Templates configuration

[iTal]

Hi,

I have a really basic question regarding shopsite template, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. I'd appreciate your help.

I want to start making a template for my pages on my site, but when I try to place shopsite's tags on the page and then post it, it only displays the tags as text (i.e - [-- PAGE.Name --], instead of printing the page name that is stored on the database).

Do I need to save the template or my pages at a specific place on the site in order for them to be able to translate the special tags? How do I get started with templates on shopsite?

Thanks for your help.

[Jim]

You need to upload your templates to your server and put them in the template directory for your store. The easiest way to do that is go to Merchandising > Custom Templates > Pages/Products and there is an option to upload a file and then you can also edit the file.

[iTal]

Thanks for your replay, Jim.

I understand how to populate and modify my templates, but how do I view my pages live? Where are the products' pages stored? Or, how do I like a gape to my shopping cart content to retrieve the products information and display it in my template?

Thanks again.

[Jim]

The products are added to the cart using either the record number or the SKU depending on how you have your add to cart buttons configured. With that information the cart queries the database to see what the price of the product is and uses that value in the cart from that point on.

If you use ShopSite to generate your pages they will be put in the output directory specified by your store authorization file. You can see what the url for that path is in the backoffice of your store by going tp Preferences > Hosting services and looking at the Store URL: value. The actual path on the server is found in the Output Directory: setting. Note these pages are actual HTML versions of the page. The component parts like image, text, links, assigned products, what template is used etc is stored in the shopsite_db file in your store's data directory. That is what you actually modify when you edit a page or product in the ShopSite backoffice. That data only becomes part of the html page when you publish your store.

To view your pages after you have created custom page and product templates you can use the Preview button on the Pages screen or you can publish the pages by clicking on the Publish tab if it is up or by going to Utilities > Publish > Regenerate.

[iTal]

Thanks, Jim.

That was a very useful information. You helped me a lot.