Ecommerce Solutions for Websites: Paid, Open-Source, or Custom-made?

Ecommerce Solutions for Websites: Paid, Open-Source, or Custom-made?: "

E-commerce is a growing commodity in web development, and any web developer can benefit from learning how to develop for a popular e-commerce solution. The majority of web development clients these days require or want some sort of solution for selling goods or services online. Furthermore, they want this solution to be easy for them to manage, update, and also track sales and related finances. Features are a necessity for a client, but even more important is security, stability, and expandability from a development perspective.

In this post, we'll look into some of the most popular e-commerce solutions used today, both from the benefits relative to clients, and from a development perspective. Not only will we look into pre-made solutions, but also discuss the pros and cons of using paid or premium services, self-hosted solutions, open-source solutions, or the option of creating custom e-commerce systems built to fit each website.

What Features Are Necessary?

Different e-commerce systems obviously offer different features. Some are standard across many, but some may offer more than others. Features are important to consider, not only to help the client get all the features needed and wanted, but also in terms of maintaining simplicity and efficiency on the website. For example, if a client needs a simple ecommerce system with only a few basic features, there would be no need to use an application that holds additional features that would never be used, and that would only take up space on the server as well as space in the back-end admin area. Also, for paid solutions, there is no need to pay for features the client doesn't need, only upping their cost, and lowering your profit margin as a developer.

Take a moment to define and collaborate on the features needed within the e-commerce system. Does the client need to sell products, services, or both? Do they need recurring payments? Do they need an easy way to track orders, see statistics on growth, or otherwise, right within the admin area? After determining the needed features, then research on different vendors can begin, or otherwise decide on a custom solution.

Paid vs. Open-Source

Which is really better? Paid or open-source software? Our first instinct for this question in any niche is a paid-for, premium version. This is generally where the quality is in other areas, but is it true for shopping cart and e-commerce software as well?

Because the need for online shopping carts has been around for a while, we fortunately have several quality options to choose from in both categories. There are a lot of developers that are dedicated to creating high-quality, secure, and stable open-source solutions in this area. Likewise, there can also be paid solutions that are not up to par with some of the best open-source options. This is an area that has truly developed successfully within the last several years.

In order to determine which is better, it's really just a matter of reviewing the features needed and each piece of software being considered. If all the features can be covered by a quality open-source solution, then that's great, otherwise one of the paid vendors may be a better choice. Like with many other things, paid versions however will likely have better official support from the company, and an added sense of security in terms of updates, patches, and any needed fixes.

Custom-made Solution

Finally, the third option is to ignore all pre-existing options and create a custom solution for the website's unique needs. This can definitely be the most time-consuming option, but what about cost effectiveness? The final outcome really depends on the features needed and the complexity involved. In many cases, a simple solution can be hand-coded that remains a cheaper and offers more efficient solutions. At other times, a custom and more complex solution may still be necessary in order for complete customization and control. Debugging, theming, and adding on new features can definitely be easier with one's own code.

One other and probably more common reason that a client would need a custom solution is that they are needing the e-commerce portion to be added onto an existing website, and the other content and design cannot be sacrificed. For many websites, a custom solution built around the pre-existing website is a much easier solution. Sometimes, it may be the only solution.

Many of the features of a custom solution will depend on one's own coding style and needs, but below are a few basic tutorials for getting started, at least with the logic behind the type of script:

• PHP MySQL Shopping Cart Tutorial


• Building a simple PHP shopping cart


• PayPal Integration Wizard


• Website Payments Standard: Have custom cart


• Lynda.com: Building an Online Shopping Cart

Of course, as a web developer, one also has the option of creating an e-commerce and shopping cart application from the ground up, and reusing it easily for many clients. This solution can reap the benefits in both areas - being able to work with one's own code and customize more easily, but also having the convenience and time and energy saving efforts of using a pre-existing model.

Volusion

Volusion is a premium solution that offers all the quality features a client company would need, with great support and extensive add-ons. The company also offers a number of services from design and code customization, to marketing, and to training. There are also a number of premium quality templates that can act as a base to your own design for customization, or just as the design overall. Pricing depends on the number of products needed, data storage, and support features. The cheapest starts at $29/mo. and can upgrade easily - perfectly suitable for most clients budgets.

