Download it here.

The Handbook covers basic installation, setup for gateways such as PayPal and Google Checkout, downloadable products, multiple types of products, etc. If you’re having difficulty with the basic instructions on the YAK page, this is hopefully the best place to start.

This release includes the following changes:

• “Hard-code” the PayPal IPN page. This means you don’t need to create it manually. Instead just specify: http://yourdomain.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/yak-for-wordpress/yak-paypal-ipn.php
• Add Italian translation, provided by Roberto Mogliotti.
• Change the download message to use the tag [downloads] rather than a code.
• Change the email confirmation message to use tags rather than codes.
• Fix a nasty problem zeroing price and alternate title when commenting on a product.
• Fix a problem with the random order number.

I’ve also removed support for the old tags (the html comment form such as <!−−yak_buy−−>), so you’ll need to change your posts to use square brackets if you upgrade (e.g.

As usual, this release has only been fully tested by… well, me… so there may be some bugs I’ve missed — if you find something, please post on the Bugs page or email me directly.

Google Checkout integration requires https, but when testing I’m currently getting the dreaded error:

Protocol https not supported or disabled in libcurl

This despite the fact that curl -V gives:

curl 7.18.2 (i386-apple-darwin9.4.0) libcurl/7.18.2 OpenSSL/0.9.8h zlib/1.2.3
Protocols: tftp ftp telnet dict http file https ftps
Features: Largefile NTLM SSL libz

And port installed gives the following output (excerpted):

curl @7.18.2_0+ssl (active)
curl-ca-bundle @7.18.2_0 (active)
lighttpd @1.4.19_0 (active)
mysql5 @5.0.51a_0+server (active)
php5 @5.2.6_1+fastcgi+macosx+mysql5 (active)

I’m obviously missing something, but no idea what. Hoping that any Mac gurus who happen to come across this might have a suggestion or two…?

If you’re using 1.0.3d, I recommend you upgrade immediately.

The experimental release (1.1.0-exp) is still unpatched, and will be replaced by version 1.1.1 in a few days.

It’s fixed in trunk (in source control), and I’ll be releasing an updated 1.1.1 version shortly which includes the fix. I’ll also be releasing a patched version of 1.0.3d just in case people don’t want to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

In the meantime, if you’re running either of those versions, I recommend you disable comments on those products for the moment.

1.1.0-exp includes features from the not (publically) released 1.0.4:

1. Add new non-unique order id
2. Move javascript on cart off page and into separate script. split javascript into generic and admin specific files — to stop problems with (missing) jquery on the wp pages.
3. Add warning message for people with session.auto_start turned on.
4. Integrate YAK back into the WordPress menu structure. The top-level menu was a nice idea, but it’s inconsistent with all other plugins (plus isn’t recommended, according to the WP devs). You can now get to YAK’s options through Settings->Yak, and to Orders/Products/Sales Reports from the Manage menu.
5. Fix PHP4 problem with the view products screen

Along with a few additional features:

1. Add https support
2. Add first cut of Google Checkout integration.
3. Tidy up setting payment types (drop downs now rather than input boxes). Add setting of a credit card landing page.
4. Add support for tags with square brackets [ ]. The html-comment version of tags will be removed in an upcoming release

Google support is minimal so far. It’s one-way integration at the moment (allowing customers to submit an order through Google Checkout) — with no automated return path for handling purchase. That will come with a later release.

These updates hopefully make configuration a lot more user-friendly — particularly the changes to the Payment Types. Note that if you decide to upgrade, please make sure you backup your installation, and you double-check all your configuration options after upgrading.

YAK version 1.1.0-experimental can be downloaded from the WordPress Extend site.

The main reason for this change is that I can’t justify (particularly to the family) the amount of time I spend both on development and bug fixing, AND on the volume of support requests I get (at times).

See the new Support page for more information.

Cool geek-out moment!

Please backup your existing installation before upgrading. Deactivate, remove the current yak-for-wordpress directory, then copy the new version into the plugins dir and re-activate. You’ll need to double-check the configuration settings, because many input boxes have changed to drop-down selects (for category and page selection for example… see below). This upgrade will also require you to go through your products and set the price in the “YAK Product Details” tab (see point 5 in the changes below) — the custom fields are no longer required.

This release includes the following bug fixes:

1. Problem with table creation.
2. Country options not saving properly.
3. Fix an odd problem with globals.
4. The return URL appears to be broken with PayPal IPN. PDT works fine, but IPN seems to wind up back at the home page of the blog. Added a fix to cleanup the order from the shopping cart when this happens.

