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VirtueMart 2.0 – Crounching Alpha or Hidden Beta?

Edward Korcheg — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:36:48 +0000

Over a month ago the whole VirtueMart community has been presented the release of the stable version of VirtueMart 2.0. This quote says it all: “Finally after 2 years of development, the VirtueMart team proudly releases the first stable version of the new VirtueMart 2 Core. More than 100 people were involved, 8500 posts were written and endless lines of Skype chats were done”. Since then we have received a lot of inquiries from our customers and website visitors considering the launch of VirtueMart 2.0 templates. So far we’re not in a big hurry to launch them, and there are good reasons for that. But first things first, let’s just take a deeper look at ViertueMart 2.0. Right after the launch it was almost a picture perfect – everybody was happy, store owners congratulated VirtueMart developers, it was Christmas time and New Year euphoria. Nothing has portended a tornado ahead, but let’s be consecutive. Here are the key features that were announced with the release of VirtueMart 2.0:

Template overwritting
SSL checkout
Joomla Plugins implementation (payment, shipment, coupons etc.)
Advanced Tax system
One click checkout or multi-page checkout
True multi-currencies management
Multilingual store as a native solution
Joomla 1.5 and 1.7 compatible

At first sight these features cause tons of excitement and strong desire to update your VirtueMart store instantly. The sweetest part of this release is the following major feature – VirtueMart 2.0 is based on Joomla MVC framework which means that you can change a lot in your store by putting less efforts in this process. Well, everything looks great so far and maybe you’ll believe that VirtueMart 2.0 is truly a flawless and reliable platform for your online store. And here comes the most interesting part of this notorious release.

Is it stable?

When I was reading people’s comments below the official post concerning this release I had a feeling that the people were leaving super positive comments simply because they haven’t tried the new version and just posted their comments because of their generally polite attitude (or maybe they just wanted to get a free do-follow link from their comment).

Officially this version is a stable alpha which you can use for your online store right – just update it. But you should know that it is not compatible with many important modules that 95% of store owners have got used to in their stores and that many stores will just won’t work without. For example, so far you can’t change the status of the order in VirtueMart 2.0, you can’t properly add downloadable products. There are many bugs, errors and other issues in the back-end. By updating your store to VirtueMart 2.0 you are risking to seriously damage your website (and therefore your business) so we suggest you to install and test it locally at first. Also VirtueMart developers have changed the back-end interface massively and now it is hard to call it user-friendly so far. Maybe we will get used to it, but it greatly differs from the predecessor and thousands of people are officially unhappy about it.

Why the rush?

It’s hard to find out what was the reason that such a buggy and raw release has been actually called stable. I mean we do respect the hard work that has been done by the VirtueMart community and we are really thankful for all the efforts. It seems that they just should test it more in a beta version, receive more users’ feedback and polish VirtueMart 2.0 to make it almost flawless. And one more important thing – so far we cannot launch our VirtueMart 2.0 templates due to the modules incompatibility. A lot of functions that were implemented in our Virtuemart templates previously are impossible in the Virtuemart 2.0 templates because the old awesome modules simply don’t work in the new release and the stores will lack a significant amount of features that older Virtuemart templates used to have. That’s pretty sad situation because VirtueMart 1.0 has established a reputation of a reliable eCommerce platform and our VirtueMart themes have become a very popular product. We sincerely hope that in the nearest future the solution will be found and you’ll have a chance to try out our new VirtueMart 2.0 themes.

Introduction to CoffeeScript [+Useful Tutorials]

Edward Korcheg — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:28:19 +0000

There was a time when JavaScript’s reputation has been stained because of the “copy-paste” stereotype that was insanely popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Unusual and a little bit “messy” syntax has come a long way of adoption by the programming communities. Years have passed and JavaScript language has evolved to become a powerful technology that supplies the web with tons of innovations. CoffeeScript is the offspring of JavaScript that proves the proverb – “like father like son”, in its good meaning.

Coffee Script is a little language that compiles into JavaScript. According to its developers, it adds “sugar” to Java syntax which makes it more comprehensive. You write less code faster and achieve more functionality and readable code too – it is a win-win situation, don’t you think so? Basically, CoffeeScript is a smaller and improved version of JavaScript that delivers all the best from it and requiring less efforts.

Before you start creating Java code with the help of Coffee Script you should install it to your computer (please be sure that you have installed Node.js and the Node Package Manager to your computer as well) and check some useful resources where you’ll find information about how to use the editor, create code and run it.

The great thing about Coffee Script lies in their main rule which is “It’s just a JavaScript”. The main trick that lies behind this phrase is that you can compile a JavaScript code that would be effective as well as handwritten. Also it would perfectly work with JavaScript libraries and code (including jQuery). So if you are a web developer who deals with JavaScript code everyday (we all know how popular this technology is on the web these days), then we highly recommend you to try out CoffeeScript. By the way, below you’ll find a little collection of CoffeeScript tutorials and snippets of various complexity.

