I have an eCommerce project coming up, and wanted to share what I believe is the best solution for an eCommerce site, bar none, and it’s FREE!

Magento is an opensource shopping cart application from Varien, and it beats all other solutions that I’ve tried, to hell and back!

One thing, though, the skinning is a pretty steep learning curve. If you don’t know html and css well, and at least know your way around a php file, then you’ll probably want to hire a designer - not me though, I’m still learning!

Check it out - I think you’ll agree that it’s worth the struggle! I finally got a little more comfortable with the files and have succeeded in replacing a logo and adjusting some widths.

Out of the box, it validates to XHTML 1.0 Strict - another plus for an obsessive-compulsive like me!

I give Magento 5 flowers, but it deserves 10!

SimplePress is faster and better now with the 3.1.1 build. This release was mostly about optimization, and the crew at Yellow Swordfish did a great job with the back end. Still there are a few new features that make SP even better than before!

I’ll be shutting down during the upgrade. I’ve finished upgrading my other WordPress sites, and ran into minor problems with my server config that might mean display oddities in the forum, but stay tuned, we shall be beautiful again soon!

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I tried out several options for support tickets before I decided on Trellis Desk. I was looking for something with a knowledgebase as well as a support ticket system, and most of the applications were very hard to skin. Not so Trellis Desk! It’s got a backend very like Invision in its organization and user-friendliness.

Trellis Desk is very robust. Its features include:

• Departments
• Canned ticket responses
• Ticket priority levels
• Ticket escalation and assignment
• Email notifications
• Rich text editor
• Multi-moderation features
• Helpdesk RSS feeds
• Ticket attachment system
• Skin management system

And it’s free! I give Trellis Desk 5 out of 5 flowers!

You can get Trellis Desk at Accord5.com.

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I’ve been in a happy daze all week that’s only partly due to the Vicodin I got from the clinic on Monday, when I nearly broke my hand while wrestling with the dog. Since I discovered SimplePress™ by Andy at Yellow Swordfish, I’ve been on a mission, hunting down CC and GPL icons to use in the Garden’s forum skin. In the process I created a couple of GDKs to speed up the process for future buttons, and am offering them for download here, along with a finished set.

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