently discovered bug, it will be necessary for users who are running the CURRENT, RELEASE and STABLE branches to run a cPanel software update.

Description: An uncompilied mysqladmin script allowed an exploited copy of MySQL.pm to be places within the directory location of mysqladmin. This copy of MySQL.pm would be given preference by mysqladmin due to the precedence order of perl module searches. A malicious user could then use an exploited copy of MySQL.pm to elevate their system access (including root access). A patch for this issue has been released. Please note that this is a local issue and a system cannot be compromised remotely. The malicious user must have access to an account on the system to take advantage of this script. All cPanel and WHM server will automatically receive a patch for this update. This patch has been applied to most servers and will be applied to the remaining number of servers during the scheduled update on Sunday night, September 25th, 2006. It can be applied manually as per the instructions below. Affected

Systems: All builds on all platforms are vulnerable up to and including (11.0.0 build 492), all builds after that have been fixed. All previous builds after 9.0.0 will be automatically patched by the updater if automatic updates are set.

Fix Details: We recommend updating (if you do not wish to update see the manual patch instructions below) to the latest EDGE or CURRENT build as these builds include the latest security patch as well as additional protection (the underlying wrapper now contains vastly improved input sanitization). To do this, you will need to modify your upgrade settings thorugh the Update Config function in the Server Configuration menu of WebHost Manager. Login to WebHost Manager Naviagte to the the Update Config function in the Server Configuration menu. Change your cPanel/WHM Updates option to CURRENT or bleeding EDGE (Automatic updates recommended). Click on Save Use the Upgrade to Latest Version option within the cPanel menu. You can also apply the patch without updating: You can either run /scripts/upcp from the command line as root, or you can also upgrade from inside WebHostManager by using the Upgrade to Latest Version option within the cPanel menu.

Paypal account for non paypal countries.

PayPal seems like a dream if you live outside the USA. I understand perfectly, I myself need PayPal to receive money from my own customers. My customers dislike using Western Union or wire transfers. PayPal is simply the fastest way to perform online money transactions.

I was in danger of losing some customers, so I was forced to come up with a way to get a PayPal account. I finally came up with the idea to open an account at PayPal UK. PayPal UK does not require you to have a banking account or major credit card. The only thing they require is a UK address– Even if you have never been there!

Once I registered, I began receiving money from various people for differing amounts of money. After you receive your first payment, PayPal sends you an e-mail to upgrade your account to Premium. You can easily move up to Premium account status, and most importantly– you are not asked to provide bank or credit card details.

But, there are two problems. First, you are limited to a maximum of 500GBP per month. To raise the maximum limit above 500GBP, you must verify your bank
account and provide other personal identification. The second problem, and it is a big one– is that you are not able to withdraw the money you have received. You are only able to receive money into your PayPal account.

Like all good things that must end some day, the party was over for me. When I logged on to my account I discovered the following message:

�

What can I do while my account access is limited? add funds by an electronic funds transfer place logos into your auction listings or on your website update your account information What can’t I do while my account access is limited? receive payments send or request money close your account

I emailed them 3 times, stating:

Oh my goodness, what happened? Yes, the party was clearly over. The worst of it was, that I discovered that my last payment transaction to another party was placed on hold! How could that be? I had no clue. If someone had sent me money that money had been properly credited to my account, why was my transaction to a third party held up? Was there an explanation? I e-mailed PayPal three times for an answer. There must be a logical explanation, and a way to retrieve my money. Even if I had actually lived in the UK and have since moved away, how could I possibly verify banking details at this time?

My advice: Never register with PayPal if you have any doubts about receiving your funds.

How Powerful Text Links Are.

Many bloggers are politically outspoken and view George Bush in a less than favorable light. Hundreds of people have linked to his biography page using the phrase “miserable failure” as the link text. This Google Search should show how powerful the internet is, and how powerful link text is.

Part of why it is so expensive to build a current search engine is that all of this feedback and linking takes time to measure and collect. The whole time you are collecting it, everything is changing. The text used in links is going to be very important in the foreseeable future.

Why are Links so Powerful?

When we write stuff about ourselves we have a tendency to lie. It is human nature to boost your own site. This is why meta tags and page copy are nowhere near as powerful as the once were.

Links from other webmasters are viewed by search engines as unbiased third party votes. While Yahoo! tends to put more weight on page copy than most other major search engines do. who links to you and with what words are the #1 ranking criteria for competitive phrases in all major search engines.

Many people look for links just thinking “link,” but ofter this is not the most effective way to do link building. If you think of the web as a huge social network and think of links as relationships you have a huge advantage over your competition.

