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Supporting a different country on your Adobe Business Catalyst Site

9-Oct-2011 by Jodie Miners

This is more of a post for me in case I ever need to do this again. I look after and have created a few Adobe Business Catalyst websites. This was back when they were a cool Aussie Startup called GoodBarry. Now they are part of the behemoth that is Adobe. I probably would not recommend Adobe Business Catalyst to many people now. Even though they now have the power and might of Adobe behind them, they not put out that many fixes this year, and there is a major bug in my site that they have said they will fix “in an upcoming release”. This is really not good enough. There are dozens of features that just don’t work well (eg the whole Email Marketing tool), and the whole system is feeling a bit tired and dated. I really really hope that Adobe does good things with it, and that the upcoming version 3 is great, but I don’t hold much hope.

So I have to add support for another country for one of the sites that I look after. Here is the list of things that I need to do in order to make the new country functioning. To see some great multi currency sites in Adobe BC head over to www.apresvelo.com, www.explanar.com or www.bollorethinpapers.com. I have borrowed some javascript hints from a few of these pages, plus I got some great help from the LinkedIn Group and from the BC Support team also.

Domains

  • modify the Admin > Manage Domain Name setting to add the ‘A’ record for the sub domain for the new country, and choose the Start Page. I don’t make many changes for each country, and don’t have a separate start page for each country, but if you did need a different page for each country then you would set it here.
  • Note: I’m not doing anything with language and translations, but look at the www.bollorethinpapers.com to see what can be achieved with translations. I have set up usa. and uk. as my sub domains.

Templates

  • Modify the Default Template (Admin > Manage Site-Wide Templates) to include the JavaScript to change to the correct sub domain based on the users’ IP address which is converted to a country code using the {module_visitorcountrycode} tag. Note, that you can do this by using a manual drop down list, but I found that it was important for the affiliates page to have the right sub domain there, or the affiliate link went to the wrong sub domain, so I have decided that it is best to automate the sub domain setting based on IP address. Here is my JavaScript code:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
var country = '{module_visitorcountrycode}'; // e.g. var country = US;
var countryselected = document.getElementById("selectCountry")
var newurl;
var currenturl = document.location.hostname;
switch (country) {
case 'US':  newurl = 'usa.mydomain.com'; break;
case '': newurl = 'uk.mydomain.com'; break;
default: newurl = 'www.mydomain.com'; break;
}
if(newurl != currenturl) {
document.location = 'http://' + newurl;
}
</script>

CSS

  • The site has some products that are only sold in Australia, so with the help of the BC support team they came up with this suggestion. Add a custom code to the Australian only products, (using the Unit Type field – eg PR-AU) then hide those products from the international sites using some simple CSS. Modify the ModuleStylesheets.css to include the following code in the part of the CSS file where the other Shopping items are:

.USPR-AU {
display: none;
}

  • To make this CSS work, wrap the contents of the Individual Product – Small in a Div with the following class description.

class="{module_visitorcountrycode}{tag_unittype}"

E-Commerce

  • Add the pricing for the new currency – Go to Add Prices to this Product in each individual Product’s page.
  • Set up any Tax Codes applicable to the new country.
  • Add Shipping Options for the new country.
  • Add Gift Vouchers for the new country (if you use them).
  • Add your Payment Gateway for the new country (This site uses Paypal, so it’s just a matter of copying the details over from the existing country).

Online Shop Layouts

Go to Admin > More Customization Options > Online Shop Layouts. For the templates in Customize Check-Out Process Experience, each country has its own page layout. Copy the page from the existing country and modify it to suit the new country. See my examples below:

Shopping Cart

  • One thing that really bugs me about online shopping is the assumption that most sites make about currency – they assume you know what currency you are buying in, and they assume that you will assume it’s USD. So, on the total line, I include the words “in Pounds (GBP)” or “in Australian Dollars (AUD)” or “in US Dollars (USD)” after the total.
  • Ensure there is code to show the tax settings and shipping options for the new country. I don’t have gift vouchers, but if you do, ensure the code for Gift vouchers for the new country are here also.

Currency Exchange

  • I have a simple currency exchange popup so I need to change the JavaScript that calls that. Here is my JavaScript function:

function newPopup() {
var sTotal=document.getElementById("invTotal").innerHTML;
sTotal = sTotal.replace("$","")
url = "http://www.google.com/finance/converter?a=" +sTotal+ "&from=AUD&to=GBP"
popupWindow = window.open(
url,'popUpWindow','height=150,width=400,left=10,top=10,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no')
}

  • The html code that calls this popup is a hyperlink after the Total in the local currency.,

<a href="JavaScript:newPopup()">Convert Currency</a>

Registration – Buy

  • This site has a different set of “how did you hear about us” options for each country which is a custom field I have set up. I modify the Option Values for the drop down list on this layout.
  • I also add the text after the amount to show what currency this transaction will be in.
  • This site has some payment options that are only available in Australia (eg EFT), so I have some Javascript that disables that payment method if any other country is selected.
  • This site only uses paypal, but if you have different payment gateway options for each country, or use Credit Card payments you modify them here.

