Store Top (index.html) Display Problem

[leehack]

I have a situation which seems like a bug to me, although it's been a long day and it may be a blonde moment.

The store top layout seems to inherit (in certain situations) a setting from one of the sub-sections of a section, if that sub-section has a different section layout specified. WTF is that supposed to mean right? yeah i understand, reads double dutch to me too....try again.

I have a top level section (top level within the shop) that is called "Manufacturers". In this section each manufacturer has a sub-section and products from the catalogue are duplicated into these. So you can browse my manufacturer or by product type etc.

In the "Manufacturers" section, rather than show an image (their logo) plus text, it looks better to me if just the logo is displayed. The logos quite clearly display the company name, so text just clutters it up and not necessary.

So the shop structure is:

Shop
....Manufacturers
..........Manufacturer 1
..........Manufacturer 2
..........Manufacturer 3
..........Manufacturer 4
..........Manufacturer 5

etc.

Now on the manufacturers section, i have selected both of the column counts to be "3" as the logos are all uniform and 3 can easily fit across the space, whereas the store default is only display 2 sections per row. In "Section Link Layout", i have selected "Image Only - No Text Shown" and it displays 3 manufacturers logos exactly as i would want it to.

The problem becomes apparent when you go back to the "Store Top" page, every other section shown is exactly as you want, except for the "Manufacturers" layout which shows no text and appears to be displaying with settings inherited from the child section.

Now as i said i may be missing something very obvious here, i cannot get my head round why the top level of the shop uses any other layout that the one specified. I could understand if a setting was being used by a child (ie use parent), however i can't get why a child could pass a setting upwards.

I can confirm that it is the "Section Link Layout" setting that actions this change, if this is set to parent setting, then all is perfect, the problem appears as soon as you change this setting. Surely you can display sub-sections in different ways and get the top level shop to display the top-level sections in a uniform manner?

[wjcampbe]

In v7, you made settings on each section to control how that section's link would display in the section above. (makes sense because the deepest section has nowhere else for it's sectin links to display)

To check you have the settings you want, start at the deepest section - and ask yourself - how do I want this section displayed in the parent page section list area?

[leehack]

Many thanks Bill, astonished i managed to explain the problem across. That may be a reflection on your ability to read between the lines though .

I have done what you said and it has worked and displays as i wish. I understand your point about the deepest section needing to have it's settings displayed upwards, i guess i have always looked at settings being passed down, never up, so something learnt for the day - cheers.

Having solved it now, i'm still not a great fan of the structure. I have had to amend 25 sub-section layouts in order to get what i want, when (in my head) i should be controlling that with a parent, not the child. That may be my brain looking at it incorrectly though.

Many thanks for your help.