Dynamic content in homepage

[Yong]

Hi, i would like to make the home page, the first page where the customer first visits, to have dynamic contents. whereby the contents will change upon each visit, and it will be done automatically.

the way to process might be the same as the search and result method, but the difference is that the search field will be pre input and the results will be generated upon each visit [theortically it works this way, but other suggestions are welcome]

query 1:
i had found some actinic variables which may be of use, but im not sure whether these variable will work in the brochure fragments.

variables are:
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTREF
NETQUOTEVAR:THUMBNAIL
Actinic:S_Link/
Actinic:S_PNAME/
Actinic:S_DESCR/

query 2:
however im not sure which are applicable to be implemented to have such dynamic content effects and how to code them.

hope anyone can enlighten on this part.
thanks yong

[NormanRouxel]

These NETQUOTEVAR's won't work as they're intended only for use when displaying a particular product. There's no way to get several random product details automatically onto a home page.

The only way that might be possible was if you were using the One Product per Page type of layout where the Section Name contained the product name and an image. Then you could interrogate the Actinic Act_section_tree.js JavaScript structure to fetch some Section names (and images) and display them.

If you have several products per page this won't work.

There is also a fairly recent post regarding displaying a few random images from a pre-set list (of about 10) on a home page. Search for "random images" and you should find it.

[Yong]

Hi Norman, thanks for the reply. about half of my products are done in One product per page layout. while others arent.

And i read the thread on random images, but it doesnt really seem to be what im looking for.

what i wanted to do is something similar to those selling movies. whereby u recommend about 3-4 products which are either newly arrived or is generated from the pool of current products. due to the huge amount of products, so it has to be cycled through.

also, at the homepage its sort of preview of some randomly generated products, where there are images, the full description of the product and a link to the actual page (this page contains the price and add to cart button)

the reason im holding back to use of javascript is because content generated using js are not actually part of the page, it just embedded. and search engine wont be able to grab on these contents (if im not wrong)

That's the reason why im depending on these actinic variables as they seem to include the contents onto the pages.

hope what i want to achieve works then it will be great

[acompton]

the reason im holding back to use of javascript is because content generated using js are not actually part of the page, it just embedded. and search engine wont be able to grab on these contents (if im not wrong)

AFAIU search engines can't read 'raw' html pages - they would need FTP access to do this, and most of us disallow anonymous access. When they crawl your website they have to use HTTP to 'serve' the pages. The real question is: do they interpret and run any embedded js before they analyse the page. If they do, then the js will produce the HTML for them to analyse. The answer probably varies for different SEs.

[NormanRouxel]

I would expect a search engine to ignore JavaScript code completely. It's got a well-defined job to do and wouldn't want to slow itself down or be compromised by running unknown code.

On the original question see http://www.ecommerce.uk.com/actinic_...ross_sell.html

[Reds]

problems with my catalog page?

Hi

I am having problems with one of the pages on my site; it’s the catalog (products) page. When you click the products page it does not show the products that are on the entire website and I can not change it.

I have been told that it is the codeing by actinic support, but that’s impossible because I have not change the script.

If some one could advise me I would be very grateful.

www.Xlmuk.com

[NormanRouxel]

Hi, Reds

This thread is about Dynamic Content in Home Page. Only people discussing that problem are likely to look here.

You'd be better posting your problem as a New Thread and give it a maningful name.

It will also help if you give a direct link to a problem page, and describe what should be there and what isn't.

[Reds]

re:

Hi Norman

Thanks for the suggestion but I am not to sure how to post a new thread, I am a new user to the site.

How do you post your problem?

Regards

[NormanRouxel]

Welcome to the community.

Don't worry. It's not that hard. Just click the Actinic v7 Support link at the top of this page. That takes you to the list of Threads. Just click the New Thread button and off you go.

[Reds]

thanks a lot Norman

[Yong]

Hi Norman,

as from what i search, SSI can be an option. from the searches found here, there isnt one thread about how to implement SSI to generate the dynamic contents. (well, i found out about how to include the ssi page in using customvar:ssi)

any ideas how can i use ssi to generate contents? (not sure if this possible as im not familiar with ssi and my knowledge is limited to that it can print out the time or include an external page and embed as if the contents belong to the page)

thanks

[NormanRouxel]

You can also use PHP to introduce dynamic content. In any dynamic content system you'll need some sort of database containing the products and code to select and include these. Such work requires moderate programming skills and it's not really the purpose of this forum to teach these.

Actinic doesn't provide any such server side database, so you're in for a LOT of work.

You can also look at http://www.ecommerce.uk.com/actinic_...ross_sell.html where there's a paid for add-on that may do most of what you want.

[Yong]

Hi Norman,

i decided to use php to do this.
but i have a question.
as im doing the codings in the brochure fragments,
do i code them as
!!< <?php ... ?> >!!
or <?php ... ?>

also is it recommended to do the codings in the brochure fragments
or i have to use a page as the index not from actinic?

thanks
yong

[NormanRouxel]

I'd guess that !!< and >!! might be required, but it would have been quicker to test it yourself that to wait for a Forum reply.

I don't inderstand your second point but you can either embed code into the Brochure fragment text, or use a custom template for that fragment; said template containing your own code.

[richardh9999]

I think I've succeeded in getting some dynamic content on my site but I'm not quite sure how I achieved it....I'm not a programmer.

However, I'm using some kind of graphics to display the content and it seems to work fine on all brochure pages (Act_BrochurePrimary) and those shop pages (Primary HTML) that do not include fragments BUT it does not work on those that do have fragments.

I think if I turn off the graphics then it's fine (although I've tried so many combinations and configurations now I'm now entirely sure). So it must be something to do with the javascript I would guess.... but as I say, I'm not a programmer and all this is a bit gobbledy gook to me.... just trying to make my site more interesting !

I'm using a a simple SSI include script:
<!--#include FILE="maininfo.html"-->

Can anyone suggest why it would not work with those pages with fragments?