Goodbye Google Gears, Hello HTML5

Goodbye Google Gears, Hello HTML5

by Jay Hathaway (RSS feed) Feb 21st 2010 at 9:05AM

We already knew Google Gears was on its way out, but Google has now basically lowered the casket into the ground. Gears powered a bunch of web apps in its day, but now Google's stopping work on it and switching to supporting its features natively in Chrome using HTML5 and other emerging web standards.

What does this mean for current Gears users? Well, support will be severely limited, but maintained until there's a way to port entire apps (including their userbases) to a standards-based approach. Some Gears APIs have already popped up natively in Chrome, which now includes geolocation and several database-related APIs.

Check out Google's blog post for the skinny on what is and isn't supported so far. If you're a developer using Gears, you can also take advantage of Google's invitation to reach out and ask questions about the future of the Gears features your apps use.

Why Flash Is Fundamentally Flawed On Touchscreen Devices

Slashdot Technology Story | Why Flash Is Fundamentally Flawed On Touchscreen Devices

"I'm a full-time Flash developer and I'd love to get paid to make Flash sites for the iPad. I want that to make sense — but it doesn't. Flash on the iPad will not (and should not) happen — and the main reason, as I see it, is one that never gets talked about: current Flash sites could never be made to work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware. That's not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It's because of the hover or mouseover problem. ... All that Apple and Adobe could ever do is make current Flash content visible. It would be seen, but very often would not work."

3 Simple Steps To a Successful eCommerce Business

3 Simple Steps To a Successful eCommerce Business
Posted by Amanda Brooke on Sat, Feb 20, 2010 @ 06:03 PM

Having a successful ecommerce business is a dream shared by many, and achieved by many, as well.

Here are three simple, basic tips for helping you have a thriving, successful ecommerce business:

Promote your site every day, without fail. This might include all sorts of things. You can promote your sight through Pay Per Click and other ad campaigns, through emails and e-newsletters to subscribers, through sales, promotions, contests and coupons.

You can promote your site through social media on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and any number of other social sites.

You might promote your site by having a business blog, submitting articles to article directories, and even videos on YouTube.

You might have promotional material printed up and included with each package as sold items are shipped. Or, you might opt for tee shirts, caps or jackets printed with your website and brand logo.

There are many, many ways to promote your ecommerce website, and a smart entrepreneur doesn't miss a trick!

Another very simple step to success in an online store is SEO. If you don't know how to optimize the SEO of your ecommerce website---you need to learn.

Alternatively, you could hire SEO experts to do this for you. Regardless of how it gets done, it is absolutely essential that it is done, whether by you or somebody else.

There is a saying on the internet about any website that is all too true:

If you don't exist with Google….you don't exist.

And that's about the size of that.

So, a basic but necessary part of building a successful online business is great SEO!

Last but not least in this little series of simple steps toward achieving success as an online merchant is this: Give excellent customer service! You might have a fabulous, professionally designed website with fantastic SEO and wonderful product descriptions.

You might rank high in search engine results, pay a small fortune for PPC and other ad campaigns, and so on and so forth. But if you don't take care of your customers, your online business will go down like the Titanic, except there won't be a band playing.

Customer service is the cornerstone of any successful online business!

There are all sorts of other things you can do to be successful in your ecommerce enterprise, but you can't go wrong following these!

Tags: Grow Your Business, Tips For Ecommerce Entrepeneurs, ecommerce

ZEN CART安全建店的步骤 (2009.12.18 更新)

ZEN CART安全建店的步骤 (2009.12.18 更新) : 安装设置

由 Jack » 2006-10-11 5:47

强烈建议所有Zen Cart用户再次阅读本贴，保证网店的安全。

下面是强化Zen Cart网店安全的几个步骤:

1. 删除以下几个目录和文件

安装完成后，请从服务器上删除以下目录和文件:
- /docs
- /extras (重要)
- /zc_install
- /install.txt (这是文件)

另外，如果你的网店不是卖可下载类的产品，请同时删除以下文件和目录：
- /download
- /media
- /pub

不要只是改名目录，万一别人知道了目录名，就不安全。

如果删除了 download 目录，商店设置－属性设置－允许下载，设置为：false

2. 设置configure.php文件为只读

将两个configure.php文件用CHMOD(设置权限)命令改为只读很重要。

通常就是设置为"644"，有时是"444"。

如果无法通过FTP程序修改，可以用主机商提供的文件管理工具来修改。

如果您用的是Windows服务器，只要将文件设置为"所有人" "只读"，如果是在IIS下，是IUSR_xxxxx 用户，或者"System"帐号，在Apache下，是"apache user"帐号。

3. 改名"/admin"目录

修改"admin"目录名，用一个很难猜测到的名字。
(在进行下面的修改前，请备份文件和数据库。)

