Jared Ritchey Blog - Gets a Facelift!

Posted on October 31, 2007
Filed Under Design, Real Estate News | Leave a Comment

New Integrated Joomla - Open Realty - WordPress 2.3.1 Template

Yep design is done, ported, integrated and applied this week. I wrapped up projects outstanding and I’m in full preparation to complete a long overdue and greatly demanded set of WordPress and Joomla tools for Real Estate professionals.

Having worked round the clock since my 4 week absence, I’ve managed to take all the many notes, code snippets and features and build a design that will likely be here for a long time. Coining on WordPress’s new Tag Cloud feature among others the new blog will include a feature I’ve wanted since the day I decided to go online. Recognition as an online publication. Now that I’ve been granted an actual ISBN # from the government, I’m more motivated than ever to revamp my writing procedure and publish blog posts in a way that compliments and informs in the areas of my true passions, design and teaching.

This site will go offline for about 10 hours this weekend and periodically may toss a JavaScript error now and again but I’m looking forward to the blogs new interface and the MOOTOOLS features I’ve added.

Morgan Carey - Real Estate Webmasters Accused of Hacking

Posted on October 31, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News | 5 Comments

The self titled master of real estate marketing accused of hacking competitor

According to a post on the Pro Real Estate Network Forums, Morgan Carey the owner and chief administrator of Real Estate Webmasters has employed unethical and potentially criminal actions by hacking the PREN forum.

Apparently a simple compromise in the password used by a PREN forum moderator after it was concluded that the same identical password had once been used by the would be victim in the REW forums. The moderator, banned from REW for reasons unknown, appears to be specifically targeted when once considers that the PREN forum membership consists of many would be refugee’s from Morgan Carey’s militant banning rampage he is commonly known for. Carey, who is no stranger to allegations of unethical practices in his business ventures, was apparently tracked down through the use of the PREN forum IP trace feature indicating that the compromised account did in fact indicate numerous edits to the moderators posts all of which were designed to flatter and praise Real Estate Webmasters. It was then later discovered that not only were the moderators posts edited but moderator powers were abused to possibly remove back links and other unfavorable content to REW.

Morgan Carey - Illegal Hacking and Deception?

Call me always late, call me always slow, even call me ugly, but never call me presumptuous. This latest bout with Morgan Carey really comes as no surprise as prior encounters with his unethical webmaster practices have netted him a grand total 7 competing forums and services that seek to demonstrate ethics in a business many feel are tainted by the likes of Morgan Carey. It is not by presumption that Morgan Carey or his affiliations were singled out for the allegations when one considers a long checkered history of alleged deceptive and downright unethical practices in the design and marketing of real estate websites. Pro Real Estate Network founders discovered the offense by tracking a series of logins among other things via known IP’s associated with Morgans and his associates who were once active members in PREN. Very interesting!

It should be noted that Morgan has been the target of allegations in the past by members of PREN in yet another lengthy heated debate over his ethics, practices and almost Teflon ability to escape unscathed when fault appears to be his own.

Carey, a residence in beautiful Nanaimo, BC has escaped multiple attempts to sue largely because of his geographical location and the mounting difficulties that would be presented with any attempts to collect debts. This time however its not civil its potentially criminal and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has allegedly been notified but not verified at the time of this post.

After witnessing the unethical practices of Morgan Carey of Real Estate Webmasters over the past 3 years I’m surprised that so few have caught on to the devises used after being so widely published across the internet in public forums. As far back as 2004 Morgan Carey had altered the flash header files of Wyoming Realtor Jim Messengers main site stemming largely from claims that Jim’s well documented ownership of his impressive design was being laid claim to in the portfolio of Real Estate Webmasters. Apparently Morgan was not about to let go of Jim as a client and felt it necessary to give him a going away present by altering his flash header by the inclusion of bogus information and an altered contact phone number. To this day in DVD archive I still possess the offended original file provided by Morgan Carey as I had been ultimately hired to migrate and finish the transfer of Jim Messenger’s site to his new server. Had it not been pointed out to me by Jim Messenger, who is NOT a flash programmer, I would have overlooked the alteration and continued as normal working on the Jackson Hole Real Estate Website Project. Benefit of the doubt is my first conclusion I consider had confirmation not been presented so quickly after the discovery of yet another vindictive modification to Jim Messengers core files.

