The end result of our modification will be similar to the following:

We'll be diving right in to the Interspire Shopping Cart code to make these modifications, so there's an assumption that you have a small about of technical knowledge of PHP/HTML, but even if you don't have the experience, you should be able to progress.

The first thing to do is make sure you have a backup copy of the files we'll be editing in case anything goes wrong.

Open: includes/classes/class.category.php

Find:

$query = "
	SELECT p.*, floor(prodratingtotal/prodnumratings) AS prodavgrating, imageisthumb, imagefile, ".GetProdCustomerGroupPriceSQL()."
	FROM idn_products p
	INNER JOIN idn_categoryassociations ca ON (p.productid = ca.productid)
	LEFT JOIN idn_product_images pi ON (p.productid=pi.imageprodid)
	WHERE ca.categoryid='".(int)$this->GetId()."' AND p.prodvisible='1' AND (imageisthumb=1 OR ISNULL(imageisthumb))
	ORDER BY ".$this->GetSortField().", p.prodname ASC
";

Replace it with:

$query = "
	SELECT p.*, floor(prodratingtotal/prodnumratings) AS prodavgrating, imageisthumb, imagefile, ".GetProdCustomerGroupPriceSQL()."
	FROM idn_products p
	INNER JOIN idn_categoryassociations ca ON (p.productid = ca.productid)
	LEFT JOIN idn_product_images pi ON (p.productid=pi.imageprodid)
	WHERE ca.categoryid='".(int)$this->GetId()."' AND p.prodvisible='1' AND (imageisthumb=1 OR ISNULL(imageisthumb))
";

if(isset($_REQUEST['letter']) && $_REQUEST['letter'] != '') {
	$letter = chr(ord($_REQUEST['letter']));
	if($_REQUEST['letter'] == '0-9') {
		$query .= " AND p.prodname NOT REGEXP('^[a-zA-Z]')";
	}
	else if(isc_strlen($letter) == 1) {
		$query .= " AND p.prodname LIKE '".$GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_DB']->Quote($letter)."%'";
	}
}

$query .= "ORDER BY ".$this->GetSortField().", p.prodname ASC";

Find:

$query = "
	SELECT COUNT(p.productid) AS numproducts
	FROM idn_products p
	INNER JOIN idn_categoryassociations ca ON (p.productid = ca.productid)
	WHERE ca.categoryid='".(int)$this->GetId()."' and p.prodvisible='1'
";

Replace it with:

$query = "
	SELECT COUNT(p.productid) AS numproducts
	FROM idn_products p
	INNER JOIN idn_categoryassociations ca ON (p.productid = ca.productid)
	WHERE ca.categoryid='".(int)$this->GetId()."' and p.prodvisible='1'
";

if(isset($_REQUEST['letter']) && $_REQUEST['letter'] != '') {
	$letter = chr(ord($_REQUEST['letter']));
	if($_REQUEST['letter'] == '0-9') {
		$query .= " AND p.prodname NOT REGEXP('^[a-zA-Z]') ";
	}
	else if(isc_strlen($letter) == 1) {
		$query .= " AND p.prodname LIKE '".$GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_DB']->Quote($letter)."%' ";
	}
}

Now we need to modify a few of the panels that handle the next/previous and sorting options to ensure that the selected letter is also included. We'll also add some code to build our letter list and highlight the active item (fun times).

Open: includes/display/CategoryContent.php

Find:

// Should we hide the comparison button?
if(GetConfig('EnableProductComparisons') == 0 || $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetNumProducts() < 2) {
	$GLOBALS['HideCompareItems'] = "none";
}

Under it add:

if($GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetNumProducts() == 0 && !isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {
	$GLOBALS['HideLetterList'] = 'display: none';
}
else {
	$letters = '0-9,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z';
	$letters = explode(',', $letters);
	$GLOBALS['LetterList'] = '';
	if(!isset($_REQUEST['letter'])) {
		$GLOBALS['AllActive'] = 'ActiveLetter';
	}
	$GLOBALS['AllLettersLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false);
	foreach($letters as $letter) {
		$active = '';
		if(isset($_REQUEST['letter']) && $_REQUEST['letter'] == $letter) {
			$active = 'ActiveLetter';
		}
		$link = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array(
			'letter' => $letter
		));
		$GLOBALS['LetterList'] .= '<li class="'.$active.'"><a href="'.$link.'">'.isc_html_escape($letter).'</a></li>';
	}
}