And the following changes:

1. Frank Malina’s new look-and-feel.
2. French translation (provided by Charles Dixon-Spain).
3. Change money format and currency format to be simpler drop down boxes.
4. Change the download url from the settings screen so it is now an override (i.e. optional).
5. Add new data input on the post/page edit screen for yak price and title (replacing the old method of using custom fields).
6. Remove the “Auto Set Price” option (doesn’t make a huge amount of sense now).
7. Fix the Auto Set Quantity so it works with selected categories.
8. Tidy up the stylesheet.
9. Add a hidden link to the checkout and to the buy button form — vain hope that this might drive more search engine traffic to the YAK plugin page — if you don’t want the link included, it can be switched off on the Basic settings page.
10. Change the product category (settings page) from an input box to a dropdown.
11. Change the redirect on buy (setting page) from an input box to a dropdown.
12. Change the return and cancel urls on the PayPal settings page to a dropdown so you can select a page rather than having to type a url.

First problem: The return URL doesn’t appear to work (cancel return URL works fine). PayPal keeps sending me back to the index page of my test site.

Second problem: When trying to save the Website Payment Preferences (in PayPal Profile) I get a “Page Not Found” error. So there’s no way to change between IPN and PDT. This has been broken now for at least 5 days.

If anyone is using YAK and PayPal and is willing (and able) to test both IPN and PDT integration, please let me know. Worst case scenario, I’ll release this version as unstable, and wait for PayPal to fix their problems…

UPDATE: Problem solved. PayPal have updated their site, but this has somehow corrupted old test accounts. Deleting the old account and creating a new one fixes the problem.

Or, possibly, there are dozens. There’s no way to tell since LinkedIn’s Group directory isn’t open and also isn’t searchable. Unless you’re lucky enough to find the relevant group on someone’s profile, you’re stuck with creating your own.

So that’s what I’ve done. If anyone is interested in joining, the invitation link is in the groups section of my profile.

And let’s hope LinkedIn develops a really good ratification process for merging millions of one-member groups…

YAK has always represented a reasonably significant investment in time. I don’t put a huge amount of effort into development now that it’s hit the 1.0 release, but popularity brings an inevitable increase in the number of calls for support.
Family commitments mean that I have less time available — or at the very least, it’s harder to justify spending the time. The obvious answer, suggested by a couple of people, is to commercialise (at least in part) the plugin.

There are plenty of open source projects which have at least a small commercial component. And plenty more which are mainly commercial, but release unsupported open source versions. An example of the former are projects which have paid-for documentation. An example of the latter would be something like JBoss or MySQL, which release community and enterprise versions of their apps — the enterprise version, rather obviously, providing commercial support.

So this brings me to a question: where to, with a semi-commercial version of YAK?

There are a few options on the table:

1. Reduce the detail of the online documentation and release a paid-for installation manual.
2. Release a supported, commercial version of the plugin with the latest features, and the open source version (with those features) would follow a few months later (only the commercial version would be supported).
3. Per-request charge for support, perhaps based upon the time taken.

What do you think? Any better ideas?

Apart from the new UI, there are no major feature improvements in this release, however there are a couple of “big ticket items” I’m thinking about adding in version 1.0.4.

Apologies to anyone who had problems, and hopefully this release will work better.

This version is a slightly more involved upgrade than previous editions. Because WordPress’s automated build system creates a distribution from the subversion repository, the directory in the filename isn’t just “yak” — it’s “yak-for-wordpress”. This appears to cause problems when I’ve named my main plugin file: “yak.php”. As a consequence, the new name is “yak-for-wordpress.php”.

Thus, before upgrading, you should backup your wordpress installation, then deactivate and remove the old yak directory. Extract the contents of the new distribution and re-activate.

Changes in this release are included in the release notes here, but to summarise:

1. order status is automatically set to STOCK SENT when all funds have been received for a PayPal order, if the order contains only downloadable items
2. the ‘default’ category has been removed from the products drop down. This means you can still turn the drop-down on by default for products with more than one option, and the products that are tagged as ‘default’, won’t include the dropdown.
3. fixed a problem with apostrophes in yak title, download and confirmation email
4. fixed a problem with PayPal shipping with multiple items
5. fixed a problem with PayPal verification (item names need to be properly encoded)
6. tidied up the confirmation email and code

Any problems with this release, please let me know.

Unless, of course, someone has a better idea…?

The URL can be found here. I’ll keep comments open on both pages, until any kinks have been ironed out. Here’s hoping it’s useful…

As well as WP2.3 compatibility, 1.0.1 adds paging to the “products” page, adds a facility to select the countries you support (see the options page), and adds a new quantity tag () to display product availability to your customers.

However, I did want a basic bug tracking system for Do My Invoice, and it makes sense to also use it for YAK (and perhaps some of my other low volume projects).

After a bit of searching, I came across Mantis, a PHP bug tracking system which looks simple enough for my needs, and perhaps approachable enough for other users to easily post their issues and feature requests. It was certainly easy to install, which makes it one of the more attractive candidates… (that said, I wouldn’t have minded using FogBugz, but don’t have the budget for the moment).

So if you have features or bugs for Do My Invoice, or for the YAK shopping cart plugin, please sign up for a new account at:

http://www.briggs.net.nz/bugtrack/

In the case of YAK, the comments on the project page is still the place for support issues and, in the case of DMI, the email for support requests can be found on the dashboard after you’ve logged in.