Insert drop down menus so customer can select vehicle type - how?

[coojam]

Hi guys, my first time here (of many I'm sure). I'm a complete novice user of Actinic having only downloaded the trial for the first time tonight.

I'm looking at replacing a company's e-commerce website with a new one using Actinic. There's something I need it to do, as described in the title, and I'd like some advice on how to do it please!

The company makes roof racks for commercial vehicles such as Ford Transit, Peugeot Boxer etc.

To help the customer find the right product, I want to be able to offer them a couple of drop down boxes that they can choose:

Wheel Base Length (Short, Medium, Long)
Roof Height (Low, Medium, High)

Possibly a couple of other variations as well, as these all impact which roof racks fit their vehicles. After choosing their selection, I would like it to list which racks will fit. How can I put in such drop down boxes?

Again, apologies for being such a novice, I hope you can help! Cheers!

[RuralWeb]

Hi James, Welcome to the forum. Can I suggest that you read through the user guides and the advanced user guides as the subject is well covered. Also when/if you buy V8 you will get 30 days telephone support diredt from Actinic.

[completerookie]

James.
welcome to the world of actinic !
You need to click on the Help menu within Actinic,
choose the "Starter Guide" and you need to be following the concepts outlined from page 17 onwards - "Product options"

Within actinic, you can, by using Components, Attributes and Choices create a series of drop downs for the "master product", You also have to create a product for EACH combination of the choices within the dropdowns, "Low Short", "Low Medium" roofracks.
Once you have the real products, you then use the "permutations tab" on the "master product" to link each of the combinations to the real product.

It sounds confusing and complex, but its not that difficult,
Study the Starter Manual, play a little, take plenty of snapshots, and try creating,
When you've played a little, pop back and ask for pointers where things are quite so clear.

You mention the ability to "After choosing their selection, I would like it to list which racks will fit" - this may need a little more clarification. - play, see how you get on.

Have fun inside actinic, but please please remember, "take a snapshot", and another and another - they are what gets you out of trouble when things don't work out or you want to go back a couple of steps and try something different.

[coojam]

Excellent, cheers for the help, I'll give it a go.

[coojam]

OK, I've gone through the guide and the sections mentioned do seem to cover to an extent what I'm looking to do. I've managed to get it so that you can navigate to the roof rack you want then select whether you have a short/medium/long wheelbase model and a low/medium/high roof model.

Unfortunately, this is a little backwards.

This option needs to be, for example, on the homepage. If I point you in the direction of the current website: www.trukrax.co.uk you should hopefully be able to see what I'm going on about.

Click on, say, Ford. Then Transit MK6. Then you get inundated with the different combinations of vehicle length and roof height. It's confusing. Once you select the correct option, it lists all available roof racks for that model.

I know I can replicate this method with Actinic, but at the point where you're asked to select roof height/vehicle lenght I want that to be done from drop down menus to simplify things. Is that possible?

Thank you for your help so far, it's much appreciated.

[completerookie]

I'm trying to imagine where you've got to so far.

have you got a trial-site loaded with the web pages you've made to date?.
we need to see "where your problems lie"
tell us what pages to look at and where you see the CURRENT problem, then we can think again.

[wjcampbe]

Sounds as though you want to have a customised advanced search page as the shop entry page.