Forest BB

Hi all - sorry to those who knew this all before but we really really need this fixed.

The forest shop online is fucked which means that all the promotion i have been doing for the book is worthless. Jason Morton has html'd an email and we're all set to rock out and promote the book and lp.

How quickly can we fix this problem. Pogo has offered to design us a new shop site but this will require some funds and won't be able to be done too quickly. I wanted to send a BUY this BOOk email today so that we could get books out by the holiday season.

If anyone can take this on as a priority that would be great because then I wouldn't feel like a load of time / work had been wasted.

Please help?

Love you!
ry

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

Hello. Hello. Hello? can anyone help me please?

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

i dont really understand the shop , it dont seem to work when i go to it . i was thinking you could just have a link to the button .

You mean the shop on forest.org.uk right? When you click on Books & Literature or whatever nothing shows up?

Who's currently in town that knows anything about logging into and administering the site? I'm afraid I don't have any logins or passwords and have never even looked at the forest site or the software it uses. It's not a 'normal' site. I don't think I can help, at least not on my own.

Maybe, if there's no one who can simply fix this on their own, we can arrange an Action Room get together, just in the nick of time. We need at least one or two people who know how to login into the site and have passwords etc., other geeks can come along and learn. We will probably fix it?

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I've had it with you. If I had an image of a laser gun I would absolutely position it right here in my hand...
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!

we had our best minds look at it and this is the response:

Pogo said via email...



Pogo's proposed solution:



the current forest shop uses the joomla application ezstore.
an answer would be to ditch it and just create a page with all the item on it and paypal buttons for each or a page for each item with paypal buttons for each.
is it easy to create the paypal button? probably. i've never done it...

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the more you think, the more you stink

Go with the paypal buttons. With luck creating a button will be a copy-paste from their site.

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I've had it with you. If I had an image of a laser gun I would absolutely position it right here in my hand...
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!

have had a look into this. the forest's ezstore seems to have broken with the joomla update and the site the script says is it's homepage is 'down' atm. softpedia gives the ezstore site as this but there's no mention of it there so i'd guess the developer has gone non-free and there'll be no new versions (read that work with the latest joomla) of ezstore, so it looks like a migration to a new shopping cart addon'll be required.

looking through the shopping cart addons available on the official joomla extensions site, virtuemart comes out the top rated and seems to have all the features required. example sites can be found here, here and here. shouldn't be too hard to get this installed to give it a spin. thoughts?

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

Give it a spin!

yes PLEASE!

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

it's installed! can be seen here with a sample set of products (the sidebar module is disabled so only a direct link works atm and nothing is configed for the money part yet). formatting and info available can be adjusted. there are a few addons available that could be installed if wanted. what is required now is a list of the products to be sold with prices/descriptions/pics/etc and the paypal (or whatever, most payment systems are covered) details for where the money is to end up.

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

Really very excellent work.

Here is a list of items that should be in the forest shop:

Books
1) The Golden Hour Book and CD
2) CIA Nights
3) Ryan Van Winkle - I Hate Myself, I'm A Genius, I Ruin Everything (I'm So Lonely)
4) Ryan Van Winkle - i think i

Records
10- inch Vinyl
1) The Forest Vinyl

CDs
1) Balkan Invasion
2) Dirk Markham - Psycho-Acoustic Sculptures Vol 1
3) Dirk Markham - Psycho-Acoustic Sculptures Vol 2
4) Dirk Markham - Psycho-Acoustic Sculptures Vol 3
5) Dirk Markham - Dirk's Definition of Country
6) Dirk Markham - Advent
7) Dan Seizure - In Bed With
8) Dan Seizure - At Home With
9) Dan Seizure - Danseizure Vs Dan Arborise
10) Dan Seizure - Danseizure Vs Umbrellamouth - Electronic Shopping
11) Dan Seizure - Let's Not Go Out With
12) Arctic Circle - Volume One
13) Arctic Circle - Volume Two
14) Arctic Circle - 2007
15) Ryan Van Winkle - I Hate Myself, I'm A Genius, I Ruin Everything (I'm So Lonely)
16) Ragland - Volume One: Welcome To Ragland
17) Ragland - See:Xons
18) John Crave - Superbuildings
19) Kenilworth - Kenilworth
20) i:beam - i:beam with hal ramel
21) The Very - The Very
22) Miroslav Mitrovic - Songs Of The Future
23) Peter Escott - 4 Seconds
24) Peter Escott - Live at the Forest
25) Peter Escott - 6 Months Transportation
26) Peter Escott - Piano and Forte Only
27) Peter Escott - Nyet Sevednya
28) CMG - Don't Go Midi
29) The Abdominal Showmen - Ourang-Outang
30) Kyon and Dyems - The Cage EP
31) MGM - Post Listening
32) Pandacetamol - Intoxicated Gesture

