PayPal Integration

November 15th, 2010

Llamawerx has completed several projects integrating PayPal with existing web sites and custom web applications. In some cases, we have integrated products and the PayPal shopping cart into an e-commerce site. On others, we’ve relied on PayPal’s notification API.

Buy Now Buttons

In some instances, our clients want to sell a single product on through their website – for example, a book. The simplest way to do that was to create a PayPal button in their account and use the PayPal generated HTML on the site. Simple, straightforward, effective. The PayPal account holder receives an email when payment is made and ships the product.

Shopping Cart

Another scenario exists when clients want to sell multiple products from the site. One could generate multiple buttons as we did in the simple case and paste them into the site. As you add products, this becomes tedious to manage and the look-and-feel of the buttons won’t match your site. Our solution is to decompose the HTML variables and program custom pages with HTML and PHP. The clicks invoke the PayPal shopping cart, payment is made and the client receives email notification.

Payment Notification

Other clients needed to use PayPal for registration information. This posed a different problem because we needed real-time confirmation that the user paid before offering them access. PayPal offers payment notification through Instant Payment Notification or IPN. By using the IPN API and managing the responses from PayPal, we capture the responses and update the database in real-time thus ensuing timely registration for the events.

PayPal offers a simple platform for sellers looking to move to the Internet. For unique applications, the programming hooks allow integrators to expand the basic offering into a custom solution.

Recently Launched: BuxTools Paypal

October 13th, 2010

Buxtools sells a unique product call C-Clipper to motorcycle, ATV and powersport enthusiasts. C-Clipper makes it easy to install wrist-pins on your 2- or 4-stroke engine. Now, C-Clipper is available online using PayPal for secure credit card transactions.

“We took the standard PayPal button and modified it to simplify integration in BuxTools’ website,” said Doug Griswold, CEO of Llamawerx. “The product varies based on the engine you’re repairing. It would be unusual for someone to purchase multiple products at a time. Therefore, the simple ‘Buy Now’ approach works well.”

Analytics track page impressions for the catalog page and can be correlated to purchase email from PayPal.

You can visit BuxTools at www.buxtools.com for more information.

Recently Launched: Cryotrax2

October 4th, 2010

Shortly after Llamawerx launched in 2003, we delivered our first application, called Cryotrax, to Cryogene Lab. For seven years, Cryogene used our software to catalog, inventory and manage biological samples in their bio-repository. Earlier this year, Cryogene signed a new pharmaceutical client which would increase the number of samples tracked by Cryotrax almost 4-fold. Seven years is a long time for software and many of the original technologies changed. This expansion kick-started an opportunity to modernize the platform and application.

Creatively called, Cryotrax2, the new software maintains the original database structure but is totally re-architected using HTML, Javascript, DHTMLX and PHP. In March 2010, Llamawerx installed the first phase allowing migration of new client data and search capability. Within days we converted thousands of inventoried boxes holding up to 81 samples into individual tubes, cryovials, etc. During this time, the original Cryotrax software continued to operate and serve Cryogene.

In September 2010, Llamawerx installed the final phase of Cryotrax2 and decommissioned the original software. The new software is 100% web-based across a variety of modern web browsers. We added new functionality like direct placement of samples while retaining automatic space selection and a new “space/time” algorithm. Storage and retrieval operations take less time and support Cryogene’s workflow better than the original. Brady barcode printing is now an optional workflow step supporting clients that need barcodes and those that already have them.

“Overall, we delivered a successful update to our original product,” said Doug Griswold, CEO of Llamawerx. “Not only does Cryogene get a tool more integrated with their workflow, we get a platform and toolset that can grow for many more years.”

Recently Launched: The Ponheary Ly Foundation

September 20th, 2010

ponheary_ly_homepage

The Ponheary Ly Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating children in Cambodia. Founded in 2005, Ponheary Ly, a killing-fields survivor and former teacher, teamed up with Lori Carlson, a traveler from Austin Texas, to change kids lives. In Cambodia, children can attend public primary school for free, but the reality is many don’t. Extreme poverty, illiteracy and poor infrastructure conspire to keep kids out of school. Ponheary and Lori tackled the poverty problem head-on. By helping the poorest families with back-to-school packs – uniforms, shoes and supplies – they grew the support network to 5 schools and over 2000 students.

In order to raise funds to support these children, the foundation reaches donors through their website, www.theplf.org. Lori Carlson maintained a Joomla site herself; as the site grew, she found simple tasks not so simple. Doug Griswold, CEO of Llamawerx, became involved in 2007 helping out pro-bono. The nomination of Ponheary Ly as a CNN Hero promised a surge of new visitors demanding more information, simpler navigation and up-to-date content.

According to Doug, “Lori and I talked about updating the site… making it easier to maintain… so many times. One day I suggested moving to WordPress. She responded I was the 51st person to suggest that. I could tell she was frustrated and too busy to take this on. The members in Cambodia have real day-to-day issues to take care of, so I decided to do something about it. I found a WordPress theme, started modifying it and added some content. When I felt there was good representation, I presented it. The first question was, ‘How am I going to move all the content?’ It’s true, over the years, the foundation accumulated a lot of content. With an automated way to move it, we were facing a lot of work. We all agreed this would be good for the foundation, so I volunteered to manually recreate the pages.”

With the new website, we’ve improved:

  1. Simpler tool-set
  2. More modern look-and-feel
  3. Easier to use
  4. Search-engine friendly

In September 2010, we turned-the-switch taking the new website live. Reaction has been very positive. Foundation members are creating more stories, posting more pictures, and keeping the content fresh. Analytics show visitors are up and search engine indexing has improved. Overall a successful transition!

For more information about the Ponheary Ly Foundation, visit the website at www.theplf.org. If you can help, please make a donation.

Recently Launched: Lillies Yarns Webstore

November 23rd, 2009

Lillies Yarns

Llamawerx recently integrated PayPal with Lillies Yarns for a simple, easy-to-use web store. Mags Allen, the owner of Lillies Yarns, wanted to expand her business  online to compliment her brick-and-mortal store in Pennsylvania. PayPal offers an easy to understand interface perfect for selling a few items online. Doug Griswold, CEO of Llamawerx, put it this way, “PayPal is a known and trusted eCommerce platform with an active developer’s community. The ability to easily integrate with the existing site style and PHP backend made it a no-brainer for us.”

For a look at the new store, visit www.lilliesyarns.com and click on “shop”.