Things are a little frazzled this week here at the Hatchery.<\/p>\n
My goal was to get some of my writings laid out on a cyber-stall so that an indifferent world might have something new to ignore. Being an independent kind of a chappie (or maybe because I\u2019m a tightwad) the only way to achieve this was with no paid help whatsoever, so I set out to teach myself how.<\/p>\n
After polishing last week\u2019s articles for this website and Yonder Pedant\u2019s (my technical writing website), I start gathering the ecommerce notes I\u2019d made over the previous few weeks. I\u2019d found a few independent playwrights\u2019 websites, and a couple of them looked like they were DIY jobs. I\u2019d also discovered that WordPress offers Woocommerce as a possible ecommerce solution.<\/p>\n
Is Woocommerce overkill for what I want? Is Playwright A\u2019s method sufficient for my needs? Just what do I want my online store to do? I really haven\u2019t thought this through like I would have when I was a real IT person. So it was back to basics; identify opportunity, document the business need, do the business analysis, identify potential solutions, do Cost Benefit Analyses for each solution, create a comparison document, and make recommendations to the boss.<\/p>\n
Or at least, that\u2019s what I should have done. Instead, I do up a rough site map, and then try to work out how easy (and secure) it is to integrate Paypal into handwritten HTML.<\/p>\n
Shipping; sales taxes; links to payment gateways; aspirin; related products, coffee; javascript, aspirin, coffee, PHP, aspirinHTMLcoffeeCSSaspirinPHPcoffeeCSSasprincoffeeaspirincoffee aspcoffaspcoff\u2026 I discover that Playwright A (who I shall henceforth refer to as \u201cKen\u201d purely because it\u2019s short and monosyllabic) had managed to make dozens of plays available on the wonderweb with a roll-your-own solution (an old programmer\u2019s term\u2014I\u2019m an old programmer in many senses), but the HTML includes the URL of the PDF containing his script, so even with my very basic knowledge, I was able to go and pick up his plays for free if I wanted to (If you\u2019re reading this \u201cKen\u201d and you recognize yourself, please don\u2019t worry\u2014I liberated only the one script to prove the vulnerability and then promptly discarded it.)<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to suffer from “Ken\u2019s” vulnerability myself, but I\u2019m not confident that I can make it all secure without outside paid help. On the other hand, Woocommerce still seems quite intimidating. It\u2019s all so overwhelming. So I do what any responsible person would do.<\/p>\n I toss a coin.<\/p>\n And at 21:39hrs, I download the Woocommerce plugin for my WordPress website.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever played with WordPress, you\u2019ll know that there\u2019s a bazillion \u201cthemes\u201d out there that can make your site look funky, businesslike, dreamy, quirky, childlike, religious, functional, sporty, grungy\u2026 the list goes on. As far as I can tell, there\u2019s about 2160 free ones available right on WordPress.org and countless free and premium options elsewhere.<\/p>\n Being the age I am, I know there\u2019s no such thing as a free lunch and no such thing as a free theme. The razor-and-blades business model <\/a>and variations on it are very much alive and kicking. Not that it\u2019s a bad thing in this case. The authors are putting the free stuff up as a honeypot (way to mix your metaphors Kelvin!) to attract people like me to their premium services. They need and for the most part deserve remuneration for their work and I sincerely hope that they reap the rewards. (Cynics among you would be partially right in saying that this website\/blog is little more than a honeypot for my writing-for-sale.)<\/p>\n But as I write this, I only have three plays to sell, and unless I perform miracles with my search engine optimization techniques, I\u2019ll be lucky to recover the costs this year of the WordPress plugins that I have on my wish list.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, back at the saga\u2026<\/p>\n I try using the same theme that I use for this website. Not happy. (BTW; I\u2019m not mad-keen on this theme, but it\u2019s adequate and will have to do until I\u2019ve got the rest of my setup finished.) I look for themes that are \u201cWoocommerce-friendly\u201d and try a couple\u2014still not happy. The company behind Woocommerce has a couple of free themes, so I try one and get it looking half-decent.<\/p>\n Then I discover that Mrs. H prefers the theme on this website. So much for the several hours I spent trying to get a good-looking theme for the store. (Makes mental note\u2014check with boss before investing time in aesthetics.)<\/p>\n Aaaagh! I\u2019m not asking my customers for the performance venue name and address! How will I prevent multiple productions of my play occurring in the same area at the same time?<\/p>\n Who am I kidding? Two productions of one of my plays anytime in the same year would be a miracle in my first year! Still\u2014as they say, hope for the best and plan for the worst, although it\u2019s ironic that in my case, \u201cthe worst\u201d is that I\u2019ll need to deal with two productions of a play clashing\u2014most starting playwrights likely have \u201cnice\u201d dreams about that happenstance\u2014I know I do!<\/p>\n So, more research. How to add custom fields to the Checkout page? I discover a DIY method and a US$49.00 plugin. Did I mention I only have three plays to sell? So I try the DIY method. Way beyond my PHP and HTML skills, the former of which are at the knowledge scale equivalent of the freezing point of helium. I decide to go without for now.