Sections List - Can this be done?

[Owen Drumm]

Got a site at http://www.healthy2day.co.uk where the section list is divided into a Shop by category section containing subsections and a list of brands in their own sections.

What I want to do if possible is to have the shop by category section listed in a dropdown and the list of brands listed as they are currently.

Anyone know if this is possible to do with Actinic?

[Krithika]

Hello

I am looking into this. Will post back the update soon.

[Krithika]

Hello Owen

Sorry for the delay, but I think I have finally hit upon a workaround which will serve the purpose. Could you tell me which theme your site is based on so I can give you an exact step-by-step explanation.

[Owen Drumm]

The site is not based on any theme as it was done in Dreamweaver from scratch.

[Krithika]

Hmm, ok.
I am listing the basic steps here, though you might want to tidy it up a bit to suit your site display.
(The script change I have suggested will work as long as Shop By Category is the first section in the Catalogue)

1. Assuming that you are using the standard TopLevelSectionList layout, go to the Design tab preview and click on any of the section links. This should ideally bring up the "Section Name Only Section Link" layout in the tab below.

2. There should be a blockif at the top. Double click on this to get the Condition editor. It should by default have : IsSectionIncludedInSiteMap
Enter a space after this, choose AND from the extreme right drop-down and enter a space again.

3. Right click in the empty space and Insert Variable " ListIndex", followed by GreaterThan from the Insert an Operator...drop-down, type in a value of 1. So the entire condition should now look like :
IsSectionIncludedInSiteMap AND ListIndex > 1

4. Close the editor window. Now navigate up to the Parent overall layout. If you have the latest copy of the Advanced Users Guide for V8 with you, you will find the workaround for Creating a Drop-Down List Containing the Top-Level Sections and Sub Sections on Page 44.
(If you do not have the document, you can download it from here )

5. You need to copy the entire code starting from <actinic:variable... to
//-->
</SCRIPT>

and paste it just before the </head> tag in the overall layout. After pasting, scroll up to find the line :
for (var i=1;i<=ar.length;i++) and change it to
for (var i=1;i=1;i++)

6. Now, scroll down to where TopLevelSectionList is displayed. You need to paste the remaining bit of script from the user guide just above this, so it can be something like :

<tr><td>
<form name="Act_SectionDroplist">
<script language=Javascript1.1>document.write(ACT_DropListBox(section_tree))
</script></form>
</td></tr>
<tr><td width="20%" valign="top"><Actinic:Variable Name="TopLevelSectionList"/></td>

7. Apply changes, and you should now get the Shop by Category and its sub-sections in a drop-down and the rest of the sections as hyperlinks beneath it.

Let me know how you get on.

[Owen Drumm]

I have tried this and it didn't work. All it did was cause the Shop by category section not to show at all.

[Krithika]

Oh dear!!

Could you send me your site snapshot, so I can take a look? if less than 10 MB, you can mail it to me at : krcsupport[@]actinic.co.uk or if the filesize is more, let me know so I can mail you my FTP details.

[Owen Drumm]

The snapshot is about 94mb!

[Krithika]

Hi..

In that case, could you just export the Overall Primary layout and the Section link layout, using the Export Partial Site Design option?

[giles.thurston]

I am trying to do a similar thing Krithika and wonder if you can help? Its basically the other way around where I have a brands category with sub sections and a list of departments as their own sections.

I don't want to use a drop down list for the brands, rather I want two lists of hyperlinks. The first would lists each of the individual brands (sub categories of category 1) and the other would lists the departments.

You can get an idea of what I am trying to achieve by looking at the shop here http://shop.sussexscuba.co.uk

Using your suggested solution for Owen I have updated my department list to exclude the first category "Brands". However I am struggling to create a list of links to the sub categories in Brands. I want this list of links to be available throughout the site and don't want to have to use Javascript if I can help it.

Can you help?

[giles.thurston]

OK, I have managed to get something to work.

I have created a custom variable called "ManufacturerSection" which I use to identify whether the section is a Department or Manufacturer. I have also created a second "top level section" layout.

I then have changed the block elements in the two "top level section" layouts to check the value of the "ManufacturerSection" and output accordingly.

This way I now have two menus, one that lists the sections containing the manufacturer sections and the other that lists the other departments

[giles.thurston]

OK, that said now the Section List is no longer populating on the search form.

Any suggestions Krithika?

[Krithika]

Hello Giles

I had a look on your site. The two lists look really neat. I see what you mean by the section lists not populating in the drop-down. I am trying to replicate your workaround on my site. I will post back my findings..

[Krithika]

Hi Owen

Sorry for the delay. I was trying an alternate workaround based on the idea Giles has mentioned here (thank you, Giles ). I tried it with the partial snapshot you sent me, and it works for me. I am also attaching a screen grab of how it appears on my default site. 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.

2. Now, in the Shop By Category section details window, go to the Properties tab (where the above variable should appear by default) and choose True as the value.

3. From my previous post, you will need to follow Steps 4 to 6.

4. Once done, click Apply. Now double-click on TopLevelSectionList. You should now see TopLevelSectionLink in the Layout window. Double-click this again, and you will be taken to Section Name Only Section Link.

5. Double-click the blockif at the top. In the Condition Editor window, insert a space after the existing variable/condition IsSectionIncludedInSiteMap. Click on the V+ symbol to insert variable and look for Category. Insert space again and from the "Insert an operator...." drop-down, select Equal and then false. The condition should now look like :
IsSectionIncludedInSiteMap AND Departments == false

6. OK and close the window. If you now apply changes, you should see the sections divided into two separate lists as in the screen-shot.

Let me know if this helped.

[Krithika]

Hello Giles

Could you tell me how you have configured the Search Settings at the moment to generate the 2 drop-downs ?
To use separate drop-downs for Manufacturers and Departments, I suggest you follow the instructions given in the Advanced Users Guide, page 81. If you do not have the guide, you can download it from here .

Please let me know how you get on.