http://shotwellcompany.com/shot/index/ en tyler@shotwellcompany.com Copyright 2010 2010-05-07T20:59:56+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/socialee-and-facebook-oauth2.0/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/socialee-and-facebook-oauth2.0/#When:19:59:56Z According to Facebook’s recent announcement that it will be moving to support OAuth2.0 means a few things for our Socialee-using Facebook for ExpressionEngine users. According to Facebook’s recent announcement that it will be moving to support OAuth2.0 means a few things for our Socialee-using Facebook for ExpressionEngine users. Oh wait, no it doesn’t. It does mean RPX needs to adapt to it though! Luckily we’re already using middlemen to cross that barrier. That means that we don’t have to do anything to our code to keep everything working smoothly.  Following their announcment of support to RPX users, JanRain further publicized their schedule for compatability today in an email: Important Dates May 10 – Migration to OAuth 2.0 protocol complete May 24 – Communication from JanRain on configuring Facebook Extended Permissions in RPX June 1 – RPX support for Facebook Extended Permissions Let’s all breath easy and know that we’re all set for the new frontiers of the social web and EE. On May 24 we may get to do some configuring, but it should all keep working. Company News, Tech 2010-05-07T19:59:56+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/multiple-wimpy-buttons-playing-one-at-a-time/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/multiple-wimpy-buttons-playing-one-at-a-time/#When:22:36:34Z Wimpy buttons are a great way to embed mp3s into your web page. Until you have more than one on that single page. Then you end up with a cacophony of sounds as your user clicks multiple songs/sounds in a row as they play over eachother simultaneously. Horrible. Wimpy buttons are a great way to embed mp3s into your web page. Until you have more than one on that single page. Then you end up with a cacophony of sounds as your user clicks multiple songs/sounds in a row as they play over eachother simultaneously. Horrible. Even more horrible is that the Wimpy support and docs site uses frames! Unbelievable, I know. In this day and age eh? That means that people looking for help to delineate their wimpy buttons for their users is SOL when they go googling for information on it. So! I present to you the direct links to the individual frames that show how to beat this wimpy problem. Go here for their third example where they’ve actually implemented one-at-a-time wimpy players: http://www.wimpyplayer.com/examples/wb/bridge/example3.html And here is how to implement the wimpy players in JS: http://www.wimpyplayer.com/docs/button/javascript_button.html Finally, this is where to find the JS bridge that gets you there: http://www.wimpyplayer.com/docs/button/javascript_button.html Hope that helps someone else! Tech, Web Development 2010-04-08T22:36:34+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/new-google-feature-results-from-your-social-circle/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/new-google-feature-results-from-your-social-circle/#When:19:56:10Z Google is up to something social. I’m not exactly sure what the significance of this is now or will be in the future as the solitary example of this that I’ve seen doesn’t feel very important. That said, here it is: Google is providing me with search results based on “my social circle” and offers further links to said social circle as well as my social content. I looked into what my social content was, and apparently it’s an old blogger blog that I haven’t touched in a year. That leads me to wonder what other social content I might be providing in the future and what Google services that content might be derived from. I’m thinking: public Google docs and Google wave. That doesn’t leave a lot to draw from. But if I look at the results in my example above, clearly the gmail account I’m signed in with must be connected to another one of my accounts (probably not gmail) from which it found the Advertisers Page on SpainExpat.com. Since that page is not hosted by any Google service, that means it must be tied to one of my accounts used with Google’s Webmaster Tools. I’m not sure if I would want those in my social circle knowing that I’m the webmaster for some sites out there (say, a porn site for example, this is hypothetical!). Alright, all of the above comes without having actually Googled for more info on this new feature. Having now done so, check out Google’s video and explanation about social results here. It also talks about Google’s new Profile feature, which I’m about to head over to to update and verify. Go check your profile too, either to get more accurate social results or to ensure your activity isn’t being shared with those you don’t want to share it with. Tech 2010-04-07T19:56:10+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwell-battle-flash-vs-html5/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwell-battle-flash-vs-html5/#When:21:51:56Z Flash has brought great interactive abilities and graphical innovations to the Web. Now that HTML5 is supported by the latest versions of the major (certainly all the important) browsers bringing standards-based transformations, filters and effects to coders’ hands, does that make Flash irrelevant? No wait, this isn’t a battle. I promise. Okay maybe a little bit. Flash has brought great interactive abilities and graphical innovations to the Web. Now that HTML5 is supported by the latest versions of the major (certainly all the important) browsers bringing standards-based transformations, filters and effects to coders’ hands, does that make Flash irrelevant? Marc and I agree that both Flash and HTML5 can do amazing things for the Web. Flash has been around the block a few times and with huge sites like YouTube (and all the other video sites), Flash gaming sites, demos and some really crazy portfolio out there proving how deep is the palette of the Flash designer/developer, it’s not going away any time soon, despite Apple’s recent lob of the trebuchette. We’ve even been hired to build a few Flash banners and sites recently, probably