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Richy's Random Ramblings

Magento: Class Zend_log not found in GoMage Lightcheckout Help file

March 27, 2013
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Do you receive an error message such as:

Fatal error: Class 'Zend_Log' not found in /.../app/code/local/GoMage/Checkout/Block/Adminhtml/System/Config/Fieldset/Help.php on line 48

when running the GoMage Lightcheckout v3.1 plugin for Magento? If so, it’s a quick fix: just open up that file and remove the section:

protected function _getFieldsetCss()
{
$configCss = (string)$this->getGroup()->fieldset_css;
return 'config collapseable'.($configCss ? ' ' . $configCss : '');
}

and your Magento ecommerce shop should start working! (Basically, in a recent version of Magento CE – version 1.7.0.2 or before – that method was set as “protected” in Mage_Adminhtml_Block_System_Config_Form_Fieldset and so the child class GoMage_Checkout_Block_Adminhtml_System_Config_Fieldset_Help was not able to redeclare it).

Magento: Associating customer accounts

March 22, 2013
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If you run a Magento e-commerce store, you may occasionally find existing customers placing orders without being logged into their account. This isn’t a problem usually, unless the customer is one of those vary rare ones which actually logs into the customer frontend to track/check their order(s). If they weren’t logged in, they won’t see the ecommerce order.

So how do you fix this? Well, there is a Magneto module available to do this, but (as is increasingly common in the Magento world) it costs $99. Or there is my way which is free and requests two SQL statements:

UPDATE sales_flat_order, customer_entity
SET sales_flat_order.customer_id=customer_entity.entity_id
WHERE
sales_flat_order.customer_email=customer_entity.email

UPDATE sales_flat_order_grid,sales_flat_order
SET sales_flat_order_grid.customer_id=sales_flat_order.customer_id
WHERE
sales_flat_order_grid.increment_id=sales_flat_order.increment_id

Done.

Dominos Pizza: Watch the deals

February 23, 2013
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And whilst I’m ranting about Dominos Pizza, they have the following deals:

“Feed Four for £5 each: 2 x Medium Pizzas, 1 x Garlic Pizza Bread, 1 x Potato Wedges plus 1 x bottle of 1.25l Coca Cola for only £19.99”
“Double Deal Medium: 2 Medium Pizza (from the menu or create your own up to 4 toppings, Premium Crusts & Bases charged as extra ) £20.99”

So, if you actually want 2 Medium pizzas (as we do), it works out £1 cheaper to get it with garlic bread, potato wedges and Cola!

Dominos Pizza Movie Deal

February 23, 2013
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We were just looking for some food to eat on the Dominos Pizza website when I came across their “Box Busting deal” which includes “Large Pizza, Garlic Pizza Bread, Potato Wedges and a [current or library movie] rental” for £19.99. It looked tempting as we were possibly considering going to the cinema to see “something”, so I had a look at which films they had “stocked”.

1) It’s not clear that this are actually “streaming” videos: i.e. you aren’t actually renting a physical item to play in your DVD or Blu-Ray player
2) No technical specifications are given on the main site at http://www.dominos.co.uk/menu/movies/ (they are in the FAQ on http://pizzaboxoffice.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions though: an entirely separate site).
3) It says it can be viewed on a “PC or Mac” (is that Windows and Mac or “Windows, Linux, RISC OS” [i.e. anything in a “PC form factor] and Mac”)
4) It will” only work on the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox 15, Opera 12.02, Chrome 21, IE9 and Safari 5.1.7″. I run Chrome 25 on my Linux laptop: can I actually play the movie (the “latest version” of “Chrome 21” as far as I can tell was Chrome 21.0.1180.90 (released September 24 2012). Since around that, “Chrome 21” has been ended. I would under stand if it said “Latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Chrome, IE and Safari” (and is it compatible with IE10?)
5) And the biggest problem I’ve got is the movie choice. The titles are provided by Lions Gate UK Limited and the choices are:

“Latest” (not available under the deal)

  1. “LOL”
  2. What to expect when you’re expecting
  3. Friends with Kids
  4. Magic Mike
  5. Keith Lemon The Film
  6. The Expendables 2
  7. The Possession
  8. Tower Block<?li>
  9. Gangsters, Guns and Zombies
  10. The Cupid Dog

