Brochure page with custom variable search results

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hi all

at the moment, i have a custom variable called 'category' assigned to each of my products. in my catalogue they are grouped by brand, so i use a link to a search based on variable (eg, footwear, tshirts, tops) and present those results as if it was a real section called 'footwear' or 'pants' or whatever.. this works pretty cool, but im thinking thats not too google friendly, im conscious that this method isnt ideal for indexing my sitemap.

my idea is now to use actinics php powers to hardcode a category results page into a brochure page.. of course, being an ideas-man/wannabe-graphic-designer, i wouldnt have the first clue how to code this or if its even possible (pagination could be a problem, for example).

any actinic gurus out there with any suggestions or alternatives?

tia

[leehack]

Surely using product duplicates is your simplest and quickest method? How many products we talking about?

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hundreds split in over a dozen brands.

[NormanRouxel]

You don't need PHP to do this. Just blocks. Try:

SURFING
<actinic:block type="EntireSectionList">
	<actinic:block type="ProductList">
		<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22Category%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%22Surfing%22">
			<actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> <actinic:variable name="ProductName" /><br/>
		</actinic:block>
	</actinic:block>
</actinic:block>

<br/>
<br/>
SKIING
<actinic:block type="EntireSectionList">
	<actinic:block type="ProductList">
		<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22Category%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%22Skiing%22">
			<actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> <actinic:variable name="ProductName" /><br/>
		</actinic:block>
	</actinic:block>
</actinic:block>

Here we're simply displaying the Section Name and Product Name for all Surfing category products followed by a similar list of all Skiing category products. Repeat for each category you have. Adding in a link to the product would be easy.

You can easily test this by putting the code into a Fragment's description surrounded by !!< and >!!

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cheers

Norman, thats working very well, thank you, next i'll try and add links, then thumbnails =)

much appreciated!

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hi

cracked it using this:

<actinic:block type="EntireSectionList">
	<actinic:block type="ProductList">
		<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22Category%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%22Value%22">
			<div class="image">
<a href="[SectionURL]">
<img border="0" src="[ProductThumbnailImageFileName]" />" 
</a>
<div class="name">[ProductName]</a>
</div>
		</actinic:block>
	</actinic:block>
</actinic:block>

awesome, cheers all

[NormanRouxel]

You need an <a href="[SectionURL]"> before [ProductName]

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oh yeah, cheers! i should have added that to post, i didnt use that myself coz ive positioned that text over the image with css =)

well spotted!

[NormanRouxel]

Get holographic pattern matching eyeballs. Unmatched tag pairs don't half stand out.