Sticking Actinic on the backend of an existing site.

[Eggchaser]

Hi,

I'm trialling Developer at the moment with a view to building a shopping function to attach to an existing site.

I wondered if there are any foreseeable problems with this (e.g. actinic index page missing, refreshing or uploading the entire site etc). if I can get away with it I'm looking at just one or two designs inside Actinic itself, the rest outside.

The reason for not using Actinic for all pages is that I find it a little easier (at the moment) to create optimised landing pages, with high CTR calls to action in an editor. I'm sure it's a preferential thing so if you've got any comments about that too, great.

[leehack]

You can choose to have actinic just run the shop and have no site home page as part of that, you'd just link from your non actinic pages to the shop and of course have the shop setup so you can navigate back.

I think that's a bad idea though, i can't recall a site in 5 years that has not ran all pages from within actinic. Your problem is most likely a misunderstanding on the many fragment layouts you can setup and use on brochure pages (tutorial on my site). At worst you can embed your own html into a text only fragment layout.

Keep it easy, keep it all in one package, you get a consistent look across all pages then too.

[Eggchaser]

Cheers Lee,

You're right, as a trialler I'm looking for the quick and dirty, and something that means I don't need to learn too much new stuff.

I'll have a look at your site and see if I can make my way, failing that the text only fragment might be an option. Either way I'm sure to be back...

[pinbrook]

It really depends on the size of the existing site and how it is maintained, if it is 10 or so pages of static HTML then I'd say use Actinic brochure pages.

If it is a site of greater complexity I would go with the 2 parallel sites.

we really need more info on the current site to give good advice.