You can do many manipulative things to make your ideas appear better than they are, but if you can find more natural ways to embed yourself in the social structure of the web you will likely become extremely successful.

�

New Oscommerce Release

Released new version of the popular ecommerce solution – oscommerce 3.0 Alpha. As soon as I found this news, I have visited their site, and downloaded the contribution, then installed on my localhost, to study “new born” oscom.� Sure it is much more improved, mostly in design, new template system, which allow you to manage the layout of the site form one file, besides it is CSS3! automatic thumbnails for products pictures, seo firendly urls work fine, improvement in code, definetly seen..

Look and feel of admin area changed totally, however is some non usual for me. But the major problem is you can not use that Oscommerce for a commercial site though. It is not upgradeable, and who knows how long it would take while old contributions would adjusted to this new oscommerce version, maybe months, or years

more details here http://www.oscommerce.com/about/news

Accomodation finder website

This is new website we launched recently. The code of the� script written from scatch, using PHP and MySQL database. Since requirements of customer were not fit to any available scripts, we had to write the script ourselves.

The website consist of major 2 parts, Students and Landlors.

1. Stundets may list their ads as� room sharing(looking for flatmates), or looking for home.
2. Landlords list their ads after one time registration fee. Which is done thru 2checkout.
3. Search forms for accomodations, flatmates
4.

Admin can manage listings, users, registration fee, payment reports, and other statistic details.

We try to keep design of the site as clean as possible, so visitors may easily see and find� whatever they look for.

This script is� pretty suitable for any property, accomodation� listing websites.

�

How to be a good web designer

Come with me, won’t you? We’re going to take a step outside the world of the designer-vs-client battle and look at another issue. I’ve read numerous articles on “how to handle” clients regarding everything from getting them to coaching them to how and when you should fire them. Most of these talk about taking charge and doing what you’re trained to do—design. Not a lot of them talk about taking off your designer hat and doing what is essential to please your clients (especially if you’re freelance)-that is, serving.

Let’s be real: Most clients are not egotistic know-it-alls that just want to belittle you. If they didn’t need help, you wouldn’t be working for them in the first place. And while you’ll always have clients who micro-manage things and really see you as more as a temperamental tool to their vision, that’s no reason to ignore their suggestions or chalk up their criticism to nothing more than a casual observer. In the world of design, we are about bringing other’s ideas to a visual and tangible result. We are the solution, not the problem.

Actually, if your client’s have a rough time about the project, it’s probably your fault. But that doesn’t mean that these things don’t happen often, it just means that we should know how to get around them. I’m going to give you some tips on getting to know how to serve your client better.

Take a great deal of time to understand your client’s concerns. It may very well be the thing you do more than actual designing, but what good is 40 hours of working on something that they hate? You might still get paid, but you won’t get referred, and you certainly won’t get re-hired. Take lots and lots of notes. Pay careful attention to the sites your client likes/dislikes and why. And finally, once you have a clear idea of your clients goals, execute well.

You can’t do it all, but do as much as you can. I have a client that doesn’t know a whole lot about computers, the internet or web design. He just knows that a website is a window of potential gain in his business and he wants to grab the opportunity. So when I created his site, I didn’t just put it all on a CD and leave it at his office. I took the time to get his domain name, make sure his site was hosted, and I was the go-between for him and the hosting team. In fact, I’m still paying his hosting and doing site maintenance for a monthly fee. By the law of reaping and sewing, I guarantee you that I’ll be the first guy he thinks of when someone else asks him about design. And as any designer will tell you, referrals matter greatly.

Stick with what you know. While I am primarily a web designer, I’m pretty handy at print design when I need to be. But recently I got a phone call for a position that was way over my head programming-wise. I know enough code to be quite dangerous, but I haven’t taken the time to seriously learn ASP or other stuff involved in the backend. How much of a help would I have been to go ahead and say “Yeah, I can do all that,” and then try to make it by on trial and error? In respect for the client and your own reputation, politely decline work that you can’t handle, be it because you don’t have the know-how or don’t have the time. If you can’t commit to a project because you’re busting at the seams with deadlines, then don’t. It’ll be better for you in the long run.

Execute with excellence. In addition to being a good designer and making your client happy with the project, be sure to follow up on it and ask about the success. Was it seen/noticed? When the projects over and done with, send some cookies or chocolates with a thank-you for being part of your paycheck. Touch base with them often to make sure things are still going well for them. If you start to actually care about them and their business, then they will actually care about you and yours. Not to say that they’ll give you a “pity project” just because you’re running dry, but you’ll keep yourself in the forefront of their mind and it’ll make you look really really nice. And everyone likes a nice designer. Don’t make yourself a nuisance, though. I wouldn’t call them more than once or twice a month unless they were in need of my help.