Find:

$start = max($GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetPage()-$num_pages_either_side_of_current,1);
$end = min($GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetPage()+$num_pages_either_side_of_current, $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetNumPages());

Under it add:

$linkOptions = array(
	'sort' => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetSort()
);
if(isset($_REQUEST['letter']) && (isc_strlen($_REQUEST['letter']) == 1 || $_REQUEST['letter'] == '0-9')) {
	$linkOptions['letter'] = $_REQUEST['letter'];
}

Open: includes/display/CategoryContent.php

Find:

$GLOBALS['PageLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array("page" => $page, "sort" => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetSort()));

Replace with:

$GLOBALS['PageLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array_merge($linkOption, array('page' => $page)));

Find:

$GLOBALS['PrevLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array("page" => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetPage()-1, "sort" => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetSort()));

Replace with:

$GLOBALS['PrevLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array_merge($linkOption, array('page' => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetPage()-1)));

Find:

$GLOBALS['NextLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array("page" => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetPage()+1, "sort" => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetSort()));

Replace with:

$GLOBALS['NextLink'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false, array_merge($linkOption, array('page' => $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetPage()+1)));

Open: includes/display/CategoryHeading.php

if($GLOBALS['EnableSEOUrls'] == 1) {
	$GLOBALS['URL'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false);
}
else {
	$GLOBALS['URL'] = $GLOBALS['ShopPath']."/categories.php";
	$GLOBALS['HiddenSortField'] = "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"category\" value=\"".$catPath."\" />";
}</pre>

Replace it with:
<pre name="code" class="php">if($GLOBALS['EnableSEOUrls'] == 1) {
	$linkOptions = array();
	if(isset($_REQUEST['letter']) && (isc_strlen($_REQUEST['letter']) == 1 || $_REQUEST['letter'] == '0-9')) {
		$linkOptions['letter'] = $_REQUEST['letter'];	
	}
	$GLOBALS['URL'] = CatLink($GLOBALS['CatId'], $GLOBALS['ISC_CLASS_CATEGORY']->GetName(), false);
}
else {
	$GLOBALS['URL'] = $GLOBALS['ShopPath']."/categories.php";
	$GLOBALS['HiddenSortField'] = "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"category\" value=\"".$catPath."\" />";
	if(isset($_REQUEST['letter']) && (isc_strlen($_REQUEST['letter']) == 1 || $_REQUEST['letter'] == '0-9')) {
		$GLOBALS['HiddenSortField'] .= "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"letter\" value=\"".isc_html_escape($_REQUEST['letter'])."\" />";
	}
}

That's the end of the modifications we need to make to the PHP to get this all happening. Next up, we'll be implementing the modification in to your store design.

Open: templates/[name of the template you're using]/Panels/CategoryContent.html

Insert the HTML below where you'd like the list to appear:

<ul class="LetterSort" style="%%GLOBAL_HideLetterList%%">
	<li class="%%GLOBAL_AllActive%%"><a href="%%GLOBAL_AllLettersLink%%">All</a></li>
	%%GLOBAL_LetterList%%
</ul>

Open: templates/[name of the template you're using]/Styles/styles.css:

Add the following to the bottom of the stylesheet. (Adjust the layout, colours etc so it appears how you'd like it to)

.LetterSort, .LetterSort li {
	list-style: none;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

.LetterSort {
	border: 1px solid #b9cfda;
	background: #dcf0f5;
	padding: 4px;
	text-align: center;
}

.LetterSort li {
	display: inline;
}

.LetterSort a {
	padding: 0 3px;
}

.LetterSort li.ActiveLetter a {
	font-weight: bold;
	text-decoration: none;
}

If you save all of the changes we've made, and upload the new files to your store you should have a listing of the letters A through Z and the 'All' and '0-9' links on the category views. Clicking these letters will show you products beginning with the selected letter.

If there are any questions, or you can't get this to work correctly on your store simply leave a comment.