Shopify

Shopify is another premium software, with plenty of free themes and extensions. It comes with its own iPhone App for the store, support, analytics, and a great interface. They also offer cheap hosting for a Shopify store that can make the website easier to maintain in terms of support. The hosting offers features that are perfect for e-commerce websites, such as unlimited bandwidth, fast servers, automatic backups and more.

Big Commerce

Big Commerce from a design and development standpoint offers fully customizable design, and also a drag and drop interface for design features on the client's end. Just style the 'widgets' and the client can also have more control without endless updates, tweaks, and maintenance from you, the designer. Big Commerce offers features for social media, marketing, product options, checkout options, multi-currency support, and more. There is also an API and documentation as well that allows developers to have further customization.

Magento

Magento comes as a free, open-source edition, and as two premium editions: professional and enterprise. The premium versions offer more features, as can be seen on their edition comparison page. Basic features include SEO optimization, marketing tools, analytics, a mobile version, easy site management, varying checkout features, customer accounts, and an extensive admin back-end. There are also a number of extensions and an API for custom development.

osCommerce

osCommerce is an open-source shopping cart solution with a variety of common and useful features. From a design and development standpoint, many agree that this is the easiest platform to work with. There are customer accounts, an extensive admin back-end, HTML product descriptions, several payment options, real-time shipping quotes, and more.

Open Cart

Open Cart is a 100% open-source and free shopping cart system with a great community behind it. It is fully expandable with unlimited products, categories, pages, and more. It also has some nice features for a more community-based online shopping experience like product reviews, ratings, and customer accounts. The back-end interface is clean and well organized, and the front-end templates are open-source too. There are several extensions available plus an API for further development customization and a theming guide for custom design as well. There is even an area where developers can sell extensions and templates specifically for this platform to earn some extra cash flow.

Tomato Cart

Tomato Cart is also completely free and open-source shopping cart software. The framework is lightweight and lightning fast, but yet feature-rich with an excellent interface. Beyond all the basic shopping cart features, it also offers easy management for customers, orders, and products. Tomato Cart comes built with its own CMS, for easy content management to build not only an online store around, but an entire website.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an open source solution with over 250 features, and integrates with many of the most common forms of payment: PayPal, Moneybookers, and direct credit card payments. It is easily and completely customizable from a design perspective, and even the backend admin area is customizable. There are also plenty of other features that are not standard on other shopping carts that can be beneficial, such as a Customer Loyalty program with a points system.

eCart

eCart is another open source solution with easy templating for designers and plenty of the standard features any shopping cart would need. It also features a sleek AJAX powered admin backend for handling customers, orders, products, and statistics. It's designed to be SEO friendly, and is perfect for online stores that will have a lot of products as it carries advanced catalog and search features.

Conclusion

Online shopping is hitting new records every year, and the need for secure, reliable, and feature-rich shopping cart and ecommerce solutions are a must on the web today. Many clients need e-commerce solutions built into their prebuilt websites, or otherwise need a new website with a shopping cart built or customized. It's already difficult to be a web developer that does not have to deal with e-commerce solutions, so it'd be best to gain familiarity with one piece of software now, or otherwise create one's own framework.

Do you currently have clients that require e-commerce solutions? What do you use, and how do you go about it? Which is the easiest, in your opinion, from a development standard, while at the same time offering clients the features they need?

• 30 Creative Clothing Ecommerce Website Designs
• Increasing Conversion with Web Design
• Implementing Ecommerce: What You Need To Know
• Put Your eCommerce Checkout on a Diet Plan

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Written by: Kayla Knight for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | No comment

Fake Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich

Fake Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich: "

Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich is known for installations that seem to defy the basic laws of physics and befuddle the viewer, who is introduced into jarring environments that momentarily threaten a sense of balance or space.

One of his most well-known and critically acclaimed pieces is “Swimming Pool”. Erlich has constructed a full-size pool, complete with all its trappings, including a deck and a ladder. When seen from the deck, the pool appears to be filled with deep, shimmering water. In fact, a layer of water only some 10 centimeters deep is suspended over transparent glass. Below the glass is an empty space with aquamarine walls that viewers can enter. The work sets up an unfolding sequence of experiences—we view the pool through the glass wall enclosing the courtyard; from the deck, looking down into the pool; and from the interior of the pool, looking up. The Swimming Pool might hence be considered a place where, slowly, with time, different perspectives and perceptions of self and others all come to intersect. 

