Using other site images on the Shoopping Cart

[BillCBos]

I just uploaded a shopping cart template using code from a product template (yes custom templates). None of my images are displaying - apparantly because the shopping cart is running from a different directory so all of my links are incorrect.....

Can someone PLEASE tell me what directory address to use... - my images are in the media directory so how do I point to that? Or should I upload images somewhere else for the shopping cart??? or

Thanks.....

On another note, I am incredibly frustrated with the documentation and lack of support provided by shopsite and am about 10 minutes away from telling my client to use a different solution.... what the hell am I supposed to do if there is a problem in production? Post to the forum and wait for an answer?

[robm]

Bill,

The easiest thing to do is set your image calls to be absolute, i.e.:
<img src="/media/xyz.gif">
-or-
<img src="http://www...">

That way they will work regardless of the directory you're in. If you want to give us the URL to the store, it may be easier to help.

Per support, your host should be able to help you with questions like this if they are a ShopSite partner and are knowledgeable about ShopSite. The forum is another avenue, but a ShopSite host should be able to field questions like these quite easily. ShopSite does not provide direct end user support, rather it's the hosts that provide this support to their clients.

Rob

[ShopSite Nicole]

Since I was in the process of typing a response anyway, this is all I will add to what Rob said.

The ShopSite media directory and Images URL address should be found under Preferences > Hosting Service in the ShopSite back office.

Who is your client's host?

[BillCBos]

Since I was in the process of typing a response anyway, this is all I will add to what Rob said.

The ShopSite media directory and Images URL address should be found under Preferences > Hosting Service in the ShopSite back office.

Who is your client's host?

Thank you and Rob for the responses.

My page related (as opposed to product related) images are in the media/pageImages directory.

I am building this site on my test server and it will be later migrated to another server for production so absolute url's are not my preference.
I am using the following format:
img src="/media/pageImages/HomePage_02.jpg"

to identify the source of these images. It works for the page template but not for my shopping cart template.
the URL for the shopping cart comes up with:
http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/sc/
as the preface... (then the cgi code appears).

Any help would be appreciated...

The url indicates who my hosting service is. The link in Preferences > Hosting Services results in a message that "This area has been disabled for security reasons. "

I tried asking them a question of similar nature earlier and their level 2 response was to send me url's to this forum and to the product documentation... so if I should be relying on them for these types of issues I guess my problem is with them - in either case, something is broken regarding support.

[ShopSite Nicole]

Bill,

For the products listed in the cart, are you just using the tag [-- sc_cart --]?

Are you talking about the images on the shopping cart page or the checkout page?

If you are talking about the checkout page, then it most likely has to do with the SSL security settings.. If you would not mind providing the URL to the main pages of the website so that I can look at your cart from there, that would be appreciated.

-Nicole

[robm]

Since your host uses a shared install of ShopSite (as opposed to ShopSite being installed in your account directly), the cart pages are located on a different server than your regular website. Because of this, using absolute URLs with http:// prefix is the only solution to call embedded external images from your account's media directory.

Rob

[BillCBos]

Since your host uses a shared install of ShopSite (as opposed to ShopSite being installed in your account directly), the cart pages are located on a different server than your regular website. Because of this, using absolute URLs with http:// prefix is the only solution to call embedded external images from your account's media directory.

Rob

Thanks again to both of you (Rob and Nicole) for your replies.

If I must use an absolute URL then so be it. I can do a global replace when I migrate - just one more detail to remember and one more thing that can cause an error later on.

I have decided to use shopAnywhere and build product pages outside of ShopSite. I was loosing too much time looking for answers to things that should have been relatively easy to do so I abandoned the custom pages option for the product page and the rest of the site.

Here is the order anywhere form I retrieved from the site. I think this is what you need in order to see what is happening.
<form action="http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/sc/order.cgi" method=post>
<select name="5:finopt:0" size=1>
<option value=" View Colors ;n"> View Colors
<option value=" Black"> Black
<option value=" Cloud"> Cloud
<option value=" Midnight"> Midnight
</select>
<select name="5:finopt:1" size=1>
<option value="View Hardware Options;n">View Hardware Options
<option value=" Silver"> Silver
<option value=" Gold"> Gold
</select>
<input type=hidden name="5:finoptnum" value=2>
<BR><input type=hidden name="storeid" value="*1e27be68a5094fe57c01c4077c9fd4a32f">
<input type=hidden name="dbname" value="products">
<input type=hidden name="function" value="add">
<input type=hidden name="itemnum" value="5">
<input type=image src="http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/shopsite-images/en-US/buttons/defaults/Add_To_Cart.gif" border="0" align="bottom" alt="Add to Cart" name="Add to Cart">
<input type=image src="http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/shopsite-images/en-US/buttons/defaults/View_Cart.gif" border="0" align="bottom" alt="View Cart" name="View Cart">
</form>

[BillCBos]

Since your host uses a shared install of ShopSite (as opposed to ShopSite being installed in your account directly), the cart pages are located on a different server than your regular website. Because of this, using absolute URLs with http:// prefix is the only solution to call embedded external images from your account's media directory.

Rob

Just thinking though - if that's the case then why did the page template work? Nicole's answer sounds reasonable but I am not using SSL on this site (I will be in production of course)... I don't mean to question your answer but I am confused.

[robm]

The pages and moreinfo pages created by ShopSite are actually in your account's space, as you'll see the URL is your domain name when browsing these pages. When an item is placed in the cart, the URL changes to the generic shopsite.ipower.com domain, which is on a different server.

That is why relative calls to files in the cart do not work for files contained in your account directly.

Rob

[BillCBos]

Bill,

For the products listed in the cart, are you just using the tag [-- sc_cart --]?

Are you talking about the images on the shopping cart page or the checkout page?

If you are talking about the checkout page, then it most likely has to do with the SSL security settings.. If you would not mind providing the URL to the main pages of the website so that I can look at your cart from there, that would be appreciated.

-Nicole

Sorry about this double post but not sure you are notified when I leave a reply to Rob's post.....

Thanks again to both of you (Rob and Nicole) for your replies.

I have decided to use shopAnywhere and build product pages outside of ShopSite. I was loosing too much time looking for answers to things that should have been relatively easy to do so I abandoned the custom pages option for the product page and the rest of the site.

Here is the order anywhere form I retrieved from the site. I think this is what you need in order to see what is happening.
<form action="http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/sc/order.cgi" method=post>
<select name="5:finopt:0" size=1>
<option value=" View Colors ;n"> View Colors
<option value=" Black"> Black
<option value=" Cloud"> Cloud
<option value=" Midnight"> Midnight
</select>
<select name="5:finopt:1" size=1>
<option value="View Hardware Options;n">View Hardware Options
<option value=" Silver"> Silver
<option value=" Gold"> Gold
</select>
<input type=hidden name="5:finoptnum" value=2>
<BR><input type=hidden name="storeid" value="*1e27be68a5094fe57c01c4077c9fd4a32f">
<input type=hidden name="dbname" value="products">
<input type=hidden name="function" value="add">
<input type=hidden name="itemnum" value="5">
<input type=image src="http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/shopsite-images/en-US/buttons/defaults/Add_To_Cart.gif" border="0" align="bottom" alt="Add to Cart" name="Add to Cart">
<input type=image src="http://shopsite.ipower.com/ss10.0/shopsite-images/en-US/buttons/defaults/View_Cart.gif" border="0" align="bottom" alt="View Cart" name="View Cart">
</form>

[BillCBos]

The pages and moreinfo pages created by ShopSite are actually in your account's space, as you'll see the URL is your domain name when browsing these pages. When an item is placed in the cart, the URL changes to the generic shopsite.ipower.com domain, which is on a different server.

That is why relative calls to files in the cart do not work for files contained in your account directly.

Rob

Got it... sorry to make you repeat yourself. Using the absolute url works fine. Thanks for your quick response and thorough explanation.

[robm]

No problem. Glad to hear you got it all sorted out.

Rob

[ShopSite Nicole]

Looks like Rob keeps beating me to the punch. Which is just fine.

I will just add that if your client ever needs to change a setting found on the Preferences > Hosting service page (such as their merchant email address for order notifications), they will need to contact IPower since the page is disabled.

[Jim]

Note that on screens that are secure in the shopping process you will need to use the secure url that points to the same location where your images are located. Check with ipower to see what that url would be. If you don't use a secure url on secure pages the shopper will get warnings in their browser that there are un-secure items on the page.

[BillCBos]

Note that on screens that are secure in the shopping process you will need to use the secure url that points to the same location where your images are located. Check with ipower to see what that url would be. If you don't use a secure url on secure pages the shopper will get warnings in their browser that there are un-secure items on the page.

Thanks Jim... I figured as much but your input will help me plan. I do not have a certificate on the development site I am using so that is one more variable for me to keep track of when I move this to the production environment.