Linking to hidden products & fragments.

[djferros]

I'm sure i'm missing something here.. but i've searched the KB and this forum.

1) How do I reuse the same 'fragment' without copy/pasting it constantly? To save me time on future changes. Surely I can just link to this same fragment each time so it shows on each page, but I can't work out how.

2) I have a 'product' which I only want shown when clicking on the [link] in a specific 'fragment'. (can't hide it on creating it, else it won't be shown full stop). How do i go about this? I don't want the product shown anywhere else.

Cheers.
Des
________

[Duncan Rounding]

Perhaps if you want it to show on every page you could add the content of the fragment to a product layout or outerlayout instead.

Another way would be to create a Variable of type File, set it to scope of Site. Create a text file containing the HTML or text content that you want and set that as the source for the file in the Site properties. Then in your product long description simply add [MyVariableNameHere]. That will pull in the content of the text file into the description and let you change it easily across the site whenever you want.

[djferros]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Unfortunately i don't know how to do that which you mentioned. How do i add, "the content of the fragment to a product layout " ?

I will search the forum on how to create variables of type File and take it from there. I think i understand this part.

Any ideas on point 2) that i raised, am i missing something really simple here?
ignore point 2, i just created a section, moved that to the bottom (took me a while just to work that one out ) and then put the product in there, the product is now not shown unless the section link is selected.

[PatchworkRabbit]

OOoh! I think I can help with this one!

It's not variables, it's layouts you want to look at. Design -> Library -> Layouts.

Create a fragment layout in the library (I always find it easier to copy an existing one, so it will appear in all the right selectors/places).
Then open your product layout (either through the library or in the design tree. Either way, it does the same) and add the fragment layout to the product layout e.g. Find the place in the product layout you want to add it, click the "Add Layout" button top left and select the fragment layout from the list. The inbuilt help is really good at explaining how to do it.

Then, whenever you use that particular layout, the fragment will appear.


OR, if you don't want it on every single instance of that product layout:

1. Make a copy of that layout and call it ProductLayoutWithFragment
2. Then modify the copy fragment as above.


In my case, I wanted 3 different versions of a fragment to appear on a number of (but not all) pages, so I created 3 fragment layouts in the library with the text hard coded, manually added fragments to the pages I wanted them on, and then just selected the predesigned fragment layouts on the layout tab. It meant that I didn't have to create 3 virtually exact copies of the product layout. This gave me 3 different nav bars at the top of my various thread pages.

http://www.patchwork-rabbit.co.uk/ac...lours-1-9.html
http://www.patchwork-rabbit.co.uk/ac...tle-art-a.html
http://www.patchwork-rabbit.co.uk/ac...e-works-a.html

[PatchworkRabbit]

I've been thanked

[djferros]

you left another tip on this forum as well which i thanked you for as well.

gonna try what you mentioned above this weekend and will let you know how i get on.
Thanks again.

Dee
PS that's 3 times now!

[PatchworkRabbit]

No worries. I've been bailed out so many times on here, it's nice to be able to pay it forward LOL

Hope it helps.

[OakRidge]

In the post above you said

Then in your product long description simply add [MyVariableNameHere].

Did you mean that this should be possible to do in the Content Description as opposed to in Template HTML? I've tried to follow the process you described, but end up with the variable name in square brackets displayed, not the content of the file.

Thanks for any advice you can offer,

Alan