Design Review?

[unit 23 shop]

Hey.
We started using actinic for our online shop a couple of months ago and we managed to fire together a design for the shop pretty quickly but as we were new with actinic the design in pretty basic.

http://www.unit23skatepark.co.uk/shop

I have now just finished a new design and was wondering if you would be able to tell me how easy or hard its gonna be to import it into actinic and get everything looking right.

I have read most of the advanced user guide and understand actinic a bit better but still dont fully understand the way its coded!

http://www.unit23skatepark.co.uk/shoptest

The above url is just an html mockup of the shop front page but the other product sections will look similar.

Also if you have any tips or thoughts on the best way to achieve this it would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Chris.
U23.

[leehack]

Try a 'design snapshot', that should do it.

EDIT: I think i misunderstood, you need to read up on the 'dreamweaver integration'. If you don't have dreamweaver then you will need to buy it or contact a professional to do it for you.

You may be able to alter an existing layout, but you'd have to be pretty sure what you are doing ensuring all actinic content is left in place and you are only adjusting the overall layout part. Not an easy task though working this way.

[unit 23 shop]

Eh?
I was just wondering how easy people think this design will be to code into actinic?

was just looking for hints and tips relevant to my design before i try coding it in.

Cheers.

[leehack]

Hi Chris

I edited as I grasped what you meant finally. I thought you meant you had 2 actinic sites and wanted the design from one onto the other originally.

My original post has been edited to show your options.

The site would easily integrate, there is not much that doesn't to be honest.

[unit 23 shop]

ahh okay no problem.
i dont think i explained myself very well either tbh.

Ill just go ahead and try it out and no doubt ill be back here with more questions soon lol.

thanks.

[leehack]

From a design perspective, forget that actinic is involved to start with. To create the overall template and the CSS to control it, is an identical process, whether for an actinic site or not. The key parts of integrating with actinic are placing the correct placeholders in the various areas. Once those areas are set in place, you can then set yourself the task of amending the various inner layouts used, such as section link, product, fragments etc. get the outer shell done first, then attack the inner shell, so 2 parts to attack effectively.

[grantglendinnin]

Unit 23 have an Actinic online store - awesome, haven't been across your way in a long time. I suppose on one of the rare days off work I probably should, apologies for the off topic post lol

On topic. In my experience, the hardest part of using the Dreamweaver Integration was not knowing the full spectrum of what Actinic variables which could be used. Once the layout was done, there are some fantastic tutorials on the forum about various design elements (blockifs - once you get the jist of them, they're invaluable) which I am only just starting to get to grips with.

Good luck