search box not appearing

[johnmws]

i have checked the box in the shopsite backoffice to include a search field on my store pages, but none of them show a search field, even after i click "publish".

i am using custom templates and wonder if i may have omitted some tags that would allow the field to display. would someone be willing to help me figure this out? i'm sure the solution is simple, but i can't seem to find an answer on the forum and in the meanwhile, am employing trial-and-error experiments to find the way.

http://www.midweststereo.com is our url.

thanks for any help you can toss my way.

johnmws

[Jim]

First to enable search indexing at least 1 ShopSite generated page must have the option checked to have a search form on it.

Second the tag to display the search field on a custom template is
[-- SEARCH_FORM --]
so make sure you have that on your page template.

If both of the above are done make sure that the [-- SEARCH_FORM --] isn't inside an IF statement that is not being executed. Also if the search form tag is coming from an include file make sure you have the "Process" option specified for that include.

[johnmws]

i also have .shtml pages that are serving as top-level category pages for my stores. they are not shopsite generated.

am i able to paste the [--SEARCH_FORM--] code into those pages also, or will it not work? it doesn't seem to be working thus far?

is there a call to the search function that i can use, and link it to a button with a search form? i was able to do this with miva merchant, making even my static, non-miva-generated pages able to hold a functioning search form.

is this possible with shopsite?

thanks

[Jim]

The tag [-- search_form --] will only work when ShopSite generates the page. If you are creating your own html pages then you will need to copy the raw html from a ShopSite generated page and paste it into your html page. This is easy to do-- Just create a page called something that you will recognize as not one of your live pages eg "test" give it a filename that your will recognize such as test.html. Check the box to have a search form on the page. Select one of the ShopSite page templates for the page. Then publish the page and view the html source and look for the search form code.

[soosy]

The tag [-- search_form --] will only work when ShopSite generates the page. If you are creating your own html pages then you will need to copy the raw html from a ShopSite generated page and paste it into your html page. This is easy to do-- Just create a page called something that you will recognize as not one of your live pages eg "test" give it a filename that your will recognize such as test.html. Check the box to have a search form on the page. Select one of the ShopSite page templates for the page. Then publish the page and view the html source and look for the search form code.

I was just wondering if this would work myself. My only worry was if the "storeid" used in the form ever changed... I guess not.

I'm resorting to this because:
1) I want the search textfield box to be not so wide.
2) I want to change the search button image.

Is there a way in ShopSite to do either of those things? (There must be a way to do #2, but I have searched and searched with no luck.)


Secondly, I'm about to use a similar technique (copying the generated code) with Tell A Friend because I'd like the actual fields on every page without having to open a popup. Will that work?

Thanks for any responses!!!