English - THINGS IO | Low-code data koppelen vanuit Groningen https://things.io Low-code koppelen van data Tue, 19 Dec 2023 06:47:25 +0000 nl-NL hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 Using ChatGPT to create WordPress automation plugin for make.com https://things.io/using-chatgpt-to-create-wordpress-automation-plugin-for-make-com/ Mon, 03 Jul 2023 19:08:57 +0000 https://www.things.io/?p=10358 We never bothered to write any Wordpress plugin but with the help of ChatGTP we finished a nice demo in 30 minutes.

Will we all be jobless? No, not at all but it's clear less skilled people will be able to create interesting enough stuff. I think we call this something becoming commodity.

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How easy was it to create a plugin to post order details to a make.com webhook?

Well, very very easy. I have been doing some PHP stuff in my life and other programming languages but I never bothered to get into WordPress plugin development. Too lazy and simple not interesting enough. Below is an extract of what ChatGPT offered me.

First of all, do I see any danger in this?

I’m not scared of new technology, I always feel we need to try before we judge. I think AI is challenging when it comes to original content and the truth, but as a copilot to help us it is great.

Will people lose their job? Sure they will but jobs will change like always. When I got my first computer in the 80’s my life changed and the way I approached work changed. Yes this is more radical because AI can do more on itself but still.

Back to the WordPress plugin.

Because of the automation work I do when it comes to WooCommerce ordering etc. I challenged ChatGPT to create a plugin that would connect to make.com and send data after an order is created. This can all be done with current tools but I wanted to see how fast and accurate ChatGPT could write this. Spoiler alert, pretty fast and good!

The first result

The first result was simple and short and did not include a settings page. I did not expect ChatGTP to know the http:// webhook format of Make.com and that was indeed the case.

What surprised me was the fact it knows the event you can use in WordPress to do this. And it also knows what the order format of WordPress is, very good indeed.

I took the result and changed the Make.com webhook URL by handed and zipped all up. I uploaded it in my WordPress site and yes it worked. Overall 10-15 minutes work, wow.

Ok, I wanted more

I thought cool but let’s regenerate the response.

Different and actually better. I now used my second prompt.

Now including settings page

Based on my second prompt ChatGPT started working on a settings page and it worked perfectly. 

I just needed to add two lines to the original function to make the settings page work and use the settings URL.

$options = get_option(‘make_com_webhook_integration_settings’);

$webhook_url = isset($options[‘make_com_webhook_integration_url’]) ? $options[‘make_com_webhook_integration_url’] : ”;

The end result

I like the end result and it works perfectly in WordPress. For sure there will be challenges but ChatGPT was a great help in creating a useful and simple plugin.

ChatGPT and WordPress in the future

This whole idea of WordPress and plugins is great but I foresee a change in the near future. Instead of configuring lots of setting of all kinds of plugin WordPress will probably move to a model where you can create custom plugins through ChatGPT in their own interface. Anyone can do it and it’s not hard to use.

ChatGPT

Visit site

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]]> Run your own automation with N8N and Digital Ocean https://things.io/run-your-own-automation-with-n8n-and-digital-ocean/ https://things.io/run-your-own-automation-with-n8n-and-digital-ocean/#respond Mon, 03 Jul 2023 09:04:29 +0000 https://www.things.io/?p=10267 If hosted automation becomes expensive what can you use as an alternative?

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Why run your own automations platform

Like with hyperscalers (AWS, Azure), hosted automation platforms can become expensive depending on a few factors:

  • for what scenarios you use it;
  • how many executions you need.

Which automation platforms do we use?

Self hosting N8N

We have discovered that automation tools that charge by operations can become expensive fast. Take for example the scenario that you need to parse a JSON file and add all “records” found to a database. This eats a lot of operations. Another sample is using an automation platform as a kind of rule engine for sensor data. This can easily get out of control because sensors can post a lot of changes.

In these cases self hosted N8N can be interesting.

I’m not an infrastructure expert but setting up N8N on for example Digital Ocean is straightforward and pretty easy. Of course, for a stable high availability solution this basic setup isn’t good enough.

What do you need?

You need the following things:

  • 1-3 hours of your time;
  • a Digital Ocean account;
  • a domain.

We have a referral link for Digital Ocean which you can use. We plants trees for part of the referral money we earn.

Digital Ocean gives you $200 credit for the coming 60 days, pretty good deal if you ask me.

 

DigitalOcean Referral Badge

There is a great tutorial available on the N8N site and we didn’t want to rewrite that one.  A link will follow at the end of this post.

Basically what you need to do is:

  • setup a droplet on Digital Ocean;
  • lgin to droplet;
  • clone a repository;
  • setup DNS;
  • open ports;
  • start configuring N8N.

We advise you to use the Digital Ocean console if you are not so familiair with other tools.

Check the tutorial for N8N.

