Copycat Fragments

[JFro]

I would find it really useful if a fragment could be set to duplicate another fragment. For example, at certain times of year I need to add some text to all of the products. So I create a fragment and copy & paste it underneath each product description. Then if I want to change the text, I have to do it for every fragment... a little time consuming

I can create a product duplicate, so could there be one for a fragment too?

[Mike Hughes]

You could create the text in an external text file and then just 'include' it in the product layout.

Mike

[Duncan Rounding]

This might be a good idea but it can be achieved quite easily by creating a simple product template instead without all the bells and whistles such as add-to-cart etc. You can then duplicate it in the normal way and update it on the master product only.

Another option would be to use a variable scoped to Site and reference it in the fragments instead. So if you had a variable called myText then in the fragment you can put [myText] and you will see the content of the variable.

[JFro]

Yeah ok... will have to ask our web developer, or wait for a rainy day to see if I can work it out myself... Still on my wish list!

[Buzby]

on my site I have a graphic line of 1 pixel, white on white so that it can not be seen. It has no set size so can be scaled.

When I need to put a sign up I make an image of the text, call it the of the wite single pixel line and then upload it. Within minutes I have the text across 3000 pages on the site. It is also linked to a marketing page so that it can also be clicked upon.

[JFro]

That's a good idea Buzby

It would also be useful if fragments could be hidden on the website, in the same way that products can be. I can only find a way of hiding them for certain customer groups (which we do not use anyway). This would be useful for hiding text at certain times of the year, like information about end of season stock or annual discount sales. I've deleted my fragments for now but haven't purged, so they are still accessible... so maybe I'll try to avoid the purging until April next year!

[TraceyHand]

hiding fragments - create a hidden section and stick them in there
Not ideal but a solution none the less

[jont]

on my site I have a graphic line of 1 pixel, white on white so that it can not be seen. It has no set size so can be scaled.

When I need to put a sign up I make an image of the text, call it the of the wite single pixel line and then upload it. Within minutes I have the text across 3000 pages on the site. It is also linked to a marketing page so that it can also be clicked upon.

Not ideal for SEO - plain text is much better for crawling and for page load times.

The best option would be to go into the library - right click your existing fragment layout and take a copy. Double click the copy and remove the blue FragmentText variable and enter your marketing text.

Create a new fragment, give it a title and set the layout to your new marketing fragment. When you need to change simply edit the text in the library and once applied it will change in all instances. This is a dirtier way than a file include but works just as well.

[JFro]

The best option would be to go into the library - right click your existing fragment layout and take a copy. Double click the copy and remove the blue FragmentText variable and enter your marketing text.

Create a new fragment, give it a title and set the layout to your new marketing fragment. When you need to change simply edit the text in the library and once applied it will change in all instances. This is a dirtier way than a file include but works just as well.

This method works well, thanks for the tip! Could it be easier still? Probably...most things can be!

And TraceyHand - might try that one too. Again could be made easier, but it will do for now!

[brucet]

If you literally want to show the same text against every product, your web designer could easily create a custom text variable and insert it into every product layout, visible on condition it is not blank.

You could then edit the content via Site Options to say whatever you wanted.

It would also be very simple to create a toggle that you could use to enable /disable the message, section by section or product by product.