Interviews

Ian Davidson

Community Profile: ian-san
Date Added: 7th June 2004

Tell us a little about yourself (Name, Age, Residency, ..)

Ohayogozaimasu (Good Morning)

My name is Ian Davidson (Ian-San) and I am a 52 year old Brit.

Okay, so already you can tell two things about me: 1) I have something to do with Japan (my partner actually) and 2) Yes, I did say 52 years old so if I can use osCommerce then anyone can!

Actually, I do have a degree in Computing Studies but that was a long time ago now and was all about mainframes, magnetic core memory and Fortran cards - not too useful for dealing with the web and class based languages.

I also have post-grad qualifications in marketing - my day job is working for the Global Services Product Marketing group of a major UK Telco.

How and when did you get introduced to PHP and osCommerce?

In 2001, I started to play with the web and quickly got addicted. Initially, it was just HTML and then a bit of JavaScript, SSI, Perl etc.

At that time, I realised that with a bit of effort I could create an online shop. I didn't really have any great desire to sell anything but thought that creating the shop in Japanese would be an interesting challenge.

So after making an initial JavaScript site, I bought in a shopping basket and payment system at enormous cost. However, this did not work at all with the Japanese characters and anyway was extremely inflexible so I looked around for an alternative and found OSC. And what a fantastic find that was!

Initially, I struggled like many newbies with the complexities of php and MySQL but as OSC is so logically constructed and easy to install I persevered and slowly made progress.

I got loads of help from the forum which was very impressive to me and a really pleasant surprise.

After I while, I found that I was customising the code myself and wanted to give something back to the project - but more about that later.

Has osCommerce met your expectations? What would you like to see done in osCommerce?

OSC is by far the best shopping cart / eCommerce web site going and it is Free as well. Every day it just gets better and better. Recently, I downloaded the meltdown development version for a commission that I am doing and was staggered to see the number of changes made since MS2 was released just a few months earlier. You tend not to notice these things on a day to day basis despite working on the project most days.

Improvements to OSC? My only suggestion would be to have a couple of general classes that are not required for the core code but that could be used for contribution support. Ie they could provide a sort of standardised framework to hang optional modules off. Maybe an enhanced file upload class, image support class, data and time arithmetic, time zone support etc. The existing classes are pretty flexible mind you so I am really struggling to find something to say here.

Can you describe the contributions you have made to osCommerce, if any?

My earliest group of contributions (that I will now own up to) were to do with double-byte character support (Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc) which is not too easy to manage in php unless you have mbstring support (which is now increasingly the case on most servers). I also made some contributions on image support plus a strange little mod to manage a Xmas promotion which surprisingly still gets downloaded.

I then moved on to WorldPay and some other payment and Shipping modules.

I guess I am best known now for my Vistors Web Stats contribution which has had well over 1,500 downloads since I first posted it. To be honest, this really surprises me as it is very basic, poor quality, code and seriously due for an overhaul! But I guess it is really easy to install ....

What keeps you motivated to work on osCommerce?

I see each new challenge as a bit of a learning experience. Every day brings a new problem to solve and I learn a bit more from others in the forum. OSC is just a great way to improve your programming skills.

Can you describe your experiences as a store administrator so far had with osCommerce?

I think that I am a very bad store owner - each time I create a new store, I get bored with it and change direction again. I have learnt that I really do not want to deal with things like stock, postage and customers on a day to day basis so my recent suite of websites - gowebtools.com - is an attempt to create an OSC e-Commerce web site that had no physical products, requires no day to day management and is entirely self-maintaining.

osCommerce is central to this store but customised in a less obvious way as it is the Admin part that I have spent most time developing.

What advice would you provide to those being introduced to osCommerce?

Very simple really - don't give up on day one! Take time to read the installation instructions. If it doesn't work first time it is because you have done something wrong (we all make mistakes) not because the code doesn't work!

What do you think about the osCommerce community? Have you gained friends and contacts here?

The osCommerce community is fantastic. The spirit of community is ever present and there is really no shortage of help for those who need it. I now see the community as part of my everyday virtual world and have been surprised how many friends I have made.

What slogan or logo would you wear on a t-shirt?

Well it would have to be:

jimon-jitou (ask yourself, answer yourself..)

How do you spend your average day?

My day starts at 0800 hrs when I am in the UK. I work from home rather than an office and spend most of the day working for my primary job in Global Product Marketing (of course).

Aside from product marketing, I also maintain a couple of websites for my main employer as well.

In the evenings, I switch computers and work on commissions or improvements to my own sites. Currently I am heavily involved in creating two very different stores - one retail and one trade - for a private customer who actually has a lot of knowledge about OSC but cannot spare the time doing the web sites himself.

Late in the evening, I tend to go online on the OSC community forums to see what is new.

How does your desktop look like?

Well, it is reasonable clean as I have to keep a good separation between my personal stuff and my paid work and I do not like clutter. I also keep separate computers for my main job and private stuff which helps.