Online Buttons Generator

[Sir John Steed]

I tried Sir John's button generator and would like to have little help. Everything works fine with http://zen-bck.mediakitchen.de/, but as I downloaded the program and try to use it on my own test-server I have few problems as you can see from attached images. I find it strange that only stylish_green and _orange templates are working like they should.

Everything should be ok with my server settings, checked that few times.

Jarsa,

it looks like your environment has problems with rendering the semi transparencies of the source template PNGs correctly. The stylish_green and -_orange templates only have fully transparent pixels if I remember correctly. This is probably related to your GD version or its features. I have tested this package on two servers, both show the same version and settings for GD (excerpt of potentially relevant bits):

GD Version: bundled (2.0.28 compatible)
PNG Support: enabled
GIF Create Support: enabled

Not sure if we can get this specific problem solved. But I will have another look and do some research for known problems like this with GD in general if you maybe give me the details of GD in your environment. Make a call to the PHP function phpinfo ( see php.net/phpinfo ) if you can, or I send you a small PHP file for this. Read the section with the headline 'GD' then.

If all fails you can still try if you are better off with non-transparent PNGs. You would have to render the templates anew in Photoshop (or something else) on the background color of your choice and better create a new copy of the template folder (inside includes/templates/) with the non-transparent PNGs inside. But always use PNGs for te templates, this image format is expected by the Zen Button Construction Kit.

Best regards,


Sir John Steed

[jarsa]

phpinfo()->gd:

GD Support: enabled
GD Version: 2.0 or higher (2.0.35-ubuntu)
FreeType Support: enabled
FreeType Linkage: with freetype
FreeType Version: 2.3.5
T1Lib Support: enabled
GIF Read Support: enabled
GIF Create Support: enabled
JPG Support: enabled
PNG Support: enabled
WBMP Support: enabled


I haven't tried yet with non-transparent PNGs. I'll try first with other computer.

This is great program and it seems to be really easy to add new templates and languages. So I'm really going to get this work.

[jarsa]

There was wrong information in my previous post. GD version should have been 2.0.34.

I did some testing with other computer and I think GD version might be the problem. OS should not matter here and settings are the same. Hope this information helps to find a solution.

Ubuntu + Apache + GD 2.0.34 --> problems
Vista + Xampp + GD bundled (2.0.34 compatible) --> same problems
XP + Xampp + GD bundled (2.0.28 compatible) --> OK!!

-Jarsa-

[Sir John Steed]

Jarsa,

I have sent you message to your email account over the forum here, asking you for a contact. I've made some research and maybe we can fix this. But I need your help with testing it as the problem does not occur here. The main class file will have to be replaced, so I guess it's better to exchange stuff instead of posting lenghty instructions here. Or if you could grant me temporary access to your server where your problem occurs that would be terrific of course. But just as you like. Would be great if we get this fixed before I release the next update in the contributions section.

Best regards,


Sir John Steed

[kairen]

Finnish translation available now

same goes for downloadable ZenCart Button Construction Kit, though I added swedish as well

enjoy

[Sir John Steed]

Thanks, Kairen, much apreciated! :) This is growing into a mighty tool with the help of you all... Thanks to all others who helped too.

All added languages are in the online version at http://zen-bck.mediakitchen.de too now. One user sent me the language definitions for Dutch, they should be in the download contribution with my next update. Jarsa provided a great deal of help by coding the final bit to get his transparency problem sorted... by himself! Next version will probably have a toggle to switch to a configuration file that allows to create Zen-Cart admin buttons. It will address a smaller annoyance that causes to display warnings when the icons are switched off too.

Only one thing I ask the users who provide language definitions for: Please always use only HTML encodings for the special characters and only in the form 'é', 'ä' etc, not the number equivalents either (i.e. no '& # 228;'). Only that way the automatic conversion to upper or lower case (if selected) will work with the current zen_bck algorithms. That's the way it works right now. Some special characters caused my text editor to omit display of some of the content too now. Nothing fatal, the tool itself worked fine, but I guess it will be cleaner that way. I will try to make this clearer in the files in the future.

Best regards,


Sir John Steed

[kairen]

I love the buttons, but I still would like to use this with my own templates.

Sir John, is it enough for the pngs to be the same size as the other templates, or do I need to do something special in imageready/photoshop to the template buttons? In other words does there have to be some special layering or other settings for pngs to work with the kit? I'm asking before I even make my own so I make them right from the get-go.

(It's independence day in Finland after all, so our web-host is down for maintenance and I can't start fooling with e-mails like I would like, cause my ISP doesn't have working support lines today, and for some reason I just have never been able to get my mail account settings right, user and pwd have never worked. I've called em a couple of times, they've reset the pwd and sent me a new one, but those never work either..... which means I will most likely play some game and forget about the shop for the day. Just going to set-up conditions, privacy statement and shipping conditions today, since those are mere content. Maybe design some buttons for fun if I feel up to it... )

Oh and and to Finlands 90th Anniversary of Independence

[Sir John Steed]

Kairen,

size doesn't matter (ooops! did I really just say that?), the overall sizes of the button files get detected by the script. The two different buttons can even have the same size or whatever. You only have to make sure your copy of 'tpl_definitions.php' has the right values matching your PNGs, i.e. especially the '...left_wd' and '..._right_wd' parameters determining the width of the endcaps. There are some hints in the installation file giving more details on that. Regarding the PNGs themselves: Make sure you use alpha transparency. In Photoshop: create a free transparent layer (non-background) and create/put your button on that (make sure you never reduce that one to the background layer). Then simply export for web as a 24-bit PNG (PNG24), only that one will support full alpha transparency. With all that you guarantee that zen_bck can render the button on any background color when it makes use of the template later on. If you don't mind about different background colors, as for your personal use you've made that final decision, then it's of no importance to keep the alpha transparency. But all versions put into the contributions section should have that feature of course.

Aaah, happy birthday, dear Finland ;)

Best regards,


Sir John Steed

[kairen]

yes, dear Finland indeed, no Nokias or Linux without us....(as in Linus being a Finn)

thanks for the tips, just got to reading the forums again... the left it's mark on me. Missed a translation job because I didn't wake up to my phone...and not until a little wile ago.

Just not able to drink like I was young...the hangovers have definitely gotten worse, considering I nearly had none 5 years ago...

totally off the topic post

[Webskipper]

I have tried both generators and not had good luck yet.

I have tried the top 6 Mac browsers and only see the upper half of my button.

I have tried Explorer and Firefox on XP.

I have created a blank button from the Gloss_Black template in many sizes and also just as a left, right, and body PNGs to create any size.

I would to create this button not only for me in several languages but also to contribute back to Zen Cart.

Anyone know the font that was used?

I am also looking to create my own buttons for a new template. Please help.