Integrating Compulife into Website

[Third Joker]

Does anybody have a line on someone that can help me to integrate Compulife's quoting engine into my website using something more sophisticated than iframes?

I know it can be done, I just don't have the technical chops to do it myself.

Thinking about it, does Compulife have any plans to facilitate a better implementation?

 

[tryan326]

Hey Thirdbroker,

We can help you with this. We've worked with compulife and other quote engines before.

Please give us a call at 800-811-7949.
T.R. Web Wizard
Insurance Web Design, Insurance Website Design, Insurance Websites

 

[Robert Barney]

This is pretty simple.

When you sign up for the internet quote engine option, we send you an .html page that looks EXACTLY like this:

www.termsampler.com

The difference between the page there, and the page you get, is the page you get is coded to your own personal account. This means you can customize which companies are included in the comparisons, and the "Request Application" emails go to the actualy email or emails that you specify.

If you want to surround it with other menu functions and options, the page (little box) will need to be integrated into your site. If you need to "integrate" the page that will take a little skill and you may need your developers help. On the other hand, if you put the page up "as is", an link to it, you can handle it yourself.

As to putting pages on your site, you can use an FTP and I talk about that in this bulletin:

Monthly Bulletin

You will want to read the 4th last part under the title:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]What Is An FTP? [/SIZE][/FONT]Here it is:


Some people may be concerned with sharing their FTP information with us for their website. It's tantamount to you giving us your email address and password and so you shouldn't give the information to just anyone. But we promise to ONLY use it to load your quoting web page to your web site. But if you are concerned, here are some instructions on how you can do it yourself, FREE - NO CHARGE!

When you set up a website with a company like godaddy (IP - Internet Provider), what you are doing is buying space on one of their computers (called a server) that is connected to the web.

Usually you develop pages, which are really just text documents, on your computer (or your developer's computer). When the pages are ready to try out you transfer (copy) them to your server using a program called an FTP (file transfer program).

When you run the FTP, having entered in the address, userID and password to make the connection to the server (godaddy), your computer's folders and files will appear in the left window of your FTP, and the internet computer (server) will appear in the right window. You then just copy from the left window to the right window, and the files go to your server. It's no different than copying files from one folder of your computer to another drive or folder on your computer.

Here's a good video with more information on that:



The next logical question is, how to I design a web page?
Once again, web pages are just text documents with instructions built into them that tell the browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, whatever) what to display and how to display it. Pages can be simple or they can be very complicated. Guess what, we like simple.
Now if you were going to design a magazine ad, would you do it yourself or would you hire someone who knows how to do it? Likely the latter. That's why, I strongly recommend going to your local college or university and hiring a 2nd or 3rd year student to do the work for you. They are enthusiastic, need the money, and typically are very creative. But if you are one of those people that love to change their own brakes, here is a basic introductory to web page design:



Good luck with that.

Assuming that you have someone else design your web pages it is still a VERY GOOD IDEA to learn how to use the FTP. Why? Because you will want to back up the pages from your web site (the files on the server) to your own computer. You do that by copying the files from your server, to your computer, using the FTP. Let your developer develop, but make sure you back up what you pay him to do, from the server to your computer.

Here's another tip. Make sure EVERYTHING your developer is using for your website, is on your website, and not somewhere else. If your developer has something on their server, and you and the developer part company, then what you used on their server will be gone, which is going to really tick you off if you thought you had bought and paid for it.
Which brings up one last thing when retaining someone to design your website. You want to make absolutely certain that it is your mutual understanding that if you pay someone to design a web page for you, that it is YOUR webpage and not their webpage.

Think wedding photography.

Have you noticed a lot of people pay wedding photographers to photograph weddings, and then discover the photographer OWNS the negatives, meaning that if you want more copies of pictures, you have to pay the photographer an arm and a leg to get them. And you find out you are breaking copyright laws if you copy the pictures you already bought.
Believe it or not, when you hire a college student to do your web site pages, you will have no trouble reaching an agreement that the pages are YOUR pages. But if you pay some outfit hundreds or thousands of dollars to do your site, they will often argue that the pages belong to them. If you leave the relationship, you will have to start from scratch.

 

[Guest]

Some people may be concerned with sharing their FTP information with us for their website. It's tantamount to you giving us your email address and password and so you shouldn't give the information to just anyone.

This is true. Never give your "permanent" FTP info to any vendor. I don't care if they profess to be Jesus Christ and the apostles.

If you absolutely have to let someone access your web server (say a web developer) see if your host lets you have an additional password and maybe one that will restrict the user to one directory and its sub-directories. When they are done, invalidate (delete) the password.

But we promise to ONLY use it to load your quoting web page to your web site.

"I did not have sex with that woman."

"I am not a crook."

" Read my lips. No new taxes."

"Mission accomplished."

"In your heart you know he's right."

But if you are concerned, here are some instructions on how you can do it yourself,

Exactly. It will take you all of ten minutes to learn how to use an FTP program to upload files and set their "permissions" if necessary. And some hosts have online upload utilities similar to uploading a file to this chat board or to ImageShack or Box so that you don't even need to go out and download a program (we call them FTP clients.)