Registration – Receipt

  • This site does not have any different requirements but if you have any changes to make, so them here, but remember to copy over your standard receipt layout anyway.
  • If you use Quotes, also modify the Registration – Quote and Receipt – Quote templates or Gift Voucher template if you use Gift Vouchers.

Web Pages

  • This site does not have many changes for each country, but if you did need a different web page for each country then you would need to set them up, and set up a different start page for each country.
  • I just use some JavaScript to change one div on my page depending on the country.

System Messages

  • These are country specific also, so go through every message in Admin > More Customization Options > System Messages and copy your customised ones over to the new country. The only one this site had customised was the 404 Page Not Found.

System Emails

  • Check your system emails to see if there is anything that needs to be specifically changed for the new country – go to Admin > More Customization Options > System Emails.
  • Eg, again I had the text to show what currency this transaction was in on the Invoice. However as there is no separate Invoice for each country, and you can’t use JavaScript on emails, there is not really much that you can do with the invoice except make it very generic.
  • If you use Quotes or Gift Vouchers, remember to check the text in the emails for each of these.

Testing

Once you have done all the customisations you need for your new country, you will need to test it – and test it as if you are a user that is coming from an IP address inside that country. To do this you will need a VPN. A VPN channels all the web traffic from your computer through a server in a specific country to provide the websites you are visiting, an IP address from that country – it effectively looks to the website you are visiting like you are really coming to the seite from that country.

  • I have used Always VPN for a US VPN server previously and it is a great service and pay as you go. They unfortunately don’t have a server in the UK.
  • I found TunnelBear that can switch between UK and US effortlessly and they have 500MB free per month – which should be plenty to test your website.

Just remember to turn off your VPN service when you have finished testing.

Well I hope this post helps if you ever have to set up another country in Business Catalyst. If you have any more ideas for cool things to do with multi-national sites, or any ways that I can improve my Javascript Code (I am not a coder, so it can probably do with some improvement) then please add a comment below.

Filed Under: Business Catalyst, GoodBarry, Work

My Favourite SAAS Companies

29-May-2009 by Jodie Miners

This week has had a definitel theme to it… I have either been talking to or talking about just about every one of my favourite SAAS companies. So I thought I would put a bit of a blog post together to talk about them all in the same place.

Aconex
Aconex is a SAAS product for document management in the construction industry. It has become so successful that is now the defacto standard in the construction industry for collaboration around construction projects. It is a huge international success story and last year received a huge injection of funding to finance growth and acquisitions. Aconex is so successful that it is now used in any project collaboration team, even outside of construction. Aconex’s model is so successful because they build in the price for training any person using Aconex at any time during the life of the project, anywhere in the world. There is so much stuff that Aconex does fantastically well and so much scope for future enhancements, such as an API and some form of social networking around the people on the project. I can’t wait to see how Aconex grows even further!

Atlassian
This week I did a talk at SBTUG on Atlassian’s premier product Confluence. I will blog about that talk very soon. Atlassian is an amazing Aussie startup sucess story and according to this tweet, Atlassian are even doing their bit for the Australian economy.  Atlassian have won Award after Award including the latest one for Jira.  I love Confluence and really could not imagine working without it now, and I have used Jira previously but probably need to use it a bit more to really get to know it well. They also have an amazing range of other products that are mainly developer products. There are also some great products that integrate with Confluence and Jira like Gliffy and Balsamiq that I must say I love also.  My most recent employer CustomWare are one of the biggest (and best) Atlassian partners and do some amazing stuff with Confluence.

Saasu
What can I say about Saasu! They have saved everyone from having to use MYOB or QuickBooks by building the most brilliant online accounting system ever! It has a fantastic API that will allow it to integrate with just about anything you can image (and develop) and the best part about it is that, for me at least, it’s FREE (as I do under 15 transactions per month).  Accounting is a necessary evil and with MYOB or Quickbooks accounting is just plain evil – Saasu takes all that pain away. And Saasu is not just for small businesses either. Watch out for some really really cool apps that will integrate with Saasu in the near future. I would love Saasu to have a few more features for time tracking and for project accounting but right now it is way better than anything else. (And the drinks at Saasu’s offices this week were excellent too!)

Campaign Monitor
Now, when you think Email Marketing, you think Campaign Monitor! There really is no other option for an email marketing tool. This week I asked @craigbailey who runs SBTUG what he uses to send out the SBTUG emails, he said Campaign Monitor. I said, I hope you are using the free version they do for user groups! He did not know about it and within a few hours Campaign Monitor had helped out with some free emails for the user group.

GoodBarry
I have done a previous post about GoodBarry and have also talked about GoodBarry at SBTUG and at Girl Geek Dinners Sydney. I both LOVE and HATE GoodBarry with a passion! There are some amazingly brilliant things about it but there are some amazingly dumb things about it too. But I have recently completed a nice, but very basic site in GoodBarry www.motorhominglifestyle.com and I’m helping out building another one right now.

So what do all these excellent world dominating companies have in common? Well they are all successful Aussie startups, and apart from Aconex all have their headquarters in Sydney (Aconex is Melbourne). I have met or know people from each of these companies and have talked to, or about all of them this week – even to each other.

