======================>  WSO Newsletter  <======================
              h t t p : / / w w w . w s o . n e t
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DECEMBER 1998                                         ISSUE: 015

-> Highlights
        1. New Account Type - Commerce Plus
        2. How to Use MIME Types
        3. Miva Merchant Come to Life

-> Useful WSO Links
        Newsletter Back Issues - http://www.wso.net/news.htm
	Referral Program - http://www.wso.net/referral.htm
	Tech Support - http://www.wso.net/support.htm

-> The following abbreviations are used in this document:
        FPO - FrontPageŽ Only
        NV - Non-Virtual
        BC - Budget Commerce
        VD - Virtual Domain

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-> ARTICLE #1: New Account Type - Commerce Plus ================
---> Relevant for ALL WSO customers ============================
================================================================

We've been talking a lot lately about the new Miva Merchant
shopping cart system.  Although its features warrant the $495
price tag, this is simply out of reach for some startup
businesses.

To help this situation we've introduced the Commerce Plus
account.  This new account has all the features of our standard
Virtual Domain account plus the use of the Miva Merchant system.
It is like renting a Miva Merchant license. Monthly cost for the
new account is only $49.95.

The advantages are:
1. Relatively low start-up cost
2. Free Miva Merchant software upgrades
3. Extra 5 Mbs of Disk Space (25 Mbs total)
4. Ability to purchase your own license in the future without
   having to make any changes to your exiting on-line store.
5. Includes all features of the standard Virtual Domain package

Full details on the new account can be found here:
http://www.wso.net/cplus.htm

As always, as full comparison chart of all our accounts is here:
http://www.wso.net/compare.htm


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-> ARTICLE #2: How to Use MIME types ===========================
---> Relevant for ALL WSO customers ============================
================================================================

Portions of this article were originally written by Kevin
Klinsky.

There is no shortage of plug-ins and file formats to work with
when creating a web page. One of the more common additions are
sound files. If you decide to create a link to a MIDI song file
in your web directory, odds are that it won't work properly the
first time. Everything in your HTML looks correct, but for some
reason, your browser doesn't recognize the file as being a music
file. You know that you have listened to MIDI files on other
sites, but yours just won't play them. Assuming the file is not
corrupt and you do have the proper file extension (*.mid), the
problem is most likely related to the "MIME type." The web
server is probably not configured for the proper "MIME type" of
that file. 

"MIME" stands for "Multimedia Internet Mail Enhancement." It is
a system for indicating the type and format that a file is in.
There are more types and formats than a simple three letter file
extension can handle. Every time a new file format for the web
springs up, there is some MIME type associated with it. For
example, a MIDI file would have the type "audio/x-midi". A
Shockwave Director movie would be of type
"application/x-director". The web browser uses these MIME types
to determine how it will handle the particular file. 

WSO's web servers are set up to properly associate certain MIME
types to corresponding file extensions. All "*.html" and "*.htm"
files are set to the type "text/HTML" by default. If we changed
it to send them as "audio/x-midi" files even though they ended
with ".html", your browser would try to play them as if they
were MIDI files. We can hardly keep up with every new MIME type
that pops up. Besides, you may want "*.ra" files to be sent as
RealAudio files while someone else would want them sent as some
other MIME type. There is an easy solution to this. 

You can configure the MIME types for the files in your own web
directories. First, you need to create a file in the top level
of your web directory called ".htaccess". The file name must
start with a period and must be lowercase. If you have a
standard Virtual Domain with us and your domain was
"webgirl.com", you would want to create the ".htaccess" file in
the directory "/web/guide/webgirl/". If you are not familiar
with one of the Unix based text editors that we have online, you
can create a file on your local machine and then upload (or FTP)
it to the proper directory. If you are using a machine that does
not allow you to create a filename that starts with a period,
you can rename the file after you upload it. There is often a
feature in FTP programs to allow you to change a file's name.

If not, you will need to "telnet" into your account with us and
use the command "mv" to "move" the file to a new name. (Note: If
you use "ls" to list your files while in a telnet session, you
will not see ".htaccess" listed. Files beginning with a period
are not normally displayed. In order to see all of the files,
use "ls -a".) We do have Tech Support pages to help you with
things like FTP and Telnet in the WSO SupportCenter. Just
make sure you upload in ASCII mode, not Binary mode.

The ".htaccess" file is a supplementary configuration file for
the web server. It will only affect the files in the current
directory and all of the directories below it. For example,
"/web/guide/webgirl/.htaccess" will effect files in
"/web/guide/webgirl/myfiles/funstuff/" also since it is below
webgirls's main web directory. Now, what do you put in this
file? Well, each line contains a different file specification.
Below is the information that will allow you to use MIDI song
files, Shockwave Director files, and WAVE sound files: 

AddType audio/x-midi .mid
AddType application/x-director .dcr
AddType audio/x-wav .wav

That's it. Just put those lines in your ".htaccess" file. So,
any file ending with ".mid" in your web directories would be
sent as "audio/x-midi" files.

Have Fun!


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-> ARTICLE #3: Miva Merchant Come to Life ======================
---> Relevant for VD, NV accounts ==============================
================================================================

Miva Merchant, the successor to KoolCat has finally bloomed. Now
at version 1.18, Merchant has received numerous bug fixes. A
full manual is now available in Adobe Acrobat format as well.
You can get a copy from the following link if you'd like a more
in depth look at what the program can do. You can also read a
good overview of what Miva Merchant can do.

http://www.miva.com/products/merchant/

With a little work building your product catalog, Miva Merchant
is probably the most powerful and innovative program of its
kind.

You can purchase and own your own Miva Merchant license for
$495.  This is a little expensive for some people, but the
software is worth it. If you are interested in purchasing Miva
Merchant, please contact sales@wso.net. You can have Miva
Merchant installed on either a Non-Virtual or Virtual Domain
type account.

If you'd like to use Miva Merchant but can't afford the almost
$500 startup cost, you can sign-up for our new Commerce Plus
account (see Article #1).  Basically you "rent" Miva Merchant
as part of your account cost.  This makes start-up fairly
inexpensive, plus you never have to worry about paying for
future upgrades, they are free!

More info on Commerce Plus:
http://www.wso.net/cplus.htm

If you have any questions, please drop us a note.


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(c) Copyright 1998 - the Internet Outlet