Today, I will explain to you on how to create segment using the API. When using the API to create segments, you will be able to create a more powerful filtering than using the standard UI in IEM.

require_once (SENDSTUDIO_API_DIRECTORY . '/segment.php');

$segment = new Segment_API();

// Owner ID of the new segment
$segment->ownerid = 1;

// Current time
$segment->createdate = AdjustTime();

// Segment name
$segment->segmentname = 'Test Segment';

// Segment search information
$segment->searchinfo = array(
  // The list of which the segment will apply it's rule
  // This is an array of list Ids
  'Lists'  => array(49),

  // Segment rules
  'Rules'  => array(
    array(
      'type'      => 'group',
      'connector' => 'and', // Connector for the next group
      'rules'     => array(

        // --- These are the rules that will be applied to the list
        array(
          'type'      => 'rule',
          'connector' => 'or', // Connector for the next rule
          'rules'     => array(
            'ruleName'     => 'email',
            'ruleOperator' => 'like',
            'ruleValues'   => array('someemail@somecompany.com')
          )
        ),
        array(
          'type'      => 'rule',
          'connector' => 'and', // Connector for the next rule
          'rules'     => array(
            'ruleName'     => 20, // Custom field ID
            'ruleOperator' => 'like',
            'ruleValues'   => array('somename')
          )
        )
        // ---

      )
    )
  )
);

$status = $segment->Create();
if (!$status) {
  print "Cannot create segment";
} else {
  print "Segment created with the following id: {$segment->segmentid}";
}

The following rules apply:

• Rule Type can either be: “group” or “rule”
• Rule Connector can either be: “and” or “or”
• “ruleName”: is the fields that the rule will be applied to... This can either be a special fields, or a custom field ID. Currently available special fields are:
  • email: Filter by email
  • format: Filter by format (“h” or “t”)
  • status: Filter by format (“b”, “u”, or “a” translate to “bounced”, “unsubscribed”, “active”)
  • confirmation: Filter by conformation status (“1” or “0”)
  • confirmation: Filter by conformation status (“1” or “0”)
  • subscribe: Filter by subscribe data (mm/dd/yyyy)
  • link: Filter by have/have not clicked a particular link (it accept a link id)
  • campaign: Filter by have/have not opened a particular campaign (it accept a newsletterid)
  • subscriberid: Filter by subscriber id
• ”ruleOperator” value will depends on the context of the “ruleName”, so not all of the following rules will be available for each “ruleName”
  • equalto
  • notequalto
  • like
  • notlike
  • between
  • greaterthan
  • lessthan

Spam is the unsolicited sending of electronic mail to anyone. This can be to individual addresses or to an entire email marketing list consisting of millions of contacts. Research has determined that over 50% of all email transactions taken place in the United States are considered to be spam. This is a very serious issue because not only does it slow down our days clearing out our inbox's of spam (potentially missing and deleting valid emails) it is also placing a lot of overhead on the network system as a whole.

With all the complaints about spam, receiving it, having your own valid emails picked up as it, worrying about the legal ramifications on it, I thought it a good idea to do some research for you and find out exactly what the deal was and what we can do to avoid being marked as a spammer and potentially having our server black listed.

Step up the CAN SPAM Act 2003

In an attempt to try to control spamming in some way the Federal Trade Commission of America created the CAN SPAM Act. This Act is quite simple in its nature and easy for you to abide by. It does not stop you from sending unsolicited email. It simply tries to regulate it.

What this means is that you can still send emails to people that have not explicitly signed up to your mailing list but you must abide by the laid out rules in order to avoid the penalties.

What are these rules?

The rules are simple and very easy to follow:

• Do not set false or misleading header information.
  • That is your 'From' address, domain name etc must be correct. You cannot say you are from www.abc.com when you are in fact from www.xyz.com.
  • This does not mean that you always have to send from the same domain that Interspire Email Marketer is located on, it just means that the domain and person that you are saying you are must be real. So you can still send on your clients behalf from your own installation, just make sure they are real.
• Do not set false or misleading subject lines
  • This is simple. Make sure that your emails subject line and the content of the email are one and the same. Do not try to trick your contacts into opening the email.
  • This does not mean that you are not allowed to be creative with your subject lines. They are the first point of contact with your contacts and as such must be catchy and make your contacts want to open the email. But being clever with your subject lines and being deceitful are completly different matters.
• Give your contacts an opt out method
  • Once again, this is a pretty simple step. Make sure that you include in every email that you send out a way to unsubscribe.
  • Interspire Email Marketer provides you with 2 different methods to do this. The first is simply including the unsubscribe link (%%unsubscribelink%%) in your email. The second method is to create an unsubscribe form and place this on your website. From there you can link to the form from your email campaigns. Both methods are equally as valid.
• You must identify yourself and your company clearly and let the contact know that this email is an advertisement.
  • Your email campaign needs to clearly inform your contact that you are trying to sell them something (if you are) and provide them with your companies name and a valid physical postal address.

