Site Review Please -I am at your mercy friendly fellow Actinicers!

[mypalchris]

Perhaps there is the opportunity to completely dominate the security/fire gift market with another Actinic store which features just security and fire related gifts.
.

To be honest, this was an idea that I had been bouncing around, only for my boss to shoot me down in flames, so it's nice to hear it vindicated! If only I was paid by the site and not saleried!

[mypalchris]

Right. I've been trawling the forum and reading various posts about SPP and SEO all day and now my head hurts.

A lot.

But I think I now understand the "why" part using SPP, now I just need to understand the "how" part. As have said I am new to all of this coding and website design lark, and I've been getting a bit lost following a lot of the forum posts, but these are my thoughts so far:


1) The bottom level subsection replaces the extended info page. I need this section page to have the same look and layout as my current extended info page.

so this:

Top Level section : Extended Info Page (with product info)

Needs to become this

Top Level section : New Section (with product info - as per current extended info page)


2) Is there a quick and easy way to convert and create all of the product sections? After my reading the answer appears to be no. Someone mentioned that you could export a heirarchical file and use excel to do it quickly, but I'm afraid I didn't quite follow all of the logic.

3) Is there a quick and easy way in maintaining the overall layout of the site exactly as I have it at the moment? Would I still be able to get my bottom level subsections to look as they do now?

I'm begining to think this problem has left me a little out of my depth!

[Rich Brady]

Chris,

Essentially you need to put every Product into it's own Section. Then have all of the info that you have on the Ext. Info Page within said Product.

See right hand image in Lee's tutorial;

http://www.websitedesigned.co.uk/actinic-spp.htm

If you don't want to do this by hand you could use a plug in to speed things up:

http://www.codepath.co.uk/actinic_plugins.htm

[NormanRouxel]

Many people recommend putting a product into it's own Section, each Section containing one product.

However I cannot see any difference between this and having a compact list of products (say 4 across the page) where each uses the Extended Info page (opening in same page as the product and with a full layout, add-to-cart, etc) to display the full product details and Cart button.

This way it's easy to display things like price on the compact list and you don't have to fill in Section Details for each product - everything can be done on the Product Details and its assorted tabs. And you don't have to re-do the Section details if you change the product name, image, etc.

[mypalchris]

Many people recommend putting a product into it's own Section, each Section containing one product.

However I cannot see any difference between this and having a compact list of products (say 4 across the page) where each uses the Extended Info page (opening in same page as the product and with a full layout, add-to-cart, etc) to display the full product details and Cart button.

This way it's easy to display things like price on the compact list and you don't have to fill in Section Details for each product - everything can be done on the Product Details and its assorted tabs. And you don't have to re-do the Section details if you change the product name, image, etc.

Thanks Norman,

Would you recommend then keeping my site "as is" ?

[leehack]

Automatic page naming to something useful, the ability to add individual titles and META info so not farmed from a parent page and easy to have same page design throughout site with no technical know how. Those would be the first 3 that spring to mind. There is also a considerable performance improvement with a page using sections and not products and extended info pages, particularly when working within the software.

I've been told that extended info pages are looking to be improved in this area, to present the same functions and fields as a section. If that and improvement on speed happen, then multi product pages can duly return and would be an equal to the SPP solution.

[NormanRouxel]

Automatic page naming to something useful, the ability to add individual titles and META info so not farmed from a parent page and easy to have same page design throughout site with no technical know how. Those would be the first 3 that spring to mind.

Ah.... It's the "no technical know how" that's probably the stumbling block.

It's not difficult to make the Extended Info page name include the product name. However, even though the Extended Info page is unique there are no Meta Fields available. Again easy to do with custom variables but a bit of a pain.

[leehack]

Ah.... It's the "no technical know how" that's probably the stumbling block.

Definitely only the technical side as the stumbling block, it can all be done using variables and/or know how (particularly if you was involved), although a little clunky or lacking user friendliness at times. With a bit of focus on this area, Actinic can easily make extended info pages the equal of a section. Maintaining important (what should be standard) fields via variables given the current way we have such little space in these areas, is not great either I guess.

