Non Product Category pages

[GregDilley]

Confused? I bet.

For our store we would like to have landing pages for parent categories.

IE

Toys
Toys > Action Figures
Toys > Blocks

On the Toys page we would like to show thumbnail images that represent "Toys > Action Figures" and "Toys > Blocks". No products though.

And they should like to their respective html SS page.

Any help? I know I can do this manually in HTML, but I would like my client to manage this alone.

Thanks.
Greg

[ShopSite Lauren]

Are you setting up custom templates or using the built in templates? If you are using custom templates, then you can setup the Loop Link feature in your page template to loop the pages assigned to a page in the middle of the page. The template tags would be similar to the following (this is a basic setup).

Above the [--DEFINE PAGE --] tag, you would add the following:
[-- DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE --]
[-- IF PAGE.LinkGraphic --]
<a href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]">[-- PAGE.LinkGraphic --]</a><br>
[-- END_IF --]
[-- IF PAGE.LinkName --]
<a href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]">[-- PAGE.LinkName --]</a>
[-- ELSE --]
<a href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]">[-- PAGE.Name REMOVE_HTML --]</a>
[-- END_IF --]
[-- END_DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE --]

Then in the main body of your page where you want the subcategories to appear you would add the following code to your template:
[-- IF PAGE.NumLinks "0" --]
[-- ELSE --]
<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">
[-- LOOP LINKS Page.Columns --]
<td align="center">[-- LINK --]</td>
[-- END_LOOP LINKS --]
</table>
[-- END_IF --]

If you are not creating custom templates, and you are using a built in ShopSite template, then the loop links feature will put links in the side navigation. However, there is one ShopSite built in template that places subcategories in the main body of the page. If you are using any of the following themes, Bar Navigation, Line Sections, Business Casual, Spotlight or Solid Block, then you can go to your parent category page > Edit Page Layout, and select the Multi-Use-Page.sst template as your page template. This will place the page links assigned to a page in the main body of the page.

For assigning the subcategories to a page you would go to Pages > Click on your parent category (in the example you gave you would click on "toys") then click on "Assign Items" > "Page" > "Proceed," and assign the subcategories to your parent category.

[GregDilley]

Thanks Lauren,

I setup the code, but i'm still only seeing text links.
Where do I assign the images to the assigned pages?

So on TOYS page, i've assigned the children pages to that page.

How do I populate the [-- PAGE.LinkGraphic --] ?

Yes i'm using Custom Templates.

Thanks!
Greg

[GregDilley]

Found where I do that, but can I choose one of my resized images? If seems to be pulling my originals.

Thanks!

[GregDilley]

Also, Its looping in the page title I gave it. Can I possible use a different field? I didn't name these very friendly, since i thought they were only for me to see in SS.

No matter what I change in there it seems to still show the title.

Thanks.

[ShopSite Lauren]

In the latest version of ShopSite 10 sp2 (I think it was added in 10 sp1) you can select the resized link image under the link image select field. If you have version 10 (not sp1 or sp2), then you will need to add ss_size2/ (or ss_size1/ or ss_size3/) before the image file name.

For the link text, in the example I gave it uses the link name or page name. I am not sure what code you are using to display the page title. If "title" you are referring to page name, then you can enter different text in the link name field.

[GregDilley]

Thanks.

I'll specify the image links manually so i get the right size.

As for the display.
I've gone so far as to remove the graphic tag and put blah in there and I'm still getting the image and the "page name" that is required in the individual pages.

See here.
http://gsd0519.yourwebhosting.com/store/gregtest.html

[-- DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE --]
[-- IF PAGE.LinkGraphic --]
<a href="[-- OUTPUT_DIRECTORY_URL --]/[-- PAGE.FileName --]">blah</a><br>
[-- END_IF --]
[-- END_DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE --]

[ShopSite Lauren]

It looks like you have different page templates, and they may or may not have your new DEFINE LINK_TO_PAGE section. Each page is going to use the link definition for the page template each page is using. So you can either add the same link define to all templates, or you can specify which template you would like to use. For example, it looks like your test page is using the LittleChouxLanding_Live template. So in your [-- LINK --] tag you can add the template name, [-- LINK LittleChouxLanding_Live --].