What penalties can you expect for these?

"Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising."

What this means is that for every rule that you break in relation to this Act you could potentially be liable for $11,000. If you are found guilty of not allowing subscribers to unsubscribe as well as falsifying your from address so that your subscribers cannot get in touch with you then you could be liable for up to $22,000 in fines.

What does all this mean to me?

This can sound pretty full on but remember, if you do the right thing then you have nothing to worry about. Make sure you always have your details in your emails (Place them in your footer to be included), make sure you are honest with your contacts and you will be fine.

If you have any questions or comments at all about this please don't hesitate to post a comment bellow and I will get back to you.

• Moneris eSelectPlus DirectPost
  
• PayPal PayFlow Pro
• iDeal (Rabo Bank)
• Google Checkout (Full level 2 integration)

$rows = array (
"Fullscreen,Undo,Redo,Paste,-,OrderedList,UnorderedList,-,JustifyLeft,JustifyCenter,JustifyRight,JustifyFull,-,Custominsert,Help",
"Spellcheck,-,RemoveFormat,-,Indent,Outdent,-,SubScript,SuperScript,CreateLink,CreateEmailLink,Anchor,-,Image,-,Table,Form,Pageproperties",
"Fontname,Fontsize,Formatblock,Fontcolor,Highlight,HR,Insertchars,Showborders",
);
$myDE->AddToolbar("Simple", implode(",|,", $rows));

Image	Description	Name of the button
	Toggle absolute positioning on and off.	Toggleposition
	Centers the paragraph.	JustifyCenter
	Aligns the paragraph to the left.	JustifyLeft
	Aligns the paragraph to the right.	JustifyRight
	Creates an anchor element.	Anchor
	Bold font format.	Bold
	Inserts custom HTML on the cursor position.	Custominsert
	Inserts a special character.	Insertchars
	Clears the HTML code.	Clearcode
	Copies the selected text to the clipboard.	Copy
	Cuts the selected text to the clipboard.	Cut
	Decreases the indent of the text.	Outdent
	Creates a link to an email address.	CreateEmailLink
	Finds and/or replaces text in the editor.	Findreplace
	Flash Manager, to handle Flash objects.	Flash
	Changes the font color.	Fontcolor
	Selects the font face.	Fontname
	Selects the font size.	Fontsize
	Selects the element format to be used (paragraph, heading, etc).	Formatblock
	Inserts forms and various form elements.	Form
	Help for the WYSIWYG editor.	Help
	Changes the font highlight.	Highlight
	Inserts an horizontal line.	HR
	Image Manager, to insert images.	Image
	Increases the indent of the text.	Indent
	Italics font format.	Italic
	Justifies the paragraph.	JustifyFull
	Creates a hiperlink.	CreateLink
	Media Manager, to handle movies and sound.	Media
	Ordered list (list with numbers).	OrderedList
	Modifies the page properties - title, description and keyword.	Pageproperties
	Shows/hides paragraph endings and line breaks.	Paragraph
	Dropdown with paste options.	Paste
	Redoes the latest editing actions.	Redo
	Removes the style associated with the element.	RemoveFormat
	Shows/hides the borders around the tables.	Showborders
	Spell checks the document.	Spellcheck
	Strike through font format.	Strikethrough
	Selects a style to be attached to an element.	Styles
	Subscript font format.	SubScript
	Superscript font format.	SuperScript
	Creates a new table.	Table
	Inserts a text box.	Inserttextbox
	Underline font format.	Underline
	Undoes the latest editing actions.	Undo
	Unordered list (list with bullets).	UnorderedList

• the editor is instantiated as wysiwyg
• the maximum number of tries will be 50 - totalTries<50
• the time between tries will be 200ms - window.setTimeout('tryToSetFocus()', 200)
• you want to trigger a function called DoSomething() once the editor is available
These options gives this script a maximum of 1000ms (50 tries times 200ms each) of wait for the editor to load - after the 1000ms DoSomething will not be triggered.

var totalTries = 0;
function tryToSetFocus() {
	totalTries++;
	try {
		wysiwyg.getHTMLContent();
	} catch (E) {
		if (totalTries<50) {
			tryToWrite = window.setTimeout('tryToSetFocus()', 200);
		}
		return;
	}
	DoSomething();
}

]]> no@spam.com (Fulvio Oliveira) http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/24/How-to-check-if-the-WYSIWYG-Editor-is-finished-loading.html http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/19/Adding-categories-support-into-Website-Publisher.html Adding the Categories functionality into Interspire Website Publisher was quite easy, this is how I did it.