You’ve heard it before, I’ll say it again: going the extra mile can’t hurt. The least it will do is teach you character and show someone that you care. After learning these principles, it was not hard for me to see myself as what a designer really is: someone who sells a service. And the best way to sell a service is to become a servant.

What Is XSL

Remember the good old days, when the internet consisted of nothing more than a few simple websites formatted in basic HTML? Web design was so easy.You could just slap some graphics and text into a file, insert some HTML tags into the document to tell the web browser how the text should appear and what the structure of the page should be, and presto, the job was finished.

You could just slap some graphics and text into a file, insert some HTML tags into the document to tell the web browser how the text should appear and what the structure of the page should be, and presto, the job was finished.As time went on, web design became more arduous. Businesses, especially ecommerce businesses that depended upon their internet storefronts to make a living, began to present web designers with near impossible projects that were too difficult to complete with basic HTML. The data being used and the designs that were being implemented for websites required more versatile programming specifications.

What resulted was the evolution of new specifications and languages for creating web sites. Languages and sub-languages such as XML, XHTML, style sheets, and a host of other more refined and yet more flexible specifications were spliced together to take web design to a new level.

One of the most important languages that came to be in recent years is called XSL. What is XSL, you ask? Well, to totally understand what XSL is and why it is so important, you must first understand XML.

XML is a markup language just like HTML. XML was created to deal with the fact that HTML was limited in that all of its tags were predefined and it displayed data a certain way. XML has no predefined tags, and does not tell a computer how data should appear, it merely defines the data. So, using XML, a web designer can define all sorts of data and more effectively transmit this data to web browsers installed on different platforms that run on a variety of electronic gadgets such as cell phones and other handheld devices that now come equipped with internet access. In a nutshell, XML was created to deal with the fact that so many different electronic products now come equipped with access to the internet and email. These new devices run on platforms that do not always display data properly if it is coded using HTML. XML fixed this situation by simply defining data and not forcing the web browser to display it a certain way, because an XML file is merely a simple text file.

So, again you ask, what is XSL and why is it important? XSL stands for Extensible Stylesheet Language. You have probably heard of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS is a style sheet language that evolved to make it easier for web designers to create a style for an HTML web page. Because XML is now so important, and because XML tags, as explained in the previous paragraph, do not tell the web browser how data should appear, a stylesheet language that was XML-based became a necessity.

XSL consists of 3 components. The first and most important component is XSLT. XSLT transforms an XML document into another XML document that can actually be understood and displayed by a computer. It accomplishes this by transforming most of the document into XHTML, which is a more versatile, cross-platform, XML-based version of HTML.

The second part of XSL is XPath. XPath is used as the navigator for XSL. XSL uses XPath to find parts of the source document that should match a certain predefined template. When XPath finds what it is looking for, then XSLT takes over and performs a transformation, turning the source document into what is called the result document.

The final part of XSL is known as XSL-FO. This component is for the final formatting. Once XPath has searched through the source document and used XSLT to transform the source document into the result document, the document then needs to be formatted so that the web browser will be able to present the document with the proper layout and structure. Simply put, XSL-FO is the part of XSL that produces the final output.

There are all sorts of helpful online tutorials for programmers and web designers to begin to learn how to use and implement XSL, but it would probably be best take a course in XSL at a local institute, college, or wherever you can find one. If web design is your career, learning it is not an option, it is a necessity, as most web browsers are now capable of understanding XSL. Since the advent of wireless internet access, everything from cell phones, to palm tops, to computer screens in automobiles can be used to connect to the internet. These different devices run on different platforms and have different web browsers that cannot properly display many elements of the HTML programming language. As a result, it is critical for all web designers to be able to create web pages using cross-platform specifications with the adaptability provided by XSL.

Interview with Jesus

Oscommerce multi languages problem with charset

I got an order to create ecommerce website with 3 languages – english, japanese, korean.
Since there are already japanese and korean language addons for oscommerce I decided to use oscommerce for this project. I have installed those language packages succesfully, however, when try to add category names in japanese and korean, the characters were demaged, and reflected worng. I spent few hours to sort out the problemm, and at the end found the solution. So how you can do:

1. Open admin/includes/languages/english.php

replace: define(‘CHARSET’, ‘iso-8859-1′);

to: define(‘CHARSET’, ‘charset=utf-8′);
in around line 45

2. Execute the following� sql command� in your mysql database
ALTER DATABASE `os17` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci

3. Change varchar to 255, in product name, and category name fields. Because when you use utf-8 you have 4 times more characters than usual.

Hope this will help someone too.