Section Layout - comments

[Darren B]

OK

I am working on single product pages on a test site, and have been battling on and off for a week with a new section layout and am looking for some comments

The layout is here http://kitesrus.co.uk/acatalog/test/...unt_Kites.html it was not what i started with, and had hoped to set something up completely with css, but alas i am still struggling to get my head around it all, this is my thoughts on paper so to speak, so colours can be tweak / lightenend e.t.c

Cheers
D

[Duncan Rounding]

I would have put the 'blue bar' on the top instead of the LHS - reason being that the different word lengths affect the width of the 'blue bar' which makes the layout look a bit messy. I would also use a lighter shade of blue so as not to detract from the product pictures. Not sure about te double border - have you tried a single line instead. It would also 'strech' widthwise better if all your images were the same width.

Not being negative, just my thoughts - I do think it's a good idea and it will make a nice addition to your site.

[dave_finlayson]

Agree with Duncan completely, I would also add that I would try and work out somewhere to put the price in too, if you are going completely down the 1 product per section route.

Looks good though, very clear and easy to follow.

[RuralWeb]

get the price and a buy button in there or you are wasting your time

[Darren B]

I have tried to put the blue bar at the top but i ended up breaking code, then losing the title, I have had a few problems concentrating lately, well thats my excuss.

I agree with the colour, probably change that to use another of the palettes, or stick it in the css file. The pics these should all be 150 x 150 so that should keep that side of things consistant, i dont like the actinic / web browsers resize so i do it myself, but i miss some.

Cheers for the advice though guys, i will try and get some changes done today and let you know

others welcome
D

[Darren B]

get the price and a buy button in there or you are wasting your time

I know, but this is a section layout, so some tips on how i link each one to a product would be appreciated, or are you gonna suggest i drop this idea and go down a different route

Cheers
D

[RuralWeb]

I know, but this is a section layout, so some tips on how i link each one to a product would be appreciated, or are you gonna suggest i drop this idea and go down a different route

Bin the section layout and use duplicates - you get the same result but people can buy as well - with your method all you are doing is introducing an extra click.

Drop Bun a line and see what he has been up to for the last couple of months and the results he is getting then have a think.

[Darren B]

Bin the section layout and use duplicates - you get the same result but people can buy as well - with your method all you are doing is introducing an extra click.

But this comes back to the point of single product pages, or are you saying work with the duplicates, and keep the master products on single pages. ooh this then means a bit of blockif's on the collapso menu to hide these sections from the navigation, ok i know someone who is working on this side of things

Miss Bumps were are you - hiding sections from collapso

Thanks Malc

D

[Darren B]

Drop Bun a line and see what he has been up to for the last couple of months and the results he is getting then have a think.

Bun seems to be doing it a similar way to this - maybe i will drop him a line

cheers
D

[Duncan Rounding]

I would also go with duplicates laid out like you have, just short description and price linked through to the main single product section. You can limit collapso to one or two levels IIRC. If you've called your section page names the same as the product short descriptions you can also munge (great word) a link from the duplicate to the main product as a static link instead of a cgi-link as well.

[Darren B]

If you've called your section page names the same as the product short descriptions you can also munge (great word) a link from the duplicate to the main product as a static link instead of a cgi-link as well.

OK Duncan you lost me there, do you mean like raptor sports kite should be Rapier_Sports_Kite.html and as for munging, i remember this being mentioned somewere but i will need to go and brush up on this

Cheers
D

[Duncan Rounding]

(I don't know if munge is the right word - but it does sound good:
munge

/muhnj/ 1. A derogatory term meaning to imperfectly transform
information.)

I create a modified product layout and then use that for my duplicates. In the code below I test for a duplcate then cut the product description down (you may prefer to omit the description altogether and only use the short description) as well as create a static link to the product section page. This replaces the product description. You might find it useful.

<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22DuplicateIndex%22%20%2f%3e%20%3e%200" > 
<actinic:block php="true" >
$sShort = "";
$nCount = 0;
$sOriginal = '<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductDescription" selectable="false" />'; 
foreach(explode(" ", $sOriginal) as $sWord)
	{
   if ($nCount > 10)
   	{
   	$sShort .= "...";
   	break;
   	}
   $sShort .= $sWord . " ";
   $nCount++;
   }
echo $sShort;
</actinic:block>
<br>
<A HREF =<actinic:block php="true" >
$sProdName = '<actinic:variable encoding="perl" name="ProductName" selectable="false" />';
$sSpacerChar = '_';
$sProdName = str_replace (" ", $sSpacerChar, $sProdName); 
echo $sProdName;
</actinic:block>.html TARGET="_self">MORE INFO...</A>
</actinic:block>


<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22DuplicateIndex%22%20%2f%3e%20%20%3c%3d%200" >        
         <actinic:variable name="ProductDescription" />

You can of course use the link generation code to create the link on the image as well.

Note that you can also use this to do away with the cgi-bin links used for Best Sellers and New Products as well - the proviso is that you are using one product per section and that the section page name is the same as the product short description but with underscores in place of spaces in the page name.

[TraceyHand]

Duncan, that's cool!

Darren...we'll discuss it later
I'm having huge problems with the forum not loading for me at the minute so I am only seeing very few posts...I think my laptop has a problem with me on the forum (own up..who jinxed it?)
It's timing out left, right and centre

but anyway..I did document my method for blocking specific sections from the collapso menu, Darren...I'd find the thread but either my connection or my lappy won't let me

[Darren B]

Thanks T, i will get in to it soon, so looks like a heavy night tonight then

Duncan i will look at what you have done later, i have been messing with a bodge of what i already started

this can now be seen, at the same link

Thanks Guys & Girls

D

[Darren B]

OK also gonna have to get my head around blockif's i need to reduce the descriptions to same number of words for all.

I some problems with the layout, it squahes my center cell?, maybe i'll be looking at yous soon duncan

Cheers
D