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As I outlined in an earlier post, I am currently working on rewriting and repurposing myNicheShop. Since it has been a couple of weeks since my last post, I figured I would throw out an update. Currently I am working on two major things with regards to myNicheShop.
First and foremost, I am working on our API server that will work as the new backend to the plugin. This API will allow the plugin to be developed to communicate with a single source where we cache data from the original sources. The main thing this does is give us control of the data and its availability. One thing that we ran into with one of the APIs that we were developing from was having it go down and not getting any return codes we could process in the application. By using our own API, if the methods need to recache and are unable to because of unknown errors, we can continue to serve out the data that is cached until we can recache it. Also since we are pulling information into the same database from the different sources, we can make much more of the plugin code portable from one module to another. Work that needs to be completed on the API server are site layout/css, rework date modified record/processing from db, add/code product available record for database to deal with products which were but are no longer available, build caching workflow to handle db record updates once per day as records are accessed, finish coding CafePress API methods used by all the search/admin pages of the CafePress module, and I’m sure there is more but that is the core of what I need to get done prior to release for myNicheShop with the CafePress module.
Second is the rewrite of the CafePost plugin into a module. Since this plugin was already in beta, I have several sites currently using it including a dozen or more of my own. With a projected migration at CafePress from their old catalog API to their new API structure, this project has to be a priority in order to maintain functionality on all the sites currently running the old plugin. At this point I have the basic display within a post portions rewritten and am in the process of rewritting all the search routines which were availabe within the WordPress admin panels. Unfortunately with the code loss back in May, all of this is being recoded from scratch. I was hoping for a re-release to my testers by the end of September but issues offline have prevented me to put the time into it that I had wanted. So at this point I am looking at mid-November with hopes of having it done prior to that. The good news is that CafePress pushed back the deadline for converting to the new system to March ‘09 so we have some breathing room. Things that I have on the plate for finishing the CafePress module are add to cart function, product search admin, advanced product search admin, shop search admin, cache handling, and css/layout for product display admin. I think there are others but those are the core things I need to get finished prior to release.
Once the plugin and CafePress module are released, I will begin focusing on the Commission Junction module. Luckilly I have my original cjPost code which wasn’t compiled on my test site when I lost my USB backup and development drives. So the core API calls to the Commission Junction API should be easy enough to pull into our API code to cache records to our database. Once in our API, the major part of developing that module will be done. Since the myNicheShop plugin will be accessing our API, much of the CafePress module of the plugin can be slightly reworked for use with the Commission Junction module.
From there, I will probably go with releasing modules for Amazon.com and LinkShare which both have APIs before moving on to merchants and networks who just offer datafeeds.
Posted by 
admin on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 1:34 pm.
