Welcome to TheMagicM.com, home of

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Kent Multer
Consultant, author,
musician



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AGIC  

ETAL  

P R O D U C T I O N S

I have been consulting since 1981 to a wide variety of clients, ranging from fortune-500 companies to Mom-and-Pop operations.  I have expertise in a broad array of topics related to the Internet, software engineering, programming, and documentation.   In recent years, I have focused primarily on Internet-related projects.  A detailed resumé and references are available on request.

Problem: Solved!

If you're reading this Web page, most likely you're a businessperson who  wants to sell products or services on the Internet.  You're not a programmer or a Web designer, and you don't want to have to become one.  My specialty is keeping it human; I bring the software into your world, not the other way around.   We will tailor the site to your needs, and add 3rd-party or custom software as needed, so that everything becomes simple, convenient, and even fun to use.

Miva Script and Miva Merchant

Miva Script is a language developed by the Miva Corporation for use in writing server-side programs and "active documents."  Miva Merchant is an e-commerce or "shopping cart" software package, which has become extremely popular for small and medium-sized business that sell their products or services on the Web.  It allows a basic on-line store to be set up quickly, and it is easy to enhance and customize  for special needs:  more features, improved store layout & design, etc.  As a Miva Technology Partner, I provide all kinds of services for Miva software, from basic setup to custom programming.

 

Attention Miva Merchant users:

If you are considering adding some enhancements to your site, there are a number of options.  I discuss them, and offer some advice, in The World's Shortest FAQ.

 

Products

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The Official Miva Web Scripting Book is an introduction to Miva Script programming.  Published in 2000, it is now slightly out of date.   However, it still offers a good introduction to the language and plenty of useful reference information.  It is available from Amazon.com; their "look inside" feature allows you to read some sections.


Currency Magic is a Miva Merchant module that allows your Miva store to display prices in international currencies.  Visitors to your site simply pick the desired currency from a menu, and your entire Miva store will instantly start displaying all prices in that form!

Exchange rates can be entered manually, or retrieved automatically from an on-line server. You can configure the module to retrieve exchange rates from many different servers.  Upon installation, the module is preset to use Yahoo.com. The documentation includes settings for several other public currency-converter sites, and explains how to create your own settings for other servers.

Flexible formatting includes international punctuation selectable for each currency, and customized display of negative numbers. Advanced HTML and CSS formatting can be used, with plain text provided for emails and other unformatted displays.

This module is available from Viking Coders.

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Special Order Instructions is a Miva Merchant module that allows a Miva site to display up to five additional text boxes or checkboxes on the checkout screens, which can be used to collect information from the customer, such as delivery instructions, greeting card messages, etc. 

The customer's information is saved in a database, and is also included in the notification email to the merchant, and in the confirmation email to the customer. 

This module is available from Viking Coders.

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Checkout This displays information to your customers during checkout. You define one or more messages that can be triggered by various conditions: shipping, payment, specific products in basket, customized conditions using OpenUI tokens, or combinations of all the above. The messages are displayed on a separate page, and the user must click the Continue button to proceed with checkout. You can optionally remove the Continue button to create "dead end" pages that prevent the customer from completing their purchase.

By combining thus module with Special Order Instructions (described above), you can collect additional information from your customers, by displaying a text box, checkbox, or drop-down menu with any message. 

This module is available from Viking Coders.

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Upsale Magic provides a discount function that allows you to set up many different variations on the idea of, "buy X, get a special price on Y." It overcomes a major limitation of Miva's built-in upsale feature, since you can inform customers of the discount while they are shopping, instead of waiting till they check out. You can set up different types of discounts for various products or categories, and you can customize the text and HTML formatting of the discount messages. 

This module is available from Viking Coders.

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Other services:

  • Web design and development

  • Programming in a variety of languages

  • Documentation of all types, long or short, user-friendly or intensely technical

Please contact me to discuss your needs in any of these areas.


