New Feature: Make the Store Address’s First Line Stand Out on Magento PDF Invoices

Want to make your store name stand out on your PDF invoice (example to the right)?

By default, Magento’s PDF invoice displays your entire store address/information block using the same font/font size. Now, Ben Gribaudo’s Customizable PDF Invoice Module gives you separate font/font size settings for both the store address’s first line and the rest of the address. Continue reading

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WPF: Separate Grids, Auto-Sized Columns/Rows With Synchronized Dimensions

The design specification calls for two Grids. One column in each is to auto-size its width to its content. “No problem—<ColumnDefinition Width=”Auto” /> will take care of that,” you think. Then you notice a footnote: “The widths both auto-sized columns should match. Both columns should be the width of the wider column’s content.

How do you implement this? Continue reading

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New Feature: Display Coupon Code on Magento PDF Invoice

This new feature replaces Magento’s PDF invoice’s default “Discount” line with “Coupon (code)” when a coupon has been used on the associated order. Continue reading

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Released: Customizable PDF Invoice Module for Magento

It’s released! Use Ben Gribaudo’s Customizable PDF Invoice Module to style your Magento PDF invoices.

  • Choose the font/font size for each component on the invoice. Use one font for store info, another for item details, make the totals section larger….
  • Set the page size and margin. If you’d like, output invoices as letter-sized instead of Magento’s A4 default. Continue reading
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SSRS: Dataset Field List Is Empty Even After Refresh Fields

Problem: Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services won’t populate the data set’s field list. Clicking Refresh Fields does nothing—the field list remains empty.

Is something wrong with the query? Is there a database permissions issue? Let’s check. Click the Query Designer button, then the red “!” (execute) icon. The query runs and…a normal result set is returned. Since the query executes correctly, the query and permissions must be fine. So, the blank field list indicates an SSRS bug—correct? Not necessarily. Continue reading

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New Module Feature: Customize Magento PDF Invoice Item Columns

New feature—the forthcoming PDF invoice customization module now allows item columns (item name, SKU, price each, tax, etc.) to be customized in three ways:

  • Show/Hide: Selectively remove item columns from the invoice. Perhaps your products are sales tax exempt—use this module to hide the tax column. If you sell your products only in quantities of one, use this module to remove the quantity column.
  • Width: Change column widths. Specify values in points or percentage.
  • Text Align: Set to left, center or right on a per-column basis. Continue reading
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Canon EOS Utility—Automatic Camera Clock Synchronization

Daylight savings time comes or goes, I travel to a different time zone, clock-drift occurs—all reasons why my Canon EOS camera’s date and time might be incorrect.

Today, I was thinking about how nice it would be for Canon’s EOS Utility to have an auto-clock synchronization feature. Each time I’d plug my camera into my computer, this feature would automatically synchronize the camera’s clock with the current date and time from the computer. Continue reading

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SSRS Date/Time Parameter Disabled When Default Value Expression Is Used

After inserting a date/time parameter with an expression as its default value into a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2008 R2 report, I noticed that the date/time control would be disabled when I’d preview the report. Strange.

Continue reading

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Wiring Up a Custom Select Control Options List for the Magento Admin Interface

Yesterday, while building the admin interface for a Magento module, I wanted to populate a select control (a.k.a. combobox or drop-down list) with a custom list of options. Inserting the select control was simple. Building the custom options class also was easy. However, figuring out how to wire in the custom options list took a little bit of time. Continue reading

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Magento PDF Invoice Customization

Over the past month or so, I’ve been building a Magento eCommerce module allowing PDF invoices to be customized in four areas:

  • Page Size: By default, Magento PDF invoices are rendered as A4 pages. Most of us in the US would probably prefer that these PDFs be outputted using the letter page size (8.5″ * 11″) to match the paper we use. This module allows easy configuration of the invoice’s page size.
  • Logo Size: By default, Magento requires that your logo be 200 pixels by 50 pixels. With this module, your logo can be any size that will fit on the page. Continue reading
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