WordPress 2.9 E-Commerce [1st New edition] 1847198503, 9781847198501

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WordPress 2.9 e-Commerce

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Brian Bondari

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

WordPress 2.9 e-Commerce

Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2010

Production Reference: 1220210

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK. ISBN 978-1-847198-50-1 www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ([email protected])

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Reviewers 'DQ0LOZDUG

Editorial Team Leader $NVKDUD$ZDUH

Project Team Leader /DWD%DVDQWDQL

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Usha Iyer Proofreader Development Editor

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5DNHVK6KHMZDO Production Coordinator Technical Editors

Shradha Vichare

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Cover Work Shradha Vichare

$ERXWWKH$XWKRU Brian Bondari is a musician, composer, and teacher with equal loves for both music and technology. His hobbies include reading, hiking, composing music, and playing with his pet rabbit. He also spends an exorbitant amount of time lying on the ÁRRUJUDGLQJSDSHUV Brian earned his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 2009, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Texas at Tyler. When he is not writing music or grading papers, he serves as Senior Editor for the multi-author technology blog, http://www.TipsFor.us. You can also visit him at http://www.bondari.com. There are many people I would like to thank for their help and support while writing this book. First of all, many thanks to Dan Milward and the team at Instinct for their hard work in developing the WordPress e-Commerce plugin, without which this book would not have been possible. Also, thanks to Usha Iyer, Rakesh Shejwal, Joel Goveya, and other members of Packt Publishing for their help and support during the organization, writing, and editing processes. Additional thanks go to Taeke Reijenga for his work in reviewing the book. Finally, utmost thanks to my wife Katrina for her unending love, support, and patience.

$ERXWWKH5HYLHZHUV Dan Milward is a 31-year-old self-taught entrepreneur living in Wellington, New Zealand. He enjoys working with WordPress and making games for mobile phones. His earliest "happy" childhood memories are of playing computer games on his Commodore 64/128. If not for the relaxed attitude of his parents around computers and games, then perhaps the WP e-Commerce plugin would never have been made. Dan and his team have been contributing to the WordPress ecosystem in one way or another for the best part of 6 years, mostly through their work developing WordPress plugins, most notably the world-famous WordPress e-Commerce plugin, which has had over 500,000 downloads. +LVFRPSDQ\,QVWLQFWKDVDQRIÀFHLQ:HOOLQJWRQZKHUHWKH\IRFXVRQPDNLQJ WordPress plugins, and investors in Tokyo where the focus is on user-generated games for mobile phones. Many people around the world have contributed to the WP e-Commerce plugin but none have contributed as much as Thomas Howard and Jeffry Ghazally. These guys are the real stars behind the WordPress e-Commerce plugin. I'd like to thank Amber for going easy on me and allowing me to work on this book during "family time". I'd like to thank Jane Wells and Matt Mullenweg from Automattic for all the moral support that they have provided us over the years, and I'd like to thank all the parents out there who allowed their children to play on computers in the 90s. Those children are today's developers and our peers in the WordPress community. Thank you.

Taeke Reijenga is the co-founder of Level Level, a web design agency from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Level Level focuses on custom WordPress design and development for businesses. Amongst numerous WordPress-based projects are several e-commerce sites build with WP e-Commerce. One of them offers over 100,000 products. In his spare time, Taeke loves to cook and enjoy a good glass of wine. You can contact Taeke via http://level-level.com

7DEOHRI&RQWHQWV Preface Chapter 1: Getting Started with WordPress and e-Commerce

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Why WordPress :RUG3UHVVLVIUHHDVLQPRQH\  :RUG3UHVVLVIUHHDVLQVSHHFK  :RUG3UHVVLVZLGHO\XVHG :RUG3UHVVLVÀH[LEOHDQGH[WHQVLEOH About the WP e-Commerce plugin 6LWHDQGEXVLQHVVSRVVLELOLWLHV

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Test platform Summary

Chapter 2: Getting Ready to Sell Installing the WP e-Commerce plugin ,QVWDOOLQJIURPWKH:RUG3UHVV'DVKERDUG 0DQXDOLQVWDOODWLRQ 3OXJLQDFWLYDWLRQ Installing third-party themes ,QVWDOOLQJWKHPHVWKURXJKWKH:RUG3UHVV'DVKERDUG 8SORDGLQJWKHPHVYLD)73

   

   

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Table of Contents

Activating third-party themes Enabling and disabling comments 'LVDEOLQJFRPPHQWVJOREDOO\ 'LVDEOLQJFRPPHQWVRQLQGLYLGXDOSRVWVDQGSDJHV 5HPRYLQJFRPPHQWWUDFHVIURP\RXUWKHPH Setting up a static front page Using widgets &UHDWLQJWH[WZLGJHWV Complementary plugins $NLVPHW $OOLQ2QH6(23DFN *RRJOH;0/6LWHPDSV :3'%%DFNXS :33ROOV Adding a contact form :RUG3UHVV6SDP)UHHFRQWDFWIRUP &RQWDFW)RUP FIRUPV,, Adding a business blog Summary

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