Writing Better JavaScript with CoffeeScript: The Basics

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Rocking Out With CoffeeScript

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CoffeeScript Basics – A Teach Me To Code Tutorial

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How CoffeeScript makes jQuery more fun than ever

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Creating an iOS-like Home Screen with CoffeeScript

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10 CoffeeScript One Liners to Impress Your Friends

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Coffeescript snippet for accessing Google’s URL-shortening service

New Features in WordPress 3.x Themes on TemplateMonster

Edward Korcheg — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:50:21 +0000

As you may have noticed recently our product line was enriched with WordPress 3.x themes. Despite the fact that it may seem just another piece of boring corporate news we must state the significant importance of this milestone – both for our company and our dear clients. It is not a secret that WordPress themes are an insanely popular product. So, it is not that simple to satisfy the growing needs of our customers with every new update of the WordPress CMS. But we are always open to hear the voice of our people and improve our products and services according to your needs.

WordPress CMS is famous for unique combination of reliable and highly functional back-end software which is spiced up with the ability to add extra features by installing widgets, plugins and other “delicious” stuff. And that’s the reason WordPress CMS is considered to be the most user-friendly software – even the newbies can master WordPress within the short period of time. Now that all ceremonies are over we can go straight to our topic. Below you’ll find the detailed information concerning the functional improvement of our WordPress 3.x themes.

Custom Post Types

Creating various types of posts is one of the greatest features that opens many great opportunities for WordPress users. Currently you can use the custom post types in our WordPress 3.x themes too. Here is the list of all possible post type options:

Portfolio Post Type is the post type that delivers content in the form of image portfolio with some text comments to the images.
Slider Post Type is another image related option that presents all your post content in the dynamic slider with navigation buttons and short text info.
Testimonials Post Type lets you set up custom fields for this type of post, such as testimonial name, testimonial URL, set up featured image etc.
Services Post Type
FAQs Post Type allows to create a special post where content will be displayed in the ‘question – answer’ form as it is usually done on the FAQ pages.

Page Templates

This exact option offers you adding page templates that have various design characteristics. These pages have different number of columns, layout, sidebar absence etc. Here is a short info concerning each of our page templates.

Full Width Page is a page template with one column and without any sidebar positions.
About Page is a page template with one column and without any sidebar elements.
Testimonials Page has custom styled design created by our designers specifically for displaying testimonials posts.
FAQs Page template is a full-width page without any sidebar created for displaying FAQ information.
Portfolio Page has 1, 2, 3 and 4 columns view layout enhanced with Prettyphoto jQuery plugin.

Custom Widgets

The WordPress widgets presence is another functional goodie that is quite popular among WordPress fans. That’s why we’ve decided to include some popular widgets to our themes, such as Recent Comments, Popular Posts, Social Networks and others.

50+ shortcodes

WordPress Shortcodes were introduced in WordPress 2.5. Basically a shortcode is a simple set of functions for creating macro codes that you can use in post content. For example, you can add a photo gallery into the page by adding one of the codes to the blog posts. Our themes support over 50 various short codes including tag clouds, audio/video embedding, popular posts, last comments and so on.

jQuery Plugins

From now on all our WordPress 3.x themes are equipped with a set of superb plugins powered by jQuery. You can enable any of this plugins in the proper section of the dashboard. The following plugins will help you display image content in a more spectacular and efficient manner. Here is a short description for each plugin that you may find at our new WordPress themes.

jQuery Cycle is a slideshow plugin that supports pause-on-hover, auto-stop, auto-fit, before/after callbacks, click triggers and other transition effects.
jQuery PrettyPhoto is a lightbox clone plugin that supports images, videos, Flash etc. It is highly compatible with all major browsers (it has support even for IE6!).
jQuery NivoSlider is a small but efficient slider plugin that supports more than 16 various transition effects to display images on your website.

Native WordPress Plugins

We are glad to inform you that there are more surprises waiting for you inside of each WordPress 3.x theme. Our themes are armed not only with jQuery plugins but also with some native WordPress plugins that might be extremely useful for any web project.

WP-PageNavi is a pagination plugin that adds navigation button numbers for every page that you have on your website. It is a highly usable and simple WordPress plugin.
WP-Contact Form 7 is a simple contact form plugin that delivers reliable and user-friendly tool for receiving users’ feedback instantly.

Google Webfonts

I’m sure that you’ve heard about Google Web Fonts library. So, this plugin allows you to embed all fonts from this library into your website seamlessly.

