New site feedback please!

[Ally]

Hi everyone,

Firstly thanks to everyone who posts on the 'Actinic Community' as I have spent days searching and reading many many posts which have helped me greatly in designing this site!!

The website is: www.speed4u.co.uk I was hoping anyone with a spare few minutes could give me some feedback? (please bear in mind that i am a noob to the actinic thing!!)

Its nearly finished so any comments would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Ally

[David@MPL]

Looks good, personally I'd like to see the prices including VAT . . . I assume you're selling to the general public more than trade so it's nice to see what the bottom line is without having to go to the checkout.

Hope that helps.

[Ally]

personally I'd like to see the prices including VAT . . .

thanks, good point, hadn't really thought about it like that! I have sorted it now to show prices inc VAT!

[Duncan Rounding]

Nice site Alison.

8Gb Bootable Flash Drive! - enough to carry your complete operating system and applications with you.......just add wireless and a pair of PC specs.....a whole new world ahead of us.....

[Ally]

8Gb Bootable Flash Drive! - enough to carry your complete operating system and applications with you.......just add wireless and a pair of PC specs.....a whole new world ahead of us.....

I know, its tough being the height of technology!

[jubbbird]

I don't suppose you could tell me how you went about getting the top level section list on the home page?

I have come across a couple of ways to do it, none of which are particularly desirable and the best of which is to hard code it - unless I'm missing something?

It appears otherwise you can't have the section list on non-catalog pages. I want it on all pages, just as you have Then theres no need for a "Shop" button...

[Ally]

Hi jubbbird,

not quite sure if I understand your question as i am a noob and everything i did was by reading the other posts you could try this, i hope its what you need, if not, then sorry!!

open Act_BrochurePrimary and find the code that says:

NETQUOTEVAR:FOOTERGUIDE&nbsp;<td>

change to:

NETQUOTEVAR:HEADERGUIDE&nbsp;<td>

good luck!!

[jubbbird]

At the time of writing, I haven't actually investigated what you said, although im not sure it sounds quite like what I was enquiring about

I would like to know what code you have used to produce the SECTION TREE on your brochure pages. Apparently by default Actinic only supports the use of the dynamically created menu of product categories (links - the ones down the left side of your site on each page) on CATALOG pages, i.e. NOT the homepage or pages created under the "more pages" category in the Actinic user interface. The only workaround I have found is that which is documented in the v7 Advanced User's Guide (pdf) based on a javascript solution that produces and includes a javasacript file that describes an array of all the sections in your store ready for manual manipulation on any page on the internet.

I noticed you DO have your product category list on your home page and thus I would like to know how you put it there.

The reason I am presuming that your suggest above is not quite what I had in mind is because the headerguide/footerguide does not (to my knowledge) have anything to do with the section lists. Please correct me if I am wrong! I don't wanna insult or confuse

Cheers for taking notice.

[Ally]

Ah I see, sorry about that, I am quite a novice at this, however I think I got the menu down the left hand side because I am using the smart theme, I didnt actually put it there myself!!!

Dont worry your not insulting me, in fact I am easily confused and sometimes all I can see when I read a post is blah blah blah because it just goes over my head as I am really not good with HTML etc!!!

hope this helps!
(sorry if it doesnt, at least I tried!)

[jubbbird]

Well well, you helped after all

At first I was gonna ask "whats a Smart Theme?". Then I took a peek in Actinic themes and realised you meant the "Smart" theme. After a closer inspection of said theme, it turns out that my suspicions were correct - you are making use of a small amount of Javascript to generate the section list on your front page. The advantage to that is that its updated with the rest of the site from within the Actinic interface. The trouble is that it should be supported driectly by Actinic, rather than a bodge javascript solution forcing a developer to screw around with it themselves when it works just fine on all the catalog pages. I suppose al lthey need to do is include the section list variables in the bit of the program that parses the home page templates - its gotta be a one liner or something... perhaps in v8?

As a result, now that you are reliant on Javascript to generate that menu on your brochure pages, my understanding is that anyone with security set to an inconveniant level will be unable to see the product category menu :/ Javascript is potentially dangerous - it can be used to control the host system to a degree to accomplish nasty things. As such many people will have it disabled...

Im guessing, therefore, that my still-to-be-answered support query on the subject is simply going result in an email pointing out the fact that the pre-v8 themes such as "Smart" are testament to the fact that the only way to get the dynamically updated section list on the homepage and other brochure pages is with javascript.

Well, "smart theme" were the key words of the day

Cheers very much indeed.

[Duncan Rounding]

Not sure about the Smart Theme but NETQUOTEVAR:TOPLEVELSECTIONSTOP works in the Clean Theme without js.
Give it a try in your Act_Primary and Act_BrochurePrimary templates.

[jubbbird]

My problem is that do date I've discovered that Actinic doesnt look for that variable in the brochure templates - only the primary one. As such you can't get the section list, top or otherwise, on any pages that are not catalog pages such as the home page or any custom pages created in the default "More Pages" section.

[Duncan Rounding]

I have that NQV working on my brochure pages. Perhaps it's theme dependant - I use the clean theme.

[tarik]

hi, just wondering how u got the extra menus down the right hand side? im just starting my site
www.sdonline.co.uk
thanks

[Charles Bastari]

@ Tarik
You might consider adding your new question in this thread to your question quoted below or start a new one. This thread seems to have gone astray.


@ David

As such you can't get the section list, top or otherwise, on any pages that are not catalog pages such as the home page or any custom pages

Actually, in spite of your knowledge of code, one can. And one doesn't have to do it. It's just done.

created in the default "More Pages" section.

It's not a default or a section. It is a stand-alone example brochure page that comes with the program for demo just like all the other stand-alone brochure pages under the home page that can be kept or deleted as the user sees fit.

The trouble is that it should be supported driectly by Actinic, rather than a bodge javascript solution forcing a developer to screw around with it themselves when it works just fine on all the catalog pages.

I'm no developer nor did I have to screw around with anything. I've been working with the Best Seller theme for months and know little to nothing of code. Through it all I did manage to learn enough to rip out the very code that did in fact cause my section list to show on the home page and brochure pages because the more products you have, the slower the home page loads. The reason being that the section tree, section list, top level section list, product categories or whatever else you want to call it, does load with and appear on the home page (and the other brochure pages). You will find dozens of posts in here from people wanting to know how to show only the top level sections on their home page.

So now we know the section tree is automatically generated on the home page with Smart Theme, Best Seller and Clean Layout. I'm personally curious as to what theme you've been working with hands on in the past few weeks to develop your site.

Lo, here's a brand new one from today with the list on the home page (Smart Theme I believe)

menu subsections
Hi just wondering if i can get rid of sub sections being displayed in the menu bar as i have quite a large menu bar and dont want it to get to long. Just making a simple site and dont have too much html knowledge.
www.sdonline.co.uk
thats the site and you can see its a large menu

Thanks
Tarik