Designer Pottery & Ceramics

I know an update has been long due on this blog.  My sincerest apologies, but I have been keeping extremely busy. 

I have found some help to get this web site developed, but what that means is that I have to sit down, spend hours and complete the entire database design first, so I can give an entire section to someone else to code.

I have, so far, been developing the database as I’ve been writing code on the front end, because, well, it’s more fun that way.  That said, I now have to take some time to develop the entire DB first.

Still looking for potters and ceramic artists to help out with writing lessons and potentially hosting live classes in London.  Please get in touch if you are interested.

I’ve been struggling for the last couple of days about how to manage the ability to enter certain products once they have been entered in the system and go live for sale in the Designer Pottery & Ceramics Store.  Well, I’ve finally decided how to handle it.

Once a product is part of the designer’s portfolio online, he/she can choose to activate or deactivate it.  This means that all active products will appear in the store for sale, while all inactive products will not appear in store.  Once active, a product cannot be edited.  If a designer wants to edit a product that has been submitted for sale, he/she must deactivate it for it to be edited, after which it will again be submitted for moderation by the administrator.

Now that I’ve decided on how to offer this option, the database has been tweaked accordingly, and the remainder of the php code should be finished over the remainder of this long weekend.

Once again, I’m going to say that work is slow, and I really cannot dedicate the team or time of VAFTA Solutions to Designer Pottery at its full, since that I need for other reasons.

Help is wanted with content for lessons and other sections of the site, and with some PHP & MySQL coding.

To be very honest with you,  not much.  I’ve been working on getting some functions written & complete, but I’ve really not had much time to complete them.

However, I’m working on getting some better workspace to become better organized, and given the fact that a long weekend is coming up, I should be able to give some more time to DesignerPottery.com and complete some vital work in the development process.

Keep coming back for the latest updates.  Remember, the Designer Pottery project needs help from programmers in PHP/MySQL & XML, Potters & Ceramic Artists.  Get in touch if you’re a good sport!

Folks, work has been coming along slowly on Designer Pottery these last few days.  I’ve weeded out a couple of bugs from the designer section, and am starting to work on the membership and admin areas.

I’m still looking for someone to help out with pottery and ceramic making lessons.  You will get promotion if you help out.  I also need people to start testing here shortly. 

I’m currently starting to run a business, acquiring and launching a new franchise (possibly), studying for CIMA, and working on this website.  Needless to say, I will be keeping very busy very soon, so help is needed.  I will continue to work on this project, but it may just be put to weekends and nights only.   So please help out!

To do so, get in touch at admin[at]designerpottery.com.

I’ve been unable to post the progress over the last couple of days; been keeping busy with other things.  But as the weekend is finally here, I have a couple of minutes to post the progress.

It’s taken me a couple of days to weed the bugs out, but the product add section is complete.  This was, needless to say, the most complicated part of the designer section, and with it out of the way, I believe the designer section should be complete within 10-12 days.  That’s progress, given I’m one person who has to do all of it along with living a life.

Anyone interested in trying out the demo of the designer section of Designer Pottery & Ceramics, please get in touch, and I’ll hook you up.

Hi Folks,

After some robust testing and coding on the designer module the last couple of days, I am finally releasing a screenshot generated during the testing and development of this module.

Please note that this screenshot may not be final, and may slightly change before the Beta and Final Releases of Designer Pottery & Ceramics.

Without further adue:

As the development of the web site continues, I will post more information on the teaching/learning section of the web site and how that is developing.  For now, if Pottery Designers are willing to contribute, I would greatly appreciate any effort from anyone writing up lessons on pottery and ceramics; the basics of; the dos and not to dos; the how tos and how no to dos; what goes into making pottery and ceramics, and so on so forth.

Please note that your work will not go unnoticed!  If you do contribute something that I can use, I will look into upgrading you to a premium membership for free or giving you a discount on it, depending on the nature of help provided.  Also, it’s a great way for you to market and advertise yourself.

If you’re a pottery or ceramic artist who’s looking to get some exposure to his/her blog, please feel free to contact me to get your blog listed on the blogroll here on the Designer Pottery Blog.  I’m already scouting the internet for artists blogs and adding them as I see fit.  This is a new web site, but I’m very positive about getting some traffic on here asap.

Also, if you’re kind enough, please spread the word about Designer Pottery and the Designer Pottery blog.  Add a link to us on your blog or web site!

Okay folks, although I can do this on my own, shopping carts are pretty standard nowadays.  If anyone wants to contribute by helping out coding a shopping cart (that’s just slightly different from a usual one) that ties in with FedEx, UPS, USPS, and preferably Royal Mail/Parcel Force for calculating shipping on the fly, please get in touch as soon as possible.  I already have classes to make the package work with FedEx and UPS, but I really haven’t had the time to write or look into existing classes for United States Postal Service and Royal Mail or Parcel Force in the UK.

Any takers?

As it stands today, I’m still working on the content management system for Designer Pottery & Ceramics for designers to sign up, activate, get approved, be able to post their products.  I’m currently working on the third out of four phases of this section, the third section being the posting of products for sale.  Once this is complete, I’ll work on adding the different kinds of membership levels and the ability to upgrade, along with the messaging and news system for designers. 

Once the Designer Section is complete, the next step will be to build the customer/user section for visitors who will be purchasing the Deigner Pottery & Ceramic products from the web site, followed by development of the admin system to moderate the web site.

It sounds relatively simple, but it’s pretty complex.