This should be the last post for today, but it’s worth posting…when you search, the results now automatically sort themselves into 16 products per page, in a 4×4 grid. Not only do they do that, but they’ve also got thumbnails displaying preview images of the products (with the exception of the makeup items that don’t have a picture yet). If you want to see more products, just look at the bottom of the page and click First, Previous, Next, or Last to see the respective pages. This new organization will make it much easier for everyone to see what we’ve actually got in stock.

For a sample, click here to see how we’ve redesigned it–now you can browse images and costumes, like the hippie costumes above or the pirate costumes here–or even just click on their respective pictures!

This will help you if you don’t know what you want to be for Halloween or other parties–just type in “nurse” or “pirate” or whatever you have in mind, like “sexy,” for instance, and we’ll show you what we’ve got that’ll work. Now you can just browse through pictures and see if anything sticks out at you.

Naturally, all of this is being done to make everything easier and more intuitive for you. We’ll keep you updated on everything else going on around the shop and the site–thanks again for reading, and remember, if you’d like to subscribe (and automatically receive updates on our store) go here or just click on “Entries RSS” just below “Subscribe” (to the top right of this page). That’ll keep you in the loop as to when new shipments come in, when we add new inventory, and when the site has new features!

development, halloween, hippie, leg avenue, parties, pirates, retro, store

We’ve now developed three different search engines–and we’ve currently got a new one to test out. Essentially, you can now type manufacturers, sizes, costume names, or whatever, and the search engine automatically sorts out the optimal results for your query. This actually supports up to ten words in sequence, though if anyone expresses a need we can make it support much more.

Also, we’ll open up the page for comments so if you’ve any suggestions, you can post there or you can just email them to us at costumecurio@gmail.com.

In the next few days we’ll be integrating all three of the search engines into one–that way when you search, just like always, you’ll be directed to the results page; but once you’re there, you’ll see even more relevant results. Specifically, the top results will be exact (or very near) what you were looking for (if we have it in the database yet), immediately followed by related results you might also be interested in. All of this development is to make everything on this site more accessible for our customers–so we want to know if it is indeed helping you!

If things don’t seem to work right, or not in the way you expect, or if you just want to tell us how you’d like things to work, please do!

Thanks for reading, and as always, we’ll keep you updated on all news.

development, information, leg avenue, search, search engine

You may have noticed a new feature on our site–look to your left–and you’ll see “Product Search”! We’ve finally moved the blog to our dedicated servers, and linked the blog to our database, allowing all of our customers to search our inventory for products, read descriptions, find out prices, and whatever else they’d need to do. If you’d like to see particular features in the search process (be it the search page, results pages, or product pages) just let us know at costumecurio@gmail.com. We’ll do our best to make this as intuitive as possible, and look for a shopping cart in the near future.

The only inventory online now is the majority of our makeup stock–well over 500 products. But for now, some pages will not have a product image (but we’re working on that, and hope to have all of the images in by the end of the week). Let us know if you have any problems, and as always, we’ll keep you updated as to how things are coming along. Our top priorities now are adding all of our product images and finishing configuring our shopping cart–allowing our customers to purchase makeup online through PayPal, using their own PayPal account or any major credit card.

Thanks again for reading!

costume, costume curio, database, development, inventory, new site, orders, paypal, search

We’ve been working on the new site some more–obviously–and can now state that some real progress is being made–the search engine is fully functioning, the results pages are up and running, and the product page templates are almost done. We’re going to put our energy into the layouts at this time, as all we’ve really got to do (other than that) is add products to our database (which, we apologize, will take some time).

Currently, we’ve automated the prices, names, manufacturers, sizes, colors, descriptions–and even the pictures! This means that each page will load extremely fast, and all we’ve got to do to update our stock is change a value or two in our database; meaning that we will be able to keep our stock updated in almost real time (and no more waiting for new products).

During this time, we’ll also be adding a PayPal system into our product pages that will allow our customers to purchase our products online, and have them shipped directly.

Thank you again to all of our customers for being so patient during our web development. Look for more updates soon, as we really start to dig into getting this database built!

company, costume curio, database, development, information, new site, search

This is just a quick update on the new site–the search engine is fully functioning, and results and product pages are created. We still haven’t created the layouts yet, but the data is all there and working perfectly. Now, all we’ve got to do is sort out our page layouts in CSS and start putting everything together (as well as complete the database). We know this sounds like quite a lot, but most of the dirty work has been done.

The current iteration of the engine is plain text–but upon searching for a keyword, a list of relevant results is sorted. Once the results load (which takes about 0.0043 or so seconds on average), one can click on each of the results for specific information about it. The nice part is, we’ll be able to easily tailor the results and product pages. For now, the results give the searcher a list of the product’s names (as hyperlinks to the product’s pages), price, size, color, and manufacturer. All one has to do to view the product page is to click on the product’s name (this is all done using php’s fantastic &_GET functions to read product IDs from within the links, using them to dynamically create web pages–something our users will never have to worry about).

We’ve also tested the speed of adding new entries and products, and have come to the conclusion that it is, well, instant. The moment we’ve added a product, removed a product, changed a price, or altered a description, it is changed on the database and within the site.

The current plan of attack is as thus:
1. Add more product to the database
2. Develop and test multiple layouts to determine which one is the most user-friendly, while still aesthetically pleasing
3. Add in paypal functionality and a shopping cart
4. Unleash this animal to freely roam the internets

As always, we’ll keep you up-to-date on how things are developing. Thanks again for reading, and have a fantastic Friday!

costume, development, mysql, new site, paypal, php, search, search engine, sequel pro, shopping cart, sql, web, website

We’ve got our database for the new site, up and running. It’s not done yet by any means, but some of the nasty bits and technicalities have been worked out. So far, our makeup inventory (well–most of it) is searchable by all of the following categories: product name, manufacturer, size, price, color, base (as in grease, oil, or water)–or simply by keyword. For instance–to find out what we carry in red or clowning makeup, one can just search “red” or “clowning” and everything related will appear. The new site will have a straightforward and prominent search bar, allowing all of our inventory to be searched quickly and easily from any page on the site.

The point of all of this is to make it easier for us to help our customers–and we’re doing our best to make sure everything is fast, straightforward, and compatible. It’s widely known that our current website only works on Internet Explorer–but the new one will work on Firefox, Opera, Safari, Netscape, Seamonkey, and yes, Internet Explorer.

Just as some proof that the database does in fact exist, here’s a teaser:

And yes, this will make life easier for all of our customers, and due to our choice to design the website around a MySQL database, we will be able to update our prices, changes in stock, and new products in almost real-time–all with the goal of serving our valued customers even better.

Stay tuned for updates–we’ll keep everyone in-the-know as to how the development’s coming along.

costume, costumes, customers, database, development, makeup, new site, news, search, service, update