What else?
T-Shirts?
Frisbees?
I don't think we have any product so best leave it off for now.

The numbers mean nothing. Don't include them.

A lot of the pictures should be uploaded already.
Most of these should link to the radio player so people can listen before purchase.
Prices - set at 5 pounds including p+p
except - Golden Hour Book is 8 pounds.

The Golden Hour Book is our biggest seller!
Getting that up and the 10inch is the key at the moment.

How we do the paypal? I have the details I think. Some others too.
Obviously we won't put them here. We'll have to meet up...

Good work!

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the more you think, the more you stink

nice one milk

got some stuff added, shall do more later. can't seem to find the old shop images anywhere through the admin interfacef, don't suppose anyone could point me in the right direction/has copies? also, the shop allows for both short and long product descriptions - are there any about (was anything used forr the old shop?) or does someone want to write some?

p.s. have fixed the images at the bottom of the main site page so they're now links.

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

is this any good

http://theforest.org.uk/download/

the golden hour book stuff can be found at


http://www.theforest.org.uk/thegoldenhourbook

also on the main home page there is an image. You can use any of the text from the main GH page but I can help select it if you like.

That is awesome! let me know when it is live because I'd like to do a BIG Push soon soon soon.

Rock on milk!
r

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

ah, fantastic, both of those should help for now. taks.

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

rock on milk. let me know when we can buy things online.... cool.
r

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

i was away last week and am just picking up on this thread. i noticed image upload wasnt working about a month ago when i tried to add a new shop item

anyway all items still seem to be visible inc. image.jpgs, buy button code etc. in the old ezstore at the admin/backend.
so its a simple enough job to copy/paste all items into new shop. i dont have much on on wednesday and could do some of that if some one tells me how to access the new store.

in the old shop we didnt actually have any "add to cart" system activated - rather just buy now buttons linking directly to pay pal site...
do *we* know how to link this virtuemart with the joomla backend? i still have no idea why the old shop stopped working...id love to know more if anyone wants to pm me some ideas?

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"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." --John Cage.

troubleshooting this new "VirtueMart"......found a glitch: on checkout one arrives at a screen where the error "Error: Please select a Shipping Method." is shown. HOWEVER there is no Option to choose any shipping methods. really this is redundant anyway as in practice we use fixed price shipping costs. not sure we really need/want this kind of basket/checkout style shop system at all. i liked the old simple set up where one is diverted to paypal. sorry, i have upgrade sickness!?! ; ) still, i agree we really need to optimise our (online) shop and would like to help make that happen in any way i can.

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"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." --John Cage.

heyho. doh! checking there went right out of my mind >_< and that has product descriptions to copy as well



the shop admin page is located here. to add a product go to 'Product List' then 'New' at the top / 'Products' menu then 'Add product'. SKU is the internal product id number, the last used can be seen on the product list.





i haven't setup the payment method part yet (there's a guide here for that though) and specifically disabled the shipping methods part so no-one could order anything before it's all configured correctly. not entirly sure how that's going to be setup, though it shouldn't be too hard either. does the forest do it's own mailing or use some company or other?