<\/p>\n Things are beginning to work as they should now. By 14:00hrs I manage to make my first test order. Not only that, but \u201cthe system\u201d emails me the link from where I can download the script. Emboldened, I create a testing and bug fix log, which quickly becomes a test plan, a bug log, a to-do list, and a parking lot for questions.<\/p>\n This first flush of success allows me to think beyond the mechanics of ecommerce. My mind turns to copyright ownership. Should I claim the copyright under my own name, under my nom de plume, or under my incorporated business name?<\/p>\n My business (Dewdney Media Inc. (DMI)) claims all the \u201cbusiness use of house\u201d expenses\u2014if I don\u2019t register copyright under DMI, then the time I spend researching and writing these copyrightable masterpieces will need to be accounted for separately, and my personal tax return (which right now is depressingly simple) would become more complex. But what would happen to the copyright when I wind up the corporation (or sell it)? Those and a hundred other considerations swirl around the place where my brain used to be, looking to be caught, processed and filed away.<\/p>\n Do I need to consult a copyright lawyer? Will I ever make enough money from my writing to cover the fee?<\/p>\n Time to list some things I need to do before I can go live.<\/p>\n Two hours and four pages of actions later, I take the last aspirin in the bottle\u2026<\/p>\n Actually, they\u2019re acetaminophen, but \u201caspirin\u201d equates with \u201cheadache\u201d in most parts of the world. Acetaminophen is the North American name for what most of the rest of the world refers to as paracetamol, so a good percentage of my potential audience would be confused by my use of either acetaminophen or paracetamol. Aspirin, on the other hand, is either a generic term or a brand name for ASA world-wide, so \u201caspirin\u201d it is.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve just reached for and taken more aspirin to help ease the pain of composing that last sentence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Two hours and four pages later, I take the last aspirin in the bottle, and survey the to-do list. Do I prioritize it? Do I do the bad stuff first and leave the fun stuff for later (a bit like getting your broccoli\u2014or in my case, artichokes\u2014out of the way so you can enjoy the rest of your meal), or do I do the fun stuff first, knowing I\u2019ll stay focused for longer?<\/p>\n I decide to go for an action that\u2019s somewhere in the middle. I\u2019ve discovered that I can customize the \u201corder notes\u201d box on the Checkout page, so I plan to add a note asking the customer for the theatre name and address.<\/p>\n Twenty minutes later, I\u2019m wondering if I need to reinstall everything. I copied and pasted the code exactly as instructed by what looks like a reputable WordPress third party seller, and I\u2019m getting PHP syntax errors. (If only people\u2019s cellphones had English syntax checkers!)<\/p>\n My mothballed programming bug-chasing skills come out from beneath the moth and I track the problem down to one line of pasted code, but I can\u2019t work out what the problem is. So I remove the pasted code, search the entire Woocommerce plugin for the current\/default order notes content, and change it to what I want. I also make a note in my list of \u201cthings to preserve across upgrades.\u201d<\/p>\n After that experience, I decide to deal with a few non-technical issues, like tidying up the play scripts, writing a synopsis for one of them, and adding an image to be used as a favicon.<\/p>\n The action list is still depressingly long, and I have to get two articles ready for publication on Monday\u2014one for each of my writing websites. I\u2019ve got topics in mind, and I\u2019ve even started some research on one or two of them. But I really want to get the storefront finished and live because it\u2019s towards the end of the one-act-play-choosing season already. Then Mrs H. has this wonderful idea; \u201cWhy don\u2019t you write about your ecommerce setup experiences? Maybe you could get it into the style of The Gas Man Cometh<\/a><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n A wonderful idea indeed, but part of the humour of The Gas Man Cometh<\/em> is that the story is cyclical\u2014not unlike the well-known Hole in My Bucket<\/em>. I fervently hope that I won\u2019t be starting from scratch on Monday! Another difference between my tale and Flanders and Swann\u2019s is that their song contains the line, \u201cOn Saturdays and Sundays, they do no work at all;\u201d yet I\u2019m writing this on a Saturday.<\/p>\n Actually, \u201cthey do no work at all\u201d sounds like the attitude of a good role model. See you next week.<\/p>\n Have you had experience setting up your own ecommerc site despite having few of the necessary skills required? Please share!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Things are a little frazzled this week here at the Hatchery. My goal was to get some of my writings laid out on a cyber-stall so that an indifferent world might have something new to ignore. Being an independent kind of a chappie (or maybe because I\u2019m a tightwad) the only way to achieve this was with no paid help… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[488],"tags":[3,17,18],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bbs","tag-caffeine","tag-ecommerce","tag-woocommerce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1604,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/1604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nS-T-O-P-P!!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWednesday<\/h2>\n
Thursday<\/h2>\n
Test Order #1 Goes Through<\/h3>\n
Off With the Propeller Hat: On With the Lawyer’s Wig<\/h3>\n
Friday<\/h2>\n
\n
Saturday<\/h2>\n
Your Turn<\/h2>\n