Recurring Payments in EE 2.0

One shortcoming in ExpressionEngine 1.6.x was the fact you couldn’t do recurring Paypal payments (using the Simple Commerce Module). However, the new 2.0 release supports Paypal subscriptions and recurring payments. Using recurring payments, you can offer your users automatically recurring subscriptions. For purchases managed through the module, you can specify emails to be sent upon a recurring purchase, emails to be sent when a recurring payment is canceled, and alter a member’s group assignment based on their subscription status. This is a small and overlooked—but potentially significant—enhancement of the module.

Redesign of Riviera Travel Boosts Traffic

The DesignKarma redesign of http://www.rivieratravel.co.uk is having a significant impact, already showing a 280% increase in visitors on last month. Bounce rates are down and average visit time is up. At the heart of the redesign was putting a major focus on clean “web standards” code, simple user interface, and page performance.

France Joins Germany Warning Against Internet Explorer

The IT and web communities have long favoured browsers like Firefox over Microsoft Internet Explorer—for performance and security reasons. But it now seems the public at large are also turning their backs on IE, after a series of major security warnings. Both the French and German governments have recently called for web users to find an alternative to IE.

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Site Launch: Riviera Tours

Following the successful Riviera Travel redesign-redevlopment, DesignKarma is thrilled to announce the launch of a sister website—Riviera Tours—for the US market. The new website offers a slightly different set of Worldwide and European getaways, aimed specifically at an American audience. Both websites are receiving excellent feedback from the design and ExpressionEngine communities.

Site Launch: Riviera Travel

DesignKarma is thrilled to announce the launch of the new Riviera Travel website today. Through partnerships with national and regional newspapers and publications, Riviera Travel offer escorted tours and river cruises all over the World. This is DesignKarma’s first major high-traffic website, complete with online tour availability checking and booking, and complex source tracking features.

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ExpressionEngine 2.0 Public Release

Christmas comes early today with the much-anticipated public release of ExpressionEngine 2.0. The new release is built on top of CodeIgniter, EllisLab’s open-source PHP framework. The two communities combine to supercharge an already hot app. DesignKarma has been involved in beta testing the new version, and had an extensive preview recently at EECI2009 in Holland. Very impressive it is too. Clients will love the new improved control panel and more sophisticated publish screens. The existing 1.6.x tree will continue to be used and supported by the EE community whilst 2.0 beds in, but DesignKarma will be developing a new 2.0-powered website in the New Year. Watch this space.

Back in Blighty

Well, back on British soil after an eventful few days in Leiden. It seems the first ever EECI conference was a resounding success, with a good mix of learning, networking and erm… drinking. The cream of the EE community descended on Leiden for 3 days and it was good to finally meet some folks in the flesh, as well as make new contacts.

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EECI 2009 Dispatches

One more quick report before the afternoon session. WiFi is patchy here, so got to be brief. Big news out of the way first: ExpressionEngine 2.0 is set for launch 1st December. Already been playing with the beta release and very impressive it is too. Derek Allard took us through the new File Management suite yesterday, and this will make image management in particular much easier for DK clients. Overall, the sessions so far have been very enjoyable, and validated much of my existing working methods. Good to meet and “nerd-out” with others in the EE community also. Full report when I get back to the UK.

ExpressionEngine Rolls Into Leiden

Well I arrived in Leiden around 4:30pm all set for the Thu/Fri EECI conference. What a stunning place Leiden is. Don’t think I’ve seen one car yet - 2 wheels definitely better than one here. Why isn’t Manchester like this? Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow. Stay tuned for the inside track on EECI 2009.

Site Launch: The Kirsty Club

Well, site re-launch actually. This is version 4 of the charity site—again designed, developed and donated by DesignKarma. Hosting is also provided free of charge by the nice folks at Nativespace. This time we worked on building more social features into the website, including integrating new Flickr and Twitter accounts for the client. DesignKarma helped raise £5m through the old Kirsty Appeal website. The new Kirsty Club campaign aims at expanding the children’s hospice, and help even more children like Kirsty. Visit http://www.thekirstyclub.com.