Rank: Member
Joined: 12/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 31
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Essentially I am looking to add some non-product related content and yet still maintain my navigation and category menus.
I figure to do this I have 2 options
1. Create a new page in VS as a content page to the exiting product.master in my theme (layout Im looking for), add all my code behind. Then add this to page via URL to a custom side menu. Stndard proc but pretty inflexible post initial development
OR
2. Create a custom page, use the Custom URL's to redirect the URL on the Side Menu to the custom page name. Add content to flavour
So far all good, except of the existing content only the Header and Footer are present. I would like to know what the best way would be to include an exising 'content column' or for that matter content blocks or if for that matter it is even possible!
In the ideal world this would allow me to create the content blocks as reusable components that could be shifted around and customised quite quickly by the people more interested in 'layout' ;)
Any takers on this one? Ideally I would like to proceed through door number 2 if possible?
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 31
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thinking about it - I suppose the best option would be to just edit the custom.aspx to include the content 'column' from the product page. This should sort the navigation and basic layout parts but still leaves the question of adding the content blocks
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/17/2007(UTC)
Posts: 69
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It is really frustrating to see people asking the same questions as I'm struggling with and getting no answer on the forums from anybody, either at BV or elsewhere. There are loads of kudos for BV but I have to say the documentation is pretty skimpy once you get past the really basic stuff. For example, there is a very sparse single page on Custom Pages with no context about why Custom Pages are possible and such. Ditto for Custom URLs - no useful insight as to how you would use them. I'd much prefer a documentation service pack right about now. It would be great if folks can offer more suggestions or maybe the BV folks could help answer some of these questions.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 3/3/2006(UTC)
Posts: 1,737
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I'm in the same boat, but instead of using the BV5 manual (a stronger version is coming), I've been gleaning info from the BV4 manual. http://www.bvsoftware.com/bvc2004/manual/If the BV5 manual goes a little further, it'll set the standard... Terms used on the admin pages should ALL be in the index. Try and figure out what "pagers" means. I know what "merge" means, how does it affect Fed Ex's ship quote? I need to know if "Merge identical items" in Options overrides "Ship separately" on the product page, or the other way around. The manual doesn't say. It should. Andy at Structured Solutions has a great video demo of his shipping suite. It shows pop-up "hint boxes" that explain how to use the controls on the admin page. This is a must have add-on for me. My shipping gets complicated. Russell, on your original Q: Themes behave differently and your answer may be theme-specific. What works in one may not (or may work differently) in another. I've been studying setups in a few of them and am making do with a bit from here, a control set from there. Until SP2 comes, I'm dead in the water anyway - I can't test anything. |
Optimists invent airplanes,
Pessimists buy parachutes. |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/6/2003(UTC)
Posts: 1,903
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No offense intended 02G, but did you look at the "Custom Page" page?
It asks for a "Page Name" (title)
"Name in Menu" (what the menu text will show)
and "content" (plug in any html you want to).
That's it you have a custom page that has a title and shows up in the menu's. The content of custom pages is stored in the DB unlike a .aspx page you would make yourself and save as a .aspx file.
What to do with it really depends on your store, products, client base etc. For BV it may be a spec sheet. For others it could be additional shipping information, for others maybe a "company information" page.
Custom URL's are used for tons of different reasons. 1. maintaining old links. 2. redirecting to other pages etc. |
Noah |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 31
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To be honest I found the most powerful option in the end to be creating new aspx pages with includes for the header and the footer as well as content colums for the nav and content. Then simply create new content blocks to order and bingo you have custom pages with content that can be dynamically chopped and changed via the content columns admin page
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Rank: Member
Joined: 1/17/2007(UTC)
Posts: 69
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Noah - thanks, and yeah, what I expected Custom Pages to be is a way to create a page that has the same nav elements as the rest of the site, but what I actually seem to get is a place to name a page and then paste in some HTML, and then *IF* I reference that on the menu, I'd expect that it would take me to such a page. However, the page is nowhere to be found (now thanks to Russel's comment, I understand it actually gets stored in the db. Funny, though, the link on the menu gives it a path of ../ContentBlocks/<pagename> leading me to think the page is going to be in that folder. Again, my complaint is that none of this is in the documentation.
So now that I understand the HTML is stored in the DB, what does one need to do to get it to actually display a page with that HTML on it?
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/6/2003(UTC)
Posts: 1,903
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O2G,
If you put text in the file and select to show in menu, and add menu text (all on the custom page edit page) after you save the page go to the store, you should see the link to the custom page in your menu.
Hit the page in a browser, and you can cut and paste the link that is in the browser address bar for linking purposes. |
Noah |
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