Why doesn't "add search to Front page" work?

[anf1y]

Hi. I am currently doing the 30-day trial of Catalog 7, and within the first day have hit a problem. At one point I had a quick search on my front page. Whilst experimenting with themes, I lost it. There is a tick box to add search to front page, but it seems to do nothing at all. I have tried adding NETQUOTEVAR:SIMPLESEARCH (as suggested on this board) onto the page and it works OK until I change the theme again. Have I got something else switched off? (I am nervous about investing time and money in a product that is going to need more than "instinctive" operation) HELP, please?
Anthea

[garyhay]

This only works inside catalog pages and not brouchure pages as far as I remember

[DaveT]

The search works just fine called from any page on a site but doesn't come that way by default.

To answer Anthea's question, the search can be added to any page on the site with some minor tweaking. Maybe this is not straight out of the box but it is not hard to do.

To see try this site: http://www.johnsons-seeds.com/. All pages feature the search box connecting to Actinic.

Also changing themes is likely to overwrite the one you had back to the new theme which may not have that variable (NQV:SIMPLESEARCH) added.

[anf1y]

.. so, what's the tick box for?

Thanks for the answers - it is reassuring to know there are other people out there. I promise I will get better, it's a big learning curve at the moment!

However, that seems to pose more questions: if there is a box saying "Show searching on front page" and it is ticked, surely changing themes should make no odds? or are you saying that some themes have a search facility and others don't? In which case, if I choose an empty theme with search in the list, surely it would show if the box is ticked? I'm beginning to wonder if this problem, being a new "facility" in V7, is actually a bug!

[garyhay]

Not all themes have the search box.

Not sure about 7.0.2 but in 7.0.1 you had to copy the generated code from acatalog/index.html to the brouchure template.

Stick with it mate.

[anf1y]

I'm not a quitter, but...

Thanks for the support. I've been a while getting back to you because I've found a whole new problem! I think my mistake was to go for a specific theme rather than a clean layout, as I'm finding it difficult to alter the elements of the theme (where is the html hidden? It doesn't seem to be in Site1 - that seems to be general stuff)

I'm slightly concerned that the download I did yesterday (7.0.2) still seems to have this searching problem.

Any clues as to where to find the "personalised" bits of html would be good...

Give me a week and I'll be helping others, but for now...!!!

Anthea

[anf1y]

I've done some more investigating, and the theme I was trying to use was Smart in Specific Designs. This DOES have a search field showing in the snapshot, so I must have switched something off somewhere.. any ideas?

Anthea

[TraceyG]

Hi Anthea,

where is the html hidden? It doesn't seem to be in Site1 - that seems to be general stuff

The HTML is in the templates (Advanced | Template Manager). There is also some within 'Design | Text | Website | HTML' (see the Advanced User Guide for a list of what these prompts do). There is also some HTML generated from the perl scripts but this is minimal.

Ticking the option to include the search on Front Page (View | Search Settings) will put the full search options on the first shop page of your site and should stay in place when changing themes.

The simple search option is determined by the theme you choose, so if you select a theme without a simple search and add one in manually (NETQUOTEVAR:SIMPLESEARCH), changing the theme to one that does not include it will remove it from your site as this just overwrites the templates with the default ones for that theme. I would suggest find a theme close to the layout you want and sticking to it. You can then amend this theme to get the look and feel you want by editing the relevant templates.

I hope this makes things clearer for you.

[anf1y]

Having spent another 24 hours under an ice-pack, I have realised my problem is one of terminology. To me "front page" means just that - ie the first page you come to (home page). To Actinic it means front page of catalog - not the same thing! I will amend the home page and stop expecting "add to front page" to put the search on it for me!

[webyourbusiness]

I'm slightly concerned that the download I did yesterday (7.0.2) still seems to have this searching problem.

it's not a "problem" - it's a "feature".