Product References and Images on Search Results Page

[thedjbox.com]

Norman,

That would be spot on, most of the products on my site don't have options so a simple add to cart button on the search page would be superb.

Thanks


Neil Westlake
theDJBox.com

[harlequin]

Come on Actinic, give Norman some help here, he has a life to lead as well you know.

I am desperate for the search results to have an add to cart button and again its this 'make things more efficient as we grow' scenario, things like this can make a huge difference on sites getting 20,000 visits a day...

The client I am thinking of in particular uses the product images in search results patch at the moment and this alone has far and away proven to have increased their orders/quality of enquiries/bandwidth usage etc..... their next logical stage is to reduce one of those magical and much talked about risky 'extra clicks' on your way to a purchase by having an add to cart button there.

Also, for the images in search results it would be far better if Actinic just integrated the feature and made it so the images didnt nescessarily have to be named exactly the same as the product reference.

They dont have to be the same on the product pages so am I asing too much that the products listed on the search results use the images as if they were on a product page ?? (And all the other data from that product,info prompts, choices etc.. IF you as webmaster CHOOSE to include it maybe from the View>Search Settings bit in Actinic the program?)

Im all for customising our clients sites to achieve these features as it earns us money however I cannot understand why this knowledge which has been around since Version 4 cannot be implemented as standard and we can all move on to the next new thing without having to reapply several perl patches to each customised site each time an upgrade patch is released or even just waste days repeating the same processes each time we build a new site.

Just my tuppence worth but I am sure I will repeat the request again until I get my way...or Norman sorts it ...again.

[cdicken]

Both these features (images and add to cart buttons in the search results) are in the Wish List.

That's all I can say at teh moment except to thank Norman for all his helpful work in this area.

[harlequin]

been on the wish list since version 4

[musiccorner]

Re: Product References and Images on Search Results Page

Originally posted by ditch
Thanks to our good friend Norman Rouxel, I have found a patch to add images.

Hi Richard

I've entered this one late so far I follow the patched patch to add part numbers.

But where did you find this first patch to add images, then I'll get to the part numbers....

All in all a smart idea. Add to cart, it's as good as sold

[harlequin]

actinic extras url

Hi Chris,

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...=&threadid=217

[musiccorner]

Thank you Steve (again)

I'll have a go late on tonight, do you think I can do it...?

[harlequin]

of course

Hi Chris, norman has detailed the various patches with great instructions and you should have no problem with them.

As ever take a snapshot of your current site.

The nice thing when you do the search images in results patch and upload the changes to test, it only uploads some cgi files and the results.html page meaning you can quickly test if it works, and if not quickly change it back. (It doesnt need to upload the whole catalog unless you have also changed image filenames to match the product reference, then it will upload the images as well...)

Let us all know how you go, its a very nice step to be taking this on yourself and a testament to Normans hacks/plugins ease of use.

PS. I hope I dont sound too sychophantic about Norman, but credit where its due and all that.....

[ditch]

Sorry I've not checked the community for a while, didn't see your questions until today musiccorner.

I've uploaded the additional tweak to the perl you suggested.

Thanks again for your help. I've actually seen an increase in customer orders since implimenting the new search patches you provided norman. So thanks a bunch, the boss is pleased!

-----

Now this add to cart button in the search results is an interesting idea! I can see the problems with it, you mentioned earlier norman, products with options would be tricky.

The best thing to do would be to have the script not put add to cart buttons of products with options, and only put the button on the products which are simple.

[musiccorner]

Steve When you say

you have also changed image filenames to match the product reference

can i put the part name as the image name say....7155sm or does it need to be 7155sm.jpg which is the name of the image?

May sound a bit thick but I'm still new to this code stuff!

Anyway I've done something wrong!?!

[NormanRouxel]

You use just the part name for your product. I.e. "7155sm" and then your image should be named "7155sm.jpg" or "7155sm.gif". Without the quotes of course.

Norman

[musiccorner]

Thanks Norman

I'll try again. It's probably something real simple I've done wrong; but I'll probably be back soon...

...another weekend another time to mess....!

[musiccorner]

Hi again.

I managed to get it sorted, I feel good.

Just got to change nealy 200 part numbers and image paths now. What fun...it will keep busy for a while.

Thanks you Norman and Steve, I've reached achieved another learning marker.

[NormanRouxel]

Just a reminder. Somewhere up this thread it was pointed out that "/" characters in the product reference would be a pain if they were to be included in the image name. Also a method was required to have a product in more than one section but use the same image.

I've rejigged the patches to fix this. Here are the notes re the new bits:-

As the character "/" may occur in product references but will be a problem on the web the "/" character will be replaced by "-" so the product reference "XYZ/123" should have XYZ-123.jpg or XYZ-123.gif as its image name.

To allow you to put a product in more than one section (where it must have a different product reference) you can use one or more "-" as a prefix to the product reference and all these will be stripped out when checking for the image. E.g. product "XYZ-123" can be also called "-XYZ-123" or "--XYZ-123", etc but all of them will use the image named "XYZ-123.jpg".

The new patches are on www.rouxel.cwc.net/actinicstuff.html

Norman

[musiccorner]

Hello Norman,

Sorry about a little more on these patches. I have it working on my site www.musiccorner.co.uk/acatalog for Melodeon or Accordion.

I've aligned the pictures at 1/3rd to the left of text.

I wondered if there is anyway of hyperlinking the picture according to the line and text.

What is happening is that the picture is linking to the next line of text, as the others are. So the picture is always one link down.

The search page links seem to go text of 1 and number 2, text of 2 and number 3 etc... With the pictures in it ignores picture number one as a link and then takes text of 1, picture number 2, next line numeral 2. Text of 2, picture 3, next line numeral 3.

Does this make sense I'm getting muddled typing it? You'll see it better here

Can this be modified / included on the script. I feel it could get a bit confusing for some customers.....cliking on a picture and finding themselves else where...

(I havn't made the patch for the /'s yet...decided I didn't need them as yet.)

However the effect is great and I feel wil help a great deal when I get all the background work done.