Multi Level Dropdown Menu

From now on all our WordPress 3.x themes will have navigation enhanced with multilevel dropdown menu which is widely used in web design these days. This feature will make your website more user-friendly and navigation-wise.

Cross Browser Compatible

All our themes are compatible with major web browsers (including IE7) which means that your website will be properly displayed for all your visitors.

PSDs included

As always, all our design products are supplied with PSD files. You can easily improve them by making any changes you want.

Well Documented Themes

Each and every WordPress 3.x theme will be shipped to you with a comprehensive manual where you can find all information about the installation process, theme’s functional features and other stuff that would help you to set up all the things without any problems.

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Now we want to invite you to check out the collection of fresh designs of our new WordPress 3.x themes. Below each theme you’ll find a short list of functional features available for that particular theme. If you still have questions concerning our new product – we would love to receive your feedback in the comments section.

Jesus Chruch

Custom Post Types: Gallery Post Type, Banners Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page (1, 2, 3 and 4 columns view)
jQuery plugins
Flash XML Slider
5 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes

Sadex

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Partners Post Type, Services Post Type, FAQs Post Type,Our team Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, FAQs Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page (3 columns)
jQuery plugins
Cufon text replacement
5 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes

Agrico

Custom Post Types: Partners Post Type, Slider Post Type (based on nivoSlider), Testimonials Post Type
6 Page Templates: Blog page, Full Width Page
jQuery plugins
Cufon text replacement
7 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7

Interior

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Services Post Type, FAQs Post Type, Our team Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Testimonials Page, FAQs Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
Google Webfonts
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Another Random Posts Widget

Grand

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Capabilities Post Type, FAQs Post Type, Out team Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Testimonials Page, FAQs Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
3 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Widget Logic, WordPress Newsletter subscription Opt-in for SendBlaster

Interior Design Studio

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Our team Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Testimonials Page, FAQs Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
7 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Google Webfonts
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Custom Meta

InFit

Custom Post Types: Programs Post Type, Slider Post Type, Nutritions Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Home Page, Blog Page, Programs Page
jQuery plugins
7 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Google Webfonts
Cufon text replacement
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, WordPress Newsletter subscription Opt-in for SendBlaster

Zero

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Services Post Type, Our team Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Testimonials Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
4 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Cufon text replacement
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Widget Logic

Agroplus

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, FAQs Post Type, Service Post Type, Partners Post Type, Resources Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Testimonials Page, FAQs Page, Blog Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
2 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Cufon text replacement
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Widget Logic

Just Stephen

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type,Testimonials Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins: jQuery Cycle, jQuery PrettyPhoto
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7

Qorra

Custom Post Types: Services Post Type, Clients Post Type, Extra Post Type, Our team Post Type, Projects Post Type, Slider Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Cufon text replacement
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7

Gear

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, FAQs Post Type, Our team Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Testimonials Page, FAQs Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7

Jacov

Custom Post Types: Banners Type, Portfolio Post Type
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins:jQuery PrettyPhoto
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7

Delicicaes

Custom Post Types: Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Bakery Post Type, Our team Post Type
3 Page Templates: Home Page, Subpates Page, Testimonials Page
jQuery plugins
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Widget Logic

My Folio

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type
3 Page Templates: Home Page, Full Width Page
jQuery plugins
3 Sidebar Positions
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Widget Logic

Doom

Custom Post Types: Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Services Post Type, FAQs Post Type
8 Page Templates: Full Width Page, About Page, Testimonials Page, FAQs Page, Portfolio Page
jQuery plugins
5 Sidebar Positions
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
Google Webfonts
WordPress Plugins: WP-PageNavi, WP-Contact Form 7, Widget Logic

In2Ition

Custom Post Types:Portfolio Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Services Post Type, Our team Post Type
6 Sidebar Positions
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page
9 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
jQuery Plugins<
Google Webfonts
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress plugins: WP-PageNavi,WP-Contact Form 7

Optima

Custom Post Types:Projects Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type
8 Sidebar Positions
6 Page Templates: Full Width Page, Blog Page, Portfolio Page
7 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
jQuery Plugins<
Cufon text replacement
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress plugins: WP-PageNavi,WP-Contact Form 7

Best Travel

Custom Post Types:PrFAQs Post Type, Our team Post Type, Slider Post Type, Testimonials Post Type, Portfolio Post Type
10 Sidebar Positions
7 Page Templates: Full Width Page, FAQs Page, Home Page, Portfolio Page
7 Custom Widgets
50+ shortcodes
jQuery Plugins<
Cufon text replacement
Multi Level Dropdown Menu
WordPress plugins: WP-PageNavi,WP-Contact Form 7