Miva is a registered trademark of Miva Corporation. Miva Engine, Miva Empresa, Miva Mia, Miva Merchant, Miva Vender, Miva-connect, Miva Galleria, "The Document IS The Application," "High Velocity E-Commerce," htmlscript, and the Miva Corp. blade logo are trademarks of Miva Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

What clients say:
22 years of excellent service

... your support throughout the years was truly appreciated. (July 2024)


Thanks for the work on this module! We aren’t going anywhere so the next project will pop up soon enough   :)   (May 2024)


Kent I worked with [the custom module] again this weekend and it's wonderful!!! (March 2024)


Wow, this looks great ... Thank you for getting this together. (February 2024)


We appreciate your help and expertise on this project. (February 2024)


Thank you for your help on this project ... Love it, great product. (January 2024)


Thanks Kent for this and a great job ... You’re the man. (December 2023)


Kent, I think that looks great ... I very much appreciate you completing this so quickly! (November 2023)


I really appreciated your effort and professionalism ... (October 2023)


You've been very understanding with me and all my questions and delays ... Thank you! (August 2023)


I appreciate your efforts and your communicating regarding how you are approaching the problem! (June 2023)


I appreciate all the hard work. (April 2023)


Thanks again for all the info and enlightening me on how things work behind the scenes. That was very helpful. (March 2023)


I am glad I found you 15 years ago. (March 2023)


Always my life saver ... Your solution is perfect! (March 2023)


Kent did a fantastic job. (March 2023)


This is such a good tool for me. (January 2023)


Thanks again for your excellent support. (December 2022)


Thank you for always going over and above to resolve all our issues. (December 2022)


You have been great and helped us out with a lot of random requests . :) (October 2022)


The Upload Magic module has been working fantastic for us over the years. (September 2022)


You’re the best. Thank you SO much!! (August 2022)


The module is great!
(July 2022)


Each time I have worked with you it has been so easy. Thank you! (July 2022)


I value our relationship and look forward to continuing to be able to call on you for big and small projects ... (February 2022)


I am pleased with your service and would gladly recommend you to anyone. We will be launching our store sometime this week, can’t wait to see your module hard at work. (January 2022)


Kent Multer has a module for this [to handle duties charged on shipments to Canada] ... It works really well. (December 2021)


I'll definitely keep you in mind for any future help I may need. You're a pleasure to work with. (November 2021)


Kent, just want to say THANK YOU for digging into areas out of your primary role and helping us solve this ... (September 2021)


Dang Kent, you're good ... Everything you have done for us is running beautifully ... (August 2021)


You are awesome!. (May 2021)


OMG - Kent consider your neck hugged!!!. (May 2021)


This module has been a fantastic addition to our website. Thank you. (April 2021)


The module you wrote has become one of my favorites on the site. I was working to update pricing on a product that did not have the module installed and it was a major headache! The module makes life much easier. (April 2021)


Thank you so much for your work on this project! (March 2021)


You rock! (March 2021)


Kent, thank you for all of your work on this project. This is going to help our team out a lot and we appreciate your help. (October 2020)


I can speak to the value of Kent's module. It is very flexible and once you understand how it works, it can handle some pretty complex calculations. (September 2020)


[The custom module] works perfectly, and SO quick! So much faster than the built in Miva one. (June 2020)


I appreciate the time and effort you put into these modules. (May 2020)


Once again, you are a lifesaver, Kent! Thank you!. (April 2020)


We’ve preferred working with you ... Not only do you do the job well, you find improvements and suggestions ... We appreciate the extra effort. (October 2019)


What a timesaver! Thank you. Great job! (July 2019)


Thank you for the hassle-free setup and we think it will be a great asset to the site ... Anything to make things easier for the user is a plus for us. (June 2019)


Our team here really likes this implementation. We have 2-3 more stores on the horizon which this would be great for! (April 2019)


This works like a charm. Wish I had thought to do this sooner! Thanks. (October 2018)


Kent has a "Taskmaster" module which is awesome. (April 2018)


Very nice module, easy to use. Makes me want to find more uses for it. (December 2017)


