pspahn - Developer IT

Inheriting projects - General Rules? [closed]

- by pspahn

Possible Duplicate: When is a BIG Rewrite the answer? Software rewriting alternatives Are there any actual case studies on rewrites of software success/failure rates? When should you rewrite? We're not a software company. Is a complete re-write still a bad idea? Have you ever been involved in a BIG Rewrite? This is an area of discussion I have long been curious about, but overall, I generally lack the experience to give myself an answer that I would fully trust. We've all been there, a new client shows up with a half-complete project they are looking to finish and launch. For whatever reason, they fired their previous developer, and it's now up to you to save the day. I am just finishing up a code review for a new client, and in my estimation is would be better to scrap what the previous developers built since and start from scratch. There's a ton of reasons why I am leaning toward this way, but it still makes me nervous since the client isn't going to want to hear "those last guys built you a big turd, and I can either polish it, or throw it in the trash". What are your general rules for accepting these projects? How do you determine whether it will be better to start from scratch or continue with the existing code base? What other extra steps might you take to help control client expectations, since the previous developer may have inflated those expectations beyond a reasonable level? Any other general advice?

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Inheriting projects - General Rules?

- by pspahn

This is an area of discussion I have long been curious about, but overall, I generally lack the experience to give myself an answer that I would fully trust. We've all been there, a new client shows up with a half-complete project they are looking to finish and launch. For whatever reason, they fired their previous developer, and it's now up to you to save the day. I am just finishing up a code review for a new client, and in my estimation is would be better to scrap what the previous developers built since and start from scratch. There's a ton of reasons why I am leaning toward this way, but it still makes me nervous since the client isn't going to want to hear "those last guys built you a big turd, and I can either polish it, or throw it in the trash". What are your general rules for accepting these projects? How do you determine whether it will be better to start from scratch or continue with the existing code base? What other extra steps might you take to help control client expectations, since the previous developer may have inflated those expectations beyond a reasonable level? Any other general advice?

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Magento - Authorize.net - Get Payment Update for expired transactions

- by pspahn

Magento 1.6.1 I have set up Authorize.net (AIM) for the client's store. Previously they were using saved CC method and entering information manually in Authorize.net's merchant terminal. Most of it is working as expected, however for transactions that are flagged as 'Suspected Fraud' by Authorize.net, if the client does not update the transaction manually before the authorization expires, using 'Get Payment Update' in Magento fails because the transaction is expired (I believe it's five days for an authorize only transaction). For the client, it seems the only way to update this order in Magento is to simply delete the order, as it doesn't appear the Paygate model knows about expired transactions. Performing 'Get Payment Update' simply returns 'There is no update for this payment'. I have already modified the file: /app/code/core/Mage/Paygate/Model/Authorize.net to have the correct API URL as described in issue #27117 ( http://www.magentocommerce.com/bug-tracking/issue?issue=12991 - must be logged in to view ). This resolved the button not working for all other orders; however this does not fix the issue I am describing. Is anyone familiar with Authorize.net's AIM API so that we can update these orders in Magento to something that makes sense (canceled, etc.) without having to delete the order? I am thinking it should be a case of adding a new order status to Magento, checking the update for an 'Expired' status, and setting the order to the newly created order status. -- edit -- I just ran a diff for the file mentioned above and noticed that Magento 1.7.0.2 includes the _isTransactionExpired() method which seems like it would be the fix. Can it be as simple as updating this model with the newer version?

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jQuery Tools - Range Input with Mousewheel support

- by pspahn

I've got a nice looking horizontal scroller that uses the Range Input feature of jQ Tools. Mouse wheel scrolling support would be awesome, and I'm sure it can work, just not sure how to get it set up. I've got the generic setup: var scroll = jQuery('#scroll'); jQuery(':range').rangeinput({ speed: 0, progress: true, onSlide: function(ev, step) { scroll.css({left: -step}); }, change: function(e, i) { scroll.animate({left: -i}, "fast"); } }); The doc page ( http://jquerytools.org/documentation/toolbox/mousewheel.html ) for mousewheel gives an example: $("#myelement").mousewheel(function(event, delta) { }); But I'm not sure how this hooks in. Other tools in the package simply allow the option: mousewheel: true Unfortunately that doesn't work on range input. Any advice appreciated. Thank you.

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Magento - createBlock() in controller, can I access this in layout.xml?

- by pspahn

I have an index controller with a view action that does the following: echo $this->getLayout() ->createBlock('core/template','builder') ->setTemplate('pages/builder/view.phtml') ->setHeaderText($extra->getHeaderText()) ->setFooterText($extra->getFooterText()) ->setProducts($collection) ->toHtml(); Based on this, I am trying to perform layout updates in builder.xml (which is being set in the module's config.xml). However, I am not sure if you can target blocks instantiated in this manner. Based on the above block creation, am I able to perform the following: <layout version="0.1.0"> <builder_index_view>  <reference name="builder"> <block type="page/html_header" name="builder.header" as="builder.header" template="pages/builder/header.phtml"/> </reference> </builder_index_view> </layout>

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