Shortly thereafter while working on yet another site once hosted with Real Estate Webmasters, PHP programmer Mike Morris had discovered during the repair and migration of Jim’s source code that a small hidden php snippets was inserted to literally send a CC or carbon copy of every contact form submission to a person named Aaron, a known employee of Real Estate Webmasters at the time. Shocking as it may be, I can’t even imagine why a person would want to have a carbon copy of someone else’s email submissions, but then it hit me like a hammer; Many pointed out, “some speculating” that one may easily conclude that Morgans objective was to fulfill in part his obligation to provide leads to other clients having been contracted to do so. Clever technique really but none the less just as unethical as a webmaster can be.

In defense however of Morgan Carey one could argue that Morgan is simply the target of vindictive behavior having risen in stature and status in the Real Estate Webmaster community as to foster such strife. All webmasters during their careers (especially freelance) will experience forum posts, angry emails, and bold yet offensive outright lies in blogs about them. Its par for the course and should be of little deterrence to a steady professional in this business. Quite honestly, its those that don’t suffer some objection that have me concerned more often than not. No press is bad press, right? Maybe!

Rather than continue to rant on this very shocking issue involving a person many consider colleague, associate and even friend, I conclude that to follow the events its best to just visit the Pro Real Estate Network forums today at the following URL.

Open Realty - Joomla - ezRealty Solution

Posted on October 30, 2007
Filed Under Design, Real Estate News | 8 Comments

Joomla with Open Realty vs ezRealty! (an email response)

NOT a formal comparison!
This is a modified version of a response I gave to an email regarding some confusing information the person was receiving about selecting between ezRealty and Open Realty. Its important to keep in mind that this is not a comparison based on exhaustive research but a comparison based on extensive use of both applications and years of experience. So, here it is quick and a bit hasty as I’m sure I’ve made an error that someone will graciously correct me where I’m wrong and you can review the Realtors Use Open Realty with Joomla article as well..

Word Press - Open Realty Integration

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under Design, Portfolio, Products, Real Estate News | 4 Comments

Open Realty and WordPress Integrated Script

Realtors know that a blog can make or break a website and more often than not blogs are being used to break the plateau and barrier with greater ease as a result of blogs.

Realtors would love to have a blog that also featured listings from their featured listings section of their site, many of which use Open Realty. Well now thats possible with the use of some of our proprietary methods for integration that gives Realtors true power in having featured listings displayed within tier blogs via a truly integrated method in design and function.

WordPress to Open Realty - Open Realty to WordPress - Starting at $49.95

The RTDS (Rapid Template Design Series) has been my personal pet project for more than two years and after hearing all the rhetoric, the back talk and other na sayer attitudes I’m happy to say that this very lofty project of mine is nearing its long overdue completion. I’m a Photoshop instructor almost full time during the week now and one of the most rewarding aspects of the RTDS is the speed in which fundamental elements of design can be applied.

Because of the near completion of the RTDS I’m eager to test some of the fundamental characteristics in a production level environment like never before by doing custom conversions for WordPress and Open Realty templates at turnkey prices.

WordPress Real Estate Listings Manager - Open Realty

8 months ago I hired tasked my PHP Coder to complete the WordPress Real Estate Listing Manager to be a free WordPress plugin for Realtors. Happily, and after completion I released exactly 17 copies for beta testing, which puzzling as it was, I NEVER heard a single peep back regarding the functionality and features. Still installed on my LiveDemoSite.com site, I feared the worse for the plugins success combined with a busy work schedule I put the plugin on the back burner. However as things change and schedules get shuffled so to does my priorities and after completing literally dozens and dozens of site design integrations with Open Realty, Joomla and WordPress its time to divvy up an alternative solution. The RTDS gave me motive to provide a way for Realtor and Real Estate blog owners to have featured listings and listing details displayed effectively with their blogs.

Although the WordPress Real Estate plugin isn’t dead in my project inventory, it does need some serious rethinking to figure why I received no feedback from beta testers. Maybe they were just curiosity seekers or even competitors! ? But, the project will be re-examined in the coming weeks for repositioning. Not intended to replace the Open Realty WordPress method I’m so fond of, the plugin was really designed for an individual that may feature their own listings.

So on we go, Real Estate WordPress options exist in the form of a clever set of code snippets and integration methods I’ve used on dozens and dozens of sites with great success. If the objective is to have a blog while maintaining an assortment of featured listings to be displayed then send me an email for a fast quote. As I said, this service will start out at $49.95 which is a drop in the bucket when considering alternative options.

Template Monster Open Realty Conversion

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under Design, Portfolio, Real Estate News | 1 Comment

Template Monster - Boxed Art - Joomla - to Open Realty Conversion

Looking through my client archives today I discovered that I’ve converted no fewer than 50+ template from an assortment of template clubs for various clients to work with Open Realty.