Fake swimming pools were installed at the PS1 Art Center in New York and the 21st Century Art Museum in Kanazawa, Japan.

Website: leandroerlich.com.ar | Sources: 1 2

New York, PS1 Art Center

Image credits: Amaury Laporte

Japan, 21st Century Art Museum

Image Credits: NAKAMICHI Atsushi / Nacása & Partners

Fake Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich originally appeared on Bored Panda on April 26, 2011.

Movie Ages

Movie Ages: ""

Spread-The-Wealth Obama: Take More From The Job Producers And Give More To The Free-Riders

Spread-The-Wealth Obama: Take More From The Job Producers And Give More To The Free-Riders: "

Kicking off his 2012 re-election campaign, President Obama has been going around the country in the last few days spewing class warfare vitriol. He believes that it is the duty of the dwindling base of income tax payers to provide even more support for the ballooning base of non-income tax payers.

It’s not enough for this spread-the-wealth demagogue-in-chief that the top 10 percent of earners in this country pay nearly 3/4 of the income taxes collected by the federal government while the bottom 40 percent of American households, on average, get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in income taxes.

Obama wants even more pounds of flesh from the so-called “wealthy” Americans to spend on his pet projects like high-speed rail:

We can’t just tell the wealthiest among us, you don’t have to do a thing. You just sit there and relax, and everybody else, we’re going to solve this problem… We’ve got to have the quickest trains

In reality, Obama is castigating the job producers in the private sector, most notably small businesses earning more than $200,000 a year whom he thinks are not paying their fair share. In reality, it is these job producers who are the locomotive for the increasing number of Americans who are getting a free ride. For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930′s, U.S. households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes.

According to a Fox Business report citing an analysis by Fiscal Times, households received $2.3 trillion in some kind of government support in 2010, including expanded unemployment benefits, as well as payments for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and stimulus spending. Those benefits exceed the $2.2 trillion households paid in taxes.

Here are some more disturbing statistics. An estimated 59% of the 308.7 million Americans in this country get at least one federal benefit, according to the Census Bureau, based on 2009 data. Yet about 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank. In 2009, a family of four making as much as $50,000  owed no federal income tax, as long as there were two children younger than 17 in the household.

This is a sick, unsustainable system, which President Obama is doing everything he can to make even worse.

Joseph Klein is the author of a recent book entitled Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations and Radical Islam

Hannity Calls Out Rep. Keith Ellison for His Lies and Bigoted Smears

Hannity Calls Out Rep. Keith Ellison for His Lies and Bigoted Smears: "

Sean Hannity took on the media last week in a tour de force that should forever and always dismantle any argument that the mainstream or “legacy” media is objective. With such a large viewing audience, the hour-long special should cause some serious discomfort in “journolist” circles. There are a few other circles to which I’d like to introduce some discomfort. That’s why I hope Hannity will expand on a theme he ripped into with some gusto earlier this week, when Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison visited the Hannity show for the first time ever.

Things got a little heated.

Hannity is firing on all cylinders when, with the persistence of a hungry pit bull, he attempts again and again to bring Ellison back to the reality, reported by the 9/11 Commission, that radical Islam is at war with us. Ellison did not want to agree with that wording, squirmed, tried to insert the phrase “Al Qaeda” instead of radical Islam, finally was badgered into agreeing, then recanted and substituted the phrase “Al Qaeda” again.

What is Ellison’s problem? Hannity didn’t even ask him to say Islam was at war with us (which, by the way, it is). He offered the politically-correct “radical” Islam phrase. But Ellison can’t go there, because it conflicts with his narrative that “we’re at war with all violent extremists,” whether they be “Muslim, Christian or Jewish.”

You know, like the Christian terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassy in Lebanon in the name of Jesus. Or the Jewish terrorists who brought down the plane over Lockerbie in the name of God. Or the Buddhist terrorists who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and threw a wheelchair-bound elderly man overboard in the name of Buddha. Or the Hindu terrorists who killed a bunch of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in the name of Shiva. You know, violent extremists like that.

