Events are what drive the interaction of HomeSeer with the environment. For example if a motion sensor outside senses motion it would send a trigger, Homeseer would check any conditions "is it light or dark?" and if it is dark then do the action "Turn on a light" or "Activate camera." This is the fundamental control for devices through HomeSeer.

The great thing about HomeSeer is the multiple ways you can control it. It includes a web-based interface that you can use locally or when you are traveling to check, change or create an action or even activate one. This is also fully configurable so you can permit or deny actions that can be activated remotely. Another way to control the system is via a touchscreen or portable device like a PDA or smartphone. Certain skins in the software allow you to create a touchpad friendly interface. The third way to interact with the system is by voice, with a microphone or telephone connected into the system. Microphones could be placed throughout the house and managed by a central unit that was connected to the HomeSeer system so that you could say something very sci-fi like “Computer, lights" and the lights would turn off or on in that particular area. In regards to telephones you can either utilize a phone in the home or call in from a remote location and activate some portion of the system. This does require a compatible modem though. The voice command system is so smart that you can speak normally and it will understand, as in “on August 11th at 10pm turn on all the lights in the kitchen for 30 minutes.” This is included in the latest update of the software and makes automating the home by voice amazingly easy and powerful.

Now this might all sound rather daunting for a first-timer, but HomeSeer knows this and has a wizard or a tutorial for almost every action to help you through. There is also an advanced mode that you can use in the setup where you can do all the steps manually. For example to add a new event you would go to the setup menu, click Events and click Add Event. That sets you at the first of three pages to create the event. Creating the event is quite simple. It requires you to give it a name, decide if it will have a voice command via mic and/or phone, put it into a group if you have any and set some other options like logging and deleting etc. The second page lets you set the trigger type, days and time as well as if it is recurring and any conditions you might wish to apply to the trigger. The third page is all about the action you want to happen. You can either use a pre-existing action or create a new one that includes a variety of things like sending an IR signal, playing a wave file or activating/deactivating a device.

In the latest version 2.2 they have included calendar based scheduling for alerts, reminders and other events. So if you want something special to happen on someone’s birthday, certain holidays or specific days of the week or month it’s a snap to setup now. Plus you can even interface the system with your Microsoft Media Center machine or Apple iTunes media player.

The amazing variety of options can be overwhelming at times but the help files that are supplied are very good at helping you keep your head above water and not drown in the ocean of possiblities. If you are looking for a complete home automation package your research would not be complete without taking a look at this software. With the wide selection of compatible devices, depth of features and local as well as remote control access it may be one of the best packages available on the market. From installation to action only took approximately 30 minutes and required some light reading of the manual. This package could easily be picked up by a novice and be fully functioning with only a few hours or work, something not all packages are able to ensure.

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At $25 it is an absolute bargin.

In general it allows you to add the following SMS notifications;

• Receive a message when someone is attempting to log into your store admin and authentication fails.
• Receive a message when a customer places an order at your store.
• Send your customer a message when their order has been shipped.
• Send your customer their digital download link upon successful
  payment for an order.

Probably the best feature for all round general customer niceness is the ability to send your customer a message when their order has been shipped. Try it, they will appreciate it.

* Obviously you will need a Clickatell account for this to work!

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Some of my favourites include;

Product Images with Javascript Preview
This mod will show all of the images that you have linked to a product as thumbnails in a row beside the main image.
When the user clicks on one of the thumbnails, the full size version of the image will be shown in place of the main image, using Javascript.

Dynamic Product Prices
If you use product options, this mod will dynamically update the prices in your product information pages whenever a customer selects a different product option. The price is updated instantly, so the price displayed will always be correct.

Visual Product Options
Allows you to display your product options as visual options (ie: a set of images is used to help customers make a choice), radio options, checkboxes and standard drop down boxes.  It comes with several display types built in.
Visual options allow you to illustrate each choice with an image.  For example, you may want to use images to show the available colours, or for a store that prints business cards (etc) you could illustrate the different fonts.

I had some problems getting this mod to work the first time I used it, but a few emails and a day later the ever professional Estelle had solved the problem for me.

Quick Edit Product Options
This mod will allow you to quickly assign options to products. The Quick Edit Options popup window is accessible through Add/Edit Products and also through the navigation window. This popup window allows multiple option names & values to be assigned to the product simultaneously (without reloading the page). You can quickly assign all option values in a set, eg. S, M, L, XL. You can update all of the product option prices for a product without reloading the page. And you can quickly switch between products (just try out the demo!).

You really need to try the demo on her site to see how much time this will really save you.

Related Products with Auto Search
Allows you to show related products for each product in your inventory. In addition to being able to manually configure related products, this mod features an Auto Search where it can automatically search for similar products and display them.
A great tool for cross selling products - it *will* make you more money!

All of the mods are fantastic value for money, even before you compare them against programming costs to do the work yourself.

She also as a great free mod - Redirect To Basket. Which will cause your customers to be redirected to view their basket after they add each item. She saw the future - it is now a standard option in CC4.

CubeCart 3 is/was a great starter ecommerce package, with its relative ease of use came a few short falls, Estelle has managed to modify CC3 and solve most of these short comings bringing CC3 in line with many of it's larger, 4 figure priced bigger brothers.

Keep up the good work!

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No one can or wants to write them, so I turn to WebSite Law for a free comprehensive set of documents.

These include;

•  Website disclaimer
• Website terms & conditions
• Website privacy policy
• Werms and conditions for the sale of goods

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