ones that would take us forever to figure out how to do in HTML5, if they’re even possible without Flash. So now that I’ve shown you how open my mind is, I want to close yours a bit on how cool HTML5 is and get you thinking about a World sans Flash. Since my first Flash example was YouTube it’s only appropriate to show you how we can now do a proper video player in HTML5, especially since this was the one I most doubted could be done without Flash. How cool is that??? Next I mentioned Flash Games. I’ll tell ya, there’s something about the convenience and wackiness of the Flash gaming world. It’s impressive. Check out this one for example. So what about HTML5? Can we do HTML5 games? Can we find a sexier name for them than “HTML5 Games?” I found an example of the classic brick breaker game built in HTML5. Sadly our HTML5 gaming brand name seems to have stuck already. Very unsexy. Next up is a little drawing application I found. No Flash. I couldn’t believe it. Super smooth, all tied into the browser. No wonder Google thinks it can pull off an entire operating system in a browser. I’ll post a few more here as I find them, in the mean time A List Apart (built in ExpressionEngine!) pointed out: I’ll go so far as to assert that most technological advances are born from something that would be good for people using it. When we put stock in technology and try to be creative for creativity’s sake, we almost always repeat our mistakes. When we try and solve problems instead, we force ourselves to care. Innovation is a natural side effect. 2010-03-18T21:51:56+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/just-launched-galleryac/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/just-launched-galleryac/#When:20:44:17Z We did it! We’ve just launched the new ecommerce site for Canadian record label Arts & Crafts.  This site was a big one for us at the Shotwell Company.  Working with the mighty beast that is Magento has had it’s challenges - and it’s rewards.  I personally learned a great deal about the zend framework and picked up some valuable skills regarding project management.  Marc was the champion of client phone calls, meetings, and long email threads that got to the nitty-gritty of what needed to be done. Tyler and Gabriel worked tirelessly around the clock to make sure the legacy data was in place and that the site launch was ultimately a success.  We’re all very proud of our work, and we invite you all to have a looksie.  Oh, yeah, and the music they sell is awesome!!! What a fun project 2010-03-05T20:44:17+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/introducing-socialee1/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/introducing-socialee1/#When:02:24:15Z We are super pumped to introduce Socialee (formerly known as RPXee - an ill-fated moniker). Socialee will allow you and your clients to grow the membership base by accepting registrations with Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Gmail, MySpace, OpenID, LinkedIn and many more. Socialee will fill out profiles automatically with Facebook Connect and other OpenID providers’ profile data. Socialee will allow your users to socially publish comments, entries, or any page to users’ status updates with great ease. Please head over now and take a look. If you were an RPXee customer, we will send you an updated copy. Company News, Web Development 2010-02-04T02:24:15+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/meet-our-new-outsourced-designer/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/meet-our-new-outsourced-designer/#When:22:53:00Z You have to see it to believe it. Tip of the hat to http://www.dogoodbiz.com, our new neighbour, for the referral. Company News 2010-01-21T22:53:00+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwell-xmas-gift-rpxee/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwell-xmas-gift-rpxee/#When:19:25:31Z The Shotwell Company is proud to present our first ExpressionEngine add-on. As it turns out, it’s one that seems to be in high demand and very timely, as made apparent on the EE forums here. Thanks to all of you who sent us emails showing interest, it helped push us over the hump to get to a releasable product. RPXee is a module that leverages the RPXnow service to provide EE systems with the ability to authenticate OpenID (read: Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo, and up to 12 others) logins and create new member registrations. I think it’s fair to say that all sites accepting EE registrations should have this feature as of 2010, so we’re confident that our module will fill this gap in the EE feature spectrum well. There is a bit of setup to get it working properly, but the results are worthwhile. We’d also like to tip our hat to another great add-on for EE in this arena. FabEE sounds like a genuine Facebook Connect tool that digs deep into their API to bring you social sharing features.  Congrats gentlemen! Merry Christmas, Happy belated Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa. Check out RPXee now. Company News, Tech 2009-12-23T19:25:31+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwell-bus-ads-hit-the-streets/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwell-bus-ads-hit-the-streets/#When:21:32:15Z Our bus ads have finally started appearing on SF MUNI buses around town. Remains to be seen how much business these will generate, but we think the initiative will pay off in terms of brand recognition and getting our name out. In the first phase, we’re focusing on our core message, “Web Done Well,” plus our URL. The goal is to expand message content and to build on the initial branding campaign after the first quarter of 2010. Don’t forget to honk when you see one of these around town! Check out the pics: 2009-12-03T21:32:15+00:00 http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwells-shotwell-holiday-party/ http://www.shotwellcompany.com/site/shotwells-shotwell-holiday-party/#When:15:44:56Z The Shotwell Company will enjoy the company of friends, family and beer at Shotwell’s bar (20th and Shotwell St) on December 11, 2009. If you would like to attend, please email or visit our Facebook event page. Company News 2009-12-03T15:44:56+00:00