Zed Press WordPress Plugin Is Now Available

/ News / by Paul Robinson / 39 Comments
This post was published back on March 8, 2017 and may be outdated. Please use caution when following older tutorials or using older code. After reading be sure to check for newer procedures or updates to code.

Zed Press, the WordPress plugin that allows you to show your Zazzle products on your self-hosted WordPress website, is now available. You can purchase it now using the button at the end of this post.

Important

Previously Zed Press required a secondary plugin called Titan Framework to work correctly. I have since removed any dependency on Titan Framework as the project seems to have been abandoned.

In the interest of security I have changed to the extremely reliable CMB2 framework which I can include in the plugin thanks to their very liberal licensing.

Please note that due to a limitation in Zazzle’s feed this plugin cannot show products with a maturity rating higher than G.

More Information

There is a converter plugin available if you used the old ZStore plugin. You can download it alone below if you wish to try it out. Please note the converter plugin is fairly simple and does not require the Titan Framework like the main Zed Press plugin does.

Please, please, please make sure you run a backup first. The plugin is destructive in nature meaning it will irreversibly change your shortcodes. While it has been tested as much as possible if anything was to go wrong you will need a backup to reverse the changes.

Documentation

Be sure to check out the Zed Press documentation. It contains information about all the options, how to use some of the more advanced options and also some screenshots of the admin page and the output as well as installation instructions.

Before You Purchase

Some important notes before you reach into your wallet/purse.

  1. Zed Press no longer requires the Titan Framework plugin. If you purchased a copy when it did please check back on your purchase email to download the latest version which does not require it.
  2. Installation will need to be via the ‘upload plugin’ button in the WordPress dashboard or via S/FTP. Instructions are in the Zed Press documentation.
  3. Plugin updates will need to be manually installed too. Instructions are again in the documentation.

If you are fine with all of this please go ahead with your purchase.

I did not implement auto updating as it complicated, requires an update server, and some sort of authentication/key system to prevent people just finding the update url and downloading the plugin… It would add too much cost in the end.

Updates

When purchasing via Gumroad please make sure to leave your email address as I will send update notifications out via Gumroad

Purchase Zed Press

You can use the code zedpresslaunch to get 25% off during the first week of launch (until 14:00 UTC Wednesday March 15th 2017). I have decided to extend the code until the end of May as it was quite popular. Just click the button below to purchase via Gumroad, you can enter the code at the checkout.

The discount code is now no longer usable. Sorry. There may be another code available soon!

Purchase Zed Press

Disclaimer: Zed Press is in no way associated with or endorsed by Zazzle.
Refunds: A refund may be given within 14 days of purchase. Use the contact form to contact me if a refund is required.

39 Comments

Author’s gravatar

Great, I’ll spread the word! 🙂

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Author’s gravatar author

Thank you Ray, that would be great.

I will try to provide as much support as possible, however this has to stay secondary to my work so there may be some delays depending on how busy I am. Apologies in advance.

Author’s gravatar

Thank you, Paul – glad this is live 🙂

I can get it to make 1 product across – else they overlap – http://www.dianeclancy.com/shops/friend-shops/amanda-fractals/ – using Weaver Xtreme

Any advice? I can live with one item per row though I was thinking of more. Thank you – and convert worked well on this page (have couple of dozen pages here I will need to convert 🙂 )

Thank you!! ~ Diane Clancy

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi Diane,

Hmm. That is pretty odd. Is that when using the first or second layout option in the admin? From what I can see you are using the second (standard grid).

I just installed Weaver Xtreme (the free version at least) and am unable to replicate the issue. That would generally mean there is something specific to your version of the theme causing it to overlap. Would you be able to make a page I could take a look at? Feel free to make it password protected, or unlisted and the drop me the URL via email at admin [at] return-true [dot] com.

I tested on as many themes as possible, but sadly I’m unable to account for all the possible customisation, theme and plugin combinations out there. I’m more than happy to see if I can debug it with you and get a fix in place though.

Author’s gravatar author

Ha, never mind I found the issue. There is a CSS rule on your site that is causing the images to full the content area. It is marked as being in your global custom CSS rules from Weaver Xtreme.

You’ll need to add a little snippet to stop it effecting the images in my plugin for the moment. I’ll add something into the plugin for the next update to prevent it from happening to others. Something like the following should work for the moment:

Sorry about the long rule. Need to give it enough specificity to override the global rule you have.

