Searching for the best shopping cart software for you ecommerce website can be a daunting task. There are literally hundreds of shopping carts and ecommerce solutions available. How do you know which one is right for you?

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I was working on a fast-paced project, a Joomla website update, and the client wanted a flash-like header on the home page that changed the image every few seconds and stopped after three images. I’m not a flash developer and didn’t think I could complete this requirement within the deadline. Meanwhile, I searched the Joomla Extensions directory and found a GREAT FREE image rotator that did almost exactly what the client requested: Joomlaworks Simple Image Rotator. The only problem was that the image rotator did not stop the rotation. The client was OK with this, but it was NOT their ideal.

I posted a question on the Simple Image Rotator forum; I asked if there was a way to stop the image rotation. pansoru (username) wrote back and asked why I wanted to stop the image rotation. I explained that my client wanted to play three images, each with a message and then end on the last, and most important image/message.

A few hours later, I received an email from the forum:

“Well as panosru, i love to help people, lucky you i love to do it and as joomlaworks!

Replace the mod_jw_sir.js with the one i attached to this post.

after that open the js file and go to line 14. Somewhere on this line i have the totalImages = 4 code, replace the 4 with the number of the pictures that you want to show, in your case the number is 3.

Tested on: IE6/IE7/Firefox 2/Safari 3/Opera 9″

Simply because he likes helping people, panasru modified the script so I could configure it to stop after x number of images had displayed. It worked perfectly. Now that’s service! I was so delighted, I donated $20 dollars to Joomlaworks.

What’s more, Joomlaworks makes several other commercial Joomla plugins that are GREAT:

• Simple Image Rotator Pro (12 Euros) - This is an extended version of the simple image rotator and many great features. This extension allows you to add multiple slideshows to any content page, AND it has the ability to popup a larger image if the users clicks an image.
• Front Page Image Rotator (22 Euros) - This extension allows you to insert a slideshow on your home page that rotates through articles and images. For example, if you sell products, the Front Page Image Rotator can rotate the products and images.

A few weeks ago, I installed WordPress blog software on my site. After using it for a few weeks, I have to say that WordPress is a beautiful piece of software and I give if 5 stars! Beautiful? That’s right. This software impressed me so much that the first word that came to my mind was beautiful.

Here’s why:

• WordPress was very easy to install - The basic instructions tell you everything you need to know. Of course, it helps if you are familiar with creating a database on your web server and installing php scripts, but if you’ve ever installed a database-driven php script before, Word Press blog software is a model for easy installation.
• WordPress is easy to use - Without reading any instructions, I created several blog categories and started writing the blog posts to go in them. The text editor is simple and easy to use. Plus, you can view the html code if you want to. A nice feature if you want to insert scripts or html code not available in the editor. One especially handy feature is that you can create a category WHILE you are in the Write/Post editing screen. Often, I create a blog post first and then think of a new category under which to post it. In WordPress, I can easily create the category while writing the post. Plus, it’s a snap to add the blog post the several categories.
• WordPress is easy to Customize - I wanted WordPress to fit seamlessly into my site design, so I made a copy of the default template and start modifying it. Because the code design is so clean and elegant, I was able to create my custom template in a couple hours.
• WordPress has GREAT documentation - Even though WordPress is very easy to use, if you want to change the defaults or add plugins, the thorough WordPress documentation is there to help. A lot of free, OpenSource software, as great as it is, has sparse or no documentation. As a result, the only way to find out how to use it is by searching the software’s forum or by posting a question on the forum. Although you can usually find the information you’re looking for, this method is a slow and tedious way to learn new software. As a technical writer, I appreciate the work the WordPress writers have put into the help files.
• WordPress is designed in CSS and Validates - WordPress pages load quickly and it is relatively easy to make global modifications to the look and feel by editing the template’s css style sheet. Plus, the clean css design makes is much easier for a web designer to read the code. And finally, the default WordPress template’s css validates completely.
• WordPress has a GREAT image upload feature - If you need to add images to your blog posts or pages, WordPress’ image upload feature is easy to use. Again, even though there is documentation to explain how to use it, you probably won’t need it.