did you mean?

Say what?

Like Google you might want to offer “did you mean” functionality to your site visitors, not sure where to start? or just looking for a quick fix! then you’r in the right place…

To kick off with it’s worth noting that we are going to be using mySQL Stored procedures, along with the various mySQL built in functions, such as: SOUNDEX() et al.

Lets start by building some key parts of our database, begining with the “tbl_dictionary”, we are going to need a dictionary to compare our users input against, below I show you the table structure.

1. tbl_dictionary


CREATE TABLE `tbl_dictionary` (
`fld_id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`fld_word` varchar(255) character set latin1 default NULL,
`fld_relation` int(11) default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`fld_id`),
FULLTEXT KEY `iword` (`fld_word`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=82610 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_bin COMMENT='Dictionary UK Word List';


you can download the full dictionary (tbl_dictionary) SQL dump here (should make life a little easier)

2. LEVENSHTEIN Stored Procedure ( Function )

The Levenshtein distance is a metric for measuring the amount of difference between two sequences such as a string, in our case that’s the difference between our users input and the strings (records) in our database table.

Here is the DDL for the function:


CREATE FUNCTION 'LEVENSHTEIN'(s1 VARCHAR(255), s2 VARCHAR(255)) RETURNS int(11)
BEGIN
        DECLARE s1_len, s2_len, i, j, c, c_temp, cost INT;
        DECLARE s1_char CHAR;
        DECLARE cv0, cv1 VARBINARY(256);
        SET s1_len = CHAR_LENGTH(s1), s2_len = CHAR_LENGTH(s2), cv1 = 0x00, j = 1, i = 1, c = 0;
        IF s1 = s2 THEN
          RETURN 0;
        ELSEIF s1_len = 0 THEN
          RETURN s2_len;
        ELSEIF s2_len = 0 THEN
          RETURN s1_len;
        ELSE
          WHILE j <= s2_len DO
           SET cv1 = CONCAT(cv1, UNHEX(HEX(j))), j = j + 1;
          END WHILE;
          WHILE i <= s1_len DO
            SET s1_char = SUBSTRING(s1, i, 1), c = i, cv0 = UNHEX(HEX(i)), j = 1;
            WHILE j <= s2_len DO
                SET c = c + 1;
               IF s1_char = SUBSTRING(s2, j, 1) THEN SET cost = 0; ELSE SET cost = 1; END IF;
                SET c_temp = CONV(HEX(SUBSTRING(cv1, j, 1)), 16, 10) + cost;
                IF c > c_temp THEN SET c = c_temp; END IF;
               SET c_temp = CONV(HEX(SUBSTRING(cv1, j+1, 1)), 16, 10) + 1;
                IF c > c_temp THEN SET c = c_temp; END IF;
                SET cv0 = CONCAT(cv0, UNHEX(HEX(c))), j = j + 1;
            END WHILE;
            SET cv1 = cv0, i = i + 1;
          END WHILE;
        END IF;
        RETURN c;
END;


3.0 LEVENSHTEIN_RATIO Stored Procedure ( Function )

Now we create our next stored function, this one utilises the Levenshtein one we just created, it returns a value between 0 - 100 that indicates how close the match is.

Here’s the DDL


CREATE FUNCTION `LEVENSHTEIN_RATIO`(s1 VARCHAR(255), s2 VARCHAR(255)) RETURNS int(11)
BEGIN
    DECLARE s1_len, s2_len, max_len INT;
    SET s1_len = LENGTH(s1), s2_len = LENGTH(s2);
    IF s1_len > s2_len THEN SET max_len = s1_len; ELSE SET max_len = s2_len; END IF;
   RETURN ROUND((1 - LEVENSHTEIN(s1, s2) / max_len) * 100);
END;


4.0 Our final Stored Procedure DID_YOU_MEAN ( returns dataset )

This function will return a single record as defined by the LIMIT 0,1 in the SP. You could change this and it would return a list in order of closest match.

The first parameter takes a string ( word ) to compare and the second parameter takes an integer that represents the threshold to prevent completely incorrect suggestions being returned, you should play with this figure to find one that best suits your enviroment.