Hopefully that helps.

Author’s gravatar

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your fast response!! I tried it with both layout options because I wasn’t sure what the difference it 🙂

I have the free version too of Weaver Xtreme. I try to minimize customizing unless I need to since things keep changing around with everything 🙂 I will just make the change right on that page since it is pretty deep into the site. With the first layout option it came out to 2 across and with the 2nd option 3 across http://www.dianeclancy.com/shops/friend-shops/amanda-fractals/ and http://www.dianeclancy.com/shops/friend-shops/amanda-fantasy/ ….. if you want I can change it again so you can see what those pages look like.

I totally get you have to work also!! 🙂 You would not be able to test it with all themes … there are 1000s 🙂 Thank you again for taking the time to look at it!! ~ Diane Clancy

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Author’s gravatar

Hi Paul,

This is how it came out in my global CSS – is this right?

thank you again!! ~ Diane

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

The main difference between the two is the way they create the grid. The first one is a new standard called Flexbox which is supported by most browsers now. The second is the old way of doing it and supports all older browsers, like the dreaded Internet Explorer. If you know people who don’t use the new browsers like Edge, Chrome, Firefox etc visit your site then you’d want to keep it on the second one.

I neatened up the CSS for you in your second post. Yes, that is correct, but it looks like it still wasn’t enough to override the global CSS rule you have. Try this one instead:

I don’t like using !important but we need to make sure it overrides the rule for the Zazzle images or they’ll stay massive like that.

Also the second bit of code will fix the issue of it not showing the correct amount of items when using the first layout option (flexbox). It is caused by that specific theme and the padding I added. I’ll fix that in the next update too, should be sometime next week. For now though that should fix things.

Author’s gravatar

Oh I think it is

.Zedpress__container .Zedpress__parent .Zedpress__row .Zedpress__child .Zedpress__product_image {
max-width: 100%;
}

Reply
Author’s gravatar

Hi Paul – I must be driving you nutty!! So sorry!! I just noticed that the $9.12 (US) was billed twice from what it looks like on my credit card. If it is that, I am sure you will fix it. Thank you!! ~ Diane

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Author’s gravatar

ok some Z stuff has gray around it and some white – that explains that one 🙂

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi,

Yes, looks like those products have the grey background on them.

In regards to the payment issue. I can only see one charge on my Gumroad account. If you have been double charged I’m unable to do anything on my side, you’ll need to get in touch with Gumroad support as they do all the payment processing and actually charge your card. Apparently support@gumroad.com is the email to use for payment issues. Let me know if you have any trouble though & I’ll give them an email too.

Author’s gravatar

Thank you, Paul …. I will wait to see what happens in a day or 2 with that charge – just to make sure it really is double. Thank you I will contact support if needed.

Again thank you for all your wonderful help!!! ~ Diane

(and should I put the css code you gave me in the zedpress plugin or just the general css code – that is where I did put it) … 🙂

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

No worries. Again do let me know if you have any trouble and I’ll chase it up with Gumroad too.

Oh, sorry. Completely missed that. You can put it in either location. If you’d like you could add it to the custom CSS in the Zed Press plugin, that way you know what it is for and it keeps everything together. Either way works though.

Author’s gravatar

Hi Paul

I am so excited because now all my pages where I wanted the items at the bottom of the page – by shop – are active again. (So glad I left in the zstore code – it was easy to change them). Thank you!!

One I am not sure how I am supposed to put in my referral code to make sure that is active everywhere … I wasn’t quite sure from what I read someone in the documentation. I am sure it is easy but I want to make sure I do have it there.

oh wow – I was actually able to look for my items across shops (like greeting cards) …
now just tried jewelry – this is what I got – code was
[zedpress store_name=”” department=”2252880112189019707″ keywords=”clancy”] or if I put
[zedpress store_name=”” department=”2252880112189019707″ keywords=”dianeclancy”] I get a different result – more of my stuff but still not much jewelry.
http://www.dianeclancy.com/shops/diane-zazzle-by-product/diane-necklace/

Is there any way to knock out one shop from the search? Someone has Clancy the cat and they come up in my searches (I put my name as a keyword in all of my products so I am someone else can find them.

I am going to stop here right now. Thank you so very very much!!