Open Realty like many CMS type applications uses a template engine that generates the rendering of the final site based on predefined template tags to display content dynamically. Because of this the process can be confusing to some people on how exactly they should or could convert a design they admire to function with Open Realty.

Conversion of Templates to Open Realty starting at $39.95

After completing the Open Realty Adobe Dreamweaver Extension, it had been my initial plan to not only release the Adobe Dreamweaver Extension as a free tool but to use it to convert existing designs submitted to me by clients rapidly to work with Open Realty keeping prices competitive and affordable.

Now you can have a template converted to function with Open Realty 2.4.3+ starting under $40 bucks. Designs and layout options may vary extensively so quoting on an individual basis will still be par for the course. General conversions usually take a few hours on the outside depending on how closely a design is to be adhered to and could exceed the day rate for some more complex designs.

Photoshop and Tables to CSS XHTML compliant conversions - Starts at $49.95

Expanding on this as a service now that the final stages of the Rapid Template Design Series nears its 5th beta assembly, I’ve decided to extend a short run service of converting photoshop and non compliant design concepts to fully validating and functioning CSS XHTML compliant designs.

The general process is to have a client submit a design (Photoshop or otherwise) to be converted and coded CSS XHTML compliant. Naturally since this type of service is in relative high demand the minimum price for commercial concerns (template clubs, resellers, turnkeys and so on) will be $100+

Should you need either Tables to CSS XHTML conversion or entire ground up coding of your concepts please do not hesitate to request a quote. For conversion of Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Template Monster or other types of templates to Open Realty, submit your request with either a link to the design or as a ZIP attachment for a rapid and accurate estimate.

$40 - $100 is a trivial expense when compared to other options for these types of conversion. Using the Rapid Template Design Series gives me the chance to stretch the legs of the process and run it through its paces yet again. Doing so gives you a super good cost effective and affordable option for getting compliant and functional designs fast. As a commercial reseller of templates and or XHTML templates for template clubs this price is certainly going to change in the future so getting on the project schedule is most important.

Page Turn - Page Peel - Adobe Flash Effects

Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Design, Portfolio | Leave a Comment

Variable Flash Elements Positions

A short blurb about the positioning elements like the Adobe Page Turn and Adobe Page Flip items on your site will save you a bit of headache others have experienced.

I published some time ago how to add variable code to control when a particular items shows up on a site based on its URL and this technique can be applied to the display of elements like the Adobe Flash Page Peel and Adobe Flash Page Flipping Book Effects. With the Page Flip or Flash Book as its sometimes called. I’ve applied variable code using PHP to display the book only one time per visit which used session cookies to work properly. With the variable code post I made, its easy to apply a feature in dynamic sites where an element like a flash item displays only on a particular page. Albeit easy in CMS Applications like Joomla, products like Open Realty and or WordPress (depending on the template) can be a bit difficult. You can read the post here.

FREE OsCommerce Templates

Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Portfolio, Products | Leave a Comment

Free standard osCommerce Templates easy to modify

Cleaning out my old project directory I discovered that I did in fact have about a half dozen good quality foundation templates for osCommerce MS2 and what I’ve done is install the latest MS2 version over on the LiveDemoSite.com to test them and I’m going to release them FREE.

These templates are NOT super beautiful, a bit heavy, and quite honestly won’t work if you have modified your osCommerce Core. This is one of the biggest reasons I admire the STS and BTS template features in some versions of osCommerce like oscMax, CRE Loaded and so on. Modification to templates in osCommerce requires so much time and energy that it frustrates nearly every designer I’ve ever worked with or been hired to product templates for. People usually if not always modify or extend the capabilities of their osCommerce sites with contributions that modify individual files many of which are template related. This poses a problem.

So, since I rarely suggest osCommerce templates to existing sites anymore I’m going to publish these as FREE providing you register and select “I Agree” that you understand that these are not intended to be added to existing live production sites as they will most certainly break any site with contributions having been added. These templates are for brand spanking new sites using osCommerce MS2+ and beyond that I can promise nothing.

osCommerce vs osCMax vs CRE Loaded vs Shopping Carts - FREE!

I’m a big fan of osCommerce and suggest it to people almost weekly but my latest passion has been in the area of integration as more and more people are realizing the absolute necessary requirement of SEF and SEO friendly commerce solutions. I absolutely love the iJoomla cart although some things about its functionality with OpenSEF is a bit of a mystery it along with CRE Loaded are likely my two favorites to date. A close second is the cart I use on this very site with WordPress along with XCart and of course osCMax. I’ve never been a big fan of ZenCart only because they seek to achieve way to much in the application.

