2BlueSolutions Developer Blog

Thanks to the crafty work of Jacob Bijani over at www.border-radius.com , a lot of us web developers can breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to sorting out css curved borders across all supported browsers.  Let's face it, anything to make our lives easier is a good thing. Quickly enter your desired corner dimensions and watch the code get generated on the fly.

By default, the VirtueMart checkout process will ask for more information from your customer than is actually needed by your store.  To help reduce the form-field overload  that you customer may face when trying to purchase a product from your online store, it can help to actually remove fields that are not necessary to your business.   Do you really need to know the “company", "title", or "fax number” of a customer?  If not, then this tutorial will show you how to remove those fields. Changing the following file will impact the Billing Information and the Shipping Information (Shipping Address) forms that appear during the VirtueMart checkout process. The file you will need to edit can be found here: /administrator/components/com_virtuemart/classes/ps_userfield.php Search for the function getSkipFields() By default, the skipped fields are the username, password, password check, and the check for the terms of service agreement. function getSkipField...

VirtueMart is a free piece of Shopping Cart Software made for Joomla .  It works right out of the box with a few minor tweaks, but it also allows for some major customization. There is a lot to learn about VirtueMart to get it fully customized for your needs, but if you want a free e-commerce shopping cart component for Joomla, VirtueMart is the leading candidate. To install VirtueMart is easy.  Download the latest complete package from the VirtueMart website .  Log into your Joomla adminstrative interface and upload the package that you just installed (see Joomla - Installing Components and Plugins ).  You need to unpack the file you just download because you are only going to need to initially upload the file called com_virtuemart_1.1.5.j15.zip (corresponding to the version you downloaded).

I would like to follow up the post made about the Tweet button with a post about the Facebook Like button and the benefits of adding the button to your web site. Below is an image of what the button looks like.  If you would like to see a real world example, you will find one at The Vintage Revival  near the bottom. The Facebook Like button allows visitors to share the content of your site with people on Facebook. When a visitor clicks on the Like button, a story appears in that visitor’s friends’ News Feed with a link back to your website. As you can guess, this quickly and easily helps promote your site on one of the most popular social networks on the Internet today. By embedding code in your website (called Open Graph tags ), your page will become the equivalent of a Facebook page with a connection made on Facebook between the visitor and your web site. Your site will appear in the "Likes and Interests" section of the visitor's profile and you will have t...

Twitter has now released a new Tweet button for there service. This function was previously offered by TweetMeme's Retweet button . Similar to Facebook's Like button , the new Tweet button from Twitter allows a visitor to send a Twitter message from your site. Tweet Twitter offers a page to help you construct your Tweet Button: http://twitter.com/goodies/tweetbutton On this page, you have the option of how your button will appear: The text that people will include from this Tweet can be customized The URL that you want linked to this Tweet The default language You can also recommend up to 2 people to follow for this Tweet button to recommend to the visitor When you have completed the customization, it's easy to insert the code into your site because Twitter will generate it for you.  Cutting and pasting the code into your site will complete the process and then you are up and running. That's it.  It's a very similar process to the Facebook Like...

AniaTaubenfligel.com is a modeling portfolio site showcasing photos of the model Ania Taubenfligel. There are 2 image galleries showcasing her photos and her appearances as captured by the fashion media.  Along with the image galleries, there is an information page and a contact page. Created by  2BlueSolutions Web Design.

A recently developed site, Forté Representation , was released as a pure Flash site.  To allow this site to be viewed on non-Flash enabled devices such as the iPhone, non-Flash pages were developed.  Upon visiting the site, it is determined whether you can see Flash or not.  If you can't see Flash on the device you are accessing the site with, then you will only be served non-Flash pages. One of the key features of the site is the gallery.  To mimic the Flash version of the photo gallery, Javascript was implemented with the assistance of the JQuery library.  Combining JQuery with a plugin called EasySlider allowed for development of a sliding gallery that is visible on non-Flash devices. In total, the site was broken up into separate HTML pages: Home Photographers, broken up into each artist:  Linda Mackie , Ian Sheh , and Renat Touichev . Makeup+Hair, listing the artist Eman Aziz . About Connect Clicking on any of the above links on a Flash en...

Fort é  Representation. Artist Representation.  Vancouver based agency representing photographers, makeup artists, stylists and other artists in the visual communications realm.  Given a design by The Well Creative , this site was implemented in Adobe Flash with continual feedback from the designer and from the business owner to fulfill their vision. ( click here to visit the site )

2BlueSolutions prides itself on listening to the wants of each independent client. We strive to create a website as unique as your company. This blog will be used to post tips and tricks that I have learned while developing web sites.  I also plan to provide some tutorials on using Joomla. Find us on the web at www.2bluesolutions.ca