Displaying "Best Sellers" & more on 10 r7.4

[nsd999]

Hi gang,

I'm new to SS and have a client with a very basic Bizland store running ShopSite Pro 10 r7.4. The homepage is nothing more than a header, a list of categories w/images, and a footer. I'd like to spruce up the site and add a sidebar, "Best Sellers", "Featured Products" and more "Shop By" categories ("By Price", etc.) to the homepage.

Would I be able to use the cross-sell feature and modify the template to display on the homepage instead of just the shopping cart? (Our version only displays in the cart.) Or would a product loop be the better answer?

I'd also like to display featured items on the product "More Info" page as well. If I did go with product loops what's the best method to link these products together?

And naturally, if anyone has suggestions about the other improvements I'd like to make I'd really appreciate them!

** By the way, am I in over my head on this one??

Thanks!
Joe

[Jim]

The easiest question to answer is the last one, and the answer is "maybe".

The first question could be done by creating a custom template and making multiple Loop Product sections for the various sections, Best Sellers, Featured Products etc. You would use one of the product custom fields to designate when category the product would be displayed in and do a check on that field while looping to see if the product is to be displayed or not. I believe there are a number of posts related to this type of implementation in the forum.

Question 2 would not be possible because the template tags for cross-sell are not valid on page or product templates in ShopSite 10 r7.4. They were added in ShopSite 10 sp1 to the moreinfo page. http://shopsite.com/help/10.2/en-US/sc/pro/index.htm?page=/help/10.2/en-US/new-features.html I'm not sure when they were added to the main pages but possibly in 10 sp2.

The product "more info" page can only contain information about that specific product (or sub products to it). As noted in the answer above the ability to have cross-sell items on the more info page was added in ShopSite 10 sp1. You could work around this a little by creating a page and assigning your featured items to it. Then publish the page and copy the html, that includes the product descriptions, add to cart buttons etc, and paste that into one of the custom product fields of the products you want those items to display with. Then in the moreinformation section of your product template include the tag to display the appropriate custom field. This could probably also be done with server side includes or php if you are familar with them.

[nsd999]

The easiest question to answer is the last one, and the answer is "maybe".

Great

You could work around this a little by creating a page and assigning your featured items to it. Then publish the page and copy the html, that includes the product descriptions, add to cart buttons etc, and paste that into one of the custom product fields of the products you want those items to display with. Then in the more information section of your product template include the tag to display the appropriate custom field.

That's actually a very good idea. Is there anything special I need to do to the page to make sure it won't show up in the website somewhere?

The first question could be done by creating a custom template and making multiple Loop Product sections for the various sections, Best Sellers, Featured Products etc.

I almost wonder if your first answer might even be easier. Just generate the page and copy/paste the html into my category/home pages..

It sure is a messy solution but BizLand tells me it's not possible to upgrade our SS.. How many versions are we behind? And is this normal for SS hosts?

Thanks again!
Joe

[Jim]

Is there anything special I need to do to the page to make sure it won't show up in the website somewhere?
As long as the page is not assigned to another page that is on your site the probability of it appearing in web searches is very low. (Don't mark the page to be indexed for ShopSite search or it would show up if people do a search for a product that is found on the page).


How many versions are we behind? And is this normal for SS hosts?
The most current version of ShopSite is version 10 sp2 r2. Which was released November 2010. We are currently in beta testing of ShopSite 11 which should be released sometime this summer.

Each hosting company operates on their own and updates as they feel the need or desire from their clients. Some lag behind by a number of versions while others are quick to upgrade to the latest when requested to do so by their clients. If you search this forum for "best hosting" you will find who other users think provide the best service.