CRE Loaded Templates vs osCommerce Templates

For speed and ease of templating I always suggest people spend the $10 and get a copy of CRE Loaded. The ease in which a template can be applied makes it worth the investment. Options like those for integration I tend to favor are certainly top on my list, but of the osCommerce flavors available, CRE Loaded and osCMax are by far the easiest to create and maintain various template features for. Integration is achievable as in osCommerce but require a bit more work.

osCommerce templates require substantial modifications to individual files to change the look and or feel of a site on a per page basis. Using some PHP in a BTS template for instance makes this relatively simple providing the site owner also invests in the CRE SEF plugin because some template changes are based on the URL.

All CRE Loaded and osCommerce Templates look alike - Beautiful Designs Not Possible?

Have you ever wondered why these templates all look and behave the same? Take any 50 osCommerce, CRE Loaded and Zen Cart templates, stack them on top of one another, and transparently look through them all. You will discover they are all essentially the same. Same features, same general structure, same general look and certainly the same bulky fat and heavy code. I’ve yet to see one of these actually available in XHTML and CSS compliant formats. The silly thing is that XHTML and CSS compliant is actually possible with some core modifications that neither CRE Loaded or others seem at all interested in. Why then are they so expensive?

The number one motive for me not releasing commercial grade CRE Loaded designs has been as I’ve elated to so many times in forums across the web. Simply “proprietary code” which sets all my commercial designs for clients above and beyond standard turnkey designs. I’ve been very tempted to make available commercial grade CRE Loaded templates with the kinds of features professional online stores deserve but have been unable to really package in a meaningful way a turnkey template solution that would be easy to install for novice users. The simple fact is that most of my CRE Loaded templates require some degree of time consuming modification to work per domain and has kept me from a turnkey release option.

Luckily times change, and I’ve been able to have some new code written that should make configuration relatively easy. I’m not going to promise anything, but will simply say keep your eyes on this blog in the next few weeks as I’m cleaning up and repackaging my CRE Loaded inventory for distribution. What you can expect is anything but carbon copy designs for the hundreds of dollars you normally expect.

FREE Open Realty 2.4.3 Templates

Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Portfolio, Products, Real Estate News | 9 Comments

15 FREE entry level CSS - XHTML templates for Open Realty 2.4.3

I promised over the weekend to wrap up the collection of designs that I had planned to give away on this site and I’ve done just that. IT took me a spank of time to get things to validate after looking again and again at what consistently failed validation had to do with Open Realty’s core but I managed to trick the validators into calling these compliant.

I’ve got some documentation to do to the templates and I’d like to add a snippet or two to make them a bit more interactive and I’ll publish them in my new Joomla install. PLEASE IGNORE my Joomla template as its a bit goofy. I had it in inventory and can’t quite remember where I even got it from but its not my design. Just something I tossed up as I wanted to configure my install.

You WILL be required to register to the site in order to download and I do require email verification. If you feel this is nonsense I’m pretty understanding and you can just toss me an email and I’ll grant you access to the templates. I like to have people register because I’m taking a great deal more time in completing projects for my site than ever before and I’d like to notify people of updates not to mention when people register to my site it boosts my ego by 10 fold. Ego is important.

Thanks for visiting….

Open Realty XHTML Compliant

Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Products, Real Estate News | 1 Comment

Creating Compliant Sites with Open Realty

CSS and XHTML compliance was a bit of a challenge in the early days of Open Realty as much of the hard coded layout had been riddled with very old coding methods. Today however Open Realty has made substantial updates to the quality of its PHP and template engine code by adhering closer to the standards and compliance traditions expected or should I say demanded upon by top design professionals and site owners. Although Open Realty still has some minor changes necessary in order to bring the application to the full XHTML Strict compliance, the application runs a great deal leaner and cleaner than previous versions.

Just a few days ago, I had taken the latest version of Open Realty 2.4.3 and went through each and every file changing code elements that were yet to be modified for proper functional specifications of XHTML Strict compliance. Additional modifications to areas of the application where I added a collection styling rules that provide more flexibility and control over the styling of websites. Albeit not a fork by any means, these changes were done for the most part in an attempt to revamp and expand the possibilities of using Open Realty as a stand alone application for things other than a Real Estate script.

The struggle with XHTML or CSS compliance was largely on a per project bases as many designers experienced which had been my motive for maintaining what I’ll call the “production version” of the Open Realty. I frequently do this with applications I work with where I usually correct or modify them to meet design needs. Open Realty seems oblivious to suggestions I make so I feel compelled to release something to assist other designers with similar frustrations.