Kent, great job being persistent!!! The force is with you, Jedi. (December 2017)


Checkout has been much smoother. Thanks for helping us refine the process!! (November 2017)


We've considered having a custom module created for other things on our site but have been hesitant for a variety of reasons. A custom report module seemed like a safe way to try out the process, and I'm glad we did. The module works very nicely, and the process with Kent was very efficient. (February 2017)


Kent Multer took on the "Make an Offer" feature we wanted and it's working great! Thanks for your help on this Kent. (January 2017)


Thanks again, Kent, for your focused support. You have been great on this enhancement. (November 2016)


Thanks Kent, you're awesome. (October 2016)


Thank you for taking such good care of my clients ... I proposed hiring you to design a module to help them ... and I'm very grateful that you have exceeded expectations. (June 2016)


He developed a module for our store that met the Google Shopping specifications ... The module has worked flawlessly. (May. 2016)


We use Kent's upload module on a couple of sites. I believe this is the best option. And very easy to use. (Apr. 2016)


Kent's module does exactly what Google needed it to do. (Oct. 2015)


Thank you for all your work on this module. It's great to be able to work with you directly to modify the module to fit our clients' needs. (Sep. 2015)


Thanks for everything you have done for us ... I will certainly look for ways to sign you up for more custom developments. (Sep. 2015)


We've been using your upload module quite a bit this past year without a problem. Thanks! (Apr. 2015)


I certainly wouldn't hesitate to work with you again or recommend you as one of the top notch Miva developers. (Jan. 2015)


I’ve looked at all of the site map links and everything looks great! ... Thanks again for your quick turnaround and great work. (Oct. 2014)


I know I can always count on you! You'll be the one I come to when my clients need custom work. (Apr. 2014)


... Thank you so much! The module literally saved me hours of time (and tired fingers) this weekend. (Mar. 2014)


Thanks again for always being so responsive and willing to help with very short notice! (Jan. 2014)


You are the best! Thank you! (Oct. 2013)


Customers have been using the Search by Size filters like crazy all week! Thanks again, we’re thrilled with how they turned out. (July 2013)


Thank you for getting this up and running for us. The admin side is better than expected; it will give us the flexibility to update our charges and descriptions in the future. (May 2013)


Your module was a lifesaver for us! None of the issues of existing store URLs ... Smooth transition! Love it!! (Jan. 2013)


One thing I liked about your emails is that you were easy to understand. I have dealt with several other programmers ... sometimes it was difficult to communicate my ideas with them. You caught on immediately, and it was appreciated :-) (Dec. 2012)


We have tested the site and we are ready to go live in a few hours. Thank you so much for getting your module working and delivering it on time. (Sep. 2012)


I’ve been using Miva for about 8 years now so I know your reputation within the community is stellar. (Feb. 2012)


Thank you for being patient ... and (as always) I'm very impressed with the work. (March 2011)


I have always found your modules to be every bit as good as advertised, and your documentation is excellent. I'm sure this one will be no exception. (November 2010)


Out of all the programmers that I have worked with, you are by far the fastest at getting anything done, and the most responsive as well. (Mar. 2010)


I have appreciated your attention to detail in every aspect ... You really seemed to WANT to do a great job, and even made suggestions to make the project better. (January 2009)


You really did a great job with this module and delivered exactly what we were looking for. Thank you for your quality work and fast service; we really appreciate it. (October 2008)


I'm so happy. I have been using the module all morning and it's such a breeze and saving me so much time. (May 2008)


... It's been extremely nice having your support through all the unforeseen bumps! (Feb. 2008)


... In my 8+ years of experience with Miva, you are the best. (Oct. 2007)


I have been using the sales module for awhile today and I don’t just like it. I LOVE it! (Oct. 2007)


I’ll never go to another developer again. (Sep. 2007)


I have contacted MANY Miva programmers in the last few years and you have been the best by far! (Sep. 2007)


Thank you thank you thank you. You have no idea how this is going to make my life easier. (June 2007)


So far you have been the most reliable developer we've had ... (Apr. 2004)