Extended Information

[jpn]

I am currently reading through the 'Getting Started with Actinic V.8' and came accorss the extended information tab for a product.

I was wondering if it was possible to add other information other than the preset fields provided.

For example, if I were selling a CD - On the extended info window, could I show a track listing with links to sound clips for listening or even add ''quantity' options with Add to Cart' buttons also - Or are they confined to the product page only?


Thanks,

John

[NormanRouxel]

You can add whatever text you like into the Description field for the Extended Information page. It's also possible to format this text to display as HTML by putting it within !!< and >!! tags. I.e.

!!< 
<table>
 <tr><td>Track #</td><td>Title</td></tr>
 <tr><td>1</td><td><a href="link1.wav">Song 1</a></td></tr>
 <tr><td>2</td><td><a href="link2.wav">Song 2</a></td></tr>
 <tr><td>3</td><td><a href="link3.wav">Song 3</a></td></tr>
</table>
>!!

[jpn]

Thanks Norman.

[cdicken]

You can also include any product variables you want within the layout of the extended information page.

You can find all the extended information layouts in the library by going to 'Design | Library | Layouts' and then expanding the 'Extended Info Layout' group. You can add variables such as 'ProductDescription', or selectors such as 'ProductImageLayout' to change the look and feel of these layouts. You can also include any user-definable variables that you have created.

[Simon TL]

Is there a way...

Is there a way to include Actinic variables in the Extended Information text?

I have tried

<Actinic:Variable Name="ProductName"/>

but this does not get evaluated...

(What I actually want to do is to lay the EI page out very differently and put the 'buy' button in the middle of the page content ... but I thought I'd try a simple field first.)

[NormanRouxel]

You can put

[ProductName]

into the description and it will be parsed and expanded. However I'd hate to rely on this as it seems more like an Actinic bug than deliberate design.

Also you can create several alternate layouts (copy an existing one by right-clicking it and choosing Copy) and modify each copy as you like.

[Simon TL]

Thanks

Norman

That does not work for me - but your warning puts me off anyway!

What I want to achieve is some key product info at the top, then the price/add to basket, and then the other product info.

One option is to put the basket stuff in the third column, under the basket navigation; that way it is near the top of the product info... but I have to make sure the form goes in that column, leaving the extended info in the middle column... OR put the less important info in a user variable and then I can spit this out after the basket stuff.

[NormanRouxel]

You can create a new Variable and put some product info into that. Then modify your layout to include the new Variable.