I found a way to do it in PHP and it was not as hard as I thought. My tool saves a lot of time because I can get the OCI values of multiple keywords automatically one at a time.

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If a keyword has commercial intent, the OCI value will be displayed as it is. If a keyword has no commercial intent, the OCI value will have a negative sign in front of it. I followed John’s format for this because it makes sense.

I am almost done with the Maverick Keyword Researcher. A couple more tweaks and bug fixes and it will be ready for launch.

I have submitted a report to the Twitter API team about this issue and I hope they can tell me why it isn’t working.

My script is able to upload the background image to Twitter but it does not get displayed instantly. I end up seeing no background image and just my Twitter background colour. My Twitter account’s XML file does not display the right background file but if I click on the “save changes” button in “settings -> design”, the background magically appears.

Check out my video of this strange background image bug below. Click on the full screen button for a better view.

I hope this issue would be fixed soon because I would love to automatically update my Twitter profile’s avatar automatically with 3rd party services like Daily Mugshot and Gravatar. It would also be great to randomly update my Twitter background everyday too.

I hate paying a monthly fee to newsletter services like Aweber.com so Oempro 4 fits my needs perfectly. I have been waiting for a long time to have a newsletter application that could import RSS feeds and send out the content on a predetermined schedule.

Oempro 4 Installation

I installed version 4.0.3. I wanted to wait till the PHP code was more mature before installing it onto my web server. I think I made the right decision because there were a lot of problems with the initial public release. I was disappointed to find that there is no upgrade option from version 3 to version 4. You have to install version 4 separately in a different folder on your web server and it is a very tedious process.

Oempro 4 is not open source. You may choose to run the Zend or ionCube encoded versions. If you have never used encoded PHP files before, please note that these files have to be uploaded in binary mode. If not, you will receive a “Unable to read 3839 bytes” error like the picture below.

You might think that there is something wrong with the files but once you delete them and re-upload them in binary mode, you will see the installer screen. After you have uploaded the files, you need to change the permissions of the following folders/files:

• Change permissions of the folder “/data/” to “777″.
• Change permissions of the folder “/data/attachments/” to “777″.
• Change permissions of the folder “/data/email_templates/” to “777″.
• Change permissions of the folder “/data/imports/” to “777″.
• Change permissions of the folder “/data/languages/” to “777″.
• Change permissions of the folder “/data/media/” to “777″.
• Change permissions of the folder “/data/tmp /” to “777″.
• Change permissions of all files in the “/cli/” folder to “755″.

Next, enter the URL of your Oempro 4 folder into your browser. The installer screen should be launched automatically.

Oempro 4 requires a few tweaks to your PHP settings. Refer to the warning messages on your installer to see if you have any settings you need to modify. If you’re running this on a web host, email your web host support and tell them to update the PHP settings. I am sure they would be willing to do it for you.

Follow the instructions on the form and move on to the next step. If everything went OK, you should see the following screen.

Oempro 4 Configuration

This is the tough part. It took me hours to get all the settings right but I still cannot get the email bounce detection settings to work. My PHP mail feature could not work and I had to send emails via SMTP. It look me some time to get used to the new interface. I prefer it over the previous version but it seems to have too many Ajax effects for my liking.

Please read the Oempro 4 Wiki for more information on how to set up your Oempro installation. The Wiki isn’t very complete at the moment and it has omitted a lot of important details that are important for newbies.

All of us have different needs and server configurations. There are multiple ways to handle email bounces and email delivery. Check out the Wiki to find a way to configure your Oempro in a way that suits your needs. This isn’t easy at all. If you run into trouble, try contacting the support. If your purchase comes with a free installation service, you might as well get them to install it for you and save all this trouble.

I must point out that the Cron job documentation is very misleading. Maybe they have updated it since I pointed this out. They are suggesting that you create 3 Cron jobs that run every midnight. Since the email delivery is dependent on 2 of the Cron jobs, what that means is your emails will only be sent once a day at 12 midnight. That isn’t very useful is it? I set my send.php and transactional_send.php to run every 5 minutes and 1 minute respectively.

Oempro 4 Plugins

Oempro 3 had quite a few plugins. I have the survey plugin but it does not work with Oempro 4 yet. There are a lot of older plugins that have yet to be upgraded to work with Oempro 4.

Oempro 4 Support

Their support is mediocre at the moment because their developers are trying to fix the bugs in the application. They’ve got customer support staff and developers – Customer support staff requires the expertise of developers to assist customers in dealing with bugs and other technical issues. All of my customer support tickets have been ignored since 2 weeks ago. The customer support forum is slightly more useful with 1 or 2 employees of Octeth helping us.

Final Thoughts on Oempro 4

I think it would be better to wait till Oempro 4.0.4 is released. Oempro 4.0.3 has a few bugs and some usability issues. I have Oempro 4.0.3 running at the moment and it is working fine but I am not fully utilizing all of its features because I cannot get the email bouncing feature to work.

Why Encode PHP Files?

I thought if I could encrypt the source code, potential hackers would have a hard time trying to decrypt the source code to try and hack the web site. Some people encode their source code to protect their intellectual property. Another benefit of encoding your PHP files is they run faster than normal PHP files.

What Do You Need to Install to Run ionCube Encoded PHP Files?

You need to download and install the ionCube loaders on your web server. You may be able to contact your web host to install it for you. Once you have installed it properly, you should see a “with the ionCube PHP Loader” message on a “PHP info” page.

How Can You Encode PHP Files?

There is an online option or a desktop software option. For smaller projects, the online encoder works fine. Fro huge projects, it makes more sense to purchase the software. It is quite pricey but it is a worthwhile investment if you use it often on one or more projects.

The source code of your encoded files look something like the example above. It is not impossible to decrypt this but you would have to be very skilled and determined to do it.

Who Needs ionCube PHP Encoder?

Web developers, software companies and webmasters who want to secure and speed up their web sites could utilize this encoder. Try the online ionCube encoder first and see if it works for you.