Global Nerdy

I rely on pictures to communicate effectively. Sometimes I use them to make a complex idea easier to understand. Other times, I use them to emphasize a point or set the tone of an article. They’re also great for drawing the reader’s attention, breaking up long passages of text to make them more readable or to simply make my sites and articles more beautiful. And I never write a blog post that doesn’t have a picture.

Many of the pictures I use are my own, but there are times that I just don’t have or can’t take the right one for the task at hand. Luckily, there are options, and one of them is stock photos. They look great; after all, they’re shot by people who have better skills and cameras than I do.

We’ve got a deal with iStockphoto to help you get started with making your Shopify-based shops and blogs look their best. Sign up with iStockphoto and get access to a great library of affordable royalty-free stock photos (such as the ones accompanying this article), illustrations, video, audio and Flash.

Best of all, Shopify shopowners who sign up with iStockphoto get a bonus: 10 free photos from a special collection, just for signing up. You can use these photos in your shops, blogs, ad banners — wherever you need them. And yes, you read that right: free.

All you have to do is sign up with iStockphoto. It’s free, the process is quick, and you’ll be on your way to having a great-looking shop and blog!

This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.

My first day at Shopify was three months ago today. Since I have performed in my role as Shopify’s Platform Evangelist with skill, capability and panache and without any sausage-related mishaps, I have passed the traditional three-month probationary period and now a full-fledged employee of The Little Ecommerce Startup That Could.

I’d like to congratulate my coworker and teammate David Underwood, who also passed his three-month probationary period today.

I have no idea if I’m going to just get a simple handshake or if there’s some kind of sadistic “equator-crossing” ceremony involved. There will definitely be drinks!

This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.

You could spend the evening doing this:

but might I recommend you do this instead?

Ottawa Startup Drinks takes place tonight at the Bank Street branch of the Clocktower Pub tonight! Here are the details:

• When: Thursday, July 28th from 8:00 p.m. Eastern onward
• Where: The Clocktower Brew Pub on Bank (535 Bank Street, Ottawa ON)
• How much: Free to attend — they suggest you register — but you’ll have to pay for your own drinks

See you there!

This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.

Shopify has some big customers with online shops that need apps written for them. We’ve been getting a lot of custom work requests from customers who need applications for their shops for their fulfillment workflow – that is, making sure the right things get put into the right boxes, and sending them to the right people for the right price. We also get requests for other things that online shops need: analytics, promotions, CRM-integration-jazz, or some kind of automatic client-retention. But for now, I’d like to talk about fulfillment.

Fulfillment: it’s that part of the shopping transaction where the order has been placed and paid for, and now it’s time to send something to the customer. This sort of app is a web application that will typically talk to a couple of APIs:

• The Shopify API, which will have the relevant data from the shop, most notably information about the order that was placed,
• Webhooks (see Dave Underwood’s Syncing with a Store tutorial in the Shopify Wiki to find out what they are. Webhooks are used for about 90% of all Shopify apps),
• and some fulfillment API, which the app will use to get the order to the customer.

If you’re looking for some contract programming work writing software that does useful stuff for reliable customers and you’re a reliable, responsive type who can be counted on to write stuff that people need to make their businesses go, Shopify would like to pay you for your services. The application you’re writing will be interacting with APIs, which means that you’re free to use the programming languages, frameworks and technologies you prefer, as long as you can solve the problem. And because this project is about fulfilling ecommerce orders and not socially networked cat pictures, this  contract will pay nicely.

Is this the sort of development you can do? If so, drop me a line at joey@shopify.com and let’s talk.

This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.

I like Startup Drinks. The idea behind it is simple: get startup types together in a tavern or other similar drinking establishment and get them to hang out. People end up talking about all sorts of things: not just tech, but the news of the day, whatever cat picture or video is currently eating up their productivity, whatever! It’s all about meeting other people in the community, and as I like to say, great things happen when people get together.

Ottawa’s Startup Drinks event takes place this Thursday. Here are the details:

• When: Thursday, July 28th from 8:00 p.m. Eastern onward
• Where: The Clocktower Brew Pub on Bank (535 Bank Street, Ottawa ON)
• How much: Free to attend — they suggest you register — but you’ll have to pay for your own drinks

I’ll be there, and I hope to see you there!

Some quick details about tomorrow’s JavaScript/Node.js Summer Meetup in Ottawa, your chance to see some great presentations, have a drink a meet up with your fellow JavaScript/Node.js hackers:

• When: Wednesday, July 27th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern
• Where: Mercury Grove HQ – 738A Bank Street, Suite 205, Ottawa ON
• How much: Free, but you should register. Tickets are going quickly — register now!

The presenters and topics at this event will be:

• Shopify’s Nicholas Small on Batman.js: the framework that kicks apps
• Mike Coolin on Flow Control: reviewing some of the best modules
• Shopify’s Willem van Bergen on promises: what they are and how to use them
• Andrew Clunis on Steampump: video streaming magic

“If you’re havin’ math problems, I feel bad for you, son / I got ninety-nine problems but logic ain’t one.”

This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.