Tuesday 2 August 2016

Best Release Notes .... Ever!!

The Developer of Pocket Universe just released a new version. But instead of listing the fixes and features, he writes about his concerns and hopes of how people treat each other.



Source: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/pocket-universe-virtual-sky/id306916838?mt=8

Sunday 28 February 2016

kb3035583: "Important" Update installs the annoing "Get Windows 10" App again

After hiding out those - I guess - 4 "important" updates, there again is an important update that trys to put the annoying "Get Windows 10" App again to our task-bar (https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3035583).

I will again try to ignore the Update by right click -> Hide. But I'm afraid that won't help long.

There are several good tutorials to remove the GetWin10 App, if you happend to oversee the Easter Egg and installed it:
http://www.askvg.com/how-to-remove-get-windows-10-app-and-its-icon-from-taskbar/

I once knew a program to get rid of the GetWin10 App for the less experience user. But forgot it.
If you know one, please drop a comment below.



Friday 26 February 2016

Laser/Radar Scanner from Aliexpress ... Fail!!!

A view weeks ago I ordered a laser/radar scanner via aliexpress. After 3 weeks it arrived. So far so good, but it worked for only 1 hour or so.
During this hour it detected one known fixed speed camera, un-detected a seconds one, "found" plenty of other radar/laser sources. I suspect it didn't filter out those parksensors and infra-red motion detection shop door openers.
After stopping to work and successful raising an dispute at aliexpress, I decided to take it appart.

I know a bit of good soldering work, but I didn't find it there. On many places, the SMDs where mounted manually with big zinn drops. Some places (see coloured circles in pics) are oxidised.

One SMD fell out (see pic), that might be the reason for failing.

Lessons learned: Get a decent scanner, spend more than $44.

Product: 360 Degree Full-Band Scanning Speed Measuring Radar/Laser Detectors Auto Laser Detector Speed Testing System English Voice
(http://www.aliexpress.com/item/360-Degree-Full-Band-Scanning-Speed-Measuring-Radar-Laser-Detectors-English-Voice-Warning/1879142515.html)

Price, Dec 2015: $18


 bigger img





Wednesday 28 August 2013

Speed up Magento 1.6 Checkout - 124 sec to 4 sec!

I had serious performance Issues with my Magento CE 1.6.
Reason: Wrong and missing indexes. Magento fixed them is 1.6.2.
Here are the relevant DB changes. You might check if it helps you.

I reduced the checkout time for 38 lines with 73 items total from 123 sec to 4 sec !!!!

Thursday 13 December 2012

Shorter IDs without Site ID for Orders, Invoices and Shippments

I found it very strange that magento creates different ids for orders, invoices and shipments depending on the site_view.
Below sql statements create global ids, limit the code length to 5 plus a character prefix.
B = Orders, R = Invoices, V = Shipping
And I let all of them start with 13000.

You have to apply the script to a store without orders, invoices and shipments, otherwise you are in risk of having duplicate ids if you don't choose your prefix well.

I used http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/asperience-deleteorders.html to get rid of my test data.
 
UPDATE `magento`.`eav_entity_type` SET `increment_per_store` = '0' , `increment_pad_length` = '5' WHERE `entity_type_id` = '4'; 
UPDATE `magento`.`eav_entity_type` SET `increment_per_store` = '0' , `increment_pad_length` = '5' WHERE `entity_type_id` = '18'; 
UPDATE `magento`.`eav_entity_type` SET `increment_per_store` = '0' , `increment_pad_length` = '5' WHERE `entity_type_id` = '24'; 
UPDATE `magento`.`eav_entity_type` SET `increment_per_store` = '0' , `increment_pad_length` = '5' WHERE `entity_type_id` = '28'; 

TRUNCATE `eav_entity_store`;
ALTER TABLE `eav_entity_store` AUTO_INCREMENT=1;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;

insert  into `eav_entity_store`(`entity_store_id`,`entity_type_id`,`store_id`,`increment_prefix`,`increment_last_id`) values (1,4,0,'B','B13000'),(2,18,0,'R','R13000'),(3,24,0,'V','V13000');

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Magento: Change Simple Product to Configurable Product

One of the big mysteries - at least to me - is why magento admin is not able to change a simple product to a configurable product.
It is obvious that this is a real world usecase!
Anyway: The guys from Flagbit GmbH delivered a free module to change the Attribute Set:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/flagbit-change-attribute-set.html

So far so good. But what is the use of a product with an different attribute set, when you still need it as configurable product.
I hacked the code. Now if you change the attribute set to 'default' then the product type is changed to 'simple'. Setting any other attribute set to the product leads to a product_type of 'configurable'.

Important: This code does not work with 'bundle' products.

What you need to do:

  • Find \app\code\community\Flagbit\ChangeAttributeSet\controllers\Adminhtml\Catalog\ProductController.php
  • Make a backup of this file
  • Find the public function changeattributesetAction()
  • Change it to:


 
public function changeattributesetAction()
{
  $productIds = $this->getRequest()->getParam('product');
  $storeId = (int)$this->getRequest()->getParam('store', 0);
    $attribute_set = $this->getRequest()->getParam('attribute_set');

    $entityTypeId = Mage::getModel('eav/entity')
                  ->setType('catalog_product')
                  ->getTypeId();
    $attributeSetName = Mage::getModel('eav/entity_attribute_set')
                    ->getCollection()
                    ->setEntityTypeFilter($entityTypeId)
                    ->addFieldToFilter('attribute_set_id', $attribute_set)
                    ->getFirstItem()
                    ->getAttributeSetName();
    if ($attributeSetName == 'Default') { $product_type = 'simple'; } else { $product_type = 'configurable'; }
    
  if (!is_array($productIds)) {
   $this->_getSession()->addError($this->__('Please select product(s)'));
  }
  else {
   try {
    foreach ($productIds as $productId) {
     $product = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/product')
      ->unsetData()
      ->setStoreId($storeId)
      ->load($productId)
      ->setAttributeSetId($this->getRequest()->getParam('attribute_set'))
      ->setIsMassupdate(true)
      ->save();
          $product = Mage::getSingleton('catalog/product')
            ->unsetData()
            ->setStoreId($storeId)
            ->load($productId)
            ->setTypeId($product_type)
            ->setIsMassupdate(true)
            ->save();

    }
    Mage::dispatchEvent('catalog_product_massupdate_after', array('products'=>$productIds));
    $this->_getSession()->addSuccess(
     $this->__('Total of %d record(s) were successfully updated', count($productIds))
    );
   }
   catch (Exception $e) {
    $this->_getSession()->addException($e, $e->getMessage());
   }
  }
  $this->_redirect('adminhtml/catalog_product/index/', array());
 } 


  • That's all!


Feel free to add comments.

Credits: Thanks to http://www.craftyfella.com/2010/01/syntax-highlighting-with-blogger-engine.html for the syntax highlighter tutorial.