Translating Geek Into English

In continuing my posts of extra bits from my Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL book, here are nine pages intended for the end of Chapter 10, “Checking Out ”. This chapter is from Part 3 of the book, which covers the example that sells physical products. The particular extras in the PDF are:

• Emailing HTML and plain text receipts using the Zend Framework
• Ways to create great customer service
• Security improvements to consider
• Using JavaScript to prevent duplicate orders (i.e., changing and disabling the submit button once it’s been clicked)
• Better use of the gateway communications scripts

Some of the extra code and extra SQL discussed in this PDF is already available for download from the book’s pages on this site.

EffortlessECommerce_BONUS_Ch10.pdf

In continuing my posts of extra bits from my Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL book, here are five pages intended for the end of Chapter 9, “Building a Shopping Cart”. This chapter is from Part 3 of the book, which covers the example that sells physical products. The particular extras in the PDF are five ways you could expand upon how the shopping cart functionality. This includes how you would make recommendations, alternative ways to handle shipping, and how a more efficient database could be had by using VIEW tables.

EffortlessECommerce_BONUS_Ch09.pdf

In continuing my posts of extra bits from my Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL book, here are five pages intended for the end of Chapter 8, “Creating a Catalog”. This chapter is from Part 3 of the book, which covers the example that sells physical products. The particular extras in the PDF are five ways you could expand upon how the product catalog functions.

EffortlessECommerce_BONUS_Ch08.pdf

As seems to happen to me a lot these days, I ran out of pages when writing my Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL book (the publisher assigns a fixed cap on the number of pages). There was just more content that I wanted to put into the book than the book had room for. In fact, there was more content that I had actually written, had edited, and turned into a PDF, than there was room for! The book’s loss is your reward: I’ll give away that extra content here, for free. Although anyone who has or has not read the book is welcome to download the following PDF, it won’t be that useful if you don’t also have the book (and, therefore, its code).

The first extra bit represents five pages intended for the end of Chapter 5, “Managing Site Content”. Chapter 5 is the penultimate chapter for the first example site and these pages discuss a number of ways you can alter the example. Some of the extra code and extra SQL discussed in this PDF is already available for download from the book’s pages on this site.

EffortlessECommerce_BONUS_Ch05.pdf

My “Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL” book is going to the printer on Tuesday (I believe). Barring any last minute changes, below you will find the complete table of contents. Those that have being paying attention to this book throughout the writing process may notice that Part Four: Extras has up and gone. This is entirely in part because I ran out of pages (I’m only allotted so many) and in part because many of the topics I was going to discuss separately in Part Four got moved into the other chapters. Five of the eleven chapters end with 3-7 pages of additional ideas, note, PHP code, MySQL tables, and so forth. I may develop some of these ideas further in this blog (both examples are very modular and extend-able). Edit: Unfortunately, due to page constraints, all of the bonus material had to be pulled from the chapters. I’ll make it all, plus some extra extras, available online. My apologies (but it’s completely out of my hands).

I’m in the process of completing the book’s corresponding Web site, as well as putting the second e-commerce example online. I’ll post those URL’s in the next couple of days.

As always, thanks for your interest in my work!

• Introduction

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• Part 1: Fundamentals
  

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• Chapter 1: Getting Started
  • Identifying Your Business Goals
  • Researching Legal Issues
  • Choosing Web Technologies
  • Selecting a Web Host
  • Using a Payment System
  • The Development Process
• Chapter 2: Security Fundamentals
  • Security Theory
  • PCI Requirements
  • Server Security
  • Using Secure Transactions
  • Common Vulnerabilities

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• Part 2: Selling Virtual Products
  

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• Chapter 3: First Site: Structure and Design
  • Database Design
  • Server Organization
  • Connecting to the Database
  • The Config File
  • The HTML Template
• Chapter 4: User Accounts
  • Defining Helper Functions
  • Registration
  • Logging In
  • Logging Out
  • Managing Passwords
  • Improving the Security
• Chapter 5: Managing Site Content
  • Creating an Administrator
  • Adding Pages
  • Displaying Page Content
  • Adding PDFs
  • Displaying PDF Content
  • Recommended Alterations
• Chapter 6: Using PayPal
  • About PayPal
  • Testing PayPal
  • Integrating PayPal
  • Testing the Site
  • Using IPN
  • Renewing Accounts
  • Going Live

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• Part 3: Selling Physical Products
  

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• Chapter 7: Second Site: Structure and Design
  • About the Site
  • Database Design
  • Server Setup
  • Helper Files
  • The HTML Template
  • Newer MySQL Features
• Chapter 8: Creating a Catalog
  • Preparing the Database
  • Shopping by Category
  • Listing Products
  • Indicating Availability
  • Showing Sale Prices
  • Highlighting Sales
  • Potential Alterations
• Chapter 9: Building a Shopping Cart
  • Defining the Procedures
  • Defining the Helper Functions
  • Making a Shopping Cart
  • Making a Wish List
  • Calculating Shipping
  • Potential Alterations
• Chapter 10: Checking Out
  • About Authorize.net
  • Creating a Test Account
  • Preparing the Site
  • Taking the Shipping Information
  • Taking the Billing Information
  • Processing Credit Cards
  • Completing the Order
  • Emailing Receipts
  • Testing the Site
  • Going Live
  • For Your Consideration
• Chapter 11: Site Administration
  • Setting Up the Server
  • Adding Products
  • Adding Inventory
  • Creating Sales
  • Viewing Orders
  • Shipping Orders
  • Alterations and Additions