Portfolio

Chase Paymentech Module for Ubercart

Submitted by jesse on

Announcing the uc_chasepaymentech module for Ubercart!

This is a module that adds Chase Paymentech hosted checkout as a payment method to Ubercart. There isn't currently a module that integrates Ubercart with Chase paymentech. Although Chase based their hosted checkout on Authorize.net's framework, their specific implementation and methods of response verification are slightly different in functionality. There is not a sensible way to go about modifying the Authorize.net module that ships with Ubercart to incorporate Chase Paymentech without rewriting the entire Authorize.net module to make it more generic and adaptable to other Payment Companies and their implementations of the authorize.net framework. However, this may be an option for the future.

Upgrading EBMtools.org from Drupal 5 to 6

Submitted by Varun on

With Drupal 7's release around the corner, it is important to get Drupal websites away from version 5.x. To quote D.O:"Drupal 5 will no longer be maintained when Drupal 7 is released." Earlier this year, I moved ebmtools.org from their Drupal 5 install to use the more powerful and secure Drupal 6 version.

The Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM)tools network uses Drupal to connect and inform researchers, users, and providers through their website. In their own words, EBMtools promotes

Ubercart as a donation system + Moneris as a Payment Gateway

Submitted by jesse on

Hopefully this blog entry will help a few people overcome some of the hurdles in setting up a donations system. We are a drupal shop so all the following is for drupal 6.

In this case the client simply wanted to have a way to collect donations from supporters of their political campaign. The only real constraint was that it needed to integrate with the Moneris payment gateway system. I was looking at creating a custom donation system and integration to Moneris, but in the end opted to use Ubercart. Ubercart is an awesome beast of a Shopping cart system that has many great features and useful contribs, 90% of which I did not need to take advantage of. However, Ubercart, in an extremely stripped down form, looked like it could offer everything I needed in terms of accepting and tracking donations. There was also an existing UC Moneris contrib module that looked pretty simple.

What you will find in this blog

The "CLUMPS" module

Submitted by jesse on

Clumps is a module that I have just written and will eventually be releasing. Its currently about 90% finished. The name was hastily chosen from a google search for a synonym to section. It is also still up for debate so feel free to comment if you can think of a good name.

All relatively good ideas start with a relatively complex, or annoying, problem.

Protagonist:

A site was required that split off into two separate sides with different paths say /sideone and /sidetwo. Most content is to be different, but some should be shared including menus and menu items. Doesn't sound like a very complicated problem does it? The content that is different will obviously be easy in that you can set the url aliases to /sideone/page1, /sidetwo/page2, etc.

Problem:

The complicated part comes when you consider how to maintain that context separation of which side you are on for the shared content. In this case the shared content had to be prefixed with the /sideone or /sidetwo. Regardless, there are a couple tricky problems here:

  1. how do you know which side of the site you were working on once you've gone to one of the shared pages?
  2. For that matter how do you have a menu display only the relevant items for a particular side as well as the shared items?
  3. How do you have the shared menu item knowledgeable about the context of which side of the site you are on?

Just Vision

Submitted by Jason on

Just Vision is an organization that, through award-winning media, community outreach and an array of educational tools, informs, connects and engages people in Palestinian-Israeli civilian efforts to resolve the conflict nonviolently.  Screenshot of the Budrus site at Justvision.org

OpenConcept was lucky enough to work with this passionate organization to help them develop a truly unique Drupal-based website.

Just Vision had previously implemented another CMS solution and as such, had an existent, complex database that linked interviews from a diverse selection of 'peacebuilders' on a variety of themes. Developing the appropriate taxonomies and linking interviews with themes, footnotes, glossary terms and profiles was challenging but something that Drupal was able to handle well using content types and taxonomies.

You can visit the Just Vision website at http://www.justvision.org

Introducting Projekto, our new PM tool

Submitted by ethan on

OpenConcept has used a number of solutions for time tracking and project management over the years; Basecamp, along with a couple of iterations of a Drupal 5-based system based on the Worktracker module. OpenConcept has grown considerably in the last couple of years, and with additional staff, bigger projects, and the historical accumulation of information each system began verging on unworkable as we transitioned to the next.

Projekto's Header

 

Recognia

Submitted by Jason on

Recognia provides technical analysis products (interpreted chart recognition) to large brokerage firms worldwide. They help the brokerage firms attract, retain and engage traders by providing actionable research tools. Recognia Logo

Recognia came to OpenConcept because they were trying to enhance their web presence with a new website that is more engaging to users, clearly defines the company mandate and product offerings and enables their internal team to take control of content entry.

T-Base Communications

Submitted by Jason on

T-Base Communications Logo

T-Base Communications was looking to enhance their web presence by implementing a new design, by upgrading the accessibility of their website and by improving the simplicity and power that their CMS was able to provide.

They chose Drupal as their platform of choice because of its intuitive content management interface, its inherent built-in accessibility features and its growing popularity amongst organizations looking for a hands-on approach to the development of their website content. They decided to go with OpenConcept because of our expertise in Drupal as well as the area of accessibility. We were able to deliver a website that adhered to the WCAG 2.0 AA web content accessibility guidelines, as outlined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The T-Base website successfully validates and can be checked using W3C's markup validation service.

Transforming Power - A Light of Hope

Submitted by mgifford on

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Ottawa Book Launch for Transforming Power, that was held at the Raw Sugar Cafe earlier today.  The cafe was definitely packed with people who came to both see Judy & celebrate Octopus Books' 40th Anniversary.  The venue was intimate and everyone was interested in hearing from Judy.  We have been doing the Website for Octopus Books now for probably 8 years (Krishna & I put up what was at the time a fairly complex site at that time) and also helped Judy Rebick put together her site over the past couple of months.

We took a leadership role in supporting Judy's site because we saw the potential for this project to mobilize the social justice movement in Canada.  When we (Krishna & I) first worked with Judy it was when we helped to launch rabble.ca back in 2001.  Rabble.ca has done a lot to help to focus left leaning media and discussion since that time and it was with rabble.ca that we were involved in our first advocacy campaign to build a petition to release Jaggi Shing. 

Living Leadership, the Executive Leadership Program of the Canada School of Public Service

Submitted by mgifford on

The goal of this project was the establishment of an online collaborative work and learning environment for a group of distributed learners in the Living Leadership, the Executive Leadership Program of the Canada School of Public Service.

The participants are executives from the public sector using the website to access information, documents and participant information. Each participant has a blog as well as a customized learning plan page maintained by the staff. The website is bilingual and features a calendar of events for the program. These elements were required to fulfill the Living Leadership Program’s blended learning needs.

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