Section pagination with Next & Previous page links

[berniejones]

I know that this isn't supported by Actinic at present and that implementing a next and previous section link seems to be the nearest that we can get to it but I think this is becoming something of a must-have.

I'm just starting to run my pages through WP Gold and it's reporting that some of my pages are too long.

Now this is purely due to the large number of products within some sections and the associated word count.

At present I believe that my only option is to manually create subsections within a section and then edit these to ensure that they stay at an appropriate size.

However, it would be really good if I could just 'pour' content into a section and have Actinic use a preset section page size limit (defined perhaps by number of words or number of products per page) to automatically paginate the section and create next and previous page links.

I use a flat file import regularly and maintain my content in Excel. I often move products up and down as I feel appropriate to reflect the demand and then regenerate the site so an automatic system would be a great help.

What thoughts? Is this something that others would like to see on the wish list?

Bernie

[Nadeem]

Hi Bernie,

Thans for the comments, i will pass this through to the development team. It is something that has been requested in the past.

Kind Regards

[L'il Suzie]

I know that this isn't supported by Actinic at present and that implementing a next and previous section link seems to be the nearest that we can get to it but I think this is becoming something of a must-have.

Ive been pouring over the "Getting Started with Actinic Design" download, page 35 seems to suggest that there is a way of getting previous and next section links, but when I tried it, it didn't seem to do anything... my site (which is still at the beginner design and input stage!) currently has several sections within the same kind-of heading, which could really use a "forward to page 3" / "back to page 1" thingy...

I'm not brilliant at writing HTML, but my non-e-commerce website has got plenty of next/previous links in it - isn't there some way of being able to link directly from the bottom of one section to the top of another?

[Nadeem]

Hi there

Ive been pouring over the "Getting Started with Actinic Design" download, page 35 seems to suggest that there is a way of getting previous and next section links, but when I tried it, it didn't seem to do anything... my site

What happens, do you have a url we can take a look at? The previous and next links works on a default site, and have worked for me in the past. Where did you put the code in? Act_Primary.html or Act_Productbody.html?

Kind Regards

[berniejones]

Hi,

yes next and previous section links are supported by Actininc but this is somewhat different from what I was requesting.

The idea of multiple pages in a section is that if you have a single section containing a large number of products then, unless you break it into sub-sections, the section will be displayed a single, very long, page of HTML.

This can be rather boring for the reader as they have to scroll to see the content and, unless you're using frames, your links at the top and side of the page will be long gone by the time they reach the bottom so you will either need to provide links at the page bottom or the user will have to scroll back up to navigate further around your site.

Additionally, search engines like Google use the number of words on a page in their ranking calculations. A very long page may get a lower ranking.

So, the ability to define a maximum page length - by number of products - for example would be a way of optimising the presentation and also of controlling the size of the content.

Bernie

[L'il Suzie]

Hi there


What happens, do you have a url we can take a look at? The previous and next links works on a default site, and have worked for me in the past. Where did you put the code in? Act_Primary.html or Act_Productbody.html?

Kind Regards

Hi Nadeem,

Been having other problems away from this, so haven't been online for a good few days, I've also discovered that my trial period with Actinic has expired so have just asked for an extension... as I don't work fulltime for the shop I am having trouble devoting lots of time to it at the present which doesn't help!

As far as I can see, I've tried the code in both Act_Primary.html and Act_Productbody.html, with no apparent success - it is of course a good possibility that I have put it in the wrong place but when I can get the site uploaded somewhere you'll be able hopefully to tell me!

Regards,

[Nadeem]

Hi there

You could re-register over at: http://trials.actinic.com. This will allow you to have 30 days trial hosting.

Kind Regards

[NVL]

Jeez...

I was just wondering about this myself.

Original posting December 2004 - Now January 2006

Has anything been done to provide this page index for large sections as yet?

[peanut]

Hi This is something I have been trying too - and the work around is that every section has to have it's own template with the links handcoded in.

I.e say I have a clothing page with 24 products and I want 6 to a page I create 3 further subsections (then drag 6 products into each page) and then create a template for this section and hand code in links to the template then you can move between them.

You can also use the section links and do a bit of customising of these too.

An awful lot of work if you have a large store.... fingers crossed this will be a feature of the next upgrade.