add new panel to template

[evilswan]

hello!

have set up our shop at http://www.thechinacabin.co.uk - things are working fine.

in addition to the contact details panel on the right hand side, we would like to add a new table in there which can be used to display special offers, etc. how can i modify the template so that a new area appears on all pages, then how can i make actinic put a fragment in the new table so that i can update the special offer through actinic?

i hope someone can help me!!

-the swan.

[jont]

Hi Jack,

to add a new box to alter from within Actinic it is a 3 step process:

1. add 2 new CUSTOMVAR in ADVANCED | CUSTOM PROPERTIES - call them something like NEWBARTITLE and NEWBARTEXT - the BAR is the table header and the TEXT is the table content

2. open the Act_Primary.html template - copy and paste one of the exisiting tables into the new place and alter the exisitng CUSTOMVAR to read CUSTOMVAR:NEWBARTITLE and CUSTOMVAR:NEWBARTEXT

3. in Actinic DESIGN | OPTIONS | SITE DEFAULTS - click the "+" in PROPERTIES and select NEWBARTEXT and enter your main blurb add another NEWBARTITLE to add the table header

[jont]

.. make sure you check the "use as CUSTOMVAR" when adding the text

[evilswan]

thank you!! i will give this a go.

do CUSTOMVAR, etc need to be specified as unique names or can they just be called CUSTOMVAR?

[jont]

When you add a new custom property as outlined above you need to specify a new name - you can use the same name in different places within a template though.

If you set a CUSTOMVAR as NEWBARTITLE the syntax for the template is CUSTOMVAR:NEWBARTITLE - so whenever Actinic see's a CUSTOMVAR it looks up the value of NEWBARTITLE and insert accordingly

CUSTOMVAR's are excellent for providing repeating text that can be changed easily from within Actinic rather than hard coding the templates so make it easy to have changing special offers, news etc

[evilswan]

ok, how do i upload the new act_primary.html or will it upload itself when i sync the site?

also, if i add an image to the code, (a little special offers logo) will this get uploaded too or will i have to put it up by ftp myself?

any help appreciated?

[NormanRouxel]

If you add an image to a template via HTML, e.g. <img src="myimage.gif"> then Actinic will automatically detect this (if the image is in Site1) and upload it for you.

If you want to define an image in a Custom Property, then you have to check the File Name option and Actinic will then realise that the Custom Property value is a filename and will upload it for you.

[jont]

Hi Jack,

Actinic will convert all the templates and product details and merge into readable HTML files for the internet when you upload.

The additional button image should always reside in the Site 1 folder - Actinic will upload the image with the template.

So just hit the upload and everything should sort itself out.

[evilswan]

it hasn't worked.. i've made the change to act_primary.html locally in site1 and i've uploaded - no changes...

[jont]

Does it work in the preview pane? Try a page refresh in your browser as you may be viewing the cached files

[evilswan]

update: it HAS worked, but i didn't realised it was only on catalog pages and not the index page.

is there any way i can make it be on the index page too? it's important that visitors see the offers on the first page.

also, will this index page be dynamically updated by actinic too?

thanks!!!!!

[jont]

Glad to hear it worked. To add to the homepage add a new fragment under the Home(index.html) section in the content tree - you could also add the html to an existing fragment... copy the code from the template relating to the image, source and HREF and paste into the fragment.

You will need to add !!< and >!! around the code so Actinic recognises this as code and not text. Eg if your source code in the template looks liks <a href=".....> then add it to the fragment as

!!<<a href="......>>!!

this will preserve the code when Actinic generates the page.

[evilswan]

thank you so much for your help, i will give that a try.

-the swan

[jont]

Your welcome - hope you get it working as you hope

Jont

[fuzzie bear]

I can't get the extra panels on the index. Is there any other way to do this ?