NOVEDGE blog

How to Add OpenSearch to your Website or Blog

The latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and FireFox offer a powerful new feature: they allow you to run a search directly from the browser without having to open a Google or Yahoo page. This is handy and convenient, and can save us a few clicks for every search we run (several per day, in my case).

The new feature is based on an open standard called OpenSearch. It's based on a simple yet effective idea:

1. A website owner adds a little XML file to his/her website and a simple tag (auto-discovery link) to the main web pages describing a new search engine or a specific search option for an existing search engine.
2. As new generation web browsers visit the website, they automatically recognize the tag and load the XML file.
3. The XML file is parsed and, if syntactically correct, a new entry is temporarily added as an option to the search menu of the web browser.
4. The visitor/user can customize the web browser adding the new search option as a permanent entry of the search menu.

It's very simple. If you don't have a new search engine running on your servers, you can set up the OpenSearch configuration to run a search on your website using Google as the search engine.
First you have to create the simple XML file. I suggest you start from a template. The one I use is below (thanks to DeWitt Clinton):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
 <ShortName>[Site Name]</ShortName>
 <Description>Use Google to search [Site Name]</Description>
 <Tags>[Site Name]</Tags>
 <Url type="text/html" template="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:[Site URL] {searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Now you have to replace [Site Name] with your website name and [Site URL] with your website URL. Here is the Novedge XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
 <ShortName>Search Novedge</ShortName>
 <Description>Use Google to Search NOVEDGE</Description>
 <Tags>NOVEDGE</Tags>
 <Url type="text/html" template="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:novedge.com {searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Save the XML file with the .xml extension, and copy it onto your website. Now you only need to add a simple tag to the HEAD section of your web pages. This is the template of this auto-discovery link:

<link rel="search" href="[XML File URL]" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="[Site Name]" />

For example, here is the Novedge auto-discovery link:

<link rel="search" href="/opensearchdescription.xml" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search NOVEDGE" />

Now you're done! Refresh your browser and then check it. Here is what you should see (FireFox):

From now on all your visitors will have the choice to add a search to your website as a standard option of their web browser. At Novedge, for example, we believe this is important. We have a huge catalog with more than 1500 products so we'd love to make our catalog searchable through Google. You can try OpenSearch on our Novedge website.  If you decide to add this feature to your website let me know by leaving a comment to this post. For more details about OpenSearch, please visit the OpenSearch pages on Wikipedia or the OpenSearch website.

Franco Folini

Novedge Now Offers PayPal Checkout

I'm proud to announce that Novedge is now offering the power, security, and user protection of PayPal checkout. According to PayPal, 43% of North American online shoppers have used PayPal, while 24% of North American online buyers consider PayPal their favorite way to pay online.

Starting today, Novedge customers have the option to choose between the easy and reliable Novedge checkout or the popular PayPal checkout. I believe this is an important feature for all our customers and visitors.

we never store credit card information

At Novedge we take data security very seriously. We use the most advanced technologies and tools to protect our customer data and to make every purchase as safe and simple as possible. One important thing many of our customers don't know is that we never store credit card information, regardless of the checkout process you choose. When you add a product to the Novedge shopping cart and you choose the Novedge checkout, the website will ask for your credit card information. As we receive your information, we forward it to Authorize.net, our credit card service. In a matter of seconds, we receive a confirmation and a transaction ID from them. During the entire process, your credit card number and expiration date are never stored on our servers. Personally, I believe that not storing credit card numbers is the best way to protect our customers and Novedge.

With PayPal checkout, we've added an additional level of security. If you have a PayPal account, you can choose to rely on PayPal for the payment to Novedge. The integration between Novedge and PayPal is complete and should provide a smooth purchasing experience. If you click on the "PayPal checkout" button on the Novedge shopping cart, you will be redirected to the PayPal website where you will have to login and complete the transaction. Then you will be redirected back to a Novedge page that will provide you with your order number and a link to your invoice.

From a business point of view we don't expect any huge increase in sales as reported by other merchants, such as Michael Roebuck. Michael claimed a 300% increase in sales! I think of PayPal more as a service to our customer than as a sales-booster. According to PayPal, most businesses get a more reasonable average sales lift of 14% by accepting PayPal.

I found PayPal documentation not very well organized

Note for web developers: if you plan to integrate your shopping cart with PayPal, it will take just a few days of work. The integration is easy and doesn't require any special skills, apart from the usual web techniques. In our experience, the major difficulties come from adapting your shopping cart style and approach to the pre-defined PayPal style and approach. For example, PayPal likes to have a shipping cost defined for each individual item in the shopping cart while many websites, e.g. Novedge, have more sophisticated ways to calculate the shipping cost. Some problems can also arise from the PayPal documentation. Contrary to Wikipedia opinion, I found PayPal documentation not very well organized. You may have to look at several documents, each one focused on one specific topic, and will have to figure out the whole picture mostly by yourself.

Franco Folini

What can Ajax do for you?

