Upgrade Suggestions

[Norman]

Since things are quiet pondering a few upgrade suggestions might be
good.
1) I would like the option of not putting Add-To-Cart and View-Cart
buttons on my more information page. I need my more information pages
to be just that. Now I have to do them separately.
2) I would like to see more flexibility in designing the shopping cart
pages. Some previous software that I used had a standard html file for
each shopping cart page. The software gave each field a field name. To
add your look, you could just design the appropriate html page adding
the field names where you wanted info to be put.
3) I would like to see more flexibility in the receipts mailed to
customers. In previous software, a .txt template was used. Basically
the software would search for the .txt file when emailing a receipt and
just fill in the blanks. Each field had a field name. Using any word
processor, you could change the design. For info that did not change
from email receipt to email receipt, you just typed it in once. For
fields that the software added, you just typed in the field names where
you wanted them to appear on the receipt.

Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean

[loren_d_c]

1) If you create a custom product template you can define the entire look of
the more info page for that product as well. You can see the example at:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... mplate.txt

The bottom half of the page, beginning with [-- DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE--], if
the template for the more info page for the product. Here is the help page
for the Custom Product Templates in general:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... oduct.html

2) The ShopSite cart screens aren't currently template driven. You can
control almost the entire look and feel through the text fields in Commerce
Setup -> Order System, but you can't change much about the placement of the
various parts of the order information itself. You can use FONT tags to
surround any text in the Preferences -> Store Text settings, you can put
button bars/image maps on the left and right using the text fields in Order
System, you can put headers and footers in using the same fields, etc.If
there is a specific thing you would like to do, you might want to ask here
on the newsgroup and see if someone has an idea of how to do it.

3) The email text is not currently template driven either, but in ShopSite
Pro you can turn off the ShopSite generated email receipt and create your
own using the OrderAPI and a custom cgi of your own design (using perl, php,
tcl, etc). You can also turn off ShopSite's receipt screen and create your
own using the same OrderAPI feature. Information for the OrderAPI is here:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... r.api.html

-Loren



Norman wrote:

Since things are quiet pondering a few upgrade suggestions might be
good.
1) I would like the option of not putting Add-To-Cart and View-Cart
buttons on my more information page. I need my more information pages
to be just that. Now I have to do them separately.
2) I would like to see more flexibility in designing the shopping cart
pages. Some previous software that I used had a standard html file for
each shopping cart page. The software gave each field a field name. To
add your look, you could just design the appropriate html page adding
the field names where you wanted info to be put.
3) I would like to see more flexibility in the receipts mailed to
customers. In previous software, a .txt template was used. Basically
the software would search for the .txt file when emailing a receipt and
just fill in the blanks. Each field had a field name. Using any word
processor, you could change the design. For info that did not change
from email receipt to email receipt, you just typed it in once. For
fields that the software added, you just typed in the field names where
you wanted them to appear on the receipt.

Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean

[Norman]

Thanks, I will study the suggestions. I have been thinking about trying some custom templates. Maybe this is a good
time. One question about them. It seems that I have read somewhere that the ShopSite customer product search in the
store can't work with the custom templates. I am running ShopSite SC Pro 4.3. Is this true? Would I have to get
an external product search for the store?

Thanks,
Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean


Loren wrote:

1) If you create a custom product template you can define the entire look of
the more info page for that product as well. You can see the example at:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... mplate.txt

The bottom half of the page, beginning with [-- DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE--], if
the template for the more info page for the product. Here is the help page
for the Custom Product Templates in general:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... oduct.html

2) The ShopSite cart screens aren't currently template driven. You can
control almost the entire look and feel through the text fields in Commerce
Setup -> Order System, but you can't change much about the placement of the
various parts of the order information itself. You can use FONT tags to
surround any text in the Preferences -> Store Text settings, you can put
button bars/image maps on the left and right using the text fields in Order
System, you can put headers and footers in using the same fields, etc.If
there is a specific thing you would like to do, you might want to ask here
on the newsgroup and see if someone has an idea of how to do it.

3) The email text is not currently template driven either, but in ShopSite
Pro you can turn off the ShopSite generated email receipt and create your
own using the OrderAPI and a custom cgi of your own design (using perl, php,
tcl, etc). You can also turn off ShopSite's receipt screen and create your
own using the same OrderAPI feature. Information for the OrderAPI is here:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... r.api.html

-Loren

Norman wrote:

Since things are quiet pondering a few upgrade suggestions might be
good.
1) I would like the option of not putting Add-To-Cart and View-Cart
buttons on my more information page. I need my more information pages
to be just that. Now I have to do them separately.
2) I would like to see more flexibility in designing the shopping cart
pages. Some previous software that I used had a standard html file for
each shopping cart page. The software gave each field a field name. To
add your look, you could just design the appropriate html page adding
the field names where you wanted info to be put.
3) I would like to see more flexibility in the receipts mailed to
customers. In previous software, a .txt template was used. Basically
the software would search for the .txt file when emailing a receipt and
just fill in the blanks. Each field had a field name. Using any word
processor, you could change the design. For info that did not change
from email receipt to email receipt, you just typed it in once. For
fields that the software added, you just typed in the field names where
you wanted them to appear on the receipt.

Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean

[loren_d_c]

No, that is not true. The search won't work with Custom Pages, but that
is a separate feature altogether from Custom Templates.

-Loren


Norman wrote:

Thanks, I will study the suggestions. I have been thinking about trying some custom templates. Maybe this is a good
time. One question about them. It seems that I have read somewhere that the ShopSite customer product search in the
store can't work with the custom templates. I am running ShopSite SC Pro 4.3. Is this true? Would I have to get
an external product search for the store?

Thanks,
Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean

Loren wrote:

1) If you create a custom product template you can define the entire look of
the more info page for that product as well. You can see the example at:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... mplate.txt

The bottom half of the page, beginning with [-- DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE--], if
the template for the more info page for the product. Here is the help page
for the Custom Product Templates in general:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... oduct.html

2) The ShopSite cart screens aren't currently template driven. You can
control almost the entire look and feel through the text fields in Commerce
Setup -> Order System, but you can't change much about the placement of the
various parts of the order information itself. You can use FONT tags to
surround any text in the Preferences -> Store Text settings, you can put
button bars/image maps on the left and right using the text fields in Order
System, you can put headers and footers in using the same fields, etc.If
there is a specific thing you would like to do, you might want to ask here
on the newsgroup and see if someone has an idea of how to do it.

3) The email text is not currently template driven either, but in ShopSite
Pro you can turn off the ShopSite generated email receipt and create your
own using the OrderAPI and a custom cgi of your own design (using perl, php,
tcl, etc). You can also turn off ShopSite's receipt screen and create your
own using the same OrderAPI feature. Information for the OrderAPI is here:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... r.api.html

-Loren

Norman wrote:

Since things are quiet pondering a few upgrade suggestions might be
good.
1) I would like the option of not putting Add-To-Cart and View-Cart
buttons on my more information page. I need my more information pages
to be just that. Now I have to do them separately.
2) I would like to see more flexibility in designing the shopping cart
pages. Some previous software that I used had a standard html file for
each shopping cart page. The software gave each field a field name. To
add your look, you could just design the appropriate html page adding
the field names where you wanted info to be put.
3) I would like to see more flexibility in the receipts mailed to
customers. In previous software, a .txt template was used. Basically
the software would search for the .txt file when emailing a receipt and
just fill in the blanks. Each field had a field name. Using any word
processor, you could change the design. For info that did not change
from email receipt to email receipt, you just typed it in once. For
fields that the software added, you just typed in the field names where
you wanted them to appear on the receipt.

Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean

[Norman]

Loren,
Thanks for the info. I think I had better go back and reread some of ShopSite's documentation on this.

Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean


Loren wrote:

No, that is not true. The search won't work with Custom Pages, but that
is a separate feature altogether from Custom Templates.

-Loren

Norman wrote:

Thanks, I will study the suggestions. I have been thinking about trying some custom templates. Maybe this is a good
time. One question about them. It seems that I have read somewhere that the ShopSite customer product search in the
store can't work with the custom templates. I am running ShopSite SC Pro 4.3. Is this true? Would I have to get
an external product search for the store?

Thanks,
Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean

Loren wrote:

1) If you create a custom product template you can define the entire look of
the more info page for that product as well. You can see the example at:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... mplate.txt

The bottom half of the page, beginning with [-- DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE--], if
the template for the more info page for the product. Here is the help page
for the Custom Product Templates in general:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... oduct.html

2) The ShopSite cart screens aren't currently template driven. You can
control almost the entire look and feel through the text fields in Commerce
Setup -> Order System, but you can't change much about the placement of the
various parts of the order information itself. You can use FONT tags to
surround any text in the Preferences -> Store Text settings, you can put
button bars/image maps on the left and right using the text fields in Order
System, you can put headers and footers in using the same fields, etc.If
there is a specific thing you would like to do, you might want to ask here
on the newsgroup and see if someone has an idea of how to do it.

3) The email text is not currently template driven either, but in ShopSite
Pro you can turn off the ShopSite generated email receipt and create your
own using the OrderAPI and a custom cgi of your own design (using perl, php,
tcl, etc). You can also turn off ShopSite's receipt screen and create your
own using the same OrderAPI feature. Information for the OrderAPI is here:

http://www.shopsite.com/help/5.0/en-US/ ... r.api.html

-Loren

Norman wrote:

Since things are quiet pondering a few upgrade suggestions might be
good.
1) I would like the option of not putting Add-To-Cart and View-Cart
buttons on my more information page. I need my more information pages
to be just that. Now I have to do them separately.
2) I would like to see more flexibility in designing the shopping cart
pages. Some previous software that I used had a standard html file for
each shopping cart page. The software gave each field a field name. To
add your look, you could just design the appropriate html page adding
the field names where you wanted info to be put.
3) I would like to see more flexibility in the receipts mailed to
customers. In previous software, a .txt template was used. Basically
the software would search for the .txt file when emailing a receipt and
just fill in the blanks. Each field had a field name. Using any word
processor, you could change the design. For info that did not change
from email receipt to email receipt, you just typed it in once. For
fields that the software added, you just typed in the field names where
you wanted them to appear on the receipt.

Norman
1 Ocean Boulevard
Beautiful, Quality Swimwear
http://www.web8.com/ocean