ShopSite Forums

I'm wondering what the "Description" field is used for in the BB-templates. Specifically:

Page Banner Graphic Description
Page Link Graphic Description
Product Image Description
More Information Page Image Description

I thought these would be for alt tags or img src title, but it isn't showing up anywhere when I do a view source. I checked with Lexiconn and mentioned it seems to be used differently in different templates. Can you please advise?

Thanks!

Well, it depends on how the template calls out images, but normally this will only be used as the alt parameter value for the img src. I have a store using a BB theme (Familiar) and I checked and it seems the Description works (is put in the alt value) at least for the Product Image and the More Info Page Image.

-Loren

I'm using the BB-Trace theme and it doesn't seem to be doing anything with it for the page thumbnails - "link graphic". I have added text in the description field for the following URL:

http://jandemo.janicesinvites.com/index.html , the thumbnail for the "Baby" category (a page)

View source doesn't show any alt tag ... does show a title that is the name of the page.

here is the code for the link graphic in the original BB-trace page template:

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[--DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE--][-- VAR.LinkCount INC --][-- IF PAGE.LinkName --][-- VAR.SingleLinkName PAGE.LinkName --][-- ELSE --][-- VAR.SingleLinkName PAGE.Name --][-- END_IF --]<div class="item item[-- VAR.LinkCount --][-- IF PAGE.TextWrap "Off" --] nowrap[-- END_IF --]">[-- IF PAGE.LinkGraphic --]<a class="bb-lkimg" href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="[-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">[-- PAGE.LinkGraphic SRC_ONLY --]</a>[-- IF PAGE.LinkName --]<a class="bb-lknme" href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="[-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">[-- PAGE.LinkName --]</a>[-- END_IF --][-- ELSE_IF PAGE.LinkName --]<a class="bb-lknme" href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="[-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">[-- PAGE.LinkName --]</a>[-- ELSE --]<a class="bb-lknme" href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="[-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">[-- PAGE.Name REMOVE_HTML --]</a>[-- END_IF --][-- IF PAGE.LinkText --]<span>[-- PAGE.LinkText --]</span>[-- END_IF --]</div>[--END_DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE--]

Thanks!

I would guess that the [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic SRC_ONLY --] doesn't use the Description. You can try without the SRC_ONLY and see what happens.

-Loren

I was wondering the same thing. I use the Familiar theme. Alt description works on products. But, when I add text to the description of the link graphic it doesn't display on my category pages (pages assigned to a certain page). How can I get the alt description to display on these?

The code used to display the links is quite complicated in most of the themes. Here is the link code for the BB.sst page template used by the Familiar theme

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[--DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE--]
[-- VAR.LinkCount INC --]
[-- IF PAGE.LinkName --]
    [-- VAR.SingleLinkName PAGE.LinkName --]
[-- ELSE --]
    [-- VAR.SingleLinkName PAGE.Name --]
[-- END_IF --]<div class="item item
[-- VAR.LinkCount --]
[-- IF PAGE.TextWrap "Off" --] nowrap
[-- END_IF --]">
[-- IF PAGE.LinkGraphic --]<a class="bb-lkimg" href="
    [-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/
    [-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="
    [-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">
    [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic SRC_ONLY --]</a>
    [-- IF PAGE.LinkName --]<a class="bb-lknme" href="
        [-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/
        [-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="
        [-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">
        [-- PAGE.LinkName --]</a>
    [-- END_IF --]
[-- ELSE_IF PAGE.LinkName --]<a class="bb-lknme" href="
    [-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/
    [-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="
    [-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">
    [-- PAGE.LinkName --]</a>
[-- ELSE --]<a class="bb-lknme" href="
    [-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/
    [-- PAGE.FileName --]" title="
    [-- VAR.SingleLinkName --]">
    [-- PAGE.Name REMOVE_HTML --]</a>
[-- END_IF --]
[-- IF PAGE.LinkText --]<span>
    [-- PAGE.LinkText --]</span>
[-- END_IF --]</div>
[--END_DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE--]

This code outputs just the image for the link in this line [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic SRC_ONLY --]</a> The SRC_ONLY eliminates anything but the image url, no height, width, alt text, border etc is output.
If you change the tag [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic SRC_ONLY --] and remove the SRC_ONLY part so it is [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic --] the template will out put the alt text and other attributes configured for the image for example

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 [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic SRC_ONLY --]  outputs
img src="http://blister.shopsite.com/12sp1/html/qa121/media/sample-46x50.gif">

and

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  [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic  --] outputs
<img  src="http://blister.shopsite.com/12sp1/html/qa121/media/sample-46x50.gif" alt="JIM SAMPLE IMAGE" width="46" height="50" vspace="3" hspace="3" border="0">

The additional attributes could cause problems with the way links display on a page so this is why the template uses the SRC_ONLY option for the Page.LinkGraphic image output.

Because of your warning about "The additional attributes could cause problems with the way links display on a page so this is why the template uses the SRC_ONLY option for the Page.LinkGraphic image output" I don't want to chance using it -- guessing the width and height attributes may cause problems with mobile. But I would like to include the Description as the alt tag. So I could have this:

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<img src="media/[-- IMAGE PAGE.LinkGraphic --]" alt="[-- PAGE.LinkGraphicDesc --]">

Except that doesn't include the image size ... meaning which directory it uses (ss_size1, ss_size2, ss_size3). Is there a tag for the image size directory?

Lexiconn figured it out for me ... this tag:

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[-- PAGE.LinkGraphic ONLY_ALT_TAG --]

gives me this:

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<img src="http://jandemo.janicesinvites.com/media/categories/baby.jpg" alt="Baby Announcements, Shower Invites and other stationery">

Which is exactly what is needed ... in this particular case, it is the "original" size so no size directory was necessary.

Many of these tags aren't listed on the tag list in ShopSite and would be nice if they were there. Unless I'm just not seeing them. :O)