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi Diane,

Glad it’s been helpful and simple to use.

In regards to the referral code. I made it so you set it via the shortcode rather than the options page. The attribute to use is referral. I did it that way so you could set a referral code with each shortcode in case you have multiple stores or run an affiliates program. If you think it would be helpful I’ll add it back as an option in the admin options in the next update.

I’m not really sure about the jewelry search. In cases like that it just passes the filters directly to Zazzle so the results shown are what Zazzle sent back. Oh and just a note that you can leave the store_name out if you don’t want to set it for a shortcode as the plugin sets it to blank by default anyway.

Not that I’m aware of. Zazzle’s keyword search is fairly limited, unless they have some more advanced features that aren’t listed.

Author’s gravatar

I am not sure what happened, Paul

I redid the necklaces ones a couple of times and then it did work right – maybe I had an extra digit in there …

I am realizing – so what if they go for Clancy the cat – as long as I have my referral ID then it still helps me.

Also, it is terrible that only a handful of things come up when I have 100s of them. Clearly it is time to go make sure I refresh lots of items so they are back in the MP. Also, I have been very sick the last 2 years and haven’t been able to do lots of Zazzle work – so time to get busy and add new things.

I have explored only a couple of the ways zedpress can pull items but it is a great help!! Thank you!!

So then I just need to figure out how to set my referral ID. Thank you again, Paul!! ~ Diane

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi,

Something my sister just mentioned, since she uses Zazzle, is that if you use a keyword but no store name it will search the public marketplace and be affected by the marketplace filter that removes products that no longer meet ‘marketplace’ requirements. The feed is affected by that filter too.

However if you use a store name it uses results from the store front and may not be affected by that filter.

Just a guess though as I’m not 100% sure if that is how their marketplace filter works.

Author’s gravatar

thank you, Paul!!

So you are saying I have to add a referral to each shortcode? I would never use another besides mine.

Oh I read further on … yes please add it back in. I have 11 shops but I still only have one referral … so that would be great!!!

Ah good to now about leaving the store code out to search the MP.

Yes I agree with your sister!! The MP has been filtering lots of items out. And it sure works better to set it to a shop name if some of your stuff has become hidden. I found some things showed up in the shop than came through the MP. But only some.

Thank you again so very much!! You are the best!! ~ Diane

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Yes, it is an extra attribute. Everything that has to be passed to Zazzle is passed through the shortcode, just some items can be also set in the admin and the adding them again to the shortcode will override the admin options.

I’ll add the referral back in on the next update. It will probably be on Monday as I’m trying to keep at least a week between updates to prevent it from becoming annoying having to updates every 5 seconds. Plus it allows me to bundle a few fixes/improvements into 1 updates.

Yeah. There is also a bug at the minute with it only showing a certain amount of products. I’ve contact Zazzle about it, as it even effects their own website, but so far I’ve gotten no response about it. 🙁

Anyway I’ll add that to my list and get the new update out on Monday. You should get an email about it, as since I can’t update via the WordPress plugin system I’m using Gumroad’s email system.

Author’s gravatar

Thank you so much, Paul!! Also in updating remember your own peace of mind is part of the equation – so please don’t make it unmanageable for you!!

Good to know it is not just me!! Is there any way to change me email for your purposes to the one in this comment? I am swamped with email at the moment so this will catch my attention. Thank you again and hope you have a good rest of the weekend!! ~ Diane

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Haha. Yes, I always try to relax on the weekends. It’s part of why I decided I wouldn’t work on weekends either. I’m making an exception this weekend as it is just after launch so want to make sure all is going smoothly.

Sadly I can’t change that as it uses the email address you used when you purchased the plugin. You could setup a forward on your mail or you could try following my Gumroad account with your alternative email and you should get updates to that email too.

Author’s gravatar

I did just follow you 🙂 I take off the evenings each night – maybe I should take off the weekends too … but there is so much to do and usually I like it 🙂 Be well ~ Diane

Reply
Author’s gravatar

Thank you again … I love that my sites have images pulled in from Zazzle again!! Just wanted to let you know about this. I am trying to figure out why my website isn’t showing the secure lock and
https://www.whynopadlock.com/
said this was one reason

Insecure URL:
http://www.dianeclancy.com/shops/wp-content/uploads/titan-framework-zed-press-css.css?ver=0c1e233f3f1b87803e5dba37a743f64c
Found in: https://www.dianeclancy.com/shops/

just thought you would like to know ~ Diane

Author’s gravatar author

Hi,

Sorry about that getting put into the mod queue, it have more than two URLs in it so it automatically gets thrown onto the moderation queue instead of being auto published.