The first thing I did was to create the class that interfaces between the user and Interspire Website Publisher. This class extends upon the API that already has most of the functionality I need (such as loading specific categories or saving them). This provides me with a quick way of getting things going. So, I call it iwp_admin_categories and save it as /admin/includes/classes/class.categories.php.

class iwp_admin_categories extends iwp_categories {
	private $Instance;
	// etc...
}

With this newly created class I can now begin adding functions as needed. For viewing the categories list, I add a function named View and give it no parameters. This is picked up automatically by Interspire Website Publisher, when the action in the URL is view. What I mean specifically, is the URL structure is dynamic, meaning you can add functions and then use those within the URL. Adding a function named View() will allow an action of view to be used.

public function View() {
	echo "Within the View() function.";
}

Within my View function now, I need to designate the template file to be displayed, and set any content that needs to be displayed within it (such as the categories list). The template file will handle the loading and displaying of the categories, interfacing back into this categories object. We've designed the template engine to handle almost any use-case, the categories page is a special instance that we've had to accommodate for specifically. With the use of a foreach loop, and the wonders of recursion, we have a quick and easy way of building the category tree.

{foreach from=%admin_categories.GetCategoryList:'0' key=k item=row id=ViewListLoop}
	// Formatting the output of each category here
		// Recurse into any children
		{recursion=$row.categoryid}
{/foreach}

Regarding the template code specifically, we will be releasing in-depth documentation for it with the release of Interspire Website Publisher and also within further posts in the near future.

All in all, this presents us with a category list that works wonders.



Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear them, just post below and I'll be sure to read and respond.

]]> no@spam.com (Allan Shone) http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/19/Adding-categories-support-into-Website-Publisher.html http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/18/Submitting-subscription-forms-transparantly-to-Interspire-Email-Marketer.html
There are two ways to achieve this:
1. Using the API -- Which means:
   • You need to understand how the API works
   • When the subscription process change, your code will also be obsolete (and you need to re-write them)
2. Using a wrapper that act as an intermediate between your subscription HTML form and the Interspire Email Marketer
   

On this occasion, I will talk about how to use a wrapper to achieve this. This is because it is fast, and does not require any knowledge of the Interspire Email Marketer inner workings, and in addition, it will shield your code from any changes that are made in the subscription process.

A quick illustration on how this will work is as follow:


+----------------+        +-------------------+       +-----------------------------+
| Your HTML Page |   ==>  | Your PHP page     |  ==>  | Interspire Email Marketter  |
|                |   <==  |                   |  <==  |                             |
+----------------+        +-------------------+       +-----------------------------+


First of all, you need to create a subscription web-form.... Please de-select the option to use CAPTCHA (As we want to keep the subscription form as simple as possible). After the creation is complete, you need to take note of the form ID.

Now the next process is to create your subscription form:


<html>
  <form action="forms_wrapper.php" method="POST">
    Please enter your email address:
    <input type="text" name="txtEmail" />
    <input type="button" name="cmdSubscribe" value="Subscribe" />
  </form>
</html>

And create a PHP wrapper file that will send the request to Interspire Email Marketer:

<?php
  $data = array(
    'format' => 'h',
    'email' => $_POST['txtEmail']
  );
  $ch = curl_init(CONST_YOUR_IEM_URL . '/form.php?form=' . CONST_YOUR_FORMID);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
  
  $response = @curl_exec($ch);
  curl_close($ch);
  // Response will contains Interspire Email Marketer response to your subscription.
  // It will either be success (Thank you page)
  // Or it will contains the error page
?>