Ellison’s unwillingness to call a spade a spade is stomach-turning, and Hannity’s persistence in revealing that reluctance is admirable, as was his insistence that Ellison provide a concrete example of his claim that Fox News, using what Ellison referred to as a “common right wing tactic,” is trying to inflame religious conflict. Hannity pressed again and again for an example. After dissembling that he didn’t come on the show to debate things he’s said (what did he think Hannity was going to ask him about – cupcake recipes?) offering the smugly arrogant insight that maybe, presumably with his appearance, Fox was finally turning over a new leaf… stating that Hannity already “knew” what he did wrong (“you know what you guys broadcast”)… after all that, Ellison finally offered the utterly pathetic “proof” that Fox inflames conflict: When Hannity talks about terror, he always attaches the word “Muslim.”

Let’s assume that’s true. Why would Hannity do that? Hmmm… could it be the U.S. embassy in Lebanon? Lockerbie? The Achille Lauro? Munich Olympics? How about 9/11? How about the thousands upon thousands of terror attacks both before and after that pivotal date?

How about the fact that every last one of them was done in the name of Allah?

That is why, Rep. Ellison, that Mr. Hannity wants you to acknowledge the danger of (radical) Islam. To even imply that other faith traditions are equally worthy of our concern is an insult to intelligence. If you went camping and didn’t take precautions to protect against an attack by a hungry bear, because you wanted to be equally sure you took precautions to protect against an attack by a hungry bluebird, or a hungry earthworm – you’d probably end up getting eaten by a bear. ‘Nuff said.

The King hearings on the radicalization of Islam are “bear attack” precautions. We all know bears have attacked, do attack and will attack again. To spend time discussing possible bluebird threats is not only silly but dangerous.

Speaking of the King hearings, Hannity took Ellison to task for his gross mischaracterization of a Muslim paramedic who died in 9/11. Ellison claimed, during tearful testimony, that this man had been maligned as “one of them” – as a terrorist. Ellison used this alleged unfair treatment as the basis for his argument that the hearings presented the same kind of ignorant bias. Except, as Hannity pointed out, the 9/11 paramedic was lauded for this service to America and mentioned by name in the Patriot Act. Again going on the offensive, Hannity repeatedly asked Ellison to explain why he misled the American people during his (literal) sob story. The best Ellison could come up with, under pressure, was that the man’s family had told him that “some people” had said hurtful things.

What? Stop those hearings immediately! We can’t have any hurt. Stop the madness!

Hannity also took Ellison to the woodshed for his bogus comparison of Rosa Parks to the folks building the Ground Zero mosque. This is truly a case of leftist analogy #FAIL. I’m sorry – did I miss where Rosa Parks’ friends bombed some buses and killed a few thousand Americans in order to further “black power”? Because if that happened, I wouldn’t be a big fan of her sitting next to me on the bus, either.

As for those who opposed the mosque, Ellison used the classic leftist ploy of “when I called those people bigots, I didn’t mean all of them – just the ones who are bigots.” Uh-huh. Ellison says some people opposed the mosque on good faith, whereas others are just bigots. Hey, Rep. Ellison, I can play that game too! Try this: People who act as apologists for bloodthirsty terrorists make me sick! Of course I don’t mean all people who act as apologists for bloodthirsty terrorists – just the ones who do it on TV.

As strong as Hannity’s challenge to Ellison was, next time he has the congressman on we’d really like to see him raise the subject of the dangerous radicalization of Islamic stealth jihad organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In particular he needs to be asked about the Muslim Brotherhood’s secret document ”An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America” which lays out radical Islam’s plan for conquering our country from within.

Arrest of Duke Rape Accuser Crystal Mangum Exposes the Left’s Insincerity & Lies

Arrest of Duke Rape Accuser Crystal Mangum Exposes the Left’s Insincerity & Lies: "

This popular post was originally published April 16, 2011.

Editor’s note: Crystal Mangum, the woman who falsely accused members of the Duke lacrosse team of raping her in 2006, may now face a murder charge for the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend. This post was originally published on February 20, 2010, just after Mangum’s arrest for arson, child abuse, and attempted murder.

“She was black, they were white, and race and sex were in the air.”  That’s how a Washington Post columnist described the atmosphere that led to the brutal gang rape of Crystal Mangum by a group of Duke University lacrosse players in 2006.  You remember, right? That was the violent, racially motivated hate crime that never happened.

