Cafepress Plugin

I second the request for this kind of plugin. I’d love for something that can allow me to put a top 5 or top 10 list of cafepress products in my sidebar. I’d also love for there to be an easy way to add product pics and links to posts. Something similar to WP-Amazon? (Only I can’t get WP-Amazon to work on my site, so maybe that’s not a good example)

Well I haven’t seen such a plugin for Cafepress on WP as of yet, but you might be able to somehow add another php script that I know of to make it work for you and your needs. Basic Store script (free version), or CafeScripts (paid version)

I already started down the road to an offshoot of my CG-Amazon system for CafePress, but I’ve gotten ‘sidetracked’ by my main consulting gig.

Their XML isn’t nearly as detailed at Amazon’s. They don’t seem to include pricing info in the product detail feed, for instance.

As I said, my paying gig has to come first, but it’s on my list to get back to this. ??

-d

There is the WP-CafePress plugin now available through PrestoGifto. You can plug CafePress products into your sidebar, footer, after posts or on a static page. Everything is controlled in the WP admin panel. You can sell either affiliate products (and earn CP commissions, 20%) or stuff from your store (if you’re a shopkeeper.) Enjoy!

(BTW, there’s a feature in there that allows you to show a random shop after posts.)

prestogifto – well that’s nice, except I don’t want to be a prestogifto affiliate to use it. How about a version that doesn’t come with that sort of disability?

Just to clarify, you aren’t a PG affiliate, you’re a CafePress affiliate (if you choose to be one). And if you’re a shopkeeper, you DON’T have to be an affiliate of anything, you can just integrate stuff right in without joining a program.

You do sign up with PrestoGifto, but that’s because there’s a control panel and a remote access key and you wouldn’t be able to dynamically control your shops without some kind of login.

But, again, you’re not a PrestoGifto affiliate, we don’t have an affiliate program. Sorry I wasn’t clear about that.

Ah. Well, it was thoroughly misleading on your site where it mentions the access key and “your account”…. and later where it talks about “Import all your current PrestoGifto shops” and “Enjoy full PrestoGifto functionality securely integrated into WordPress” – which of course makes it sound like one must use prestogifto rather than CafePress.

That plugin looks interesting, but the fact that it requires me to sign up for a prestogifto account is a dealbreaker. I don’t want to have to deal with any third parties for my affiliate programs, and I don’t need any “remote access” or anything of the sort. I have my own website. I have a CafePress account. Any plugin that can’t do it with those two only is not worth the trouble.

More to the point, looking closer, this plugin doesn’t get any stuff from cafepress.com, it gets stuff from prestogifto.com. That’s not what I’d consider to be a cafepress plugin.

It seems very misleading, is what I’m saying.

Ouch.

If Otto42 and vkaryl could email me (jessiej at prestogifto.com), I’d like to fix the problem. Don’t want to seem misleading, and any messaging that needs to be fixed will be fixed, promise.

Just fyi, a lot of people using WP are technical and want to do all this stuff themselves (like you, Otto42). This tool is just a simple WYSIWYG front end for people who want to use the CafePress datafeeds but aren’t developers. PrestoGifto is the front end (the interface), CafePress is the back end. The access code lets the WordPress account talk to the PG account and add your layouts to WordPress.

Not sure if it matters, but how this came about is this. CafePress told me they would love it if we created a plugin for us so we did it. I noticed this thread, so I thought I’d mention it. That’s all there was to this, nothing malicious.

Ok, so I’ve taken some steps to make things clearer. Please email me if you still think my messaging is way off base.

1. I changed the name to WP-PrestoGifto-CafePress
2. I added an FAQ to our WP page, addressing your points. Please EMAIL me if I left off something. Remember, I’m a product designer, not a writer, not a coder. I appreciate the help and the feedback. Just don’t want to do it on the WP forum.
3. I think I better explained the relationship between PG and CP.

Pax,
Jessie

Okay, Jesse. Your reworked page and info does make things “cleaner” as far as who’s what and why.