Visit

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]]> https://things.io/run-your-own-automation-with-n8n-and-digital-ocean/feed/ 0 How to automate product descriptions with AI? https://things.io/how-to-automate-product-descriptions-with-ai/ https://things.io/how-to-automate-product-descriptions-with-ai/#respond Mon, 19 Jun 2023 08:55:17 +0000 https://www.things.io/?p=10189 Generative AI is hot but we think recognizing what is in a picture is also pretty handy for automation purposes. We have checked a few tools to do that.

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A picture is worth a thousands words

Well, when it comes to new AI models to recognize what is in a photo it is definitely true.

Although a lot is about generative AI, we have also seen use cases where we use AI to recognize what is in a picture. You can imagine this can be useful in the following scenario’s:

  • blind people that have a device with them to look around and experience the view in front of them but cannot see it;
  •  e-commerce art shops that generate automatic descriptions for the art they sell;
  • a smart pet door that recognizes if a cat brings in little birds (we just had that again);
  • a museum that has an app. to automatically describe art after taking a picture.
Lots of possibilities.

 

Some AI tools we discovered to generate descriptions of pictures

When I started my search for a tool I came across astica.

This company offers a few interesting demos and use cases. What I like is that you can combine a few API’s to recognize the picture and then create speech too. But this can also be done with other tools.

They have different solutions for generating descriptions and it seems their GPT-S model is the one that generates longer versions of descriptions. However, is has one drawback. It is slow!

Another one I cam across is Jina.ai’s SceneXplain. This is a visual storytelling api and tool.

It works in a similar way to astica. You can feed it a picture and it starts describing what’s in there.

As with all the tools there are two important things:

  • the application is key, how can people use all this great technology
  • pricing.

The second point is important, AI is pretty pricy in the end when do a lof of interactions. There are some samples that for example Auto-GPT tasks go haywire and get stuck into loops consuming AI credits. Not something you want.

You want to see astica in action?

Bezoek de site

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]]> https://things.io/how-to-automate-product-descriptions-with-ai/feed/ 0 Tell better stories with animation and LottieFiles https://things.io/tell-better-stories-with-animation-and-lottiefiles/ https://things.io/tell-better-stories-with-animation-and-lottiefiles/#respond Tue, 13 Jun 2023 06:24:47 +0000 https://www.things.io/?p=10146 Motion doesn’t just make your designs look good – although it does that well, too. It also drives engagement, conversion and effective storytelling.

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Why animation?

Motion doesn’t just make your designs look good – although it does that well, too. It also drives engagement, conversion and effective storytelling.

Lots of Lotties

LottieFiles has a great searchable website full of free and paid animations. Below you see a screenshot after using the searchterm “explain”.

These Lotties can be used on your WordPress website by using iFrame or a special plugin. If you use Gutenberg blocks you can use a free one, for Elementor you need to pay. Using an iFrame is always possible. Our sample uses the iFrame.

Customize and embed

A Lottie can be customized before usage. Things like color and speed but you can even customize it a little bit more.

After you customization you can pick how to embed the Lottie. 

Interested in LottieFiles?

Try now

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]]> https://things.io/tell-better-stories-with-animation-and-lottiefiles/feed/ 0 2 useful WooCommerce automation options https://things.io/2-handige-woocommerce-automation-opties/ https://things.io/2-handige-woocommerce-automation-opties/#respond Tue, 15 Feb 2022 08:13:34 +0000 https://things.io/?p=9323 2 handige WooCommerce automation opties. Gebruik van Integromat en webhooks.

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WooCommerce (module within WordPress) is a popular option with both novice and experienced webshop owners.


Because the WordPress CMS is the basis, it is for many beginning webshops an easy way to start because they already know the CMS of WordPress.

What a lot of people don’t know is that outside of the plugin system, you can also easily create other automations. There are 2 convenient options to do this:

  • Using an integration tool like Integromat;
  • Customization via WooCommerce’s webhook facility.

Using the integration tool Integromat

We specialize in further automating manual tasks/processes that take up too much of your precious time. We do this through the integration platform Integromat (also Zapier).

Within Integromat you have access to a module that links to WooCommerce and allows you to create various automations.

WooCommerce Integromat integratie
WooCommerce Integromat integration

Once there is a link to WooCommerce we can create several hundred automations based on the link. Some examples are:

  • automatically send a follow-up email within a few days of an order;
  • Do something on the basis of a certain order amount;
  • check something in another system;
  • link to the most recent shipping status.
Integromat uitproberen?

 

Customization via WooCommerce’s webhook facility

This is an option that is often overlooked. You can link WooCommerce with your own system very easily by using webhooks. A webhook sends information to a URL based on certain events (new order, updated order). You can configure this on the WooCommerce screen below.

WooCommerce webhooks screenshot
WooCommerce webhooks screenshot

You can access this screen from the Advanced tab in the WooCommerce Settings.

