Sections List - Can this be done?

[BPJSURF]

We have been expeirmenting with Navigation types for the prebuilt themes in Actinic version 8. Shop by Manufacture is a common request. I have a working sample in one of our custom themes here: http://www.buythisdesign.com/one/index.html

I assume your looking to build both conventional navigation and then an added shop by manufacture. We ran into problems with the navigation when using the search scripts and its something you should consider when deploying. We you use the "ss" script or simple search on a deep catalog or a catalog with high volume of visitors in the primary navigation you can cripple the web servers performance. This is because the scripts use resources that a standard html navigation link would not need to use.

We have seen troubles in sites that run more then 5,000 visitors a day. The combination of the number of concurrent visitors and the excessive use of the scripts in the navigation can spell disaster.

Simalar problems have been identified with the "Javascript" fly out menus and expanding menus which are very popular navigation types. Sure Solution is currently testing a new Javascript menu that does not require the downloading of the Actinic_section_tree.js file and or reduces the file in size to eliminate the performance problems.

Version 8 Actinic offers a greater level of flexibility in deployment of Navigation. However careful planning should be taken when deploying resource intense navigation. A surge in traffic could be a problem.

Brian

[giles.thurston]

Could you tell me how you have configured the Search Settings at the moment to generate the 2 drop-downs ?

Hi Krithika,

Glad you found my solution was useful

For the manufacturer one, I created a custom variable against Products called Manufacturer. In the Search Settings dialog I then added it as a searchable property. I've attached a screenshot of how I set it up (actinic-search-settings.jpg). I have also attached another screenshot showing the settings on the Search Options tab, in case it is useful (actinic-search-settings02.jpg).

With the department one, this is actually the standard section drop down that was included in the search form. I just renamed the label to Department to be consistent with the menus.

The following code, is used in the Design to display the Department drop down:

<td colspan="2" valign="bottom"> <b><Actinic:Variable Name="SearchControlLabel"/></b><br />
<select name="SX">
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SetupSearchAllSections%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20False">
<option value="0"> </option>
</actinic:block>
<actinic:variable name="SearchSectionList" />
</select>
</td>

Any help would be greatly appreciated

cheers

Giles

[giles.thurston]

We have been expeirmenting with Navigation types for the prebuilt themes in Actinic version 8. Shop by Manufacture is a common request. I have a working sample in one of our custom themes here: http://www.buythisdesign.com/one/index.html

Hi Brian,

Template looks nice.

Using the search to display the manufacturer items was my original solution as well. I also had concerns about relying on the search scripts for general navigation and, as it turned out, my client didn't like the layout of the search anyway when compared to the product lists in the sections.

I therefore came up with the other solution I previously described. My client can get the same look and feel when browsing by department and manufacturer and by using duplicate products only has to maintain one version of each product.

Works a treat, although it would appear I have broken the search section list but hopefully that won't be to much of a problem.

cheers

Giles

[Owen Drumm]

Hi Owen

Please follow these steps :

1. In Design | Library, create a new variable called Category. With Place of setting as Section, select Type as True/False. Set Top Level Value as False.

I have followed up to this point but it says a Variable prompt has to be specified.

[Krithika]

Hi Owen

The Prompt field is actually the field name as would appear in the Properties tab, so you could paste the variable name in this.

[Owen Drumm]

Got to steps 4 to 6 and now Actinic keeps on crashing. I think I might have to give this one a miss.

[Krithika]

Oh dear...Could you tell me at what point the crash occurs ? Is it when you click anywhere in the Design tab after following all the steps, or elsewhere?

[Krithika]

Giles

For the manufacturer one, I created a custom variable against Products called Manufacturer. In the Search Settings dialog I then added it as a searchable property.

Did you then follow the instructions in the Advanced Users Guide, Page 82 : "Editing the Search Page HTML" ?

[giles.thurston]

No Krithika, I didn't make any amendments to the HTML page. I just configured the search through the Settings menu.

Any help would be really appreciated with this as I am unable to find a fix

cheers

Giles

[cdicken]

Hi Giles

There does seem to be a bug in the layout called 'Standard Search Section List' in the library. If you view the list layout settings for this layout, you will see that the 'Start of List' field contains <ul> and the 'end of list' field contains </ul>.

You could try removing these to see if it makes any difference.

You could also ensure that 'Include As Selectable Section In Search Page' is selected for all your sections.

If neither of those makes any difference, then I suggest raising an email support query via http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm so the team can take a look at the snapshot and figure out what is happening.