Advice on Content Structures in INNERLAYOUT

[ngdoherty]

Hi All,

I am new to Actinic - but have good experience with xhtml/css another e-commerce systems (although Actinic is certainly different!).

I have a basic site in place with Actinic (I can't upload to show - apologies - but I have attached a screenshot).

I used DW to register a new design and have a mixture of product pages and brochure pages (for stuff like Home Page, Best Sellers, FAQs).

My question relates to fragments and their use. I understand their function and have read through the forum / KB / AUG. So I think I can find out how to implement them - but not necessarily what the optimal solution is when creating the content.

For example. On the home page (which is a brochure page) - I added a fragment to hold the content. Initially I just encapsulated html to display the various elements - but this seems like a bit of a hack :-) Is it?? I would rather work WITH the SW - and I think this probably means designing various library elements/layouts? Any advice would be appreciated.


For the top level section navigation icons on the left hand side - again I just hardcoded the section links (using search script and section ID). Would I have been better trying to create a custom library layout for these navigation icons and then listing the sections?

How difficult would that be .. I did attempt it and it seemed not to be worth the effort - but perhaps I may be missing out on other advantages??

The content elements of the home page are basic enough - if you see the bottom of the attached image there is:

Link (Image + Text) to Best Sellers.
Link (Image + Text) to Seasonal Products.
Link (Image + Text) to Special Offers.

So should each of these elements be an individual fragment - or should I use the xhtml as I did? If I wanted to be able to update the main image associated with these offers - then what would be the best option?

For the Seasonal Products - what is the best way to set these up? Do I add a custom variable to the Products which I set as True/False to display them? Do I create a section - and add the products and only display the section on certain brochure page? Is there a way to copy/modify one of the Marketing options instead? Let me know what makes sense and why?

Site Search. I enabled site search under setttings and added this to the home page (which is brochure page). But it doesn't display in the local page preview. Now I had a similar issue with the fragments - where the FragmentLayout was missing from the list layout (standard brochure fragment list). Could this be something simialr?

Finally I had a good look for Alphabetical Product Search / Listing. Maybe I am not using the correct terminology - but there isan't a lot of information on this. I did come aross this in the forum - is this still the best method - or do I need to purchase a module/add-on?

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=14387

Apologies for the lengthy post. Hopefully someone has some advice and answers.

Thanks

Neil

[leehack]

My question relates to fragments and their use. I understand their function and have read through the forum / KB / AUG. So I think I can find out how to implement them - but not necessarily what the optimal solution is when creating the content.

For example. On the home page (which is a brochure page) - I added a fragment to hold the content. Initially I just encapsulated html to display the various elements - but this seems like a bit of a hack :-) Is it?? I would rather work WITH the SW - and I think this probably means designing various library elements/layouts? Any advice would be appreciated.

As to whether you use embedded html or not, that really depends on what you want to achieve. The optimum setup has various fragment layouts in place so a client never needs to use html and just uses the UI. This is not always practical though and sometimes html is the only way. Tutorial on my site about fragments and brochure pages.

For the top level section navigation icons on the left hand side - again I just hardcoded the section links (using search script and section ID). Would I have been better trying to create a custom library layout for these navigation icons and then listing the sections?

How difficult would that be .. I did attempt it and it seemed not to be worth the effort - but perhaps I may be missing out on other advantages??

What you've done is probably the worst you could, cgi-bin links and not auto updated is madness given the power of this application in these areas. Read up on blocks and blockifs, some great turorials in the forum on these. Create your own lists, that auto update, but use your styling, win win win.

The content elements of the home page are basic enough - if you see the bottom of the attached image there is:

Link (Image + Text) to Best Sellers.
Link (Image + Text) to Seasonal Products.
Link (Image + Text) to Special Offers.

So should each of these elements be an individual fragment - or should I use the xhtml as I did? If I wanted to be able to update the main image associated with these offers - then what would be the best option?

Have a look into the standard marketing lists on offer, you could rename them to what you want or even use various ranges of the lists (e.g. 1-6, 7-12, 13-20) to do certain things or certain lists. You can also create fragment layouts for these lists and add them manually if you like.

For the Seasonal Products - what is the best way to set these up? Do I add a custom variable to the Products which I set as True/False to display them? Do I create a section - and add the products and only display the section on certain brochure page? Is there a way to copy/modify one of the Marketing options instead? Let me know what makes sense and why?

A section where they are manually added is an option, running a block on the product lists filtering for a variable setting is an option, using a marketing list and change it's standard use is another.

Site Search. I enabled site search under setttings and added this to the home page (which is brochure page). But it doesn't display in the local page preview. Now I had a similar issue with the fragments - where the FragmentLayout was missing from the list layout (standard brochure fragment list). Could this be something simialr?