[code]
CREATE PROCEDURE `DID_YOU_MEAN`(IN param1 VARCHAR(255), IN param2 INTEGER(2))
BEGIN
  SELECT
    fld_id,
    tbl_dictionary.fld_word,
    LEVENSHTEIN_RATIO(param1,tbl_dictionary.fld_word)  as Ratio
  FROM
    tbl_dictionary
  WHERE
    SOUNDEX(param1) = SOUNDEX(tbl_dictionary.fld_word)
 HAVING
    LEVENSHTEIN_RATIO(param1,tbl_dictionary.fld_word) > param2
 ORDER BY Ratio DESC
    LIMIT 0,1;
END
[/code]

5.0 How to use

Its straight forward from here.. 

Call
      DID_YOU_MEAN(’Cheeze’,50) and we get as a result:
      –> 11691 | cheese | 83

That’s all folks, enjoy

Your Comments are Welcome!

A good example of the bug can be found here http://discuss.lionleon.com/testing/spryTooltipBug.php

I fixed this by adding a new option called “respectBoundaries” which when set to true will do as it says on the tin.

Here is an example of the fix http://www.mediamodus.com/spry-tooltip-bug-fix.html

Below you can download the new version of sprytooltip.js

Download SpryToolTip.Zip CRC32 = B5B8C398

Enjoy,

Jason.

phish? no its a crock!

On  Nov 18th 2009 at 3:08 PM our site was submitted to phistank.com by some anonymous urk called PhishReporter, he/she got it wrong!  We have emailed them directly asking to be removed from their now somewhat dubious list. We have never received a response.

The story goes like this, we were testing some functionality for a client using the MS XML Object, the client had requested a degree of automation. Our developers had placed a file on the server to test the XML object was fetching urls correctly ( commonly known as debugging ). The url happened to be homepage of eBay, once loaded by the XML object, the response was written to the client.  That’s it, the long and the short of it!

Let’s look at the definition of Phishing,

Wikipedia says:

“In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames “

Looking at that deffinition it’s quite clear that our site should not have been and should not be listed on that wesbite.

If anyone at Phishtank.com would like to comment or even respond to our email I welcome your communication.

That’s all folks

For those who just want to know what it is and what it does!

This website solution is one of our most popular; being a strong all rounder it usable “straight from the box”. Your site could be up and running and making you money in no time at all! It’s also a great contender for customisation, should you wish.

It has a shopping cart system with the capacity for unlimited product categories, unlimited products, and it integrates with the PAYPAL system allowing you to manage sales and transactions, including refunds, directly from the easy to use control panel.

Along with the shopping system comes the Wordpress platform for publishing your news and events, and you may choose to maintain blogs to help promote your business; all this is already installed and ready for you to take advantage of straight away!

So who is using this system now?

our portfolio is available by clicking here, however here are three sites specificly based on this system.

www.thespicemarket.co.uk
www.tridentcateringequipment.co.uk
www.icklebabe.com

How much does it cost?

This solution starts at £1500.00

Ok I’m convinced, “I got to get me this”! What do I do now?

You just need to call us on the number above or email us at sales@mediamodus.com. Pay the deposit and we will then produce a design based on your feedback. Once approved we will then build the website ready for testing and then it’s over to you, you can start adding your products and publisihing your news. It really is that simple.

For those who want more detail, here’s some of the nitty gritty…

The following features are included in this solution:

• Website Design (ui)
• Unlimited Products
• Unlimited Categories
• Shopping Basket
• Checkout
• Delivery Details
• Optional Weight based Shipping Options
• PAYPAL Pro integration as standard
• Wordpress Blog integration for publishing your News and Events.
• The popular Wordpress CMS System
• Wordpress Theme to match Website Design for consistency across your site
• Full Shop CMS, Add, Edit Products, Categories etc…
• Order Management Fulfilment, features include Capture, Void, Refund etc..
• SEO Friendly URLS
• SEO Friendly Pages

Admin Screenshots and Information

The admin control panel is comprehensive, adding  your products and categories is very straight forward. The interface has been modelled on the popular Wordpress “dashboard” style for a consistant feel accross the site.

