Using act layout for frontend pages

[Tom55]

I want to standardise all my pages for my site. Essentially I want to be able to import the actinic pages I use into dreamweaver and then edit it to create all my front end pages. I have tried saving the page and importing, but not everything shows up...including some javascript stuff.

Im a novice at web design so bear with me...

[pinbrook]

why don't you use brochure pages. Then they will be the same format as catalog pages

[Tom55]

Is that available in Catalog vers 5.1.1.1? Not heard of these brochure pages before. How do they work?

Also Ive found a way of linking tables between act database and access. But ive been told you cant do this with catalog- only business.

[Jan]

You could export the data from access to a csv file and then you could import it into Actinic - the feature that is business only is 'external database linking', you can also update the Actinic database directly from your own tables if you understand the database structure.

To create a brochure page, right click on your catalog tree and choose add new page, then add fragments to that page to build up the page. You can also create new templates for brochure with the text in them to include your dreamweaver or otherwise designs straight into a brochure page which makes it fit into your brochure quite nicely.

NETQUOTEVAR:INCLUDE titlePage.html

(Note titlePage.html would be replaced with your HTML page name, and you would need to create a new template for every page that you wanted to do like this)

Regards

[Tom55]

It is this 'linking to external database' that I thought I had achieved. Ive linked tables between access/actinic catalog. Is there something that wont work if i edit the product table in access?

My dilemma: I share same stock for online & for my shop. I wanted to create a 'daily sales sheet' form that is filled in at the end of each day at the shop. This will keep stock control in check if website is updated every day. This is why i want to use access. Although I cant myself program the daily sales form in access! Hoping to find one on the net- no luck! Can this be done without using external database? ie can actinic catalog v.5.1.1 create a sales sheet/report that i can use in this way?

As for my other problem...I cant use brochure...dont have business version. How can I get an exact copy of my main page...and then import to Dreamweaver to start creating the front end so that it matches the rest. At the moment...my front end looks nothing like the catalog...therfore, not very professional!

[Jan]

It is this 'linking to external database' that I thought I had achieved. Ive linked tables between access/actinic catalog. Is there something that wont work if i edit the product table in access?

It should be fine, business has a feature that does this for you, if you change a product on your external database it will automatically be reloaded into actinic. If you link tables in Access outside Actinic there are some values that may not refresh until you open and close Actinic such as the product name that appears in the catalog tree. I would close Actinic, make the changes in your external tables and then open it again to see the changes.


Take a look at the transaction reports for daily sales figures, they might do what you want to do - they work on the date an order was placed and give you total sales for each product as well as other info.

Brochure is included as standard in Actinic 6 but not in Actinic 5, sorry about the misleading info I gave you earlier.

Regards

[Tom55]

Thanks for the info.

Dont think any of the standard reports will be helpfull as they pool the data from online sales within actinic. The info i need to get into actinic is: subtract a number from the stock level for each item sold in the shop. Ive tried myself with Access- but dont know enough about it.

[garyhay]

Using act layout for frontend pages

Have you got the original question answered as what you are trying to do is the corect process, just you are trying it backwards.

You should creat you pages in Dreamweaver the import into Actinic.

[Jan]

There is a stock level form in Actinic (view/stock levels) you can type stock levels in here, it will display the current stock so you could manually subtract the shop sales from it.

If you want to know how many items have been sold though Actinic on a particular day then the transaction reports will tell you this - Actinic automatically reduces it's stock as the items arrive providing that stock monitoring is switched on.

If you want to tell Actnic that you have also sold x items in your real shop then use the stock level form.

Regards

[Tom55]

To Jan:

I appreciate that it would be possible to manually subtract the stock levels each day...but...its not practical! I need a 'program' that does it for me- something a member of sales staff can handle too. I cant believe that no-one has created a program that runs infront of actinic for this purpose. Loads of shops have an actinic website too and must experience the same dilemma! All it would take is 2 forms- (1)1 with dropdown lists to select the product sold (that takes products from act table) with quantity sold, date, how paid for etc- only 1 piece of the info would be needed for actinic- but the other is needed to show the taxman! (2) another form- is the same as before but allows entry of new stock arrived.

To GaryHay:

Not sure how to import my dreamweaver pages into actinic. Doesn't that overwrite the important act code in the templates like nequotar?

[Jan]

I don't know of a program to allow offline stock details to be entered (but you are not the first person to ask for it), if you would like me give you a quote to write such a program email me offline. One sneaky way to get this info into Actinic would be to go to the web site each day and place an order for the items sold in the shop, entering the required information into the order. I think that it is usual to collate this sort of information in an accounting package such as sage.

Regards,

[garyhay]

You need to place the NETQUOTEVARS into your dreamweaver pages and actinic will add the shopping cart parts. See the guide Designing with Developer on the Actinic web site as this has a good section on using dreamweaver.

The V5 guide has a very good section (it's near the back)

It's okay if you have not got Developer as the principle is the same.

If you dont have the Advanced User Guide then I would suggest downloading it as well.

Hope that helps