If you can't follow the simple directions and info in the post above on how to "do" FTP... you don't have the native intelligence to be advising people on their finances... get a job at WalMart!

 

[Pangaea]

This is pretty simple.

When you sign up for the internet quote engine option, we send you an .html page that looks EXACTLY like this:

www.termsampler.com

The difference between the page there, and the page you get, is the page you get is coded to your own personal account. This means you can customize which companies are included in the comparisons, and the "Request Application" emails go to the actualy email or emails that you specify.

If you want to surround it with other menu functions and options, the page (little box) will need to be integrated into your site. If you need to "integrate" the page that will take a little skill and you may need your developers help. On the other hand, if you put the page up "as is", an link to it, you can handle it yourself.

As to putting pages on your site, you can use an FTP and I talk about that in this bulletin:

Monthly Bulletin

You will want to read the 4th last part under the title:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]What Is An FTP? [/SIZE][/FONT]Here it is:


Some people may be concerned with sharing their FTP information with us for their website. It's tantamount to you giving us your email address and password and so you shouldn't give the information to just anyone. But we promise to ONLY use it to load your quoting web page to your web site. But if you are concerned, here are some instructions on how you can do it yourself, FREE - NO CHARGE!

When you set up a website with a company like godaddy (IP - Internet Provider), what you are doing is buying space on one of their computers (called a server) that is connected to the web.

Usually you develop pages, which are really just text documents, on your computer (or your developer's computer). When the pages are ready to try out you transfer (copy) them to your server using a program called an FTP (file transfer program).

When you run the FTP, having entered in the address, userID and password to make the connection to the server (godaddy), your computer's folders and files will appear in the left window of your FTP, and the internet computer (server) will appear in the right window. You then just copy from the left window to the right window, and the files go to your server. It's no different than copying files from one folder of your computer to another drive or folder on your computer.

Here's a good video with more information on that:

YouTube - Core FTP

The next logical question is, how to I design a web page?
Once again, web pages are just text documents with instructions built into them that tell the browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, whatever) what to display and how to display it. Pages can be simple or they can be very complicated. Guess what, we like simple.
Now if you were going to design a magazine ad, would you do it yourself or would you hire someone who knows how to do it? Likely the latter. That's why, I strongly recommend going to your local college or university and hiring a 2nd or 3rd year student to do the work for you. They are enthusiastic, need the money, and typically are very creative. But if you are one of those people that love to change their own brakes, here is a basic introductory to web page design:

YouTube- HTML Tutorial 1 - Designing A Website In Notepad - Basics and Beginnings

Good luck with that.

Assuming that you have someone else design your web pages it is still a VERY GOOD IDEA to learn how to use the FTP. Why? Because you will want to back up the pages from your web site (the files on the server) to your own computer. You do that by copying the files from your server, to your computer, using the FTP. Let your developer develop, but make sure you back up what you pay him to do, from the server to your computer.

Here's another tip. Make sure EVERYTHING your developer is using for your website, is on your website, and not somewhere else. If your developer has something on their server, and you and the developer part company, then what you used on their server will be gone, which is going to really tick you off if you thought you had bought and paid for it.
Which brings up one last thing when retaining someone to design your website. You want to make absolutely certain that it is your mutual understanding that if you pay someone to design a web page for you, that it is YOUR webpage and not their webpage.

Think wedding photography.

Have you noticed a lot of people pay wedding photographers to photograph weddings, and then discover the photographer OWNS the negatives, meaning that if you want more copies of pictures, you have to pay the photographer an arm and a leg to get them. And you find out you are breaking copyright laws if you copy the pictures you already bought.
Believe it or not, when you hire a college student to do your web site pages, you will have no trouble reaching an agreement that the pages are YOUR pages. But if you pay some outfit hundreds or thousands of dollars to do your site, they will often argue that the pages belong to them. If you leave the relationship, you will have to start from scratch.

Robert, I think the OP was asking how to integrate the quote engine into their actual design through some sort of API.

 

[Third Joker]

Yes, Pangaea has it right. I have rudimentary html/css/php skills, and I know I could figure it out if I wanted to invest the time. The basic <iframe> implementation is limited and creates design challenges. I want a custom integration with more control over the output.
Just looking for a pro that I can pay to do it for me rather than cracking the books too figure it out myself.
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That "too" in my last post should have been a "to". Darned on screen keyboards! I am knot gramatikaly challenged.
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Hey Thirdbroker,

We can help you with this. We've worked with compulife and other quote engines before.

Please give us a call at 800-811-7949.
T.R. Web Wizard
Insurance Web Design, Insurance Website Design, Insurance Websites

Do you have some examples that you'd care to share?

 

[Robert Barney]

This is true. Never give your "permanent" FTP info to any vendor. I don't care if they profess to be Jesus Christ and the apostles.

Of course, if someone works on your site for a day, and then they are done, you could just change the password.

Duhhhhh.