Website Design, Search Engine Optimization

Uploading Product images to VirtueMart can be done either by going through the back end administrator control panel in Joomla or through the front end. When I am making a quick change sometimes I will go through the front end rather than the back end of the site, depending on what I am doing it  can be much faster.

Below is a  bulleted list that I put together for a client.

1. VirtueMart BACK END Updates – Login as you normally would at this page http://www.yoursitename.com/administrator/
   • Click on the Components Tab across the top in the main control panel
     scroll down to VirtueMart (they are alphabetical) and click
   • Now you are in the store control panel. On the left is the Administration Panel go to Products >> List Products
   • From the list of products find the item you want to change or add an image. Click the media icon in the specific product row you have selected
   • A Pop Up window will appear for this specific product “FileManager :: Image/File List for (product name)”.  Click on the image file name, then a new screen will appear
   • Upload a File for: (product name)
     click the “Choose File” button and find the image on your local computer

     Pick the File Type

     Check the image sizes, if you want both the full and thumbnail images

     File is published? Check this box if you want to publish the image(s)

   • Next to complete the job-
     Top Right options to save your work
     Save – to save what you have done
     Back – to go back to the other window
     Cancel – go back to FileManager
   • Return to FileManager::Image/File List for (product name) in the pop up window
     Choose what you want to do with the images – publish or remove
     Also you can view the images you have uploaded
2. VirtueMart FRONT END Updates – Login at the customer login box on the front end of the website http://www.yoursitename.com/
   • Find your product
     Then go to the product detail page
     (url may look something like this:
     http://www.yoursitename.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=yourcart_flypage.tpl&product_id=63&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=55 )

   Click on the little pencil near the name of the product on the top left

   • This will bring you to the “Flypage”  for the product, click or open the Product Images Tab Under the “Update Item :: Product name ” heading
   • There will be two choices Full Image and Thumbnail Image
     Full Image >> click the “Choose File”  button and find the image on your local computer
     Image Action will change to Auto-Create Thumbnail
     Choose none if you don’t want a thumbnail
     Save – to save what you have done and leave the window
     Apply – to save what you have done and stay in this window
     Cancel – to go out of the window

I hope you find this helpful when updating your e-commerce, shopping cart.

Next week I will attend the CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference.  I am a believer in continued education and try to attend a few conferences a year.   I have not been this excited about being a part of a development community since I started developing sites in (dare I say) 1997.  Developing sites with Joomla and WordPress have changed the capabilities of what a business can do on the internet today. With all the wonderful CMS solutions offered it will be exciting to hear from some of the movers and shakers in this field  and learn new tricks to share with you.

CMS Expo is designed for all members of a content management team, from the creators to the developers.  There will be learning sessions that include integration of  Social Media, CSS and techniques for many of the different CMS solutions that are available.  Not only will I become better acquainted with the applications that I am already familiar like Joomla and WordPress, but I will have the opportunity to be exposed to others that I would like to know more about, Drupal and Alfresco to name a few.

Technology is always changing and the website of yesterday or one that was developed a few years ago is being replace with these powerful open source dynamic CMS alternatives. The first steps to developing a website are only the beginning of an ongoing process. The truly powerful and successful websites are nurtured and upgraded constantly.  Don’t put your website in a drawer, open it up, dust it off and let’s bring new life to your on- line presence.  The beauty of CMS for a website owner,  is the ability to update the content without a lot of  technical background.

Glossary:

• CMS – Content Management System
• CSS – Cascading Style Sheet, control over how a web page looks to the user.
• Joomla – Framework, built by a development community or collaborative effort through open source to build dynamic websites.
• WordPress – Framework built by a development community or collaborative effort through open source to build the best blogs and now also has features that can be used to build a website.
• Open Source – Source code that is available to the general public for use for free.
• Blog – short for web log, an online journal that allows for comments and open conversation

Hi!  I just updated to wordpress 2.5. If you have a blog and have not done upgraded it is well worth it. The Dashboard has been updated and the control panel appears to be more user friendly. I am hoping that it has better capabilities for adding your own HTML that has always had some bugs.

On the write a post page they have added media buttons for image / video /audio / media. Under the title it shows the permalink that it will be posted as. I have not really traveled through the dashboard but on the write a post page it appears cleaner and more user friendly.

From what I can tell this is an upgrade you don’t want to miss. I may have missed a few upgrades from I was using 2.3.3.

Have a great week.

Usability and the utility, not the design, determine the success or failure of a web-site.

read more about the principles of effective website design

Point #1 the golden rule – “don’t make your users think”

I just discovered this great website ColorsOnTheWeb.com .  They have a tool for picking colors that was developed over eight years ago. It has definitely stood the test of time. You pick the colors, the tool will determine matching colors for your selection.  I tried it and it appears to come up with a wonderful array of colors, not only for hue, but also saturation and tint and shade variations. This is can be a great time saver to determine the colors quickly in your style sheets (CSS) for heading tags,  links;  hover and active.

I can spend a lot of time tweaking colors in PhotoShop, it is almost amazing that photoshop does not do this for you automatically. Below is a screen shot of this FREE tool, note the make a donation box in the right hand corner? It is a good idea to donate something if you like or use the tool. Who knows the more you donate the better the tool.

I finally did it, I bit the bullet and bought Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 Master Collection. I have always been so resistant to purchasing each new software version. I actually have a mantra, “only every other year”. I also in the past have resisted purchasing Suites because I always found there were only a few programs that I use all the time. This is “Sweet” is truly a Cadillac (or a Toyota). With all the new interactive functions with websites my older versions of Flash etc. are proving to cost me more time and money.  I have not installed the new software,  just made the purchase and I feel like a little kid in a candy shop.

What does Adobe include? It is marketed as “Design Across Media” and combines all the best of the best if you ask me and I hope that Adobe has not screwed it up.  Why do I say that? A few years ago Adobe acquired Macromedia, so now they have a corner on not only the best graphics software but also website design tools. At my finger tips I will have bundleds together graphics and web design tools plus video/animation with After Effects, Premiere, Soundbooth and Encore. What a basket full of goodies, I am hoping it all integrates wonderfully and the learning curve is short or maybe a better way of putting it “pain free”.

A little side note, when I started designing websites, Adobe had just introduced Photoshop3, at that time there was approximately a 12 step (no pun intended) process to performing a drop shadow! People would do drop shadows just to prove their Photoshop skills. Then for web authoring this is one of my favorite stories I used a software program called “HotDog Pro” the help assistant was this little wiener dog , that would bark when you did something. I just Googled “HotDog Pro” and I was happy to see they now have HotDog Professional 7. You might want to check it out at Sausage Tools , the cost is quite a bit less than Adobe.