charity

The update of the Sunyata Retreat Centre is complete thanks to the efforts of Heather and the centre managers Bart & Marion.  I think I can safely believe that the site is in good hands as Heather takes over some of the foreground work that I had been doing previously.

Updates: Events list, Registration Form, Admin interface, theme layout, email address, removal of repetitious information, Ability to register/book for retreats/events online via credit card or laser card, general site clean up.

Today I was struck by how easy it is to help others.  For one, I was feeling rather low as am currently hunting for that perfect job that best utilizes my unique background of chemical engineering, science, and computers (not so much).  Got a hair cut and had a lovely chat with the hairdresser. 

In a good mood, I decided to stop for the lunch special at a local chinese restaurant.  The waitress was in such a good mood and her cheerfulness further picked me up.  The food was delicious and more than I could consume.  So with the untouched left overs I headed to the subway with an eye out for someone who would benefit.  The nice gentleman who was trying to sell the homeless newspapers started to give me his promotional speech, but before he could continue I asked if he was sorted for lunch.  He said "Why no"... so I asked if he'd like to have the untouched leftovers from my lunch.  The surprise on his face and delight were enough to keep me feeling embharassed and good both at the same time.  He took the food and I figure even if he doesn't eat it, he would know someone who would benefit from it. 

As I left the subway and headed towards my home, I saw a lady walking towards me and a quarter dropped from her person onto the floor.  I know it's just a quarter but I thought I would pick it up and run after her to give it to her.  She was surprised that I would give it to her but in that instant she realised she hadn't put money in the parking metre.  So again, it was with great delight she reacted and I left feeling both embharassed and good at the same time.

It really pays to get out of the house once in awhile and to do some random acts of kindness. Now to get on with the day and hunt for my lost karaoke files as expecting guests this weekend. ;)

What do you do with a tortoise stuck in its shell?  You walk around it and occasionally poke at it with a stick which will either have one of two responses of either it'll stick it's head out or stay stuck. 

This is my description of the problem of creating the right user experience / interface for creating a booking form.

1. Need to enter retreats with the ability to 'book' or submit a deposit and register.
2. Need guest to fill out a form answering questions the retreat centre needs to know about their history, preferences, etc.
3. Need to be able to track and record all this information.

Keep in mind for this application Ubercard needs to look less like a "Shopping Cart" and more like a "Donation Box".  It took me awhile to suss out what it was tht I needed. 

Prime objective: create a content type that essentially integrates the exisitng fields found in my "Retreats" content type (includes calendar, sometimes repeating dates, linking to other content type like "teacher", associated images, etc) with the fields found in an Ubercart content type (in this case cost and that lovely "Add to Donation Cart" button). 

Opening "Products" and "Retreats" and "add new content type" resulted in the forementioned "prodding a turtle with a stick".  Not to be outdone, I did a search on drupal.org and found a lovely post started by Webchick explaining the concept of the Ubercart Class - prompting me to announce my love for her via twitter!  It was literally a light bulb turning on in my head as I had wondered what these mysterious "product classes" were but was a bit afraid to 'read the manual'... (for those of you who don't know me, reading the manual is scor's job... I usually throw myself full tilt in trouble before I even look for a manual). 

So now I'm doing the obvious - having created a content type magically by defining a new product class under the Ubercart Product menu - I can now add all of the pre-existing fields to mash up my desired "Ubercart Retreat" product which can in future be used to create retreats by the site admin!

That's item #1 on my list... stay tuned for how I solve #2!

Currently troubleshooting the website - making sure the links to the response messages and emails are all acceptable and make sense.  Spent quite a bit of time to realise it was my site's fault that new users were being pointed to the wrong address to login.  Then there was the issue of - do you create new userids for anyone who puts in a donation?  If so, how do we tie the address they have entered in ubercart to that of their profile?  After some careful searching I found reference to the UC_addresses module.  This was the answer to all my queries.  But just as I started really getting things working - the RealEx site stops working properly.  So now, I'm waiting for input from the other side before I continue.

Another not so important issue was adjusting permissions so that the site administrators could access all the relevant menu items for viewing orders, products, and reports.  Its funny how you forget the simplest of things when you haven't done something for an age!

I hope I get this donation site up in time for when they need it! Fingers crossed!

It has been awhile since I've posted anything technical!

I'm working on adding a donate feature to the Sunyata Retreat Centre website.  This involved downloading the latest Ubercart module for Drupal 6.x and looking up all the modules that may or may not help in setting up the feature. 

UC_add_donation (looked at and disabled), UC_donation, UC_realex were what I ended up installing.  The first module (UC_add_donation) worked great but depended on you having other products available.  This would be fine in the future when the site has the functionality for signing up for retreats and paying a deposit online.  However, for the moment what suited the retreat centre's needs more was the UC_donation module which allows you to add the amount you want to donate and click "Donate" (after editing the button wording).  As for UC_realex, Realex is the company of choice for most Irish and possibly other european companies/banks for handling credit card transcations. 

One challenge was in changing a 'shopping cart' to something more like a 'donation cart/box'.  Afterall, you're not purchasing an item - you're giving a donation or a deposit.  So I did what I've almost never done, and edited the uc_cart.module file in ubercart so that "Shopping cart" is replaced with "Donation cart".  Same goes with running through all instances of dialogue and re-wording to suit the use case.  This was after checking on drupal.org and finding a similiar issue with this action as the recommended fix.

My next hurdle will be to set up already existing retreats as something to "book" by submitting a deposit online. 

The Sunyata Centre in County Clare, Ireland, is currently in great need of donations and other such contributions to keep providing a comfortable meditation and retreat centre.  They are an Irish Charity (Charitable Tax Exemption Number: CHY 17855) and all donations go towards the upkeep of the centre and the travel expenses of the teachers/instructors as needed.  For more information please visit their website: www.sunyatacentre.org.

(Please stay tuned to "Ahasaetharu" on twitter if you want to know when the link will be up to make a donation! - I'm still waiting on the set up of the account on the RealEx side of things.)

As for my review of Ubercart - I simply love it!  Being a virgin to e-commerce meant that I had to click around multiple times looking at everything upside and down before I had myself properly familiarized with the interface and how it worked.  It helps to create a product and then to run through the purchasing process to see all of the interfaces.  Downloading and installing the uc_donation module also helped in making things easier for me to understand. 

Like all things in Drupal 6.x, there is nothing that can't be done - but you have to tinker with everything a bit before its set up to your specific use case.  So it's not completely straight forward, but once up and running - you're flying.