Hi fellow Buzztouchers, I’d really appreciate some help here as I’m doing something that a lot of people have considered, but I’m not sure anyone has done yet, I’m actually hiring a programing professional to make a plugin for me! (coz really guys, I’m not fit to shine the shoes of a programmer, even though many of you have encouraged me to have a go). My guy is called Victor Tatarasanu, and I’m paying his firm to develop a Loyalty Plugin for BOTH iPhones and Androids. It’s a bit scary paying to have a plugin made, it’s a big commitment for me and I have a budget I’m desperately trying to stay within. Victor is an experience App Developer, he's a bright guy but he has never seen or worked with Buzztouch prior to this and I’d really appreciate it if you guys could support me by supporting him when he has a question (if you can It'll definately save me some money and help me complete the project). As I understand it, he is having some problems related to setting up the self hosted control panel. I know heaps of you guys have tons of experience on this and it would really make a huge difference to me if you could help Victor out. He’s going to post his questions below, thanks in advance for your support and over to Victor…

Whoops, Victor accidentally used my account to post... Lets try that again so you can meet him - Take 2, introducing Victor...

David, thank you for warm welcome. I have installed buzztouch on my local machine having XAMPP as a server. I created a test plugin using plugin creation tool but i can't install it on dev server. I'm getting: Error Un-Zipping Archive? This error is sometimes caused by the type of software that was used to create the .zip archive, it could not be opened. Before debugging the code i guess it's best to ask if you if you encounter the error. Regards, Victor Tatarasanu

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Best advice for this error is to unzip the plugin and install manually in the plugins folder (files-->plugins). Then go to to "Plugins" (on the front end) and click "Refresh Plugins" and it should appear. I have used this procedure when things wouldn't go as planned. Regards, Andy

Good idea. it worked :)

Happy to help. Even happier that it worked! :)

Thanks. I will come back with other questions if i'll need.

I'm no expert, by any means, but will be happy to lend a hand when I can. Andy

Hm.. i was looking into database for a plugin and I was trying to understand how you add a property to an plugin for example 'second name'. I have to describe it somewhere ? Or it does this automatically - and i missed some step ?

Or maybe I need to alter the table in the save_Json.php, though doesn't seem a good way to do it.

Hi @victorash, Welcome! Can you explain a little more about "database for a plugin" and "second name"?

Hi @LA, I was creating a new plugin and i was starting with adding a new property (similar to Screen Name) - textfield. My first thought was that it saves the value into the database in a separate column. When i saw again the DB structure, I realised isn't happening in that way. So, after i added this new property in the plugin everything seems fine, it saves the value, but after refresh i don't get back the value stored. I guess it's a mistake in plugin's index.php file.

Hey @victorash, That would be my first check would be the index.php. You making a plugin for a database? LA

No, By database i'm referring to the BT_Server database. I thought every plugin has an entry with custom rows. But i saw then bt_items and changed my thoughts. :)

lol ok now I understand. LA

What's the best approach when developing a plugin? I just created a plugin, added a new property for test, test it on my local bt server, and uploaded back to buzztouch.com. When i try to use it I don't see the changes. I'm missing something ?

@victorash, Try making the changes in the config text in the control panel to reflect the id, type...etc. LA

@LA, You're saying that I should change version number, or ?

In your config.text, make sure the screen id's match, itemId, itemType...like if you have childitems. Take a look in your control panel under configuration data. LA

I don't see the changes made in the index.php. So, the plugin screen is default. Should i wait for a review/approval ? I guess without and apiKey I can't test the plugin locally ? - meaning making an app, add some screens, download it and run it in xcode ?

Yes you can test it on iphone. LA

You will need a Buzztouch API key to compile, download and then run on your phone.

@LA, @andydahl, Thank you guys for taking time to answer my questions. I will acquire a licence and I will try again.

@victorash, Sorry I just assumed you were using @David_Mollet account. LA

welcome Victor! I would definately suggest watching this excellent video David made on building a BT plug-in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJrMVTn8z0s&feature=youtu.be That video unraveled the mystery for a lot of us that have been using BT and trying to build plug-ins. The information and demonstration David does in there will teach you how to build a working plugin. He shows you exactly how to connect it to the control panel. Everything is there you need and David is an awesome teacher/instructor. This post here has sample code and also a must read for you: http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=61A19811BADC9373C0AC264&command=isSearching&currentPage=1&topicTitle=json&createdBy=&repliedBy=&minViews=-1&maxViews=-1&minReplies=-1&maxReplies=-1&forumCategory= It may not not be bad to watch some of the other how to videos. I would learn to build a single screen app first before you start designing viewcontrollers. @DavidMollet - you need to set him up with a self hosted install. This way he can test his code and the Control Panel without waiting for BT approval. he'll get nowhere fast without self hosted as BT thankfully has a as a review process before you can load scripts on THIER server.

A big thanks to everyone here who has supported me by supporting Victor, I am extremely grateful and feel very lucky to be part of a community like this that goes out of its way to help each other - truly, you're all awesome people.

Pleasure @David_Mollet...I didnt help much but I tried my best. LA