Thanks to the amazing folks at EllisLabs who built the amazing ExpressionEngine which comes bundles with the Simple Commerce Module I have successfully inserted the ability for you to purchase any of my new paintings right from it's showcase page. It's a simple click away and just requires Paypal or any major credit card.

Setting it all up

Setting this all up was fairly simple and I really did everything off the cuff with little planning and some experimentation. It wasn't something I felt was needed right away but I had a couple of hours spare (because I'm stuck at home because I'm not feeling very well at all) and I figured I may as well have a play.

1. Installing the Simple Commerce Module that comes bundled with every Expression Engine download (or at least the Personal and Commercial downloads.) This step is as simple as pressing a link that says "Install" under the Modules tab.
2. Following these instructions on setting up an encrypted "Buy Now" link. Please Note: This isn't required but highly recommended, the non-encrypted link are just far too revealing.

   This part was where I got to dabble in SSH for the very first time. I've tried before - installing Rails apps - but failed miserably but am glad that the documentation for the Simple Commerce Module is so great that I succeeded quite easily. The main hurdle to over come is that when an action is completed it doesn't say "Congratulations you've just changed directory to /some/other/directory" or "Congratulations, you've succesfully created a Public Certificate." It just presents a new line for you to type another command.

3. Adding the EE tags to your templates is the next step. I use the following
   <pre>
<p><a href="{buy_now_url}" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">Purchase for $USD {item_sale_price}</a>
<p> <a href="{add_to_cart_url}" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">Add to Cart</a> or <a href="{view_cart_url}" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">View Cart</a></p>
</pre>
4. The final step is adding your entries. To do this you need to create Email templates that gets filled out and sent to a) The Administrator and b) The Customer whenever a purchase is made. Then you click "Add Entries" and check the entries you want to add as a purchasable item. More instructions can be found here.

I would like to thanks the EllisLabs team for their amazing documentation that made this all so simple. In the previous version of my portfolio I created the Paypal links manually at the Paypal site (well I filled in a form and it gave me a piece of code) and had to paste it into the description. Now that I've moved to ExpressionEngine everything is much more streamlined and simpler.

What's next?

The next obvious thing is figuring out how to advertise that I'm selling goods. It's all good and well that I've got Buy now links on that product's showcase page in my Portfolio but most people don't go wondering around Portfolio's looking for paintings to buy. Here are some ideas:

• Adding a Buy Now link on the homepage under "Artwork Spotlight".
• Adding a note on the portfolio page advising people that they can purchase my artwork from the showcase pages.
• Adding the price (as a purchase link) in brackets next to the painting's name on the portfolio page
• Posting a blog post about every new entry to my portfolio explaining more about it and advertising it's availability for purchase (this was going to happen anyway).

What can you buy now?

Of course until I've implement the list above it'd be a bit difficult for you to find out what I'm selling or to see a working version of what I've explained so here are the two paintings for sale right now

Curiousity killed the Kats

This painting is available for sale at it's showcase page.

South Island Robin

This painting is available for sale at it's showcase page.

So, are you interested?

Update: For once I've encountered an inconsistency in support in Firefox! The feature word-wrap: break-word; is supported by everyone but Firefox! Used word-wrap: break-word; overflow: auto; to patch it up.