Google Analytics is a very popular service many merchants use to do tracking on their sites. Typically this involves inserting a small amount of javascript into your site. This is very easily accomplished with CFWebstore by pasting the code into your layout page (such as layouts/lay_default.cfm).

What you may find though is that you get an error during checkout due to the code not using an https: link. Switching the code to use strictly the https link will often work, but here is a more elegant solution. Use this javascript instead to switch between the http: and https: links (modify the link as needed for whatever analytic service you are using):

Now your site won't throw any errors!

Haven't had a ton of stuff to blog about, and been very busy with various projects, so sorry for that. I'm continuing work on the next release which will have a few new features and tweaks that people have asked for, as well as a nicer sample design and some changes for PCI Compliance. Basically, this release will remove the ability to save credit card data in any way, as this just is no longer feasible for any but large, enterprise companies under current PCI Compliance regulations. Anyone that can afford the substantial cost of being compliant could certainly handle the minor development cost to implement storing of card data! For those users that really need the ability to do additional transactions after the initial order is placed, I would recommend using a gateway such as Shift4 which uses tokenization. CFWebstore will continue to support tokenization for recurring billing and other repeat transactions. If you are currently using recurring billing and will need help moving to a new payment system, please drop me a note so I can help you plan for that.

While I've been working on this, and various other projects, I've also been starting to get together another side business. One of my hobbies since childhood is origami and while I've always enjoyed making highly complex animal models that take hours to fold, my favorite is modular origami and in particular making decorative origami boxes. Recently I've learned how to make these from fabric as well which allows for even more variation in size as well as combinations of colors and patterns that are difficult to find with paper. The results are often quite stunning! So drop by and take a look at some of my boxes and feel free to email me if you are interested in purchasing one! I haven't really done much with the website other than throw up a simple photo gallery, I'm putting more time into building an inventory and cataloging everything before building a true ecommerce site (in CFWebstore, of course!)

The Artful Box

Just a bit of a silly little fluff entry for today. I will admit to being a bit of a reality-TV junkie. I don't tend to watch the dating-type shows, but ones like Survivor and American Idol I find endlessly entertaining. By far my favorite show during the summer is So You Think You Can Dance. I will admit to not being much of a dancer myself, even when I did musical freestyle with Taz (affectionately known as Dancing with your Dog) my idea of dance was bouncing around a little and waving your arms. But I love music and watching talented dancers perform just always has me in awe. Unlike the show "Dancing with the Stars" which focuses on beginner dancers and strictly one style of dance (ballroom) this show is more like a true American Idol search for the best new dancer and is very enjoyable to watch particularly because it features so many different dance styles. Not to mention the challenge for the dancers in having to learn so many styles! Watching a hip-hop dancer tackle a tango or a contemporary dancer do a krump is always interesting, whether they succeed or fail. And every season there are always a handful of dances that literally take my breath away, they are so moving and emotional and beautiful to watch. The choreographers on the show are overall very talented and it's fun to see their creative minds at work as well!

This week was the first time a Bollywood routine was featured on the show. This style of dance from India has been finding its way into movies and music videos here in the states and it was great fun to see a number done on the show with the beautiful Indian costumes as well. Not quite as exciting as seeing a whole troop of Bollywood dancers but fun nonetheless! After the dance, one of the judges made the comment about how he wished the whole world would just come together in dance "instead of what we are doing now". How true! The comment did make me think of this awesome website and video that has made the rounds of the internet and if you haven't seen it, I hope you'll take the time to sit and enjoy the whole thing. If this doesn't put a smile on your face nothing will! And after watching it, get out and dance!

Where the Hell is Matt?