Wordpress and Magento Development

Oct22

WordPress Plugin: WP-Table Reloaded

So I wanted to have a table with zebra stripes in a WordPress installation. I found a quick and full-featured plugin that allows the stripes, plus so much more.

WP-Table Reloaded will let you import a table from a CSV, HTML or XML file. You can enter the cell data directly into the admin page. You can swap column or row order with minimal effort. You can hide or show columns or rows.

Oct16

Magento: Beginner’s Guide (Book Review)

I have been humbled by the good people at Packt Publishing. For some reason they think I’m an authority, so they decided to let me review one of their new books, Magento: Beginner’s Guide, written by William Rice.

If you’re not familiar, Magento is a fresh and promising ecommerce solution. A leading feature of the software is the core is 100% open source. Of course there are many plugins, themes and other customization features which range in price from the altruistic ‘free’ to the enterprising ‘thousands of dollars’. But in the end, if you’re looking for a robust ecommerce solution and aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty, look no further than Magento Commerce.

This is a hefty book, weighing in at 300 pages. I’ve read the official Magento User Guide, and although it is informative, I feel that it is somewhat dry. I’m eager to flip through the ebook they sent me to see if there are any ‘between the lines’ tips and tricks to liven up a Magento project I’m working on.

Oct01

Anchor Tags, IDs, Google and You!

So Google added yet another facet to their SERPs this week. The new feature allows you to jump to the information you want right from the search snippets. At first glance it seems they’re acknowledging the proper use of the named anchor tag. Further investigation turns up clues of nimble ID attribute seeding.

Page Division Benefits for Visitors to Your Web Site

This is great news for both sides of the SEO table. The search engine user can click directly to the desired information instead of wandering around the page once they’re directed to a site by the SERP. The old way was sort of like getting directions to a house party that left you at the entrance of a neighborhood. This new way leads you to the right driveway.