Mangum is in the news again, but this time she won’t find an army of race-obsessed charlatans, Marxist demagogues, and pandering politicians speeding to her defense.  The Left only rolls out that treatment for struggling black single mothers when their harrowing tales bolster an ideological agenda.  Pulling off the “virtuous victim of white privilege” shtick won’t be easy when Mangum faces charges of child abuse, arson, and attempted murder.

Guilty or innocent, the stripper who cried wolf is on her own this time.  She was only worthy of the support of Jesse Jackson, NOW, the New Black Panther Party, and the Duke University “gang of 88” as long as she was able to help weave a compelling narrative of misogyny, class warfare, racial inequity, and systemic injustice.

Two weeks after Crystal Mangum falsely accused the Duke athletes of rape, English Professor Houston Baker publicly condemned the University’s “moral response to abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence, and drunken white male privilege loosed amongst us.”  In a letter to University Provost Peter Lange, he wrote:

The lacrosse team – 15 of whom have faced misdemeanor charges for drunken misbehavior in the past three years – may well feel they can claim innocence and sport their disgraced jerseys on campus, safe under the cover of silent whiteness. But where is the black woman who their violence and raucous witness injured for life? Will she ever sleep well again?

If Professor Baker and his Duke colleagues cared so much about Crystal Mangum getting a good night’s sleep, what did they do to prevent her from landing in prison on attempted murder and child abuse charges?  If her race and socioeconomic status were enough to merit destroying the lives of a “scummy bunch of white males,” why did they abandon this underprivileged black woman without getting her the help she so obviously needed?

Mangum was a deeply troubled woman long before she falsely accused the Duke University athletes of rape. Her history of mental illness and unsubstantiated rape and violence claims began in her teenage years, and alcohol abuse has been part of the picture as well.

But that didn’t matter to the Duke faculty members who seized upon her false rape account to stir up racial animosity and resentment of “white, male, athletic privilege.”  She made a convenient weapon in the race, class, and gender warfare waged by academics and abetted by the media and the reprehensible former district attorney, Mike Nifong.

Malik Zulu Shabazz, national chairman of the New Black Panther Party proclaimed, “to us she is a righteous and divine woman by nature.” 88 Duke faculty members jumped to her defense (and all but convicted the athletes) in a full-page ad that described a poisonous environment of racial hatred.  And of course, the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up to highlight the plight of a black single mother terrorized by a culture of rampant racism and sexism.

Mangum’s affirmative action qualifications became less valuable when evidence clearing the lacrosse players forced her to turn in her righteous victimhood card.  To the Left, she was a cause, not a human being. When she couldn’t maintain the hoax, she wasn’t any less black or any less female. But she was no longer a politically useful black single mother, and thus, no longer of value to the race hustlers and class warmongers who rushed to her aid.

Once Crystal Mangum outlived her usefulness as the personification of social injustice in their heavy handed race baiting immorality play, the Left moved on without apology.  And Mangum returned to her troubled life as just another ex-poster child for the leftist agenda, a mentally unstable, alcohol soaked liar who was chewed up and spit out by people in a position to help stop her from ruining more lives, including those of her three young children.

More NewsReal analysis of Crystal Mangum’s arrest:

Lori Ziganto: In Crystal Mangum, Duke Rape Accuser, Leftist Tactics Come Home To Roost

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Follow Jenn Q. Public on Twitter and read more of her work at JennQPublic.com.

Pentecostal Minister Offers Sound Advice to Mormon Bishops (and All of Us)

Pentecostal Minister Offers Sound Advice to Mormon Bishops (and All of Us): "Yesterday I had an uplifting conversation with a Pentecostal pastor who is assisting with congregations on the West Coast. He was extremely considerate and accepting, and never once tried to tell me that I wasn't Christian. Just kind and loving. In our conversation, we discussed some of the challenges of being a minister (he knew I had been an LDS bishop) and the difficulty of counseling people through all the challenges of life, especially when we face complex problems with inadequate training and experience. He offered some advice that I think would be great for LDS bishops and anyone offering spiritual counsel to others.

He said that when someone schedules time to come in and talk with him about their problems, he asks them to schedule an equal amount of time for personal prayer before coming in to talk. If it's a 45-minute appointment, they will be asked to spend 45 minutes with the Lord seeking His guidance on the challenges they face. Then when they come in to talk, he asks if they kept their commitment and then asks what they learned and felt in this process. In many cases, they will recognize that they already have their answer and can move on.

