Custom property works in preview, but not live

[ShaMin]

Hi There,

I have created a custom property called ADBANNER for inlcuding some banner ads at the bottom of some product pages. In Site Defaults I assigned it a value of Act_AdBanner.html which I created in the site's root folder with the ad banner code. The 'Use as CUSTOMVAR', 'File Name' & 'Use File Content' boxes are checked.

For a couple of sections where I don't want the ad banner, I have assigned a space as the value for ADBANNER.

When I preview the site, the banners show up as expected in the sections where I haven't turned them off . However when I upload the site, the banners are nowhere to be found .

I also tried including Act_AdBanner.html in Additional Files, but to no avail.

Can anybody please offer some guidance as to what I might be doing wrong.

[NormanRouxel]

Not sure if this is relevant as "Use File Content" should incorporate the file into the generated pages HTML rather than upload it separately.

Check capitalisation. When Previewing your PC is quite happy to treat a and A as the same thing. When uploaded (at least on Unix) case is important.

Also, on those pages where you don't want the Custom Property to appear just don't set it. Or uncheck the File Name and Use File Content.

[ShaMin]

Thanks Norman,

Not sure if this is relevant as "Use File Content" should incorporate the file into the generated pages HTML rather than upload it separately.

That's my understanding of "Use File Content" as well. I thought I'd chance including the file to see if it makes a difference.

Check capitalisation. When Previewing your PC is quite happy to treat a and A as the same thing. When uploaded (at least on Unix) case is important.

Point taken. The site is hosted on Linux. I changed the file name & references to it to be all lower case, but still no change.

It might be worth mentioning that I used to have the code for the banners in Marketing Text, which worked fine, but didn't give me the flexability to turn it off on certain pages.

Any other suggestions?

[NormanRouxel]

I created in the site's root folder with the ad banner code.

Do you mean in Site1, or on the server?

This file should be in Site1 so that Actinic can incorporate it in the HTML of the page(s) it is building. That page is then uploaded (like any other) but now contains your extra text, directly embedded in it.

The included file on it's own is never needed on the server.

[ShaMin]

Yes, it's in Site1.

I also had a fiddle around today. If I simply set the value for ADBANNER to some text and uncheck the 'File Name' & 'Use File Content' boxes, I get the same behaviour. It's there in the preview, but not live. So it doesn't seem to be a problem with the external file.

This makes me wonder if it has something to do with where CUSTOMVAR:ADBANNER is placed within Act_Primary.html. I added it in just after NETQUOTEVAR:SPLASHTEXTBODY, where the banners used to be pulled in from. I've tried putting it before and after the closing </form> tag, but still no show.

Is there any no-no's here that I should look out for?

[Nadeem]

Hi there

"Use File Content" shows the content of the file you specified. So as an example if you use a custom variable to show a flash file, and you ticked "Use File Content", then it will simply display the binary content of the flash file. "Use File Content" is useful for showing plain text which you could save as a text file.

Have you got a test site for us to look at where the banner is not appear?

Kind Regards

[ShaMin]

Thanks for your feedback Nadeem,

The site is currently live at www.munstercomputers.com. The banners should be appearing at the bottom of every page in the shop except the 1st two sections. The site is uploaded with the 'Compact HTML/CGI' option checked, so if it's too hard to see what's going on, let me know and I can do a non-compacted one in a subdirectory.

I've looked at the HTML from the uploaded pages before, but there just doesn't seem to be any trace of the banners. Maybe you can spot something I don't.

[Nadeem]

Hi there

Could not find that much information, hmm.. please could you write in what you have got for a custom properties, so i can test it out on a default site.
Just try to put as much information as possible

Kind Regards

[ShaMin]

Nadeem,

I have it configured as follows:

1. My custom property is named ADBANNER and the Type is set to Text.
2. In Site Defaults, I assigned ADBANNER a value of Act_AdBanner.html. Use as CUSTOMVAR, File Name & Use File Content is checked.
3. I created a file called Act_AdBanner.html in Site1 with the code for the banners.
4. In Act_Primary.html, I referenced CUSTOMVAR:ADBANNER in the appropriate place, just after NETQUOTEVAR:SPLASHTEXTBODY.
5. For two sections where I don't want the banners to appear, I re-assigned ADBANNER a value of " "(space) and just have Use as CUSTOMVAR checked.

When I preview, all works as expected. When I upload, no banners appear anywhere.

[ShaMin]

Aha! I think I have an idea what's going on now. I removed the assignments for ADBANNER from the two sections I wanted to exclude, and now the banners show up in the live site.

The next step now will be to figure out a way to 'turn off' the banners from the sections where I don't want them. From what I found above, it seems that ADBANNER gets 'turned off' all over the site, whenever I set it as described in my previous post for just a sub-section.

[cdicken]

I think you are hitting a 7.0.2 bug here where if you set a default value for a custom property in Design Options, and then override this default value for one of your top-level sections, the value will be overridden for all your top level sections.

This will be fixed in the next maintenance release. In the mean time, all you need to do is explicitly define a value for ADBANNER for all your top-level sections in your store.