Hmm. That’s odd. That file is enqueued using WordPress native functions which should figure out if it should use https or http automatically (it’s how your theme and other plugin files are enqueued and I assume they are fine).

I’ll take a look and get an emergency patch pushed out if I can find the issue.

Author’s gravatar author

I’ve just pushed an update out there Diane. It should fix that issue please let me know if it doesn’t.

The issue was caused by a 3 year old bug that WordPress haven’t fixed (ticket 25449). It causes a function Titan Framework uses from CSS generation to not return whether or not you use SSL or not. I can’t fix it since I can’t edit Titan Framework, however I can override with a patch until WordPress fix there end or Titan fix theirs.

Author’s gravatar

Thank you, Paul!! I felt funny putting it out publicly but it was the easiest way for me to get to you 🙂 That makes sense – cause I am finding some other issues from WP I think as I have (at last) gone to https://

I will see if I can find the update 🙂 Thank you again!! ~ Diane

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi Diane,

Yeah, it wasn’t too big of a security issue so no problems there. If you do find something you think is a big security issue though please let me know via the contact form or using admin [at] return-true [dot] com (converting it to a real email address through). That way I can develop a fix before the bug is disclosed to the public.

Yeah there is the odd issue with WP and https but that one surprised me. Especially since the bug has been known for three years and still hasn’t been fixed.

You should have gotten an email with the update attached, but you should also be able to download the updated version from your original purchase,since you should be able to download it as many time as you like, and I always update the main copy too.

Author’s gravatar

Paul – thank you!! I missed the first update and am thrilled to be getting this one!! Just FYI … I needed to extract the file and then upload just the new Zed Press …. maybe I read the documentation wrong, but if I did, I bet others do too … just for when you look at documentation again. Thank you! ~ Diane

Author’s gravatar

I couldn’t delete the last comment – I misread it – when I went back for just to make sure, it was there clear as a bell 🙂 Sorry!!

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Haha, I was just thinking “I swear I updated that”.

No worries. On a side note I’m still looking for ideas/features for future updates (it will be a few weeks before the next one, excluding any emergency updates). If you have any please do let me know and I’ll see what I can do to add them.

Author’s gravatar

Hi Paul,

I’m trying to get the title under the image. Editing the layout template just caused issues. Tried to not have the title show at all and same thing.

Removing is not an option?

thanks!

Ray

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi Ray,

Are you using the custom templates option? What issues are you seeing when you remove the title?

When building the plugin I wanted to keep it as customizable as possible due to feedback during beta testing. Adding checkboxes for titles etc would mean they would break if a custom template was chosen.

However I think I may add them back in very soon, but add a warning that they will do nothing if a custom template is chosen.

In the meantime if you are able to let me know what issues are being caused by removing the title I’ll try my best to help. If you’d like to contact me via email instead please feel free to get in touch via the contact form.

Author’s gravatar

Hi !
Thanks for the plugin !
I am french and would like to display the product in french (they appear in american with $ prices instead of €).
How can I do that ?

Thank you for your help !

Reply
Author’s gravatar

Another question : is it an option to have a responsive view for mobile ?
Thank you

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi Maxence,

Sorry for not getting back to you. I didn’t get a comment notification (I’m looking into why now).

Unfortunately, as far as I’m aware, there is no way to get alternative currencies via the Zazzle Feed. You could use a JavaScript based currency converter but the price would be different (slightly) from Zazzle’s.

The layout code is fully customisable but should be mobile friendly by default.

Reply
Author’s gravatar

Does is have an option/widget to display in a sidebar?

Reply
Author’s gravatar author

Hi,

Apologies for not getting back to you earlier.

It does not have a dedicated widget, but since it is a shortcode you can use it in WordPress’ built in Text widget and it should work without any issues. You can also use the shortcode options to customize that specific shortcode so if fits in the sidebar better, for example only displaying 1 item, or showing 3 items with 1 per row.

I’m not against adding a widget, however it would sadly be low on my todo list since there is the option above available for the moment.

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