Smart theme slow links and index overwrite

[newshopbloke]

Hi all,

Im trying to get my shop up and running quickly so that I can attempt to sell my christmas stock. Unfortunately I have 2 immediate problems :

1: I have created my own homepage by downloading the actinic generated page via ftp then doing a wysiwyg and re-uploading. This is great until actinic automatically overwrites it ! Is there anyway to tell actinic to "leave my index.html page alone, forever !" ?

2: The smart theme links in the left hand box are painfully slow, my own hand coded links are way faster, how can I tell actinic to link to "www.myweb.co.uk/acatlog/item1.html" instead of "http://www.myweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?SECTIONID=item1html&NOLOGIN=1" ?

Im really hoping this is a simple tick box thing and not "you've got to hand code the lot mate"

As usual, thanks in advance.

Mick

[RuralWeb]

1: I have created my own homepage by downloading the actinic generated page via ftp then doing a wysiwyg and re-uploading. This is great until actinic automatically overwrites it ! Is there anyway to tell actinic to "leave my index.html page alone, forever !" ?

Deselect the use as homepage check box on the homepage brochure page in Actinic.

2: The smart theme links in the left hand box are painfully slow, my own hand coded links are way faster, how can I tell actinic to link to "www.myweb.co.uk/acatlog/item1.html" instead of "http://www.myweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?SECTIONID=item1html&NOLOGIN=1" ?

Try using toplevelsection as your navigation - not sure if it will work in smart theme though. You could also try one of normans menus.

[newshopbloke]

cgi links have to go

Thanks for your reply.
When I got in last night I found several threads on the whole 'links through cgi-bin' thing and im literally the only person who has complained about the speed issue instead of seo compatability ! The speed issue is the biggest for me because a slow site is quite simply no good.

There are few modified smart smart sites run by forum members who have got round this link problem but im not sure how they have done it. Changing the options didnt help me and im now thinking I need a script or something ?

Homepage fix didnt work because I deleted it from actinic and only have the online catalog section left.

Cheers

Mick

[RuralWeb]

and im literally the only person who has complained about the speed issue

What is your url - there may be other issues affecting the navigation speed rather than the cgi links.

[newshopbloke]

Hi Malcolm

The url is www.artscraft.co.uk

I have re-uploaded a basic "out of the box" smart theme because my heavily modified smart theme was no longer compatable with v.7.06 and I simply couldnt face changing all the scripts again.

If you click on a link in the center section the result is almost instant and does not require refreshing the whole page. If you click on anything in the yahoosection box it goes through the cgi bin and forces an entire page refresh, no good for visitors and bad for bandwidth.

I really need those links to be normal and not through the cgi bin but I dont really want to be installing special scripts etc etc.

Any ideas ?

Cheers

Mick

p.s. have a look at the basket - loads of bits from best seller theme hanging around

[RuralWeb]

Yes this is the normal speed for this navigation. To change it you will need to remove the yahoo code and insert the topleveltop menu. I have done a site with this theme and changed the code see:http://www.letsgetscrapping.co.uk/ so it does work.

[newshopbloke]

Thanks for that Malcolm,

Dont suppose you can tell me how to do this Or point me to a link ?

This is exactly how I want the nav to work and the yahoo thing can go forever because quite frankly its no good.

Dont suppose you can comment on why my site1 folder is still containing bits of best seller after changing themes ?

I need to get this sorted before my actinic cd gets thrown from a great height into my office bin.........again !

Cheers

Mick

[RuralWeb]

change Act_BrochurePrimary.html and act_primary.html

from

<td>
<script language=Javascript1.2>
document.write(YahooSections(section_tree))
</script>
</td>

to

NETQUOTEVAR:TOPLEVELSECTIONSTOP

As for the odd pages - check the templates used for each page you may need to modify then as well or use the primary template.

[newshopbloke]

Thanks Malcolm

Its now working the way it should always have done in my opinion. All I have to do now is sort out the home page, or go back to not having one, and try to smarten (pun intended) the whole site up.

Its you and the other regular 'helpers' that save actinic from losing customers through utter frustration. Maybe after all these years I will end up with a site that im actually happy with and willing to promote.

This will be about my tenth major attempt to get it sorted in a way that makes me want to continue with the whole actinic thing.

Mick

[RuralWeb]

No problem