iDude.net

I’ll admit it, I’ve been developing a Love-Hate relationship with WordPress, at least with version 2.7.   There are many aspects of WordPress that I totally Love, yet there are things I almost despise.  The stock installation of WordPress 2.7 does not play well with Microsoft SMTP services.  There are technical issues behind why the PHP mail function that it uses does work with certain servers such as the SMTP services of Microsoft IIS.  There are issues with WordPress not being able to send mail out through Google GMail and GoDaddy as well.

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It’s been an interesting experience since I’ve taken the plunge and installed PHP5, mySQL and Wordpress 2.7 on a Windows 2003 server with IIS 6.0.  I’ve encountered a number of issues along the way, one of them being that IIS does not have a mod_rewrite feature like Apache web servers do.  So I had to look around for a good ISAP plug-in (filter) to do the job.  Dean Lee’s WordPress URL rewrite ISAP filter works like a charm. In fact it’s written explicitly for Wordpress in C++ which makes it extremely faster compared to other URL rewriting plug-ins for IIS.  I’m a fan anyways of stream lined software that is simple, lean, efficient and does not try to do it all.

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The guys at Google finally came up with a code solution for websites being penalized for duplicate content and Yahoo, MSN Live and Ask.com have all jumped on board to support it as well. 

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Since I brought part of my idude.net website back online, I thought I’d Google up the word “iDude” to see what came up in the results. You know just for the hell of it. I noticed a link to the Urban Dictionary for the meaning of iDude and decided to check it out.

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Jitterbit is an amazing Open Source data & application integration suite. A Free Community Edition is available for download and use.

Face it, manually importing and exporting Data between applications or databases in csv text files to keep data synchronized in rather old school. It’s simply a stone age method from the primitive dinosaur era. Technology has evolved and so have the tools. You may have heard the Buzz about Data Synchronization or Data Integration. It’s well worth your time and investment to explore it. Tools such as Jitterbit can save you literally days or weeks in data mirgration, import, export, integration or synchronization, including the scheduled automation of such tasks.

The fact remains that most databases that drive websites are separated from the information systems or applications that businesses use. Worse yet, even many of the applications or information systems in a business are separated. There often is a serious need to keep data consistent between these systems. To make certain customer information, orders, product information, inventory tracking and other types of information is up to date and valid.

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Considering that Microsoft has released Express Editions of MS SQL Server 2005 and 2008, I would hope that many people were encouraged to Migrate from using Access to MS SQL Express for their iHTML websites and applications. I suspect there are still some some iHTML Merchant 1.0 websites using Access out there though.

Microsoft Access is simply not suited to handle the work load for website database backends. Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition offers better maintainability, scalability and development efficiency compared to MS Access. Access has always been a bit like using a skateboard compared to a automobile to get where your going for website databases. The reasons to leave Access behind for website development are too numerous that it’s not funny. Needless to say it’s Best to Leave Access back at the Office where it belongs.

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At one time EBB was a commercial iHTML web application and has since become Open Source GPL software.

While there are no official development projects for this application on the likes of source forge, it has literally hundreds of hours put into it, along with some really excellent documentation in PDF format.

Requirements to run EBB

• iHTML Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.x or Greater
• PostgreSQL Server (latest should work)
• Windows installation using MDAC 2.5 or Greater
• Linux installation with the latest unixodbc

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The one thing that the iHTML programming language is missing are many of the developer tools that other languages have. There are no Integrated Development Environments (IDE’s) specifically designed for iHTML. The only tool has been developed specifically for the iHTML programing language is iEdit.

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Some people devote a lot of time, energy, resources at getting visitors to come to their website, the last thing they want is for anybody to quickly leave. For this reason a lot of people have opted to not use the banner AD feature of their eCommerce solution such as the iHTML Merchant.

They are concerned with promoting their site and trying to drive sales. However, the Banner AD system can be a powerful tool in promoting products/services internally on the website itself.

The above example shows the banner AD system at work in the top right hand corner. Since it’s contained in the template header it’s displayed on all the pages of the website. This is just a useful Tip to take in consideration before tossing out the notion of using Banner ADs on a site altogether. Many people simply associate Banner ADs with the marketing of other websites (does not have to be the case).

This might sound like too much common sense, but an e-commerce website should be focused upon generating sales. If products and services are presented right from the start on the home page, this can make a big difference in sales.

I try to discourage using the home page to post content more suited for “About Us” or “Company info” pages. It’s better to get down to business and promote products and services right from the get go.

Customers are looking for available products and services, they are not visiting e-commerce websites with the thoughts of forming a business relationship. The same applies to the physical world.

When you walk into a brick and mortar retail store, you don’t have somebody standing at the door passing out company brochures. However, there might be a stack of sales flyers near bye. Many retail stores/shops merchandise new and sales items in highly visible and/or well trafficed areas.

I always recommend that it’s better to focus upon marketing products/services on the home page instead of using it to market the business itself.

Here are the Top 4 modifications to the iHTML Merchant home page that I personally recommend to do just this.

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