Open Realty has done a great job with its addon system and it stands to reason that expansion and inclusion of other applications can be achieved to certain degrees with the addon system as it currently exists. This however is not an answer to all situations and nor should it be. Having worked with a great number of integration projects where blogs, cms, crm, mls and idx are used, most integrations have been through direct modification of core files in Open Realty. After looking at this for some time I realized that most of these things could be easily achieved with simple template modifications and some PHP code. Its a hassle to continually update an application that has been modified and as each successive release of Open Realty changes often drastically, the task can be cost prohibitive. So, I’ve come up with a solution that meets the objective of designers and site owners at the same time.

Granted some things in Open Realty do require core modifications still to this day in order to bring it XHTML compliant but these changes are trivial and can usually be done in minutes with Dreamweavers bulk find and replace feature. Seeking out every instance of <b></b> and replacing it with <strong></strong> is a simple task. Having done this many times with those tags among others has become a bit of second nature with every release I keep in inventory. But integration is an all together different animal and having modified the core enough times to not like it, I decided to simply make most integration requests I encounter via a few global control files and some PHP in the actual templates.

Open Realty is loaded with most the code people would need to make it dance, roll over, and beg on demand, its just a matter of getting to it. Use of the addon system is the prescribed method and most commonly used for things people wish to achieve programatically. This however isn’t required and can actually slow down a site substantially.

Since we are lucky that Open Realty allows the parsing of PHP in the template files we have a good deal of control with the functionality of the website which makes integration at the template level a great deal faster and less demanding on resources than using the addon system. As mentioned above the addon system is well thought out and a great deal leaner than previous releases but may be overkill for some very basic tasks like echoing the number of listings in a link to say, residential properties or maybe displaying google maps using the google API. Google provides enough code necessary to work cleanly with Open Realty without the need to create an addon to display a map for a particular property on the listing details page. Having done this among other things with the template structure, it becomes obvious that the speed in a site can be greatly increased by use of this technique.

Open Realty 2.4.3 Administrative - Admin Template

I’ve released a new XHTML compliant administrative template based entirely on CSS rules that have been tested and work well. I’ve included a few configuration files that gives site owners the power to adjust and modify the admin section of their Open Realty site to such a degree that maintenance and control of their site as a whole becomes much easier. The idea behind these modifications is to create an admin panel that works well across commercial as well as personal websites. Image is everything sometimes and a well organized administrative panel can lend a great deal to the perceived quality of an application. Since the template requires the admin.inc.php file to be modified its not likely you will want to use this template in your standard release version of open realty. I will however create a modified version of the template before I publish them to the site for download later today.

Should you decide to use the full version of the template then making a backup of your admin.inc.php file is advised before you upload the modified version. Options was the name of the game at the request of many clients so I’ve created a few unique features that you can chose to use or not to use at your discretion.

I’ll first get these applied to an assortment of my client sites before publishing them for download. Successive releases will be maintained as Open Realty continues with its development. A guide on how to bring the application to full XHTML compliance and a list of changes made to the admin.inc.php file are well documented.

XHTML Compliant Open Realty Templates

Posted on October 19, 2007
Filed Under Design | Leave a Comment

Real Estate Small Office - Agent - Web Site Templates

Okay so long enough over due and promised longer than I care to embarrassingly mention, the CSS templates in inventory will be released 10 at a time as I update them to XHTML Strict compliance.

I’ll start tomorrow with the first set of 10 entry level all CSS XHTML Open Realty templates and then move to more advanced ones as I clean up the code. These initial ones will NOT include the PSD file until I have a chance to determine how I’m going to support the files. I’ll likely make them as downloads available separately.

Licensing? Yeah right! The license is simple. Give credit where credit is due. Keep my itty bitty tiny little non significant un-noticed little commented out blurb and were cool. It looks like this.
How simple and NON LINKING can it get. The alternative of course would be a meta tag which is included in each template but the choice of which stays is your own. I don’t even ask for links, credit, or donations on these. Its largely my version of ego caressing. Even my commercial designs do not have front page footer off site links because I’m just not that arrogant and I actually realize it harms a site to have designer links in the footer on every page. Once or twice in a site is fine but on every page its not wise.

CRE Loaded, Joomla, WordPress

Yeah these to will be published. I’ll likely start out with three different master layouts for the latest WordPress and then add the others shortly there after. Joomla? Well Joomla is yet another story that frustrates many designers in terms of marketing of templates. I’ll elaborate later on this.

Until then, visit the site around October 21st to see what I’ve done.

keep looking »