Saturday 20 November 2010

ClamAV (ClamWin) on Windows servers

Heads up from SmarterTools, provider of SmarterMail server software: recent ClamWin update causing some Windows files to be quarantined and seriously affected Windows servers.

Callisti tip: check ClamWin settings are set to report issues without quarantining or deleting so that the server administrator can review any files before taking action.

More info...

Thursday 18 November 2010

Flip off

We are experimenting with ways of presenting a wedding brochure or album of images on Comlongon Castle gallery using the FlippingBook plug-in for wordpress (2.5 or above). There is a developer/pro licence or a site-by-site licence so could well consider it as an option.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Persits persists

Ha, it turns out Heart Internet's shared Windows servers do have ASP Upload (Persits.Upload.1) installed.

But you can also try Free ASP Upload if you're looking for a license-free version to muck about with.

Saturday 6 November 2010

Post production video services

Gently trying to improve relevant content for a video post-production services website to improve Google Adwords quality score.


The website is built using flash so providing readable content is the challenge. Some of the original quality scores for seemingly relevant keywords were like 3/10 which is not good enough. Directing the Ad link to the relevant page containing richer content can help improve advertising budgets significantly.

In this case a simple jQuery script is used to toggle content
areas.

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Hammock the week

After convoluted development process using Actinic v9, Handmade Hammocks website is now refreshed and taking advantage of some Kit Allen design work and integration with google services.


The ecommerce website sells handmade hammocks that meet Fairtrade standards to meet the prinicples of ethical trading. The company is based near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and ships internationally

Callisti has gained a lot of experience working with the nuances of Actinic development from different locations, development by remote access, and all the joys of site exports, missing files, huge folders of backup files, cgi-bin dramas, incompatible server platforms, and payment gateway issues. The reward is a sweet-looking ecommerce site that now has more SEO potential for the new season, and a clean working environment after some thorough administration work.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Documentation for NextGen Gallery plug-in...

...could be improved.

Luckily, Vuthy Thorn (a Bostonian living in Los Angeles) has given a good run-down on how to use the NExtGen album and galleries feature within the popular Wordpress plug-in. The explanation and guide also gives some insight to Wordpressers into the 'logic' of the system which aids understanding.

Separate Wordpress sub-pages are created for each gallery within an album using the NextGen interface and the main album display can sit on the parent page.

See the Comlongon Castle wedding photos for a working example.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Shared hosting

Using a reseller account to provide web hosting has the advantage of a control panel, the use of which can be learned. This may seem trite but it is important to have some kind of stable and consistent platform that is easily documentable, allows for more experienced clients to update their own hosting preferences within defined parameters, provides broad monitoring data on bandwidth usage and disk storage, and is scalable at lower risk to client website uptime.

Something to do with horses and courses.

It is clear that the needs of clients aren't always best served by dedicated hosting solutions when budget is a factor in providing expedient service.