Requirements: websites hosted at vonhost.co.uk “classic” account, PayPal Pro UK account, SSL Certificate.

The Really Big Sale

“Really BIG Sale” is our promotional engine, each day a new genuine deal will be available and published throughout various social networks. Those of you who are luck nay savvy enough will grab yourself a bargain. This is not one of those faux bargains you see on the highstreet or in your supermarket where items are overpriced for a short time so they can then be marked down as a sale even though the price is what it would have been anyway, NO, this is real! If we say 50% off! that really does mean you get the product/service at half the price it was before and half the price it will be when the offer is over.

To take advantage of a “Really BIG Sale” you must take advantage on that day, there is no roll over and tomorrow you cannot take advantage of a deal that was available today, that is just the way it is!

“Really BIG Sale” is only available while stocks last and are subject to availability and terms & conditions, you should familiarise yourself with them!

During my daily development for clients, over the years I have pulled together or written various utilities that speed up and progress things a little a quicker. While mulling over the vast array of them while doing a backup I figured I should share some of them with others, so here they are, enjoy.

Caveat: a software on these pages are subject to this license and this warranty, if you do not agree to them then do not use the software. that’s all

HTTP Request Editor

what is it? It allows you to modify various elements of a http request before sending it to the target URL, you can modify request all headers, modify user-agent and a few other things. It’s great for testing proxies, websites response to different agents and headers etc… it returns the list of response headers also.

note: im thinking of adding som epost parameters also..

Download Now 241kb - crc32 = 18B8E3FC

Vonhost Connection Tester

For our venhost customers who want to test their connection and the connection of email servers

Download Now 299Kb

Why?

Lynn and Stuart Dunn have sold a range of spices, herbs, dried fruit and nuts at markets in Grantham and Spalding for more than 20 years. With the pressure of the current economic climate they both felt it was the right time to push the business forward.

They wanted an easy to use website that displayed the products clearly; and  it was important that their customers were able to find the products they want as fast as possible and then checkout swiftly.

It goes almost without saying, that the site had to be optimised for search engines.

What did we do?

After discussing the requirements we set out about producing the clean look and feel that Lynn and Stuart wanted. We decided that the products should be displayed in multiple boxes  with further details available with nothing more than a click.

Finding the products customers want is quite literally as easy as ABC. Because spelling some exotic  ingredients is sometimes a little hit and miss we suggested allowing customers to find products from the first letter by providing an A to Z menu to compliment the traditional free text search box.

We built the commerce shopping cart with the idea that some customer will be regulars just like the “real life” the market stall, and so, buying a single product should be straightforward and not cost the earth to get delivered. Our solution was to make sure every product had a “buy now” and directs the user to the shopping cart. So even from the home page it’s only one click to the checkout. To ensure customers were happy to make the transition from “real world” to website purchase the shipping had to be equivalent to the fuel cost of going to market in the car. Our suggestion of the “one pound” delivery charge for small orders was received positively and implemented.

After launch we set about achieving some exposure for the new website, we produced and distributed a press release to various publications and are delighted that the site was featured in the local press http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/business/Website-hope-for-spice-firm.5619176.jp

The site continues to grow from strength to strength.

Quick Details

What we did in bullet points.

• 1. Consultation,
• 2. Design,
• 3. Build
• 4. Host
• 5. Post Launch Promotion

We have a unique opportunity for a business development manager with proven B2B experience in online, e-commerce, website sales or subscription businesses. This is a chance to join a small agency with big ideas.

you will be:

• identifying and developing opportunities to drive customer acquisition
• running our online strategy, DM campaigns and developing partnerships
• managing budgets as the business grows

you must have:

• an analytical approach with the ability to set and drive an ambitious marketing agenda
• good organisational and managerial skills with the ability to juggle multiple projects
• a passion for the Internet and the positive impact it can have for clients

We’re currently based in Linconshire and plan to make a break for the city in the future. Our passion the success of our clients, whether a new website, an update to an old one or achieving greater visitor and sales figures; this is a truly exciting time here at Media Modus and a great opportunity to grow with us. Salary Circa £25,000 to £35,000 (based on experience)

to apply:

Send your CV with your Covering letter to jobs@mediamodus.com

So please have a look below and visit the websites!

