SimpleViewer 2 has been released and I will have an update of my SimpleViewer SWFAddress code shortly. Most of the code is done – I just have to do some testing. You can check out a preview example here. Update: the post has is up here.

Borrowlenses.com

I recently rented a lens from Borrowlenses.com and over all it was a good experience, but there were a few issues. They have strict address requirements, which in some ways are understandable based on the value of the gear. This does however limit shipping to basically your business or home via FedEx with a signature requirement, no hotels and no P.O. Boxes. The other issue was that the lens was sent to me very dirty, good thing Photoshop can fix it, but still would be nice if had been cleaned before it was sent.

Fotomoto

I have set up Fotomoto for selling prints on my site; it is a nice service for those photographers who don’t want to deal with ecommerce and shipping headaches. They have a simple script that you embed into the gallery page that automatically identifies your images and adds a purchase button to them. I have received some test prints and have to say that both prints and the shipping packaging was amazing. Unfortunately the Fotomoto script does not currently support flash and API has yet to be officially released. So in order to get it working with my site I had to use a intermediary until they release the API.

Mailbag:SimpleViewer and ecommerce

I have had several messages asking how I integrated SimpleViewer with my ecommerce app. Because of how Fotomoto works I’m not sure how well you will be able to translate it to another ecommerce app/service, but here is the basics. This currently works for SimpleViewer 1.9:

Use this post, Hyperlinking Main Images, to make your image clickable and/or add a purchase button. I then use Flash’s external interface to send data about the current image to Javascript in the page. The javascript opens a page in a modal window with the image in it that the Fotomoto script grabs, does it’s automated ‘magic’ and that’s it.

How can you adapt this to work with your ecommerce app? That depends on what options the app/service have, but every situation is going to be different.

Disclosure: no one paid me to write any of these reviews, though I do work with Airtight Interactive.