A working example can be downloaded here If you have any queries about this I will be glad to answer them. Simply leave me a comment bellow.]]> no@spam.com (Hendri Kurniawan) http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/18/Submitting-subscription-forms-transparantly-to-Interspire-Email-Marketer.html http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/11/Introducing-Interspires-CMS-Website-Publisher.html With all the front page news about Interspire Shopping Cart and Interspire Email Marketer (formerly SendStudio) you might be saying "Hey Interspire! You’ve forgotten about your coolest application, ArticleLive!". Well, my overly assumptious friend, you couldn't be more wrong (and try not to use so many exclamation marks next time). We're working hard on transforming ArticleLive into a fully fledged Content Management System. We're taking this transformation in a few steps.
The Transformation


As current customers will know by their product downloads, the first step has been to rename ArticleLive to "Interspire Website Publisher". We believe this more accurately depicts what the product does, rather than restricting it to just an "article manager". It also reflects the direction of the program as it will have a much larger range of practical application. You'll still be able to use it as an article manager, but you will also be able to use it for many other purposes such as a standalone blog script, a small business website, a community website and pretty much anything you can think of.

The second step in the migration to CMS land will be Interspire Website Publisher 5.0 which has a major overhaul of the code in addition to changing how things work within the application. Interspire Website Publisher 5.0 will require PHP 5.1.2 or above.  We're pushing this up as we expect most hosts to migrate to PHP5 (a lot already have) as PHP4's end of life nears in August. In addition to this is PHP 5’s superiority over PHP 4 which allows us to do so much more than we could before.

If your host does not have PHP 5.1.2 or above, you'll need to request they install it or find another host who has it. A lot of hosts currently have the option to use either PHP 5 or PHP 4. You can check what version your host has by checking your control panel or asking them. The current version of Interspire Website Publisher (4.5) will work with PHP 5, so if PHP is upgraded preparation for Interspire Website Publisher 5.0 your website will still function properly in the mean time.

Over the coming weeks I'll be going into detail about the new features and functions of Interspire Website Publisher 5.0. Future posts will cover the new template system, modules and lists/menu generation. In this post I'll give you a peek at what we are currently calling "Content Types".

Before I jump into any details, please note that the application is still under *heavy* development, so any (or all) of the features mentioned or pictured here may change significantly before the final release.

Content Types

'Content Types' is our current term for a set of rules that define what a group of content items is made up of. The best way to think of it is to use the current state of Interspire Website Publisher where there are articles, news items, pages and blogs. Think of each of those as a “content type”, where they each have different fields and options in addition to being displayed differently.  In Interspire Website Publisher 5.0 these content types will be dynamic, i.e. you’ll be able to create your own content type or edit an existing one.

Creating/Editing a content type consists of choosing which fields the content type will have, then selection options for each field. For example, you might just want a simple ‘pages’ content type which just has a title, content and meta content. For that you’d select your fields and toggle the options for each one. Title won’t have options, but for content you can select to toggle whether to use a text area or a WYSIWYG editor. For the meta content you can choose to automatically generate it or allow the option to enter it manually.




I’ve got here a screenshot of where we are at. This is of course an early shot, so may or may not look like this in the final release. As you can see adding or removing fields consists of dragging or dropping them into a list where you can also group fields and even put them into additional tabs. This constructs what fields the content piece has, as well as what structure the create/edit page will take.

Once the Content Type is saved, then you will be able to create a piece of content within that Content Type. Using the ‘views’ system we have in Interspire Shopping Cart,  you’ll be able to view all content pieces of a certain type, that match a search term or other criteria. Managing a website will have never been easier.

All current features will exist in the new release, so when upgrading you won’t be losing anything. When upgrading from the current ArticleLive/Interspire Website Publisher 4.5, the process will automatically recreate pages, blogs, articles and news items (unless empty) using the content types system. From there you will be able to edit each of those content types to add or remove fields. Want categories for blogs? Drag the categories into a group in the blogs content type page and you’re done!

When installing from scratch you’ll have the option for advanced mode or simple mode, where simple mode asks you what you will use your website for and constructs the content types automatically for you based on your selection.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak peek into Interspire Website Publisher 5.0. Next week I’ll have more information on another section of this major overhaul. If you have any comments or questions I’ll be happy to answer them in the comments section.

]]> no@spam.com (Jordie Bodlay) http://idn.interspire.com/blogs/11/Introducing-Interspires-CMS-Website-Publisher.html