• 
  client: www.avelandtrees.co.uk
  work: website design and development dynamic brochure wesbite including blog and content mangement system

• 
  client: www.bournedentalpractice.co.uk
  work: website design and development static brochure wesbite

• 
  client: www.bournehypnotherapy.co.uk
  work: website design only for static brochure website

• 
  client: www.cherryholtgardencentre.co.uk
  work: website design and development static brochure wesbite

• 
  client: www.funtrax.co.uk
  work: website design and development static brochure website

• 
  client: www.iclebabe.com
  work: website design and development ecommerce website

• 
  client: www.ipperformance.co.uk
  work: website design and development static brochure website

• 
  client: www.moo.to
  work: website design and development URL shortening service website

• 
  client: www.mydish.co.uk
  work: website design and development social recipe website

• 
  client: www.penmaen-media.co.uk
  work: website design and development dynamic brochure wesbite including blog and content mangement system

• 
  client: www.rapid-signs.com
  work: website design and development static brochure website

• 
  client: www.thepurebicyclecompany.co.uk
  work: website design and development static brochure website

• 
  client: www.thespicemarket.co.uk
  work: website design and development ecommerce website including blog to replicate the chatter at the market stall

• 
  client: www.twitterfuzz.com
  work: website design and development dynamic brochure wesbite including blog and ecommerce system

• 
  client: www.wrightlights.co.uk
  work: website design and development ecommerce website to showcase sumptuious lights

• 
  client: www.zorbakebabs.co.uk
  work: website design and development static brochure website including menu

Media Modus in the News

One of our clients ( mydish.co.uk ) hit the big time, appearing in front of the dragons on the BBC’s prime time show “Dragons Den”. After hours of duelling both Deborah Meaden and Theo Pathetis were interested, Theo offered Carol Savage a job but it was Deborah with the first offer, she wanted more equity for her money asking for 15%, Theo quickly followed with an offer of his own. He wanted to take 30% of the company as a split between them, after what seemed a short but awesome moment the offer was rejected and Carol chose Deborah as the dragon of choice. Now they have Deborah as part of their already excellent team the future is going to be a very exciting time for all concerned.

So what has this to do with us?

We built it! I remember sitting with Carol in her home discussing her next project, A few ideas were thrown around but none did she show more passion for than “the recipe website”. It was going to allow people to upload their recipes to keep safe and share with friends and family, it wasn’t long before the idea had grown into a full blown social networking site with massive potential for growth.

At this stage budget was in question, calling it a “shoe string” was giving it too much credit ( excuse the pun ), it was going to take someone with absolute belief and 100% commitment to build the site.

There was no doubt about Carols expertise and her ability to take this idea to the next level. She was already accomplished with several businesses under her belt, having an amazing power of persuasion, she needed a developer as committed ( and excited ) as she was and that is where we came in. I swear if she had told me the sky was a funny shade orange I would have believed her.

We were able to take the idea and make it a reality, becoming part of the team and working closely with Carol not forgetting to mention one of the finest minds Ken and marketing genius Helga we set about building this thing.

It was clear, we were going to have to use some tried and tested technology, now was not the time for huge learning curves we had to be sure that if things go wrong which invariably they do, we were able to lift the hood and fix it ourselves. The budget was not going to carry the weight of any other way. Out were third party tools and in was building it ourselves, we decided we would have to be intimate with our code and systems, flexibility and agility were going to be key to helping Carol do what she needed to do and this was the only way.

The story is a long one with many twists and turns, off hand it spans a year and half maybe more, it’s an exciting one with ups and downs, lows and highs. I will post more of the story in due course. For now suffice it to say, we are ecstatic and congratulate Carol on her success and admire her Tenacity, I suspect the future is going to be great for mydish.co.uk and all who sail in her.

Well done and Congratulations.