A- 用文本编辑器，例如记事本，打开文件admin/includes/configure.php。

将所有出现/admin/的地方改成自己的管理目录名。

需要修改的部分:
define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/admin/');
define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/');
define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_ADMIN', '/admin/');
define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/');

需要修改的部分:
define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', '/home/mystore.com/www/public/admin/');
define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', '/home/mystore.com/www/public/');

B- 找到Zen Cart的/admin/目录，

将该目录名按照admin/includes/configure.php中的定义作相应修改。

4. 删除不用的管理员帐号

管理页面->工具->管理设置

在管理页面下，打开工具菜单，选择管理设置
- 检查所有没有使用的管理员帐号并删除。特别注意是否有"Demo"帐号。

5. 强化管理员密码

一定要使用一定强度、不易猜测的密码。

要修改管理员密码，进入管理页面->工具->管理设置，点击"重置密码"按钮，或点击那个想回收箱的图标。

建议使用至少8位密码。
密码最好包含字母、数字、符合、以及大小写等。

6. 保护"自定义页面" "html_includes"中的内容

定义好您的自定义页面后，(管理页面->工具->页面编辑), 您要保护这些文件:

A. 用FTP软件下载备份，这些文件位于
/includes/languages/schinese/html_includes目录。

B. 修改文件 CHMOD 644 或 444 (或 Windows下为"只读")。见上面的CHMOD说明
/includes/languages/schinese/html_includes

网店安全相关贴子：强化Zen Cart 网店安全

Buyers' Guide: How to Find a Web Hosting Provider

Buyers' Guide: How to Find a Web Hosting Provider — eCommerce-Guide.com

By Vangie Beal
February 16, 2010

For a small business owner, finding a provider to host your Web site can be a big task. There is a lot more to shopping for a Web site hosting provider than just comparing prices and disk space. When looking for the right provider, you need to start with a good idea of types of services you'll need for your own Web site. After that, you can work on finding the right hosting provider — one that can meet your needs at a price you can afford.

When you start shopping for the right vendor to provide your Web hosting services, make sure the provider offers packages for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). You want to invest in a professional plan with professional services for your business, not a company that really only has experience with personal Web site hosting.

Getting Started: A Web-Hosting Glossary of Terms

When you first start looking for a hosting provider, it probably won't take you long to realize there is whole new world of standards, phrases and terms to learn. The first step to finding a provider is to familiarize yourself with the common lingo, so you can understand what each vendor has to offer. To get you started, here are eight Web-hosting terms you should know, courtesy of Webopedia.com.

• Web host Web server
• virtual host
• virtual server
• dedicated hosting /server
• shared hosting / server
• backup
• service level agreement

· Ecommerce-Guide Tip: You can find hundreds of Web-hosting terms in Webopedia's Internet and Online Services category.

First Decision: Shared Vs Dedicated Hosting

One of the first decisions you will want to make is choosing between sharedand dedicated hosting. A shared Web server — sometimes called virtual hosting — basically means your Web site will share resources with other Web sites. In this scenario, multiple Web sites are running (hosted) on the same physical server. On a dedicated server, your Web site is the only one on the server.

The biggest differences between the two types of hosting options are price, performance and control. When you consider a shared service, the cost is considerably lower as multiple Web sites pay for the server. On a dedicated server, you are the only one paying for the server which, combined with additional start-up costs and IT requirements, makes this a more expensive option.

Another issue to consider is in-house expertise. In a shared environment your responsibility is to provide the content, and the hosting provider will take care of other details, such as the server set-up, including the operating system, bandwidth management, backups, e-mail and security.

On dedicated servers, the provider often supplies management software, but you will largely be responsible for the server management — not just the Web site management. This will require dedicated IT staff to handle Web-server installation, deciding which Web applications to run on the server, backing-up the server and security issues.

One of the biggest issues for an e-commerce Web site is choosing specific carts or payment systems. On a shared server, you are limited to what the hosting provider supports.

For the very small businesses (home-based and entrepreneurs) if you do not have the technical know-how, shared hosting will probably be the easiest and best way to get started. You can also start your business with a shared Web server, and move on to a dedicated server as your Web site grows.

For e-commerce Web sites, PCI-complianceis going to factor in to the type of server you choose. On a dedicated server you can have control to ensure you are in compliance with the standards, but again it will require dedicated IT.

Many shared hosts may not offer secure PCI-compliance. Smaller businesses without the technical expertise can, however, use a third-party Application Service Provider (ASP)that will capture all of the order data and store it on its servers. You will still be required to comply with PCI standards and regulations.

Since most small e-commerce shops and businesses start out with a shared server, this will be the example used most frequently in this guide. Anyone interested in dedicated hosting should read The Great Hosting Debate: Shared vs. Dedicated guide on Small Business Computing.com.

