I?ve just recently completed work on a New Product RSS feed for one of my ASPDNSF customers and thought I?d post it here for all to benefit from. This package uses the already existing RssFeed.aspx files that come with ASPDNSF for display. To use the attached XMLPackage, you?ll need to do the following: Add the file to your /XMLPackages or /skins/skin_x/XMLPackages folder (where x is your active SkinID) Link to the RSS feed using the following syntax:             http://wwww.domainname.com/rssfeed.aspx?channel=newproducts where domainname.com is your store?s domain name Here are some of the more interesting things about the XMLPackage that might going through the code a good learning experience. The first is identifying the odd format that RSS feeds expect dates to be in. Below is the SQL code to format the date string (in this case for the item creation date (to be used as the published date) <query name="Items" rowElementName="Item"> <sql> <![CDATA[ select top @Limit ProductID, ProductGUID, Name, SEName, Description, LEFT(DATENAME(dw, CreatedOn), 3) + ',' + ' ' + RIGHT('0'+CAST(DATEPART(DAY, CreatedOn) AS CHAR(2)),2) + ' ' + LEFT(DATENAME(m, CreatedOn),3) + ' ' + CAST(YEAR(CreatedOn) AS CHAR(4)) + ' ' + CONVERT(varchar,CreatedOn,108) + ' PST' AS CreatedDate from dbo.product with (nolock) where Deleted = 0 and Published=1 order by createdon desc ]]> </sql> <querystringreplace replaceTag="@Limit" replacetype="request" replaceparamname="limit" defvalue="5" validationpattern="^\d{1,10}$" /> </query> This formats the dates into a string that looks like the following: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 15:40:02 PST as opposed to a standard SQL date that look like this: 2008-11-28 14:34:05.920 I just found it much easier to manipulate this in SQL than in XSL. One key to properly providing an RSS feed for consumption is to provide the last build date so that RSS readers aren?t needlessly downloading articles. This is provided by determining the most recently created item and stuffing it into the LastCreatedDate. The RSS Channel includes Generator, Title, Link, Description, Copyright, Date, lastBuildDate, and image elements; all except the image elements are drawn from AppConfig or System values to minimize the need to modify this file unless you need to. This XMLPackage also includes the following elements of the RSS Item specification: title, link, description, author, guid, date, pubDate and image. In the case of Item, all the values are drawn from the product database including properly formatting the product link URL and the item image URL. I?m looking forward to hearing how people are going to use this application. Please use the feedback section below to let me know what you think of this XMLPackage! New Product RSS Feed v1.0 download