The solution to duplicates I created, uses products on the duplicates to mimic the section layout, so I am not against using products, much of the decision is based on giving a client something as easy to manage as possible.

[mypalchris]

it can all be done using variables and/or know how (particularly if you was involved), although a little clunky or lacking user friendliness at times.

So is it possible to embed a meta description variable into the ext info layout, thereby solving one of the problems? Or is that oversimplistic?

[leehack]

No, that is entirely possible and simple. You'd just need to know how to create a variable and use it, which the help covers very well.

[mypalchris]

No, that is entirely possible and simple. You'd just need to know how to create a variable and use it, which the help covers very well.

Nope - I can handle that. Thats one problem down! Now all that needs addressing is the page naming thing (no idea how to do that!) and, er, anything else?

[NormanRouxel]

is it possible to embed a meta description variable into the ext info layout

Sure. Just create a Variable to hold this info (see Help and Starter guide for info). Then, in your Extended Info layout put something like

<meta name="description" content="<actinic:variable name="MyDescription" />" />

Or you could use the Product Description:

<meta name="description" content="<Actinic:Variable Name="ProductName" />" />

[NormanRouxel]

Now all that needs addressing is the page naming thing

That'll need a bit of PHP to strip out any funny characters (like : / etc) and replace spaces with "_".

I'm not at my test system but will have a go later.

[NormanRouxel]

Here's how to customise the Extended Info pages to use a filename based on the product name.


First we change the file name used when creating the Extended Info pages:

Go to Design / Library / Layouts / Extended Info Layout.

Open each layout there.

In the Layout Code window click Edit Layout Details.

In the Extended Info Page File Name field, replace all contents with

x_<actinic:block php="true">echo preg_replace('/\W/','_','<actinic:variable name="ProductName" encoding="perl" selectable="false"/>_<actinic:variable name="ProductID" encoding="perl" selectable="false"/>');</actinic:block>.html

OK out.

Repeat for all layouts in Extended Info Layout.


Now we have to replace all ExtendedInfoPageName and ExtendedInfoPageEncoded variables with that page name in all other layouts:

Right-click the top item in the Layouts tab of the Library. Choose Find.

In the Find In Design window, set the Search for Text to be ExtendedInfoPageName.
Check the Code checkbox.
Click Find Next Item.

The library will scroll down to the first layout containing that text.

CHANGING PAGENAME1
Leave the Find In Design window open.
Open the library layout that you've scrolled to (also note down its layout name so you know what you've changed).

In that layout, replace all ExtendedInfoPageName with

x_<actinic:block php="true">echo preg_replace('/\W/','_','<actinic:variable name="ProductName" encoding="perl" selectable="false"/>_<actinic:variable name="ProductID" encoding="perl" selectable="false"/>');</actinic:block>.html

OK out of that Edit Layout code window.

Back in the Find In Design window, click Find Next Item. This will take you to the next layout to change.
Go to CHANGING PAGENAME1 above.

When all layouts are done, close the Find In Design window.

Right-click the top item in the Layouts tab of the Library again. Choose Find.
In the Find In Design window, set the Search for Text to be ExtendedInfoPageEncoded.
Check the Code checkbox.
Click Find Next Item.


CHANGING PAGENAME2
Leave the Find In Design window open.
Open the library layout that you've scrolled to (also note down its layout name so you know what you've changed).

In that layout, replace all ExtendedInfoPageEncoded with

x_<actinic:block php="true">echo preg_replace('/\W/','_','<actinic:variable name="ProductName" encoding="perl" selectable="false"/>_<actinic:variable name="ProductID" encoding="perl" selectable="false"/>');</actinic:block>.html

OK out of that Edit Layout code window.

Back in the Find In Design window, click Find Next Item. This will take you to the next layout to change.
Go to CHANGING PAGENAME2 above.

OK out of the library.

It's a good idea to go back into the library and do the two Finds above again, just in case you missed something.

[AndyBorrett]

After all the good advice you have been given my tip seems somewhat trivial.

If you have a copy of Access you can use that to spell check.
Open up ActinicCatalog.MDB and you will see all the tables containing your data.