Links to Individual Products from outside Actinic

[NickD]

Here's an interesting one.

I wanted to create links to individual products that I can include in, for example, e-mail newsletters, so that customers can link directly to the product description from where they can buy if they wish. This I have successfully managed to do - here is an example:-

http://www.nickdobsonwines.co.uk/aca...tml#gravallon1

The "#gravallon1" bit I have embedded in the title part of the product page by embedding html before the product name, e.g.:-

!!<<a name="#gravallon1"></a>>!!Fernanad Gravallon Case

This works fine, and I can link direct to the product so that the first line on the screen when following the link is the product title.

BUT when someone actually bought this product I realised that there was a problem; on the invoice and packing note, the html is included in the product name. And also in the auto-generated emails to the customer.

I have now changed it so that the html is now embedded not in the product title, but at the top of the product description. This works, and gets rid of the html in the invoice, but now when following the link, the first line of text on the screen is the first line of the product description, and not the product title. This is confusing for the customer as they won't see any clear reference to the product.

Does anyone know a clean way to get round this - such that the product descriptions remain correct on invoices, emails etc, but when following the link,m the first line on the screen can be the product description?

All input gratefully received.

Regards

Nick

[Ben]

Hi Nick

There is a line in the ProductLine tempate above the product name which is <a name="NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTANCHOR">. When generated, this NQV becomes the product reference prefixed by 'a'. You can link to the product directly using this, e.g.
http://www.nickdobsonwines.co.uk/aca...s.html#a190202

Ben

[NickD]

Hi Ben

A belated thanks for that - it works fine. However there's another problem I've spotted related to linking in this way. I use design theme 14, which has a section list down the left hand side on a sidebar, presumably in its own frame.

Problem is when linking in this way, the section list/sidebar is missing and only returns when "Home" is selected.

Any work-around?

Thanks

Nick

[Menar]

Hi there,

Could you please check that you using the correct primary template in the appropriate areas, therefore, if you go to Design | Options | Layouts under the 'Primary templates area' make sure that the template that you have made changes to is the template thaat is being used as the 'Overall layout template'.


Hope the information is useful

[NickD]

Hi Menar

Not sure I follow you - there have been no changes to any templates in this connection - it's just a matter of linking to products from outside Actinic. I have however checked that the "Primary Templates" selections all seem correct - which they do - being set to "Sidebar down the left-hand side". The sidebar itself is always present - it's the section list that is missing when linked to in the way I describe.

Have a look at my site - www.nickdobsonwines.co.uk - you'll see the section list down the left-hand side - with pictures of corks and yellow text - it's this that disappears when linked to from externally.

Regards

Nick

[Menar]

Hi there,

Have a look at my site - www.nickdobsonwines.co.uk - you'll see the section list down the left-hand side - with pictures of corks and yellow text - it's this that disappears when linked to from externally.

I have also noticed that the frameset also disappears when you click on the ''Wine'' link from the home page, is that whats meant to happen?

[NormanRouxel]

If you're feeling brave I recently posted a technique for embedding a complete product details in a non-Actinic page.

This worked by extending the pop-up extended info page into having a cart button and all the usual choices, etc.

You could then embed this page into another site using an <IFRAME ....> tag. This could be in an HTML formatted e-mail as you mentioned.

I've attached my ReadMe.