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

right, all the products are now on the shop, although a number either don't have images or descriptions. i've copied all the details from the old store addon, although there might be (actually, i'm pretty sure there are, shall look at this later) a few more images in the download folder that i've missed. the paypal linkage is up and running now and the shipping has been set to £1 for uk addresses and £1.80 for non-UK addresses (ryan; that's correct, yes?).

there's a 'featured products' sidebar module that's ready to be published which'll display both the golden hour book and forest vinyl items on the front page,although i've been having some difficulty getting the 'Ultimate AJAX Newsflash' module (the one that fades out in and out with images of products from the old store, a module that was rebranded 'Ultimate Content Display' a few months ago) to do what it does with stuff in the new store. i'll try updating that and then have a go at getting it working later.

i've also installed the virtuemart product stats plugin so we can see what activity there is on the shop - not entirly sure this is working properly yet, but i'll come back to it later.

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

sounds fucking amazing milk. you are a shop-god!

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

bloody hell mate, great work, indeed.

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Pep Up The Turmoil

ah raht. now, images and the descriptions. i've still to check the download[url] folder for any more matching images, but can anyone point me towards/write descriptions for [url=http://www.theforest.org.uk/index.php?page=shop.browse&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1]the items that lack one? tak.

n.b. the final release of the next version of virtuemart should hopfully be coming out in the next couple of weeks which will allow one to do handy things like change the order products appear on the store page (doh). also, the big joomla 1.5 update should be coming out which'll be worth it for the refinements/new bells+whistles/updated security/etc.

ryan - when would you like to launch the shop proper [likes]? maybe a push/media blitz on that front once the images/descriptions are sorted?

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

hey all,

i just figured out some new web tricks and thought that i'd pass them on to the Forest site.

.. no more index.php?component /id?=99/view? 16d !!!

now the site has ultra friendly URLS!

like:
http://www.theforest.org.uk/the-goldenhour-book/
http://www.theforest.org.uk/cia-nights-gallery/
http://www.theforest.org.uk/workshops/c ... workshops/
http://www.theforest.org.uk/who-we-are/

and so on..

enjoY!!
pogo

hey, just a word of caution.

don't upgrade anything unless you've researched A LOT on what the upgrade is going to do to the existing site.

also - i would suggest that backups be made of the DB prior to any work on the sites backend. if something happens (like the unfortunate upgrade to 1.0.13 - without backing up 1st) - it is EZ to return the site to it's former state.

the site wouldn't be without a shop right now had a backup of the DB been made. don't take this lightly, it's ez to do and everyone now is feeling the results of an upgrade without backup.. not good.

else.... enjoy the new URLs!
remember: they can be modified to anything in the backend too.

nice one with urls , that what ive been wanting for a while , any chance this one http://www.theforest.org.uk/totalkunst/about-the-gallery/

could be just http://www.theforest.org.uk/totalkunst

this would be make it easier for poster and stuff

no problem!


http://www.theforest.org.uk/totalkunst

wow thanks!

nice to bb you again pogo.
happy new year buddy.


ry

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

hey all -

i stupidly thought this all got sorted and then forgot about it BUT - the shop is not really done, is it?

nothing online at the moment?

How do we get this up and running?

hmmmm?

ry

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

sorry, i've been a bit distracted in the last couple of weeks but i'll poke the stuff i can do (images from the download folder) the now.

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

no probs, wouldn't do it any other way. *realisation*. not that i have ftp access to do it anyway

joomla 1.5 final is out now, shall look into the fine details re upgrading, addon compatibility, etc. the final of the next virtuemart is expected in late feb.

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

update. the layout could do with a bit of work but i'm not going to bother before the 1.1 update comes out for the shop addon (soonish) as things might change.

everything should be working now. if anyone wants short or long descriptions edited/ammended, please provide changes and i'll update it.

should i turn the link on from the front page?

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hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

good work milk .

sweeeet! Let's go live baby live!

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

this page doesn't work still - right?

http://www.theforest.org.uk/index.php?o ... ry&catid=6

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

we don't use ezstore anymore so that link will never work.

the new shop exists on one of milk's links above. it's just not published yet.

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the more you think, the more you stink