I can get it show on any page and also in preview, perhaps you've not added it correctly, there's a layout for it, what did you do or use? maybe you've not realised there can be a section page template and a brochure page template?

Finally I had a good look for Alphabetical Product Search / Listing. Maybe I am not using the correct terminology - but there isan't a lot of information on this. I did come aross this in the forum - is this still the best method - or do I need to purchase a module/add-on?

Not a standard feature, manually controlled sections, auto sections filtering on a variable or an addon are your options.

From how you've worded some things you've asked, you seem to have a good overall knowledge of html etc. but little idea on the power and possibilities of actinic. Take some time exploring that before you do anything else particularly the tutorials on blocks and blockifs, it will literally open your eyes as to what's possible. You're in grave danger of spending hours doing things that you do not have to, if you get to grips with the areas mentioned. Get comfortable with the design library, selectors and list layouts, again massive power built you've gotta learn them to benefit from their power.

PS - if you don't want the client to be known on a site you are working, have the good sense to ensure their name is not viewable in your screenshots . Welcome to the forum.

[ngdoherty]

Thanks for the response Lee.

I will look into the Blocks and Fragments for the section links etc..

For the Site Search I just enabled it. I assumed (possibly incorrectly) that the layout was present in the design - but I wasn't sure what to check for - can you give me an idea of how to check this - e.g. search layout name?

Thanks for the ideas on solutions. However I was hoping for a bit more advice on the "Seasonal Products" and Alphabetical Search. I had an idea of what the options for implementation were - but not what the pro's / con's of each solution is. I appreciate every website is different - but I think these functions are fairly generic in their application. So rather than have me try all 3 - what would you recommend from your experience? For example have you used a 3rd party add-on for Alpha search.

In relation to the client site - that's not a problem. I can't upload the design as they have an existing site that is live. So thats why I needed to include the screenshot. Client is well aware I'm doing this as favour - Actinic would not be my first choice but its what they are using - as it will be a steep learning curve :-)

If anyone else has any additional advice please feel free to chime in.

Thanks again Lee.

Forum seems very active and helpful in offering solutions - which is always great to see :-)

[leehack]

For the Site Search I just enabled it. I assumed (possibly incorrectly) that the layout was present in the design - but I wasn't sure what to check for - can you give me an idea of how to check this - e.g. search layout name?

First thing to check is whether your brochure pages use a different overall layout to the section pages. If so, that could explain the difference. Without seeing it, it's hard to say what you have enabled, you may have the search interface which would only normally be available on section pages as standard anyway. Is it the quick search type layout like you see top right on here - http://www.atlanticshopping.co.uk/ or the more involved one with the price bands etc. If the latter, i'm pretty sure that does not show on brochure pages.

Thanks for the ideas on solutions. However I was hoping for a bit more advice on the "Seasonal Products" and Alphabetical Search. I had an idea of what the options for implementation were - but not what the pro's / con's of each solution is. I appreciate every website is different - but I think these functions are fairly generic in their application. So rather than have me try all 3 - what would you recommend from your experience? For example have you used a 3rd party add-on for Alpha search.

If the numbers you need in the list are pretty low, then i'd probably go with the custom marketing lists, where you split the available 20 products in a list into say 3 or 4 different lists with different names. 3 or 4 replications of the same list effectively, each replication of the list given its own name and each list told which of the 20 possible products to use (listindex is how you split them up). The bottom 3 "new year" lists in the central area on here do that - http://www.clubhousegolf.co.uk/ - that's the best sellers list split up basically.

However they have also just had added the ability to add a custom marketing list on any page (top and bottom possible), so they can add any products into any list on any page, allowing upsells across the site as they wish (grey headers) - http://www.clubhousegolf.co.uk/acatalog/Drivers.html - these all link through to the master SPP and there is no cgi-bin linking, but that was quite some work and i'm not sure I could have got close to that when i first started with actinic.

For the alpha sorting i think Norman at drillpine.biz has a plugin for that, it does prices as well I believe. If you are looking to have a section per letter and thus a page per letter, then i'd probably go something like this - http://www.heaven-spa.co.uk/acatalog...y-symptom.html - which uses sections and sub sections per letter, with a custom section link layout which has the child list showing the sub sections (blocks again).

The reality is that the best solution is probably one outside of your experience right now, i know for sure when I first used this version of actinic, there is no way I could have. With that in mind and also not knowing the intention of use fully, it's hard to give any sage advice. It's more a dump all possibles in a hat and let you decide really if i am honest, because you will need to learn quite a bit to do some options. If it's a favour, i guess you're conscious of time spent and thus you need to work with solutions that are documented in the forum with instructions etc. For instance username Jont documented how to split up marketing lists (also in the KB i believe). So maybe that and either sub sections per letter or the plugin from drillpine are your best options.

[ngdoherty]

Cheers Lee - thanks for the advice - will let you know how I get on.