However. “Remember, I’m a product designer, not a writer, not a coder. I appreciate the help and the feedback. Just don’t want to do it on the WP forum.”

Sorry, but that’s just silly. If I want to know how something in the nature of a wp plugin works, I want to find that connection HERE. Period. AND it smacks of hiding something.

As it stands right now, I wouldn’t be interested in your middleman layer. I’m sure there might be others who would be interested though.

I understand what you’re saying, and I’m not trying to be harsh or anything. Just offering some criticism.

The point is that it looks more like it’s promoting your PG service. And that’s all well and good, but it really should be better spelled out, instead of being billed as a CP plugin. It’s not, really. It’s a PG plugin, which happens to support CP via PG.

You say that PG is the front end, and I’d agree with that. However, the “front end” really should be the plugin itself. I don’t agree with the need for a third party site (PG) to do this sort of thing.

Not knocking your service, some people might like it. I’m just not one of those people. Yes, I am a technical oriented person, but even so, a plugin can offer a non-technical interface without having to go through a third party site to do it.

Just my 2 cents. Nothing personal meant by it. ??

I do look forward to seeing what David Chait comes up with, as he mentions above.

“If I want to know how something in the nature of a wp plugin works, I want to find that connection HERE. Period. AND it smacks of hiding something.”

The reason I wanted to contact you directly is because I wanted more details and had specific questions to ask you about what you had to say. I don’t feel comfortable going back and forth on this forum…it seems almost like spamming.

The anonymity of posting in forums (especially with someone who is an obvious outsider and fair game) keeps the tone quite sharp but it is sometimes lacking in details which can help someone like me trying to improve my documentation and trying to design clear and useful tools but wishing I had more specifics. That’s why I was hoping for an OL dialogue.

Basically, you guys were absolutely right and had good points.

Anyway, the PG users, CP shopkeepers (and the people at CP we work with) really, really wanted a WP plugin and we made one. But our messaging was off, this forum was inappropriate to post to, but we’re better for the experience.

Not trying to convert you, just making the point that the feedback is MUCH appreciated.

Pax,
Jessie

Hmmm. Well, I do support etc. on this forum. A plugin is supported here.

And if CP is okay with this, how about posting whatever approval they gave you? I NEVER accept that sort of thing wholesale without verification.

[You need to understand up front that I’m not personally or professionally EVER going to be comfortable with a site which purports to have inside approval for additions etc. to a major player in the ‘net purchasing complex without seeing something on said site from said major player. And if they won’t allow you to do that, then sorry, I’m not game.]

Interesting that CP folks “told you” that they’d love you to develop a plugin… Given that when I posed questions about the xml stuff, I basically got pointed to developer docs — rather than a “Hey, yeah, we’d LOVE to see a WP plugin developer, let us know if you need ANYTHING” sort of response.

I’d note that on the positive side, my two inquiries were answered both in under 24h, and were ‘detailed enough’, at least by the second response. ?? Just again, if they’d really wanted a plugin, and I was talking about developing one, I’m a bit surprised my inquiries didn’t invoke a stronger response (or further follow-ups! ?? ).

I did sign up as an affiliate, got my key, and did some quick tests. Basic structure would adapt well to CG-Amazon, though the response XML to my early queries seemed to be missing some data (like prices). I’ve since seen other example XML responses that showed prices embedded. Go figger.

Still planning on doing something within the CG-Amazon framework… But since my ‘day job’ (3D consulting) actually pays me money (shock!) and cranked from part time to full time, this obv got backburnered. Hoping it’ll get ramped back up as I start to commit my weekends back to CHAITGEAR relaunch, and updated plugins. ?? The conceptual framework of CG-Amazon was ALWAYS meant to plug in other XML shop resources, so I’m just chomping at the bit to get it coded up. (Anyone wanting to be beta-testers, email me or contact me via my site — likely weeks away, but lemme know… and lemme know if you’d be willing to either pay a one-time fee for this kind of thing, or prefer my CG-Amazon style “the CG affiliate code gets 20% of the links generated” licensing…).

-d