Cyber Monday Sale! 25% Off

Save up to 25% on purchases over $25, Monday November 30th, with this coupon code: SAVE25. One day only!

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Fully API'ed and Open for T-Shirt Business - Part 1

Part 1 - The Product Page.

This summer the OncePressed T-Shirt store began using the Printfection API with happy results. We were initially only using it as a kind of showroom for store sections, though, and when it came to business, we reverted to Printfection for the product customization page, cart and ordering.

I am happy to announce that OncePressed now supports the API through product customization and cart handling and gracefully hands off the process to Printfection to accept payments (there is no other option for this and frankly, I am happy not to have to run a secure server and handle credit cards.)

In the process of reverse-engineering the Printfection product page (where sizes and colors are chosen) we lost a few features, then went one better. Printfection version. API Version. One casualty of our implementation was the tabs above the product image. Of the three, "Detailed Images," "Pricing" and "Size Chart" (we've got a replacement for this) Size Charts will be missed the most. Another casualty is the ability to order more than one sized product at once. This doesn't seem like a very commonly needed featured and can be worked-around.

Improvements we've added are mostly gathered through the addition of FancyBox, the jQuery answer to LightBox. A "Zoom-It" link is our answer to the "Detailed Images" tab as alluded to above. The greatest improvement provided by using FancyBox is the requirement of full-page reloads to see product options. (I'll be blogging about my new-found love for FancyBox, , in another post. Could I please have more Kool-aid?)

Much of the complexity of the code behind the Product page was reduced, but the biggest remaining problem? Page load time. This hurts. The reason? Too many API calls. Printfection has the advantage of being able to make speedy local SQL calls. It takes on the order of 15-20 API calls (the more colors, the more calls) to build a product page and this is mostly tied up in the generation of the Javascript which provides the ability to dynamically change prices based on size and color. This is a feature I just couldn't give up. My next experiments will involve moving any delay-able calls later in load time to allow the page to render and to add a Spinner as they complete. This will relieve customer anxiety with an explanation of load times and give them a chance to hit Back if they already don't what they see. (I believe it's better to send the customer on look at another product than to annoy them into leaving.)

In summary: We are very happy with our simpler product page, but wish it were faster. Efforts in that direction will be our next project.

Please post any questions or contact me directly. I am happy to share what I've learned.

Up next ... Part 2: The Shopping Cart!

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Delicious Pi T-Shirt

Ever feel like you should rewatch a movie after a bunch of years? Not because you miss it, but because you think you'll be able to understand it better? I recently sat down to rewatch the movie Pi and found it much clearer than the first time I saw it. It also inspired me to finish my "Slice of Pi" t-shirt which is a slice of pie composed of the first 1266 digits of pi. Pick one up and impress the folks in the Math Department and the Waitress at the Diner as well.

Look for it in our Clothe The Nerds category today!

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New Designs : Twitter Following Series

OncePressed is happy to introduce a new series inspired by the micro-blog phenomenon. Wear "do you follow?" if you wanna just talk about the craze. Sport "relax i'm following you" if you want to have some fun at the expense of the latest acceptable stalking technique or "quit not following me!" when you're not as popular yet as you'd hoped to be.

These shirts are available in all our styles, sizes and colors. Check them out in our Anti-Social Networking Aisle today!

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Why a Somerville T-Shirt?

It was one of those ideas that came to me accidentally. I have an unconscious habit of flipping words and sounds in my head after I hear them. One day, Somervillain just came to me. What better image for a spunky little-brother town than a tough-guy Villain? The idea's come to others too. One the thing about the internet, it teaches humility.

Living outside of Davis and Porter Squares for the past six years, I've seen a lot to love about the area. Somerville is one of those stories of a neighborhood that may get a little bit of teasing, but to its credit I've never heard a single anti-Cambridge or anti-Boston word in return.

Some may argue that Porter and Davis Squares aren't really Somerville and they'd have a point, I do live on the frontier, but what better place to see the difference? Oh, and look for me at Bukowski's in Iman too, and Sherman's or Bloc 11 Coffee Shops in Union, running on Tuft's campus, or the Minute Man Trail or hanging with my Little Brother in Winter Hill.

So why a T-Shirt? Because this town has character and I thought it made sense to make it one. Check it out and wear it with pride, Somerville.

p.s. To all you other Somerville's out there, our shirts fit you too.

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New Design : As Read In A Book T-Shirt!

Can't quite remember where you heard that clever line in that movie? Don't worry, it may have actually been in a book.

Remind the world that you know where imaginative ideas came from before they were cast in Hollywood. That's right, it's books!

No batteries, easy bookmarking and always right where you left them.

Show your solidarity for the page-turner by getting your "As Read In A Book" T-Shirt today!

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Taking Our T-Shirts on the Road

Went up to Portland Maine to celebrate the Fourth. We had been in town for about ten minutes and had already received two compliments on the "All up in my grill" T-shirt I was sporting. I quickly made up some slips of hotel stationary with my URL on them and for the rest of the day, every time I saw someone laughing at the design, I offered them the URL. The trick seems to be that no one expects that the person wearing it is the designer. Hoping your holiday was great -- or if you are not in the U.S. -- it was still Saturday! 

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