Alpha testers sought for Chrome extension to add PayPal support to your site

thenickdude · September 6, 2013

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some people interested in testing a Google Chrome extension which I've created to add PayPal "add to cart" or "buy now" buttons to your SmugMug galleries. Your visitors don't need the extension installed to use the added PayPal features. This used to be possible in Old SmugMug, but the old approach currently doesn't work due to the lack of JavaScript in New SmugMug.

The purpose of the Alpha test is to find out if this extension works for anybody else, if the features are useful, and get feedback on what might be added or improved.

Once complete, the intention is to release the extension as open source, for free.

If you're interested, please reply here and I'll PM you with further details and a download link.

There is a small potential for data-loss in this extension, since it's designed to make changes to your SmugMug site (and if it messed that up, it could end up overwriting things). I'm suggesting that it only be used on test galleries with test photos until the extension is out of Alpha, and I'll let you know more details about what data-loss is expected in the PM.

rich56k · September 6, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some people interested in testing a Google Chrome extension which I've created to add PayPal "add to cart" or "buy now" buttons to your SmugMug galleries. Your visitors don't need the extension installed to use the added PayPal features. This used to be possible in Old SmugMug, but the old approach currently doesn't work due to the lack of JavaScript in New SmugMug.

The purpose of the Alpha test is to find out if this extension works for anybody else, if the features are useful, and get feedback on what might be added or improved.

Once complete, the intention is to release the extension as open source, for free.

If you're interested, please reply here and I'll PM you with further details and a download link.

There is a small potential for data-loss in this extension, since it's designed to make changes to your SmugMug site (and if it messed that up, it could end up overwriting things). I'm suggesting that it only be used on test galleries with test photos until the extension is out of Alpha, and I'll let you know more details about what data-loss is expected in the PM.

I'm willing to give this a try, please note I'm in still legacy mode (due to the lack of PayPal integration).

What I do know is the prior PayPal I was using in legacy, as many others were/are worked fine. but once I opened the sandbox mode, what migrated over caused me to get error messages from PayPal - instead of a functioning cart and the gallery description was completely broken with partial coding (java from within <script> tags) visible.

So I removed the PayPal from legacy so I could fine tune in the sandbox, and am eagerly awaiting some solution.

Hopefully I can still be of service for your alpha test.

Rich

thenickdude · September 7, 2013

Ahh unfortunately, I'm not clear on the exact mechanism by which SmugMug works pre-unveil, so it'd be more likely to ruin your site than do anything else. I need to find out if I can get a legacy account for testing from SmugMug first.

rich56k · September 7, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

Ahh unfortunately, I'm not clear on the exact mechanism by which SmugMug works pre-unveil, so it'd be more likely to ruin your site than do anything else. I need to find out if I can get a legacy account for testing from SmugMug first.

Well at any point I'm more than willing to help with this as I hope to utilize this type of feature...

So to make sure I understand, you need a legacy site to use which you will then un-veil as part of the test?

thenickdude · September 7, 2013

I need a legacy site that has started migrating to the New SmugMug, but hasn't unveiled yet. I just need to check that everything works as my code expects it to in a pre-unveiled site. For example, I'm not sure if my current code would see your old galleries or the new ones. I don't need to unveil the site.

rich56k · September 7, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

I need a legacy site that has started migrating to the New SmugMug, but hasn't unveiled yet. I just need to check that everything works as my code expects it to in a pre-unveiled site. For example, I'm not sure if my current code would see your old galleries or the new ones. I don't need to unveil the site.

Well that does describe me, I've already migrated, like I said the only thing I'm waiting for to unveil is functioning PayPal...

I could easily try it on a few galleries and report the results (on the unveiled new Smug version) as the legacy version would be visible to you anyhow. Maybe I'm missing something here but it's up to you.

thenickdude · September 7, 2013

Yeah, the issue is that I want to examine how the site works before I have this extension run on it, just to make sure that the extension won't end up doing something wrong to the site.

rich56k · September 7, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

Yeah, the issue is that I want to examine how the site works before I have this extension run on it, just to make sure that the extension won't end up doing something wrong to the site.

So it sounds like you need SmugMug to furnish you a legacy site to try this on?

What I hope to accomplish is the ability to choose size / type of product from in the gallery itself, click either 'add to cart' and keep shopping; or click 'view cart' which takes you into PayPal.

I've added a hastily prepped version of what MomaZunk's original code looks like after migration...it was excellent in legacy Smug - note this is 2 screen grabs shoved together the buttons before clicking on choices and then after

but it does show the functionality* (I also believe this is what the majority of us seeking PayPal are hoping to get set up).
*the drop down of products determined by the site owner and the buttons themselves, the ability to add a note is great but not a dealbreaker- disregard the Java that's all over the page

Rich

thenickdude · September 7, 2013

Yeah, or find someone willing to give me access to their account to try it on.

rich56k · September 7, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

Yeah, or find someone willing to give me access to their account to try it on.

Since a huge number of sites have already unveiled - could admin access to an unveiled site be of benefit to the testing?

thenickdude · September 8, 2013

Of an unveiled site? Not really, no.

Here's an example of the result of using this extension, with Buy Now buttons:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/PayPal/Example-buy-now-gallery/n-PCGFW

Or Add to Cart buttons:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/PayPal/Example-cart-gallery/n-7JpGR

When you receive an order from a customer, you get an email from PayPal that looks like this:

Those clickable links take you right to the photo that was ordered!

rich56k · September 8, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

Of an unveiled site? Not really, no.

Here's an example of the result of using this extension, with Buy Now buttons:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/PayPal/Example-buy-now-gallery/n-PCGFW

Or Add to Cart buttons:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/PayPal/Example-cart-gallery/n-7JpGR

WOW - both examples are awesome!!

The "add to cart/view cart" is exactly what I've been looking for, as it lends itself to continuing to add items and hence spend more.

Again ... WOW!!

PM is in progress...

TalkieT · September 11, 2013

Wow... I'm curious to know what the functionality is that does this and I think I have to exercise caution... If this plugin intercepts the submit of the HTML or CSS customisation to bypass the SM editor stripping out any Javascript, or modifies a different tag after the submit, then SM will just clamp down and post parse as well.

If it's something else then wow... Best of luck getting it sorted out totally. I'm watching closely! I haven't started migrating my site yet so can't be of much help I'm afraid.

Cheers - N

thenickdude · September 11, 2013

Nope, it doesn't do anything naughty, so unless SmugMug explicitly decides to block all PayPal buttons, it'll be fine for the future.

I think SmugMug already does the JavaScript stripping on the server-side, so you can't get around it by futzing around in the client.

worldphotocreations · September 12, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

Here's an example of the result of using this extension, with Buy Now buttons:

http://www.sherlockphotography.org/Customisations/PayPal/Example-buy-now-gallery/n-PCGFW

Hi! It looks like this first, simple example with a Buy Now button is exactly what I need! Can I try it out?

I mostly love the new SM, but there sure are a few things that are disappointing that are missing. Hopefully they'll get caught up.

Will this ONLY work in Chrome?

Thanks, Scot

thenickdude · September 15, 2013

This extension is now out of Alpha and available for public download:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=240753

Alpha testers sought for Chrome extension to add PayPal support to your site

Comments