· Ecommerce-Guide Tip: Hosting Plan Primer

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Free E-Commerce Shopping Cart Systems

OfficialWire: Free E-Commerce Shopping Cart Systems

Of course, the goal of all e-commerce websites is to make a profit, and yet selling more products or services is not the only way you will ensure a better margin

Published on February 16, 2010
by Harvey Raybould
LONDON, ENGLAND

Paid shopping carts can be very costly. Most require a onetime fee, making start up costs high. Other paid carts charge by the month, some even take a small transaction fee as well, and, surprisingly, to the uninitiated, most paid carts are not nearly as customizable as free 'open source' systems.

Today, there are many, free e-commerce shopping carts, which can help you reduce your initial or monthly outgoings. Free systems can be used on any website without sacrificing your site's appearance or functionality. Familiarity with HTML or CSS will increase the options available, but someone with no HTML skills can still utilize a number of free shopping carts.

Paypal and other add-to-cart buttons

A website selling only one or two different products may just need a simple PayPal button for customers to make a purchase. PayPal offers a free cart and checkout system with no HTML skills required. This allows you to generate the HTML coding for a "buy-it-now" or "add-to-cart" button that can be copied and pasted into your website.

Most web-savvy shoppers are familiar with PayPal, and prefer the fact that a website owner will not have access to their financial information. There is a small transaction fee to the website owner, although this is comparable to other merchant accounts.

There are other systems comparable to PayPal, the most popular are Fat Free Cart and Mals Shopping Cart. Both are free to use with your own merchant account, PayPal or Google Checkout.

Solutions for larger websites

Websites offering large numbers of different products may find creating an "add-to-cart" button for each product time consuming. Cut and paste "add-to-cart" buttons are fine for some types of websites, but a shopping cart system looks more professional and gives greater flexibility and options.

Make sure that your hosting company's server can support the shopping cart of your choice before proceeding. All free shopping cart systems will provide you with the ability to add products to your website easily and allow your customers to purchase these products.

Therefore, the functionality of the shopping cart you chose is important. Be sure to check the demo website, if offered, to see how easily the cart handles an order. If it demands too many steps, or the interface is poor, you will end up with abandoned carts at the check-out and a loss of revenue.

Customers want to order from websites easily, with shipping costs clearly marked. The more payment and shipping options that you are able to offer the better, although again, make sure they do not add additional and unnecessary steps to the check-out process.

Choose from the best of breed

Although, there are many free shopping cart systems available, I would recommend that beginners stick with the most popular, as help is widely available from other users in online forums.

If you are using Wordpress as the platform for your website, then Instinct offers a reliable free shopping cart – successfully downloaded, they claim, over 500,000 times. If not, then Cube Cart, Zen Cart and OsCommerce all offer free e-commerce systems, and all of which, have really user friendly administration areas.

All three offer the ability to add an unlimited number of products. Features to consider when choosing between them are multiple payment options for your customers, shipping options and different currencies and languages, depending on your target audience.

Cube Cart is an excellent choice for mid size e-commerce websites. It has templates, called skins, that may be used as a site template or you can overlay the cart onto an existing website. Free and not so free skins, are available on the web. Skins may also be customized, although this requires some skill in coding the CSS style sheets. There are free and paid (one time fee) versions, both are an excellent choice.

OsCommerce is the best known free shopping cart system. It is widely used by companies all over the world. It is the best choice for larger e-commerce sites as there are more than 3,400 available modules that can be added to the default osCommerce installation, enabling full customization. Zen Cart is another open source shopping cart that is widely available. Zen cart has a user friendly interface that allows the shopping cart to be set up in minutes.

Installation

Many free e-commerce shopping carts can be installed yourself, but it can be difficult. Good hosting companies will install the script for you, and/or have a 1-click installation feature in the hosting Cpanel.

After a shopping cart has been installed, you can customize the catalog section of your website in the administration area. Products, descriptions and prices, payment gateway(s) etc can be configured. Changes to the shopping cart's general appearance are usually done via templates or CSS style sheets.

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PHP code tools round up

PHP code tools round up - Techworld.com

By Rick Grehan | InfoWorld
Published: 12:30 GMT, 16 February 10

Though precise statistics are difficult to obtain, PHP is undeniably a top choice as a website building language. Since October 2009, the TIOBE Programming Community Index has PHP holding third place, behind Java and C, among programming languages overall. Regardless of the exact extent of PHP's usage, you need only consider that websites such as Facebook, which manages millions of users and petabytes of content, use PHP. Workloads of that magnitude demand a serious programming language and supporting environment.

• ActiveState Komodo |
• CodeLobster |
• Eclipse PDT |
• MPSoftware phpDesigner 7 |
• NetBeans IDE |
• NuSphere PhpED |
• WaterProof Software PHPEdit |
• Zend Studio

In our estimation, four of these IDEs rise to the top. Zend Studio is an excellent PHP IDE once you become familiar with the Eclipse landscape. NuSphere's PhpED is also first rate and deserves your consideration if you need a professional-quality IDE and support. If you're on a budget or you can make it without technical support, Eclipse PDT and NetBeans are exceptional tools.