 

 

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]]> https://things.io/2-handige-woocommerce-automation-opties/feed/ 0 WooCommerce Google Assistant ordering information https://things.io/woocommerce-google-assistant-order-informatie/ https://things.io/woocommerce-google-assistant-order-informatie/#respond Wed, 22 Dec 2021 10:30:48 +0000 http://things.io.transurl.nl.transurl.nl/?p=9063 In this blog, you can find a Google Assistant demo created through Voiceflow. You can query the status of a WooCommerce order.

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 The problem

Well, not really a problem. You can also just query order information through the app. etc. There is no real problem, but a Voice interface is a nice alternative.

When I designed voice applications for some big retailers over 15 years ago, order picking with a voice terminal was a godsend. Your hands free to handle everything.

For small business owners who are packing themselves, this can also be a godsend. While packing, you might need some info but that laptop is sometimes inconvenient. Something completely different, have you ever noticed that there are no good order picking apps. for WooCommerce?

The solution

The solution in itself is simple. I created a project for Google Actions in 2 hours via Voiceflow. It is a demo and by no means a complete solution.

I just want to show what is possible. The video speaks for itself (Dutch language)

Try Voiceflow

Not working out? I can help you.

 

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]]> https://things.io/woocommerce-google-assistant-order-informatie/feed/ 0 WooCommerce voucher automation for specific customer https://things.io/woocommerce-voucher-automation-voor-specifieke-klant/ https://things.io/woocommerce-voucher-automation-voor-specifieke-klant/#respond Tue, 21 Dec 2021 18:37:28 +0000 http://things.io.transurl.nl.transurl.nl/?p=9053 WooCommerce is a wonderful solution for any e-commerce entrepreneur but there is 1 problem, you sometimes need so many plugins when you can solve it differently.

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 The problem

WooCommerce is a wonderful solution for any e-commerce entrepreneur but there is 1 problem, you sometimes need so many plugins when you can solve it differently.

The solution

Wake up, we live in a world where more and more Cloud solutions are being linked together. Business Automation tools such as Power Automate, Zapier and Integromat make it possible to snap together functionality in an orderly fashion.

With Integromat, for example, you can automate a very large part of WooCommerce without needing another specific plugin. Moreover, it remains uncluttered, see image below:

Say it yourself, you can see very clearly how it works anyway.

The details

We can create this solution because we use APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). In fact, this is a way of communicating without all the overhead of a UI.

Tools like Zapier and Integromat tie these APIs together and I am a specialist in just that 🙂

Let’s briefly walk through the solution and how it works.

The first step in the workflow is WooCommerce watch orders. With this we instruct the workflow to monitor new orders. If there is a new order then the workflow continues.

It is important to connect to the WooCommerce API first.

The second step in the workflow is Create coupon only for this customer. This creates a coupon for a specific customer based on a filter, for example total amount over 50. You can see that it is possible to do any coupon setting.

After creating the coupon, the workflow continues.

In the third step of the workflow, we retrieve all the data from the coupon again via the coupon id. We need this data to use in the email.

After retrieving the coupon data, the workflow continues.

The last step in this workflow, in this case, is to send an email via Gmail.

You can very easily map all fields from the coupon with fields in the Gmail block.

Of course, each step requires quite a few settings but this is easy to manage. After years of experience with all kinds of e-commerce platforms, I know that this is the best method to manage everything.

Try integromat

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]]> https://things.io/woocommerce-voucher-automation-voor-specifieke-klant/feed/ 0 Adding JFIF file support to WordPress https://things.io/adding-jfif-file-support-to-wordpress/ https://things.io/adding-jfif-file-support-to-wordpress/#respond Thu, 04 Nov 2021 15:01:31 +0000 http://things.io.transurl.nl.transurl.nl/?p=8897 A while ago I noticed that Wordpress does not support JFIF out of the box. Sometimes I download JFIF files from other sites to use them inside Wordpress but till now it did not work.

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The issue

A while ago I noticed that WordPress does not support JFIF out of the box. Sometimes I download JFIF files from other sites to use them inside WordPress but till now it did not work.

The solution I don’t like

Some people described to add support for this format to alter the theme file or even wpconfig.php, I don’t like both of these solutions.

The solution I like

I like to be able to see modifications that I did for my sites in an easy way, so a long time ago I decided to use the Code Snippets plugin for that.

I has a 5 star review and is updated on a regular basis.

CodeSnippets overview in Dutch, sorry!

As you can see it is possible to create all kind of snippets to tweak WordPress, I love that! All by avoiding theme tweaks.

Let me show you how I added support for JFIF file types.

You need to add a new snippet and paste below code:

add_filter('mime_types', 'dd_add_jfif_files');
function dd_add_jfif_files($mimes){
    $mimes['jfif'] = "image/jpeg";
    return $mimes;
}

Just enable it to use it globally and you are fine!

What can you do more?

There is much more you can do with it. Below some ideas:

  • hide the currency symbol in WooCommerce (increase conversion);
  • show extra discounts;
  • manipulate other stuff.

There are endless possibilities!

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