Dynamic breadcrumbs

[ma111]

Our site is set up in a way that uses duplicate products so a product can be in two or more different sections.

For example a ski jacket could be in the following categories:

Clothing > Mens > Mens Ski Jackets

and…

Ski > Clothing > Mens Ski Jackets

The problem is when a customer is browsing the site through the ski section and clicks on a duplicate product, this then goes to the original product which is in clothing. Therefore the breadcrumbs change. One minute the customer is in the ski section and the next they are in the clothing section.

Is there a way to have dynamic breadcrumbs, so the breadcrumbs get built as the customer browses the site?

This would result in being able to see the same page with the different breadcrumbs depending on how they got to the page.

[NormanRouxel]

As always, an URL would help.

[ma111]

For example if you go to the following page which is in the ski & snowboard section. There will be some duplicate products.

http://shop.packyourbags.com/acatalo...s_Jackets.html

The breadcrumbs say:

Ski & Snowboard > Ski Clothing > Ski Jackets > Mens Ski Jackets etc…

If you then click on a product the breadcrumbs at the top change to:

Outdoor Clothing > Mens Clothing > Mens Jackets > Mens Ski & Snowboard Jackets etc…

This is because you have clicked a duplicate product and the original product is in the outdoor clothing section and the breadcrumbs are built before actinic uploads.

Is there away around this, or to dynamically build the breadcrumbs as people use the site?

[bentleybloke]

Nice site. Not really noticable in your example - with the length of the trail being similar. Problem more noticeable here:

http://shop.packyourbags.com/acatalo...unglasses.html



Are you using extended info page opening in the same window with the add to cart button layout?

[Paul Bulpit]

I had a similar problem - instead of using duplicates, I copied and pasted the original, adding a further, lower-case, letter to the product code. This made no difference to the pickers & packers, who learnt to ignore it; in reports it showed where the sales had come from.

For instance, I have Glassware | Candle Votive Holders and also Candles | Glass Votive Holders. The products are the same - so I have 433g and 433v, indicating Glass or Votive sections.

[parklifeclothes]

Paul,

Don't quite know if its intentional but this bit of text on your home page seems to get smaller (unreadable) towards the end.

Suppliers to hotels, restaurants, stately homes, conference centres, venues, nightclubs, country & golf clubs, TV companies, museums, churches, chapels, crematoria & funeral directors.... masonic lodges, military messes & functions, award ceremonies, benefits & testimonial evenings....

Cheers,

Darron

[Duncan Rounding]

I've had this requested before too but related to search results.

I presume it may be possible to track the last few pages visits and dynamically generate a trail but I'm not sure if it's really worth the effort. A couple of predefined search or section links on the page might satisfy what's wanted to draw attention to related pages.

[gabrielcrowe]

it'd be a horrific hack on actinic.

Actinic uses a hierarchical structure to locate products. The type of search and link strategy you're looking for, is a one where a product can appear in multiple sections. There are ecommerce packages that can do this, but alas, I must not speak their name.

the idea of using the browser history to build the breadcrumb train is disastrous. We'd end up with a horrible mess in the breadcrumb bar, when people navigate backwards, sideways and then forwards again. not to mention preposterously hard to implement.

and then we're left with duplicates to do this job. its not the most ideal solution, but, it works.

[TraceyG]

This thread might help.