2BlueSolutions Developer Blog

As a follow up to my previous post about installing the DIBS module in Virtuemart , there is a poorly documented error you will run into when trying to use the payment module on a live site. Basically, it will complain about a missing "paytype" which is actually not what is missing.  What is missing is the "test parameter" as the error will tell you.  After spending too much time trying to fix the "missing" paytype, I tried a different method and deduced that it really was missing a test parameter. With the default setup, the DIBS payment processor will only send a "test" variable to DIBS when it is actually in testing mode.  Makes sense, right? if(DIBS_TESTMODE == "YES") { $oid = 'test-' . $db->f("order_id") . '-' . time(); $post_variables["test"] = "YES"; $post_variables["orderid"] = $oid; } else { $oid = $db->f("order_id") . '-' . time(); ...

I recently was contacted to install the DIBS payment module in Joomla's Virtuemart . It is actually a very straightforward procedure that the DIBS developers lay out nicely in their help file. First step is to download the files you need from the DIBS site: http://tech.dibs.dk/toolbox/dibs_standard_shopmodules/ ( direct download ) Scroll down to the VirtueMart plugin or choose the above direct download link. Unzip the files. Inside, you will find the "docs" folder which contains a readme file which is very well laid out. Quickly, the steps are: Upload the contents of the module folder to the root of your Joomla installation. Log in and navigate to your Virtuemart administrative page. Select List Payment Modules (under Store) and choose DIBS Credit Card from the list of available payment modules. Tick the box for " Active " to make it active. Change the payment method name to whatever you want the customer to see when they checkout. Code =...

If you want your checkout page to look like this: First, you can edit the text for you button in: /administrator/components/com_virtuemart/languages/common/english.php Search for: BUTTON_SEND_REG Whatever you put in for that value, will change the value of the button. For example, put in "Next" instead of "Send Registration" (the default value): Now, to remove the empty "Next" box as seen in the above example, it will just require a simple edit from within your Virtuemart administration page. Log into your Joomla administration page. Enter your Virtuemart administration page. Under Admin, select Manage User Fields . Find delimiter_sendregistration : Then click on the green check mark in the Published field to unpublish the field Finally, for a little bit of housekeeping, edit the following file and add some blank space before the BUTTON_SEND_REG button. /admin/components/com_virtuemart/checkout_register_form.php

This is my solution for using Flash, SWFAddress , and HTML fall-back pages. It is more quick and dirty than “the right” solution, but it falls firmly into the “works for me” category. I use SWFObject (link) to detect and execute a Flash site and to fall back to a non-Flash site when the browser cannot handle Flash Typically, the code will look like the following: <script type="text/javascript" src="./js/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var flashvars = {}; var params = {}; params.menu = "false"; params.quality = "best"; params.allowfullscreen = "false"; params.wmode ="transparent"; var attributes = {}; attributes.align = "TL"; swfobject.embedSWF("website.swf", "nonflash_content", "100%", "100%", "9.0.0", "expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes); </script> Extrem...

I was searching for a quick slideshow plugin to use within an article in Joomla and stumbled across one called Simple Picture Slideshow . It is extremely simple to set up.  You download the plugin from their site, install it into your Joomla backend, then find it in your plugins directory.  There are few settings to play with from having the images link to other pages and buttons for controlling the slideshow.  I went with a simple approach for Ryan Gibbons Real Estate and just had a button-less image slideshow that began automatically on page load. The beauty of  Simple Picture Slideshow  is its ease of use.  It's default directory (which you can change in the plugins settings page) is set to /images/stories .  To use it in your article, you use the following syntax: {besp} sampleimages {/besp} Where sampleimages would actually be /images/stories/sampleimages .  It will load all the images in that directory and size them to the dimension...

A fantastic site for Flash tutorials, gotoAndLearn()  has helped me quite a bit in the past, especially with some older Actionscript 2.0 projects I have undertaken.  His videos on building your own NetStream player are reason enough to visit his site and explore. His tutorial videos are well paced and well scripted.  I'm not usually one to watch video tutorials, but I found his to be just the right length and descriptive enough to help me out quite a bit. Check the site out:   http://www.gotoandlearn.com/

Just a quick post listing some of the social media colours for use in your icons Facebook Blue:  #3B5998; White:  #FFFFFF; Font:   Klavika  Twitter Blue: #4099FF; White:  #FFFFFF; Font:   Pico - Alphabet LinkedIn Blue:  #0082B0; White:  #FFFFFF; Font:   Myriad Pro Bold Blogspot Orange:  #FF7419; White: #FFFFFF; Font:  Custom font (you will have to make one yourself) Tumblr Blue:  #243C54; White:  #FFFFFF; Font:   Bookman Old Style Bold Sample Icons: