Order.cgi page in shopping cart - can customize?

[Phil Matt]

Hello again.

I am building a Shopsite app for a client where I have edited and
embedded the products into an existing site design. No problems here,
using CSS to make the products and layout uniform to the rest of the site.

When the user clicks on the "order" button, everything happens
correctly. I am trying to figure out the best way to redesign the
shopping cart page itself, that is, the
/shopping_cart/order.cgi?storeid=whatever page. The order.cgi page is a
big file. In fact, at 2.8 MB, my usual plain-vanilla HTML editor,
Homesite, won't even load it.

Any ideas? I need to make sure that all of the Shopsite-generated pages
match the style of the rest of the site pages.

Cheers --- Phil

[loren_d_c]

order.cgi is not a text file that can be edited. It is a compiled
binary executable, so I doubt Homesite would be able to load it
regardless of it's size.

In ShopSite v7 the shopping cart screens are template-driven and can be
customized through a custom shopping cart template, see Merchandising ->
Custom Templates.

In ShopSite v6 and earlier, customizations are available by adding
custom HTML and text to the text areas in Commerce Setup -> Order
System. The available text areas generally allow you to place custom
text at the top and/or bottom of the various shopping cart screens. You
can also change most of the text visible to shoppers via the settings in
Preferences -> Store Text -> (various submenus).

-Loren




Phil Matt wrote:

Hello again.

I am building a Shopsite app for a client where I have edited and
embedded the products into an existing site design. No problems here,
using CSS to make the products and layout uniform to the rest of the site.

When the user clicks on the "order" button, everything happens
correctly. I am trying to figure out the best way to redesign the
shopping cart page itself, that is, the
/shopping_cart/order.cgi?storeid=whatever page. The order.cgi page is a
big file. In fact, at 2.8 MB, my usual plain-vanilla HTML editor,
Homesite, won't even load it.

Any ideas? I need to make sure that all of the Shopsite-generated pages
match the style of the rest of the site pages.

Cheers --- Phil

[Phil Matt]

Loren wrote:

order.cgi is not a text file that can be edited. It is a compiled binary
executable, so I doubt Homesite would be able to load it regardless of
it's size.

In ShopSite v7 the shopping cart screens are template-driven and can be
customized through a custom shopping cart template, see Merchandising -
Custom Templates.

In ShopSite v6 and earlier, customizations are available by adding
custom HTML and text to the text areas in Commerce Setup -> Order
System. The available text areas generally allow you to place custom
text at the top and/or bottom of the various shopping cart screens. You
can also change most of the text visible to shoppers via the settings in
Preferences -> Store Text -> (various submenus).

-Loren

Thanks, Loren. This is very helpful.

I guess that I can't style the basic text in the cart, though (I prefer
sans-serif typefaces for the most part.) My client is running Shopsite
6.1 Manager, as the ISP wants a LOT more $$ to upgrade to v.7, so I am
stuck with doing what I can to get the style of the cart to match the
rest of the site.

Cheers --- Phil

[loren_d_c]

"I guess that I can't style the basic text in the cart"

Why not? You could add something like this:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
body, p, h1, h2, h3, td, div, ol, ul, dl, input {
font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
-->
</style>

to the Commerce Setup -> Order System screen at the top of the 'Text at
the top of the Shopping Cart screen', 'Text at the top of the Shipping
screen', and 'Information on the Thank You screen to return to
storefront' fields. This should effectively change the font styles for
almost any text after that on the screen.

-Loren



Phil Matt wrote:

Loren wrote:

order.cgi is not a text file that can be edited. It is a compiled
binary executable, so I doubt Homesite would be able to load it
regardless of it's size.

In ShopSite v7 the shopping cart screens are template-driven and can
be customized through a custom shopping cart template, see
Merchandising -> Custom Templates.

In ShopSite v6 and earlier, customizations are available by adding
custom HTML and text to the text areas in Commerce Setup -> Order
System. The available text areas generally allow you to place custom
text at the top and/or bottom of the various shopping cart screens.
You can also change most of the text visible to shoppers via the
settings in Preferences -> Store Text -> (various submenus).

-Loren


Thanks, Loren. This is very helpful.

I guess that I can't style the basic text in the cart, though (I prefer
sans-serif typefaces for the most part.) My client is running Shopsite
6.1 Manager, as the ISP wants a LOT more $$ to upgrade to v.7, so I am
stuck with doing what I can to get the style of the cart to match the
rest of the site.

Cheers --- Phil

[Phil Matt]

Loren wrote:

"I guess that I can't style the basic text in the cart"

Why not? You could add something like this:

style type="text/css"
!--
body, p, h1, h2, h3, td, div, ol, ul, dl, input {
font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
--
/style

to the Commerce Setup -> Order System screen at the top of the 'Text at
the top of the Shopping Cart screen', 'Text at the top of the Shipping
screen', and 'Information on the Thank You screen to return to
storefront' fields. This should effectively change the font styles for
almost any text after that on the screen.

-Loren

I should have had a look at the code on the cart page; I didn't realize
that the stuff Shopsite puts at the "top" of the cart page was actually
being inserted between the <head> tags! This is just what I was looking
for. All I have to do is link to my regular external stylesheet.

For some reason, I was under the impression that all of the stuff that
the Shopsite preferences screen allowed users to modify was below the
<head> area.

Thanks again for helping me out!

Cheers --- Phil

[loren_d_c]

Phil,

It stuff you place in those fields is NOT within the head tags. However,
CSS style definitions do not HAVE to be within the head tag. The 'Text
at the top' fields will be the first stuff placed after the opening body
tag, so CSS placed here should affect the rest of the page just fine. I
believe that the reason 'best practices' is normally to include CSS in
the head section is that then it is not subject to the hierarchical
(sp?) rendering of the information in the body tag, i.e. if you put a
style in a table, will some browsers not respect that style once the
table ends, etc. But I may be wrong on that. However, all modern
browsers that I have seen do seem to allow CSS in the body. Give it a shot.

-Loren



Phil Matt wrote:

Loren wrote:

"I guess that I can't style the basic text in the cart"

Why not? You could add something like this:

style type="text/css"
!--
body, p, h1, h2, h3, td, div, ol, ul, dl, input {
font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
--
/style

to the Commerce Setup -> Order System screen at the top of the 'Text
at the top of the Shopping Cart screen', 'Text at the top of the
Shipping screen', and 'Information on the Thank You screen to return
to storefront' fields. This should effectively change the font styles
for almost any text after that on the screen.

-Loren


I should have had a look at the code on the cart page; I didn't realize
that the stuff Shopsite puts at the "top" of the cart page was actually
being inserted between the <head> tags! This is just what I was looking
for. All I have to do is link to my regular external stylesheet.

For some reason, I was under the impression that all of the stuff that
the Shopsite preferences screen allowed users to modify was below the
head> area.

Thanks again for helping me out!

Cheers --- Phil

[Phil Matt]

Loren wrote:

Phil,

It stuff you place in those fields is NOT within the head tags. However,
CSS style definitions do not HAVE to be within the head tag. The 'Text
at the top' fields will be the first stuff placed after the opening body
tag, so CSS placed here should affect the rest of the page just fine.

I

believe that the reason 'best practices' is normally to include CSS in
the head section is that then it is not subject to the hierarchical
(sp?) rendering of the information in the body tag, i.e. if you put a
style in a table, will some browsers not respect that style once the
table ends, etc. But I may be wrong on that. However, all modern
browsers that I have seen do seem to allow CSS in the body. Give it a shot.

My initial experiment shows that (Mozilla 1.6, Netscape 7) neither an
imported nor a linked stylesheet is recognized, although specifically
declared styles are. So, while I can style the <h1> element on the
shopping cart's 2nd page (the billing cgi), I can't get at the rest of
the <h3> elements or the rest of the text on the page. Looks kind of
cheesy, IMHO.

I am fairly certain that stylesheet references, whatever the variety,
must be contained with the <head> tags. I don't think there is any way
to style elements from anywhere else on a page, save for those that can
be individually addressed, i.e. <td style="whatever">, and naturally
there is no cascade of such declared styles.

For whatever reason, the second cart page (the one you get when you
click on "Checkout" from the first cart page) doesn't seem to want to
load a correctly referenced JPG image, either. I may have to copy the
image into the subdirectory where the cgi files are stored. The first
cart page loads the same image correctly.

Cheers (well, sort of...) --- Phil

[loren_d_c]

billing.cgi is usually accessed at a secure https:// URL, so unless your
image src tag (and your reference to an external CSS file) also use a
secure https:// URL, they may not display or may cause security warnings
in browsers.

If you want to see an example of a store with CSS in the body to define
the fonts throughout the shopping cart screens, add a product to the
shopping cart from:
http://www.acehearing.com/batteries.html
This is v7, so there is CSS from the v7 default shopping cart template
in the head section, however it does not define any font faces. The font
faces are defined by additional CSS that is after the body tag. The
fonts look correct to me from both IE and Mozilla (Netscape v7).

I don't know for sure if external CSS files are the same, but I believe
they are. It may just be an issue with referencing it using the proper
https:// URL on a secure https:// page.

-Loren



Phil Matt wrote:

Loren wrote:

Phil,

It stuff you place in those fields is NOT within the head tags.
However, CSS style definitions do not HAVE to be within the head tag.
The 'Text at the top' fields will be the first stuff placed after the
opening body tag, so CSS placed here should affect the rest of the
page just fine.


I

believe that the reason 'best practices' is normally to include CSS in
the head section is that then it is not subject to the hierarchical
(sp?) rendering of the information in the body tag, i.e. if you put a
style in a table, will some browsers not respect that style once the
table ends, etc. But I may be wrong on that. However, all modern
browsers that I have seen do seem to allow CSS in the body. Give it a
shot.


My initial experiment shows that (Mozilla 1.6, Netscape 7) neither an
imported nor a linked stylesheet is recognized, although specifically
declared styles are. So, while I can style the <h1> element on the
shopping cart's 2nd page (the billing cgi), I can't get at the rest of
the <h3> elements or the rest of the text on the page. Looks kind of
cheesy, IMHO.

I am fairly certain that stylesheet references, whatever the variety,
must be contained with the <head> tags. I don't think there is any way
to style elements from anywhere else on a page, save for those that can
be individually addressed, i.e. <td style="whatever">, and naturally
there is no cascade of such declared styles.

For whatever reason, the second cart page (the one you get when you
click on "Checkout" from the first cart page) doesn't seem to want to
load a correctly referenced JPG image, either. I may have to copy the
image into the subdirectory where the cgi files are stored. The first
cart page loads the same image correctly.

Cheers (well, sort of...) --- Phil

[premier]

Phil,

I included a style sheet by enclosing it in a second set of head tags. I was
prepared for the worst, but it seems to be working ok. I wasn't trying to
affect the shopsite styles, just my own navigation bar, so I don't know if
that would make a difference, but I don't see why it should.

Clare
Premier Lighting & Production Company
http://www.premier-lighting.com

"Phil Matt" <admin@philmatt.com> wrote in message
news:cdk3a8$mqa$1@eval.shopsite.com...

Loren wrote:
Phil,

It stuff you place in those fields is NOT within the head tags. However,
CSS style definitions do not HAVE to be within the head tag. The 'Text
at the top' fields will be the first stuff placed after the opening body
tag, so CSS placed here should affect the rest of the page just fine.

I
believe that the reason 'best practices' is normally to include CSS in
the head section is that then it is not subject to the hierarchical
(sp?) rendering of the information in the body tag, i.e. if you put a
style in a table, will some browsers not respect that style once the
table ends, etc. But I may be wrong on that. However, all modern
browsers that I have seen do seem to allow CSS in the body. Give it a
shot.

My initial experiment shows that (Mozilla 1.6, Netscape 7) neither an
imported nor a linked stylesheet is recognized, although specifically
declared styles are. So, while I can style the <h1> element on the
shopping cart's 2nd page (the billing cgi), I can't get at the rest of
the <h3> elements or the rest of the text on the page. Looks kind of
cheesy, IMHO.

I am fairly certain that stylesheet references, whatever the variety,
must be contained with the <head> tags. I don't think there is any way
to style elements from anywhere else on a page, save for those that can
be individually addressed, i.e. <td style="whatever">, and naturally
there is no cascade of such declared styles.

For whatever reason, the second cart page (the one you get when you
click on "Checkout" from the first cart page) doesn't seem to want to
load a correctly referenced JPG image, either. I may have to copy the
image into the subdirectory where the cgi files are stored. The first
cart page loads the same image correctly.

Cheers (well, sort of...) --- Phil

[Phil Matt]

Loren wrote:

billing.cgi is usually accessed at a secure https:// URL, so unless your
image src tag (and your reference to an external CSS file) also use a
secure https:// URL, they may not display or may cause security warnings
in browsers.

Thanks. I just moved a copy of the graphic into the \shopping_cart

subdirectory, and it shows up just fine. Funny, the correct path
reference doesn't work, nor does it generate any warnings in any
browsers I tried.

If you want to see an example of a store with CSS in the body to define
the fonts throughout the shopping cart screens, add a product to the
shopping cart from:
http://www.acehearing.com/batteries.html
This is v7, so there is CSS from the v7 default shopping cart template
in the head section, however it does not define any font faces. The font
faces are defined by additional CSS that is after the body tag. The
fonts look correct to me from both IE and Mozilla (Netscape v7).

This is what I want to do, but without being able to insert the
stylesheet in the <head> area, I think I'm out of luck.

I don't know for sure if external CSS files are the same, but I believe
they are. It may just be an issue with referencing it using the proper
https:// URL on a secure https:// page.

Makes sense, but still no go for me, as I can't insert anything in that
part of the file.

Cheers --- Phil

[Phil Matt]

premier wrote:

Phil,

I included a style sheet by enclosing it in a second set of head tags. I was
prepared for the worst, but it seems to be working ok. I wasn't trying to
affect the shopsite styles, just my own navigation bar, so I don't know if
that would make a difference, but I don't see why it should.

Clare
Premier Lighting & Production Company
http://www.premier-lighting.com

Hi, Clare. I'm not sure I want to go that far out of standards. I wonder
if a page using a second set of <head> tags will validate?

Cheers --- Phil