Transparant header overlays?

[whitehorse]

It's happend 3 times in the last couple days...I'm using the provided "cropcircles" template (not custom) ...when I make some changes, especially link color changes, and publish them, the color goes out of my header.

The footer stays OK, but the header is grey instead of purple.

I'm thinking the cropcircle image is supposed to come thru as transparant so the purple color shows thru it? But instead, the cropcircle image is coming thru opaque so it completely covers the chosen header color.

It worked fine for the 1st month, but all of a sudden, it keeps messing up...

This is happening when working on pages and also the shopping cart. (Not sure about checkout and thank you pages)
http://uniquelyhorse.com/store/index.html

[Jim]

The images for the crop circle theme are not transparent so they will not allow anything to show through.
You can not just change the link colors and have it work because the colors are hard coded in the style sheet used for that theme. Here is the code

Code: Select all

#Crop Circles Include File
#Copyright 2008 ShopSite inc. Design by Lauren

[-- IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor edf3ac --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-green.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor dab44f --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-ocean.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor edec86 --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-blue.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor fbb8be --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-purple.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor f8b8bc --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-pink.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor f6cd5e --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-red.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor f3b53c --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-orange.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE_IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor ade3e4 --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-yellow.jpg" --]
[-- ELSE --]
  [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-muted.jpg" --]
[-- END_IF --]

The color of the image is designated by the shopping cart table shade color.
The link colors are used for some text as well as the background color for some of the colored area on the page. But some of those fields are hard coded depending on the color scheme selected for the theme. On http://www.shopsite.com/templates/cookbook/builtintemplates-cropcircles.shtml there is an explanation of how some of the fields are used in the CropCircle theme. You might want to take a look at that for some additional info.

[whitehorse]

OK, so I take it you sent me all the hardcoded color choices above so I could choose the one I want?

How to get to wheere the code is to change it?

What if I mess things up trying to insert the correct color code?

And anyway, why is it that the color keeps changing from the desired (In this case purple) color, all ready in place, to grey?

Thanks for you help.

[Jim]

OK, so I take it you sent me all the hardcoded color choices above so I could choose the one I want?

No I included those to show how the colors are hard coded and changing certain things would result in the muted gray color image being used. The default background color comes from the Active Link Color field and is #6B2D5C In your store you have changed this to #626660. Since that color is not one of the ones listed in the template IF ELSE_IF statements the image falls through to the last option "circles-muted.jpg" which is the image that is being used.

How to get to wheere the code is to change it?

The particular code that I included comes from the include file CropCircles-Colors.css

What if I mess things up trying to insert the correct color code?

There are 2 ways to fix it. 1. Set the Active link color to #6B2D5C or 2. make a copy of the ShopSite include file in the Merchandising > Custom Templates > Includes and make your changes to that file. Then make a copy of your edited file and name it CropCircles-Colors.sst. That way it will override the ShopSite provided template file. Then if you don't like how it worked you could just delete your version of the file and the ShopSite one will be active again.

And anyway, why is it that the color keeps changing from the desired (In this case purple) color, all ready in place, to grey?

Because you change the Active Link Color which is what determines the color of image that is used.

[whitehorse]

No, I didn't change the active link color any where...I changed the link color and the table shade colors in the cart only, and when I published it, the header on all pages reverted to grey..

I'm guessing I'm just not allowed to change any colors in the cart??

[Jim]

In the code that I pasted earlier it is using the Shopping Cart color to determine what image to use. Here is the first line of the code.
[-- IF STORE.SC_ShadeColor edf3ac --] So it is looking at the STORE.SC_shadecolor and the SC in the tag stands for shopping cart. So you are probably correct that you can't easily change the color.

If you will always be using the same color header background image and don't want it to change when you make changes to colors in the store make a copy of the CropCircles-Colors.sst include file. Edit it so that it just has [-- VAR.HeaderImage "circles-purple.jpg" --] and nothing else in the file. Make sure that you name your file CropCircles-Colors.sst so it will be used instead of the ShopSite template one. The header image will then stay the purple one. (If you want a different color image just substitute that image name for the circles-purple.jpg in the tag.)

[whitehorse]

I'm new to all this so...but I can follow directions pretty well...first problem, system wants a new name not the same as original file name..??

[Jim]

You copy it to a different file name from the ShopSite template. That will move it to a location reserved for merchant files. Once the file is in the merchant area you can use the Copy option and give it the original name again.

[whitehorse]

You copy it to a different file name from the ShopSite template. That will move it to a location reserved for merchant files. Once the file is in the merchant area you can use the Copy option and give it the original name again.

Why not use a new name like cropcircle.purple.sst?
OK, now, once it shows in the list, do I do anyting else to activate it, or is it activated because it's in the list in my merchant file?

[Jim]

If you have given the file the same name as the ShopSite provided file, it will be used the next time that the page is generated. For store pages like those with products on them or product more information pages that will require that you republish the store. (Utilities > Publish > Regenerate). So you would need to publish the store to activate the template file.

If the template file is used in a page that is generated dynamically, like the shopping cart, search results, registration screens, then the changes will be in affect the next time that page is loaded or refreshed, so you don't have to do anything to activate it.

Note that certain template files, which are located in the Merchandising > Custom Templates > Includes > Publish area also need to be published like the store pages even if they are used in the dynamically generated pages. The reason is that they are html type include files which contain template tags therefore the tags need to be evaluated before they can be used. These files are only updated once during a publish and are static after that so if the template is changed the changes won't be affective until after the next publish.

[whitehorse]

In my page/products template list, I have 2 listed;
CropCircles.sst
CropCircles.sst.purple

The 2nd is one I started to create, as of ye tis as far as I can tell, identacle to the 1st.

Having 2 (or more) in the list, how does the system know which one to use?

[Jim]

It uses the one you have assigned to the page or product on Pages > Edit Page Layout or Products > Edit Product layout.