First Responsive Templates Launched on TemplateMonster

Lilian Rigo — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:09:59 +0000

We are here to proudly announce that a bunch of brand new Responsive Templates are now available at TemplateMonster. These gorgeous, modern templates are based on flexible designs that adjust to different types of screen resolutions. This means that every single responsive template available on TemplateMonster will be adaptable to any device people use to enter the website that is based on this template. Technically we achieve this with the help of CSS3 media queries, so it’s all good for most of the browsers and devices you may use to access the website. You may even see how template layout switches by playing with the browser window width – adjust it while viewing any demo to see how the layout changes. However, to our readers who love old junk browsers – or should we politely call these browsers ‘vintage’ – we must say that the the dynamic screen size adjuster won’t work in the old versions of Internet Explorer. We assume that people browsing websites based on these templates will be browsing mobile web with Safari, Firefox, or Opera Mini and other mobile browsers which have no problems with CSS3.

Responsive website templates include several layouts, each optimized for proper screen resolution. In fact there are many width options included, but the major ones are for desktop, tablet, and 2 sizes of smartphone screens.

desktop layout (980px);
tablet layout (768px);
smartphone layout – landscape (480px);
smartphone layout – portrait (320px).

These 4 primary layout types as well as secondary ones get activated in the corresponding screen resolutions. Again, to see these responsive layouts in action, please check out the templates’ live demos and drag and drop the browser window edges to adjust the width. After that you can take a tour around our responsive templates and decide what design you need for your new adaptive website.

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Blackbird Business Responsive Template

Here goes responsive template that will scale seamlessly to suit any browser width. This design is remarkable for having a skeleton οf content area split into columns, besides it has a drop-down menu, icons accompanying textual passages to favor a quicker visual read of the link, and definitely a jQuery slider with the Macbook imagery that has got the main relevance and is used to display multiple images in a limited space. This responsive layout perfectly serves many width options, get the feel of it playing with the template live demo and resizing your browser window.

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Mohawkedev Internet Responsive Template

The featured internet services related web template combines a spectacular slider that has a content overlay with intelligent responsive layout that scales to suit your browser width. In that the design could be perfect for business, web development, and consulting companies. Among other best practices introduced within this new template we can mention the color choice, drop-down menu, attractive typography and buttons, comforting background texture, and more. This template will help you deal with various devices used to display your solid website.

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SafeWorld Charity Responsive Template

As in every other responsive website template, this design, if being seen in smartphone version, embraces horizontal panels for navigation. All unessential elements are simply eliminated to get the layout optimized for mobile web standards. Plus having a larger clickable area, this navigation option greatly helps fingertip content browsing. Other sweet features of this charity template are content division lines that run zigzag, the dichotomy of black and white colors, red highlight upon hover, and also an attractive slider with cute transparency elements, which is being preserved on every of the available layouts.

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Politician’s Website Responsive Template

If you want your political website to become responsive, consider this new adaptive template which is an elegant minimal design that dynamically adjusts to all screen sizes and devices. Such layout perfectly serves many goals; it has highly customizable options and dynamic width features for the clear imagery, neat typography, plus its column-based layout is especially useful for categorical grouping of content. This responsive design will provide a consistent experience across various available screen resolutions.

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Shevas Business Responsive Template

This responsive template has a very subtle stripe texture that accents the content area and gives the design a classy style. Overall, this clean-cut layout is made for business company website and also includes a jQuery slider that is wide enough to properly render the image content you need. Within the layout you can as well find a neat slider for testimonials area – great solution to save space and display important changeable content. For the popular and newest entries there is even a tabbed navigation applied. Also spot the color highlights when you hover over the features overview, this is another great trick this high-end responsive template offers for you.

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Gordon Brothers Responsive Template

If you want a head start in your new responsive design, here is another business website template that can be used for such needs. The current template seamlessly caters to different media formats, plus it comes with a changeable navigation menu and a slick slider that both adapt to the device on which they’re displayed. If to scale the browser window and see what tricks are introduced within its adaptable layout, we can spot the vertical grouping of visual content, different color styles that bring really great sense of contrast, and a slider which handles high volumes of images. In general, all the necessary elements are housed within the scope of a certain screen resolution.

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Fresh Joomla 1.7 Templates for Those Looking to Create Impeccable Websites

Lilian Rigo — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:00:07 +0000

Our today’s post offers a showcase of superior Joomla 1.7 Templates that have been recently added to TemplateMonster collection. They are based on the all-time favorite design standards that reveal the vision of both simple and sophisticated Joomla layouts. What adds up the strength values of every single Joomla 1.7 template featured here is that being enhanced with a whole array of functionality features, these designs also offer extreme ease of use for both site owners and visitors. Make sure you can easily personalize Joomla 1.7 templates to your website content, and this in the long run will considerably cut down on your website development time. Now check out the list we’ve made for you today and choose your next Joomla 1.7 powered design.

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