When tragic events happen, I have this tendency to go into API-craze. Perusing API’s are like unwrapping a new birthday present and checking out the specs and seeing what it can do - it can be sufficiently fascinating enough to ward off sorrow or tragedy-confusion. For fun, I went ahead and poked at the Google Checkout API.

The PHP Google Checkout sample code is very bulky, far more than I’d need for my virtual goods transactions, so here’s a simplified API - just the basics you’d need for processing your digital goods: Google-checkout-basic-digital-goods

Usage can’t be simpler… The easy-peasy way is to create your $xml post by beginning with xmlTop() and ending with xmlBot(), then concatenate a xmlItem() in between those two, for each item you wish to have. xmlItem() takes the arguments title, description, price (USD), and quantity, respectively.

$xml=xmlTop().xmlItem('Appleberry Crispz','funky applethangs that melt virtually in your mouth!',1,10).xmlItem('Blueberry Blisset','get hacked to virtual oblivion by blueberries in the Carribean!',0.50,5).xmlItem('Cranberry Chickens','chickens that taste like virtual chickens',21,1).xmlItem('dowager dame virtua','virtual dowagers on a stik',1000,5).xmlBot();

curlIt(id,key,$xml,(0 for production | 1 or default for sandbox)) returns the result, which you’d then process using parsedArray(parseReturn($xml)) to get an array with two entries: array(serial number,redirect-url).

For safety, I’d store the serial number into a db with varchar(99), as Google hasn’t published a maxchar cap, at least not according to Jacob Moon (let’s not even think about Twilight - but, zOMG, what a name!).

Redirect your user to the second entry in that array, and they’re ready to buy!

cues Europe - The Final Countdown

A little epic sounding, especially if you're not actually closing. And it's basically the first store-wide sale (there were some Christmas freebies, if I remember correctly). But that is what it's called. I expect the feeds will be full of Armidi starting oh.. right about now... and the posts will be full of reminiscing and stories about how hard is to get into the sale sims.

So I'm going to talk about it from a slightly different viewpoint. When Armidi first opened, back in late 2007, it was after a good six months of teasing the public. Anyone remember the Poynter from Hair Fair 2007? The Armidi team stole the show. It was great hair, for the time, but everyone and their mother, father, ex, ex's ex, and ex's mother's father's dog had at least one style and wore it all the time. Once the sim opened, the same thing happened to all of their products, creating the Armidi stigma. Even if the designers create some of the highest quality products on the grid, the products are mainstream because "everyone" has them and thus they unfortunately become passe.

I, for one, avoided Armidi since I believed the prices were exorbitantly high. Why should I spend luxury prices on mainstream clothes? It didn't help that new releases were few and far between, always "fashionably late." It left a bad taste in the mouth.

Fast forward 3 years to the present. Armidi is still around, the sim is still laggy as ever and really hasn't changed much for a good while. Certain sections of Armidi are horribly out of date while other sections are no longer fashionable. A handful of stores have achieved and surpassed the quality of Armidi wares and offer these newer clothes at much more reasonable prices.

At least for women.

I doubt there ever will be as much selection and variety in male clothing as there is for women, nor do I ever expect there to be. As a result, though, there are very few stores that can match the quality of the Armidi basics for guys. Even worse (for me at least), very little of the quality new items for men have been in my style, which I'll readily admit is on the bland side.

So, as guilty as it makes me feel to admit it -- I was pretty excited for the Armidi sale. With everything at nearly 50% off, the Armidi clothes that I've liked for years, which happen to fit my style, are now at a reasonable price point. It's like having my cake and eating it too.

Admittedly, I do feel a bit guilty about spending as much as I did, especially on items "tainted" by the Armidi stigma. At the end of the day, though, you have to do what makes you happy. I've waited nearly three years for this. I know I'll use the jackets, tees, and jeans I just bought. And while my outfits may be a bit repetitive (especially considering my last outfit featured an Armidi blazer), the bottom line is that I still feel pretty damn good wearing em.