We teach people all the time to pray for help, but sometimes it may just seem like empty words. If we can get people to actually get on their knees and take their issues to the Lord in earnest prayer, not just for 5 minutes, but long enough to really counsel with the Lord, we might be able to let the people really grow in their journey with God.

How refreshing to find a man who teaches his people the power of prayer and personal revelation. That's advice for all of us.

"

The Roller Coaster Of Love Euthenasia: A Coaster Designed To Kill All Passengers

The Roller Coaster Of Love Euthenasia: A Coaster Designed To Kill All Passengers: "

This is a conceptual roller coaster designed by Royal College of Art doctoral student Julijonas Urbonas to kill all the riders as fun and ethically as possible. WHEEEEEEEEE!! *eyes roll back in head*

'Euthanasia Coaster' is a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely -- with elegance and euphoria -- take the life of a human being. Riding the coaster's track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death. Thanks to the marriage of the advanced cross-disciplinary research in space medicine, mechanical engineering, material technologies and, of course, gravity, the fatal journey is made pleasing, elegant and meaningful.

Meaningful? How is dying on a roller coaster meaningful? Dying saving kittens from a burning building, now that's meaningful (plus will get you mad play in heaven). Dying trying to jump a previously un-jumped number of buses on a burning bicycle, that's meaningful. Dying on a roller coaster? That's not meaningful, that's not pulling your lap bar down far enough (my brother and I both slid out of The Beast at King's Island and got free season passes!).

The Euthanasia Coaster is designed to be fun, briefly [dvice]

Thanks to Dan, who refuses to ride any coaster that doesn't stand a chance of killing him. That's, uh, that's all of them."

Honest Logos by Viktor Hertz

Honest Logos by Viktor Hertz: "

We’ve already laughed at the Top 15 Worst Logo FAILS Ever, tried to find hidden objects in 30 Clever Logos With Hidden Symbolism and even learned some history from 21 Logo Evolutions of the World’s Well Known Logo Designs, but we’ve never looked at what would happen if companies created honest logos.

Viktor Hertz, a freelance Graphic Designer from Sweden, finally did it – he turned well known logos into “Honest Logos”.

“An idea for a series with honest logos, revealing the actual content of the company, what they really should be called. Some are cheap, some might be a bit funny, some will maybe be brilliant. I don’t know.” says the artist.

Websites: flickr | twitter

Honest Logos by Viktor Hertz originally appeared on Bored Panda on April 20, 2011.

Possibly related articles:

1. 30 Clever Logos With Hidden Symbolism


2. Top 15 Worst Logo FAILS Ever


3. 21 Logo Evolutions of the World’s Well Known Logo Designs

"

Review: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - The Book

Review: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - The Book: "

I can hardly believe that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog came out it 2008. I remember the excitement about the series that swept over the internet. It felt like it was just last year. Maybe that’s because I watch the web series and listen to the soundtrack on a regular basis. It doesn’t get old. I was happy to hear that Titan was publishing a book to accompany the story. Really. Insert nerd squees here.

This book isn’t just a visual companion with the script. Don’t write it off as fluff that just rehashes the story (some movie books do that). Dr. Horrible: The Book has the script but also plenty of new and shiny facts to make it worth picking up. You’ll be laughing from the foreword on the first page by Captain Hammer. As you go through the pages, you’ll find letters from all the main cast members with memories about filming, exactly how Dr. Horrible’s remote control in Act I was designed, behind the scenes photos, handwritten lyrics from Joss, insight on the costume designs, and more. One of the neatest things is the inclusion of sheet music for the songs. I can’t play instruments, but I know people who can. And I will bribe them with cupcakes to learn “My Eyes” and play it over and over.

This book is also special because it's an anomaly.  There aren't many (or any) published visual companions for a web-only project.  The team behind Dr. Horrible created something special in a time when the writers of Hollywood were being stepped on.  Fans took down internet serves with an outpouring of support for Dr. Horrible.  Fans helped this book be made.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: The Book is oversized and pretty. The layout makes you flip through the 160 pages in a happy, give-me-more-now fashion. I went through once to read the extras and a few times just to make sure I looked at every photo. There are lots of them. I really can’t think of anything they left out in this book. It has the same fun spirit and quality that the web series did. If you want to make a Dr. Horrible fan in your life happy, buy them this book.

"