Ajax used to be a product to clean the kitchen, but not anymore! Now Ajax means "Asynchronous Javascript and XML" and is ubiquitous on the web. Even when we are not aware of Ajax we benefit from it: this technology makes our browsing faster and more enjoyable. Ajax is a group of technologies that support interaction between a web page and the server behind the scenes. As a result we can display information on a web page without having to leave that page.

this technology makes our browsing faster and more enjoyable

I first become aware of the power of Ajax when visiting the Netflix website. I was impressed by the effectiveness of the idea. Then, Google Maps and the new Yahoo Mail came to show everybody a more revolutionary approach: Ajax supports not only "super-charged" web pages, but also web pages that are in themselves real applications (RIA, Rich Internet Application). As many others watching for new trends, I started to think how Ajax would impact the CAD and graphics software in general, and I wasn't the only one. While many who were skeptical were prompt to dismiss this option (blaming the huge bandwidth required by graphic systems) some brave attempts to integrate CAD and Ajax appeared. In May 2006 a Canadian company, AfterCAD (formerly Savage Software), presented InSite, a CAD viewer 100% Ajax and HTML based (you can try their system for free). It's mostly a 2D CAD viewer, but it's impressive. No installation, no download, just click and go! Recently Autodesk Labs made public a simple prototype of a 2D and 3D DWF viewer based on Ajax and plain HTML.

As a software reseller we don't have the opportunity to directly explore the integration of graphics and web with Ajax. On a less ambitious scale, we decided to explore how we could integrate Ajax with the Novedge website to improve our visitors' experience. After successfully testing Ajax for a while on our back-office website I started to add a few Ajax features to the Novedge web site. The most interesting and visible feature of this development project is the new search area. If you click on the Search bookmark on the right of any Novedge page a box will appear on top of the current HTML. That box comes to the page through an Ajax connection. Every time you click on a different tab of the search area, a new connection will bring the required information to the page. I'm very proud of this feature, and I believe this is one of the best search pages I've seen on the web.

Here, on the Novedge blog, I'm experimenting a different approach. Instead of creating custom features I'm playing with Ajax widgets available on the Internet (for free). I'm sure you noticed the new Search box on the right area of this blog. It's the new Microsoft Live Search Box. It's Ajax based and can be integrated into any web site in just a few minutes. (I would highly recommend it for its ease-of-use and effectiveness.)

The other Ajax experiment I'm running is a nice tool from Snap, a Web2.0 company, that provides a widget to generate a quick snapshot for each link pointing outside your blog or website (one minute installation, too). Personally I like it a lot, but if you don't like those little windows popping up everywhere you can just click on the Options link and turn it off for a specific web site or for every web site you visit.

If you are a CAD user, a blogger, or just curious like me, what do you expect from Ajax in the future? Please leave a message and share with me and the community of our readers.

Franco Folini

The Fascinating World of Novedge Order Processing

Order processing is easily dismissed as a non-strategic component of a company's success. At Novedge we believe that order processing is a key part in assuring the best purchasing experience for our customers. I'm the person in charge of the order processing and I personally take care of most of the orders that come to Novedge.

order processing is a key part in assuring the best purchasing experience for our customers

Order processing begins when a customer places an order, either online at our website, which is the most common case, or over the phone with Novedge staff. The order is immediately passed through certain security measures we have in place to ensure that it has been placed by the legitimate owner of the credit card. The credit card is then sent to the bank, and authorization must be granted before the order will proceed. After the authorization is granted, the addresses are checked again with more security measures, in order to protect our customers and us from fraud and to ensure that the shipping carrier will be able to find you.

I was very happy to find out the extent of our fraud-prevention and security measures when I first began working here. I like working in an ethical workplace with people who have integrity.  Another thing that pleases me is that we are pro-active regarding customer service, and the whole Novedge environment prides itself on being on top of things for our customer. I remember the story of a customer, living in San Francisco, who needed his Rhino 3.0 by that evening. Franco hand delivered it to him, and charged nothing for the shipping fee. Often our order processing is so fast, in fact, that a customer might call to change or alter their order in some way, and find their order has already been placed in FedEx or UPS hands (not that we wouldn't do what we could to accommodate our customers.) So be sure to be accurate when you order online!

This brings me to another point - we often get customers who are almost sure about what they want.  Franco and Cris are always available to help direct the customer to the best item for them. They also have plenty of experience - both have been in the industry for a combined total of about 40 years, have Computer Science degrees, and both taught at the University level in this subject. They are a wealth of information and the customers leave feeling confident in their choices.

But back to order processing -
The next step depends on the order - for orders with digital delivery an email with the software's link and instructions is then sent out and the order is complete.

The rest of the orders are directed to me. Since we have literally thousands of products, the order procedure varies depending on the product, whether or not it is in stock, and any coupons or new releases included in the order. I process all orders I receive almost immediately, either shipping them out directly or having them drop-shipped for you. At the same time, I track past orders and work on getting the tracking numbers out, so that our customers can be assured their package is on its way to them.

Once the orders have been sent and the customer has received it, I send a follow-up email to make sure everything is OK.

Thanks to our back-office system, it's all very easy. Accuracy is key. The process for me has been very well organized so I'm usually monitoring and following set procedures - if something seems out-of-the-ordinary, I simply ask Franco or Cris to step in and clear up any confusion, which they are always happy to do.

Carolyn Avery