ASPDotNetStoreFront released their latest version last week.  I?ve just recently finished a transition to the new version on one of my client sites (http://www.tobacco-barn.com) in conjunction with a design change. We?ve all been impressed with overall how easy the transition was. This particular site has a great deal of customization of various files in the system and with the addition of the ?In Store Pickup? option, we can now remove that customization from our list of code changes on every update. We are also impressed by how quickly and effectively the Tabbed Interface for Products works and have even extended it to add a new tab if a product has a link to a video defined in the product?s ExtensionData field, a video tab will be added to the interface. The ?Customers Who Bought X also Bought Y? is another nice little freebie thta comes with this latest version. We also integrated the Viewing History feature and hope that this will help drive sales on this site. Another nice feature is the redesigned admin UI. I?ll be the first to point out that I don?t like graphic updates just for the sake of doing so but the layout of menu options is just so much more compelling and thought out than previously. We haven?t yet implemented and tested the full-text search capability but for those who have a lot pertinent information in product descriptions, this may just prove to be a god-send. Here is their press release about the new launch: AspDotNetStorefront ML v8.0 Release Raises the Shopping Cart Bar Gives Merchants the Tools to Tackle a Tough Economy In the latest ML v8.0 release significant enhancements have been introduced in the platform to increase conversion rates, maximize performance, and reduce administrative overhead to put merchants in the best possible position to maximize profits and grow their online e-commerce sales in a slowing global economy. Westlake, OH (PRWEB) November 12, 2008 -- AspDotNetStorefront is proud to announce the latest release of its flagship AspDotNetStorefront ML e-commerce shopping cart platform. In the latest ML v8.0 release significant enhancements have been introduced in the platform to increase conversion rates, maximize performance, and reduce administrative overhead to put merchants in the best possible position to maximize profits and grow their online e-commerce sales in a slowing global economy. AspDotNetStorefront ML 8.0 includes powerful, high performance, full-text product searching, helping shoppers find what they are looking for faster and keeping them anchored to your site. Additionally, AspDotNetStorefront will intelligently build related products as shoppers browse your site and display them on your product pages, allowing merchants to effortlessly increase upsell percentages and capitalize on cross-marketing opportunities. New inventory control features add flexibility to how out of stock products are handled on your site to reduce shopper frustration, and a reorganized and redesigned admin site makes performing common tasks more intuitive. Tabbed product pages make it efficient and attractive to organize complex product data, and "customers who bought x also bought y" capabilities are now included out of the box. customers who bought x also bought y We've gone to great lengths to focus our development efforts on providing tools that allow merchants to make the most out of every sale opportunity "We've gone to great lengths to focus our development efforts on providing tools that allow merchants to make the most out of every sale opportunity," AspDotNetStorefront COO & Executive Vice President Dan Van Kuren remarked. "With more consumers indicating they'll be shopping online this busy holiday season even in uncertain economic times, merchants need to take advantage of technologies that set them above their competition. Version 8.0 puts advanced capabilities within reach of ecommerce veterans and fledgling online businesses alike while maintaining exceptional ease of use and minimizing administrative overhead. Take our renowned SEO capabilities and add to that our constantly expanding feature set, and you have an ecommerce platform that can take you across the finish line in first place. This latest release demonstrates our commitment to helping our online merchants grow, regardless of what is happening in the market." AspDotNetStorefront ML Version 8.0 contains many new exciting e-commerce features, including the following: Exciting new merchant control panel, featuring a new layout, and expanded use of Wizards to assist merchants in configuring their store features, settings, and capabilities Tabbed product page presents all product details without the need for scrolling the browser screen Dramatically Improved (Full Text) Search Performance, to identify root words, plurals, compound phrases, and search term reordering Automatic display of Product Suggestions, based on previous customer purchases, This provides an Amazon.com like capability guiding customers to additional products of interest for purchase Improved display of Product Stock Conditions, allowing merchants greater flexibility in indicating real-time inventory status Support for credit card processing by Sage Payment Systems Improved "Page Not Found" (404 handling) display, offering e-commerce driven search suggestions based on missing page attributes guiding consumers to the best fit pages and products. Automatic display of a customers' viewing history, allowing them to quickly locate and view recently viewed products Automatic display of Related Products, based on heuristics of product-view data Improved handling of "Delayed Capture" payment methods, to allow merchants to void non-completed orders Improved compliance with XHTML display standards, including the ability to specify the exact "alt" text of a product image, for improved website accessibility for people with special needs and SEO indexing 400% faster page loads than v7.0 version Additionally, AspDotNetStorefront will be updating its online demo sites to better showcase our new technologies. Prospective customers will enjoy a greatly expanded product database to demonstrate the nearly unlimited capabilities of the AspDotNetStorefront shopping cart platform; developers and web designers can modify skin templates to see for themselves how easily professional e-commerce sites can be developed using the AspDotNetStorefront platform. AspDotNetStorefront ML Version 8.0 is available for $1,295, with no monthly fees or annual commitments required. C# and VB.NET source code available. SQL Server 2005 or higher required, along with the asp.net 3.5 SP1 platform. For more information, visit the AspDotNetStorefront website at http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com. About AspDotNetStorefront: AspDotNetStorefront.com, a division of Discovery Productions, Inc., is a privately held company that provides online eCommerce shopping cart platforms for nearly 10,000 merchants and 6,000 developer partners. For more information, visit http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com or call 602-490- 0243. ### If you currently use ASPDNSF or have questions about it, please use the Comments below let us know what you think and/or rate this posting for usefulness.