I would love to see Aconex integrate with Saasu and Campaign Monitor integrate with GoodBarry, and Goodbarry integration with Saasu is just around the corner.

Imagine a project with Collaboration and document management on Aconex, Accounting on Saasu, email communications via Campaign Monitor and the Project community website on GoodBarry and the project team using Confluence and Jira in the backend! Wow!

Now, if we can just tie all of these up with Google Wave, just announced today, we are looking at collaboration utopia for project teams! (I have just found a product that I’m instantly more passionate about than all these companies put toghether, so there will be more blog posts about Google Wave in the very near future).

Filed Under: construction, GoodBarry, saas, Work

what’s been keeping me busy

2-Feb-2009 by Jodie Miners

In the few months that I have been working for myself I have learned a whole heap of new skills and expanded on number of my existing skills, so I thought I’d start to document a few of them.

GoodBarry / Business Catalyst

I first came across GoodBarry at BarCamp #3 early in 2008 and thought, great idea, I’d like to know something more about that. Late last year I had the chance. I’m doing some contract work for a GoodBarry partner building GoodBarry sites. I’m also setting up one for my sister, just to practice with the GoodBarry platform even more. I love the GoodBarry concept – a complete tool for online businesses. My sister currently has a website with hosting, an online shop, a payment gateway, and a mailing list app – all costing lots of dollars each per month, and the look and feel of jumping from the website to the online shop is not consistent. With a GoodBarry site, it is all in the one place with consistent look and feel for a very small monthly fee – including hosting!

So I have well and truly got stuck into knowing everything I can about how to build a GoodBarry site. There is just so much you can do with this platform, it’s quite amazing, and they are always adding new features that make it even better. Of course, as with any packaged system there are some limitations as to what you can do, but in most cases you can work around it.

The site I’m building for my sister is an exercise in minimalist styling and trying to use the templates out of the box that GoodBarry provides. I’ve had to make some small changes to the layout and CSS but overall it looks quite good as a basic template. (I will post a link to the site once it’s live).

The beauty of GoodBarry is that it is a platform, and you can skin it however you like, using CSS / Flash / Javascript etc – after all it is a website. The two sites I’ve been working on for the GoodBarry partner have been with a CSS guru which is great, so I’ve been building the structure, layout and functionality and my CSS guru has been making it look great. In the meantime I’m learning a heap about CSS and Javascript too. (Firebug really helps with CSS learning).

So have a look at the site’s I’ve been part of – I’m quite proud of them

  • www.reportsurfer.com – a site to upload, share and run Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reports. The reports list is a GoodBarry web app with some custom CSS. Next steps is to make it a full social networking community once GoodBarry release some new features.
  • www.angrykoala.com.au – a website showcasing the business of Angry Koala – a Microsoft Partner specialising in Business Intelligence. There is a lot of lovely graphics and CSS on this site, but it still is a GoodBarry site underneath.

SQL Server / Microsoft Products

I’ve been doing a small project on SQL Server for a client and any hesitation that I may have had that I had not used SQL in a while has well and truly gone, and I am tackling different things every day and increasing my skillset with SQL Server all the time. Things I’ve been doing are:

  • Merge Replication
  • Backups and Maintenance Plans
  • Scheduled Jobs
  • Server Roles and security
  • SSIS packages, including migrating from DTS packages on an old SQL Server 2000 box and using BIDS to build the packages
  • General Transact SQL statements

And I just love that this is all able to be done remotely from my desktop logging into 4 different servers to keep an eye on how they are going.

Also on the Microsoft front I have been getting much more familiar with Microsoft CRM and other Dynamics products like AX and NAV via some downloaded VPC’s from Microsoft. I already knew a fair bit about CRM and NAV but it’s good to keep my hand in and discover and learn some new things.

Word Development / Confluence

I’ve just completed a nice little word development project to set up a small business with excellent looking, well functioning templates, complete with lots of autotext entries. I love doing this stuff because it is very easy for me and it’s something I can do really well.

I’ve also been playing with Confluence to try to convince them that Confluence is the way to go for their team collaboration. I love Confluence and would recommend it to any business that either has SharePoint (as an add-on to SharePoint) or for a small business that can’t afford SharePoint. Confluence even has pricing specials on at the moment that makes it even more affordable for a small team – and they will host it for you.

SharePoint

I went to a user group a few weeks ago on SharePoint and I rediscovered my passion for it, so much so that I would really like to work with SharePoint full time. Doing SharePoint and integration with other MS apps in the business. It was confirmed to me that yes, I do know my stuff with SharePoint and I can go into a business and add value to them from day one in their SharePoint implementation. Yes, there is still a heap I need to learn about SharePoint but I think that’s the case with most people too.

So yes, I have been keeping busy and keeping my hand in to existing products that I have previously used and learning a whole heap of new stuff along the way.

UPDATE: The Angry Koala site is now live (www.angrykoala.com.au) and it looks fantastic (I didn’t do the beautiful design I just built the site in GoodBarry).

Filed Under: GoodBarry, Me, SharePoint, SQL, Work

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