Via Micro Persuasion. 35 ways you can use RSS today.

This post at Micro Persuasion is a good starter list for seeing the innovative ways you can use RSS syndicated feeds in your everyday life. A lot of people don’t use or understand RSS feeds and so they really have no sense of what is possible with them. Think of RSS feeds as very portable information or content that you can subscribe to, much like the old stock exchange ticker tapes. The information is pushed to you as it is created. Rather then visiting a website for information, the content of that website is stripped of it’s design, packaged up in an XML type file and then delivered to you automatically as a subscriber. It keeps you up-to-date on all your favorite information and searches in real-time. Think of RSS as your very own personal team of newspaper reporters running around the Internet gathering all of the stories and news that you are interested in and reporting it back to you instantly.

Read the full list of 35 ways you can use RSS today.

Technorati Tags: syndication, rss, xml

This is one of the coolest WordPress plugins I’ve run across in a while. I’m sure you’ve seen other blogs where they offer a long list of RSS subscribe buttons that provide the viewer with a slew of choices to grab their RSS/XML feed. Well now, instead of cutting and pasting the code for each site such as Bloglines, FeedBurner, My Yahoo, Google, and Feedster, and then manually saving and uploading each subscribe button, you can just install this plugin, add your RSS feed URL and voila, it automatically generates the feeds in the correct format for each subscription service.

You can see the results of the auto-generated buttons on our RSS Syndication page.

To grab the WordPress plugin, visit http://www.twistermc.com/shake/wordpress-chicklet.php.

Technorati Tags: wordpress+plugins, wordpress, rss, subscribe+buttons, syndicated, syndication

Here’s another quick how-to for MIVA Merchant version 4.24, using the OpenUI Look & Feel module and the Viking Coders Product Page Templates module.

I needed a way to check the contents of a MIVA custom field (not the fields created with the Viking Coders Additional Product Fields Manager) but rather those created within the default MIVA custom product fields screen.

Essentially, it involves adding a simple if statement to check if the product field equals a certain value, and then outputting a block of text to the screen. In this example, I want to check the custom product field called ZILLABRAND and see if it was equal to Xterra. If it does contain that value, then I want to display some additional text about that brand.

Here is the code:

%ACTION(XPFIELDS)%
%IF(g.OUI_Xproducts:ZILLABRAND EQ 'Xterra')%
<BR><div style="font-family:verdana, arial; font-size:10px;">Sizing Tips: Xterra Wetsuits are running small this year. If you are at the high end of height or weight, please choose next size up. Contact us for additional assistance.</div>
%IFEND%

Basically this calls the value of the fields using the ACTION command and then checks the value of the ZILLABRAND field (previously created). I also added a div around the output to format the display of the text.

Also, make sure to put the required %OUI% at the very top line in the product page template module.

I was able to gather most of this information from the not-so-informative user forums at the OpenUI website – http://www.openui.org/openui_forum.php

Again, this example uses the Product Page Templates module available at Viking Coders.

Hope this helps.

Tags: miva+merchant, miva, shopping+cart, ecommerce, e-commerce, OpenUI, MIVA+OpenUI, miva+programming

This post covers integrating the custom fields created in the Viking Coders Additional Product Fields module with the Category Page Templates and Product Page Templates modules. All of these modules and the code below require the use of the OpenUI module.

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Much of the work I do for clients revolves around the MIVA Merchant shopping cart platform, both versions 4.x and the new 5. While we don’t offer the MIVA shopping cart here at Pezland, we do support development of MIVA cart based businesses.

Over the course of the past 5 years of building and programming MIVA carts, I’ve fought through and eventually learned a long list of hacks, tweaks and customizations that are immensely valuable for the MIVA store owner. My hope is to be able to document some of those tricks and pointers here.

For more information on the MIVA shopping cart platform, visit the official MIVA website at www.miva.com.

Tags: miva+merchant, miva, shopping+carts, e-commerce, ecommerce

Many people don’t have access or budget to hire a professional web design company to create their new website. As an alternative to a custom site, there are many pre-built design templates, some for free, some for a fee, that work great and can serve as a way to get your website up and running quickly. It’s better to have any design, even if it’s not your preferred perfect one, then to have your site offline while you build every last detail. Days, weeks and months can have a huge impact on your site being indexed by search engines and directories and having something up online will greatly increase your chances for better traffic.

There are many design options available.

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