(I’ve heard of “What to expect when you’re expecting”, “Magic Mike” and “The Expendables 2”: but I’ve not been tempted to see any of them).[3 heard, 0 “want to watch”, 0 owned]

“Current” (part of the deal)

  1. Daddy I’m a Zombie
  2. Metal Tornado
  3. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
  4. Abduction
  5. From Prada to Nada
  6. The Cabin In the Woods
  7. Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles
  8. How I Spent My Summer Vacaction
  9. Machine Gun Preacher
  10. Sofia
  11. A Dangerous Method
  12. Axed
  13. Hell
  14. The Hunger Games
  15. Outpost 2: Black Sun
  16. Hesher
  17. Warrior
  18. 50/50
  19. Coriolanus
  20. Trespass
  21. The Son of No One
  22. Mothman
  23. Alyce
  24. The Devil in me
  25. The Thompsons
  26. As Good as dead
  27. The Yummy Gummy Search for Santa: The Movie

(I’ve heard of “The Hunger Games”: but not been tempted to see it. I’e not heard of the others).[1 heard, 0 “want to watch”, 0 owned]

“Library Title”

  1. The Princess Bride
  2. Monster Mutt
  3. Thor Tales of Asgard (not the 2011 film, but an animated one)
  4. Ultimate Avengers (not the 2012 film, but an animated one)
  5. Akeelah And The Bee
  6. Ella Enchanted
  7. Noel
  8. Good Nigh, And Good Luck
  9. Mothman prophecies
  10. Forbidden Kingdom
  11. Bend It like Beckham
  12. Employee of the month
  13. Fred: The Movie
  14. The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
  15. Pumping Iron
  16. Mad Money
  17. Good Luck Chuck: Fruity Edition
  18. The Bank Job
  19. Dirty Dancing
  20. Conan: The Barbarian (from what I can tell from the cover image, as the text doesn’t state, this is the 2011 Jason Momoa/Ron Perlman one and not the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger / James Earl Jones one)
  21. The Blair Witch Project
  22. A Cock And Bull Story
  23. Revolver
  24. Solitary Man
  25. The Best Man
  26. Adventurelan
  27. Maybe Baby
  28. The Edge of Love
  29. Jackie Brown
  30. Righteous Kill
  31. Chaos
  32. Stone
  33. The Four Feathers
  34. The Great Raid
  35. Jeepers Creepers
  36. Reservoir Dogs
  37. Daybreakers
  38. Command Performance
  39. The Expendables
  40. The Condemned
  41. Setup
  42. Clerks
  43. Young Guns
  44. Monster
  45. Garfield’s Pet Force
  46. Spy Kids 1
  47. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
  48. Spy Kids 3: Game Over
  49. Happily N’Ever After 2

(We own “The Princess Bride”, “Maybe Baby” and “Clerks” and I’ve heard “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus”, “Dirty Dancing”, “The Blair Witch Project”, “Jeepers Creepers”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “The Expendables” and the 3 “Spy Kids” films and we may be very slightly tempted by “Conan: The Barbarian”). [9 heard, 1 “want to watch”, 3 owned]

So, out of 76 available movies, I’ve heard of 10, own 3 and may be slightly tempted by 1.

I don’t think we’ll bother with this deal.

Techy: Dedicated server prices compared

February 16, 2013
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We’ve just started our annual “provider audit” and our first “task” was to look at comparable dedicated hosting providers to make sure we are getting a package for us at the lowest reasonable rate. Our requirements are:
* Minimum 4Gb RAM
* 4 CPU Cores at 2.0Ghz or above
* 2x 500Gb hard drives
* RAID 1 or RAID 10 (software or hardware)
* 1Tb monthly data transfer limit
* Minimum of 4 IPv4 IP addresses
* Europe hosting (UK preferred)
* CentOS/RedHat operating system
* Ideally cPanel, IPv6 and remote “console” support
* Not “Cloud/VPS” (we’re going to be using the server for shared hosting and shared hosting on shared hardware just seems silly)

Our budget for this was £200+vat. Here’s what we found:
View in new window.

We haven’t yet made a decision (I must admit, we’ve been extremely happy with Memset for quite a few years now) – it is interesting what all the companies offer. Please remember that this spreadsheet is incomplete in parts (the ? should show where), doesn’t actually assess the providers networks or what support package is offered (i.e. there may be an “unlisted” reason one costs £100pm more than another!).

Is there any one you think we’ve missed?