Google announced recently that Google Apps has passed a SAS 70 Type II audit! The audit was performed by an independent public accounting firm to verify the technical processes and controls utilized by Google to ensure that customer information stays safe. According to Wikipedia: With the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), SAS 70 took on increased importance. SOX adopted the COSO model of controls, which is the same model that SAS 70 audits have used since inception. SOX heightened the focus placed on understanding the controls over financial reporting and identified a Type II SAS 70 report as the only acceptable method for a third party to assure a service organization's controls. So, if you?ve been waiting to pull the trigger on converting your company?s Email and/or Groupware over to Google Apps for security reasons, you can now rest easy on this point. This coupled with their announcement that Premier Editions will include 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) for GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites and Google Talk. If you are looking to get your business converted over to Google Apps, talk to the experts here at Exhibit A as we can help streamline this process for you.

As mentioned in a previous post, I was a big fan of the David Burnett's work and followed the work of other conflict photographers (Burnett shot in Vietnam) like the Peter and David Turnley, James Nachtwey (who I saw speak in San Diego while in college) and others. Despite the sappy love story, I totally dug the movie Under Fire. Imagine my excitement when I ran across a link to a series on Hulu.com called "In Harm's Way". The episode shown below follows two freelance war photographers as they work on stories in the middle east. Very enlightening as this was an area of photojournalism that I was always keen on pursuing before I got married and priorities changed.  

You know, it struck me just the other day that while I profess to make myself available as a photographer, I don?t often talk about photography in my business blog. Perhaps that has something to do with where the real money is made but it doesn?t necessarily reflect where my real passion is. David Burnett was one of my early photographic heroes (along with Weegee). I remember following his exploits and trying to learn from his photos back in the mid ?80s when I was working at the Daily Sun/Post (or at least it was a daily back then). I was quite pleased to stumble not only upon his blog called ?We?re Just Sayin?, but also the video below. I also greatly enjoyed his post entitled ?History In The Buffer? that was fabulous. Here is a video that he shot of his experience at the 2008 Olympics. Or more appropriately, ?The Olypmpics You Didn?t See? The Olympics You Didn't See from David Burnett on Vimeo.

Google has recently announced a few new upgrades to Google Apps this weekend. One is exclusive to the Premier Edition while the other series of changes are to Google Calendar. If you are looking for a compelling reason to move up to the Premier Edition, this may just be it. Not that I, or to the best of my knowledge any of my Google Apps clients, have experienced any significant loss of service in the past but you never can tell as the Apps become more and more popular?  Yes, Google has finally upped the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Premier Edition to a 99.9% uptime guarantee. That amounts to under 9 hours of downtime a year! You can learn more about this at http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/sla.html. Google has also announced a series of usability improvements to Google Calendar as well: A whole raft of new keyboard shortcuts (visible by pressing ? key) for things like navigation (k and j for previous and next period,t for today), changing views (a for adgenda view, d for day view, w for week view, m for month view, x for four day view), performing actions(c for create event, e for event details and del to delete an event) and maneuvering about the application(/ to search, + to focus on a calendar, q for Quick Add, Ctrl+P to print, s for settings and, of course, ? for shortcut screen). If you routinely have trouble getting everyone?s schedule coordinated, you can now automatically find the next available time period across those attending an event. The application will also perform automatic time zone detection when you are traveling If you frequently travel to another location or work with others in a different time zone, you can set up a secondary time zone You now have more granular control over meeting reminders If you?ve used any of these features and have a comment, or have questions about upgrading to the Premier Edition, please feel free to use the comments section below.