"Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

Hello!

I'm happy to announce one more module for X-Cart 5 - Shop By Brand.

http://www.x-cart.com/sites/default/files/addons/image/Shop_By_Brand_184px.png

In a few words this module behaves like the "manufacturers" feature in X-Cart 4 with the one major change: instead of a custom product field this module uses a global product attribute to store the brand name.

The use of a product attribute:

a) allows you to enable the "brands" feature after you added the "brand" product attribute and defined brands for your products (the module will import existing brands)

b) makes it possible to filter by brand in the layered navigation offered by Product Filter module

Feel free to ask me should you have any questions or suggestions for the module.

Thanks!

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

It looks good, does the brand logo appear on the product page also?

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Thanks! Yes, the logo appears above the price on both the product page and the quick-look popup.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

The new 5.1.3 version of Shop By Brand module is available for downloading from X-Cart Marketplace!

Now the module:
- offers the ability to manually sort brands and choose the order in which brands should be shown in the storefront (order by name / by the number of products / as defined by the store owner)
- comes with the built-in Russian translation
- includes a few bug-fixes

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

I am using this module - which is great, but I have one very simple thing I am trying to do and can't work out how to do it!

I want to extract just the brand name to display on the product page. The widget returns the band name as a heading with a link .... how do I just get the brand name for the current product?

Thanks,

Jan

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hello Jan,

Thank you for your kind words!

I will be glad to help you.

Please could you explain what you do and what you want to achieve? Have you added a new template or widget class that displays the brand? Or do you replace the template via a custom skin?

Thanks!

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hi,
I am using a custom skin module ... I have an amended version of the prodyct/details/parts/common.product.title.tpl with this in it:


However this pulls in the brand name as this sort of thing



What I want is just the name of the brand without the '<h1>' tag and without the link.

Ideally I need is as a widget as I need to use it in a few places on the product page.

It's such a simple thing, but I can't work out how to do it!

Thanks,

Jan

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

I also have another question about this module and would appreciate some help ..
... I have posted it in the Xcart5 forum here

http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?p=379554

I would really appreciate some help ..... working with this version of x-cart is proving to be very frustrating ...

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the clarifications!


The "common.product.title.tpl" template renders the product name, not the product's brand.

The "product/details/parts/brand.tpl" is the template that injects the brand icon to the product page (but not renders it!).



The same goes there: "product.name" is the product name, not the brand name :-)



The link tag is added to the brand in this template file:
modules/QSL/ShopByBrand/brand/icon.tpl

So, if you want to remove the link, you should "override" this template file in your custom skin, not the one that you mentioned above.



This is just the first impression that will go away once you get a bit more familiar with the code of X-Cart 5. Just don't give up! :-)

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Thanks that's a lot clearer, but is

modules/QSL/ShopByBrand/brand/icon.tpl

used elsewhere (ie where I might need the link?), such as on the all_brands page, or is that a different template?

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

The link to the template file is defined here:
\XLite\Module\QSL\ShopByBrand\View\Product\Details \Brand::getDefaultTemplate()

The logic is as follows:

1. The "@ListChild" tag in the product/details/parts/brand.tpl template makes this template appear on the product page (and in the quick look).

2. This template renders the XLite\Module\QSL\ShopByBrand\View\Product\Details\ Brand widget. "Renders" means that it calls the "display()" method of the specified widget class. However, in most cases this method does the only thing: it renders the template that is specified in the getDefaultTemplate() method of the widget class. So, "rendering a widget class" will likely show the template file the method defines.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

> is modules/QSL/ShopByBrand/brand/icon.tpl used elsewhere

This template is part of the XLite\Module\QSL\ShopByBrand\View\Product\Details\ Brand widget, so you may search for this name among template files to find other references (if any).

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Thanks for your help on this ... while working woth the brands module I think I may have come across a potential bug....

When importing products via CSV, if a new brand is specified in the data it gets added to the global class attribute for the brand, but does not get added into the brands list in the ShopByBrand module.

This then causes an error on the category and product pages because getName() is trying to work on a non-existent object.

Just telling you this for info ...

Jan

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Thank you, Jan!

I will check into this.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hello Jan,

This problem will be fixed in Shop By Brands v5.1.9.

The 5.1.9 version is planned to be released in a couple of days.

Thanks!

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Can I list all the vendor on paginated grid for a user to search through. I need something like "All Vendors"

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Is there an example of how you want it to look/behave like?
From what you describe it sounds that you need to use Shop By Brand in a combination with Product Filter module - the Product Filter module would display brands in the left sidebar so customers could tick the brand they need.
Is it what you are looking for?

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Is there any way you can add the feature that the shipping charges will also can be base on brand in the admin area as well?

Eg. Buying brand A will be $5 shipping, and buying brand B will be $6 dollars, so if a customer buying 2 of Brand A, it will be $5. for shipping, however if the customer buy 2 of brand A and also 1 of Brand B, it will be $5 + $6 . Total shipping will be $11 ??

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

There is no setting that would make shipping charges depend on brands.
But this can be done as a custom module.

Please contact us if you want our team develop this for you:
http://www.x-cart.com/custom-development.html

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hi rct!

I have just added a new guide about creating shipping modules: http://kb.x-cart.com/display/XDD/Shipping+modifications

If you decide to implement your shipping system yourself, this guide will be helpful for you.

Tony.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

In the new version of Shop By Brand module (v5.2.5) I had to re-do the template for the Brands page in the storefront. Now the page is 100% responsive, but uses a different markup and styles.

This won't affect storeowners using default theme (including the color variations that come with ColorSchemes module).

But this may affect users having custom X-Cart 5 themes. Please check your Brands page after upgrading the module and update your styles if necessary.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

The new version of Shop By Brand module (5.2.6) includes the following improvements:
- now you can enable pagination for the Brands page and set the default number of brands per page (check the module settings page)
- also it allows you to configure the width and the height of brand images on the Brands page (it is on the "Look & Feel" -> Images page)

The new module version has the same HTML markup and should not affect custom CSS tweaks. However, it uses different PHP classes and templates (see below), so some custom modules may require extra tweaks to be compatible with the new version. Please try the upgrade on a local dev copy of your site first!

The changes in the source code are:
- \XLite\Module\QSL\ShopByBrand\View\ItemsList\Brand \Customer\Brand widget class replaces the \XLite\Module\QSL\ShopByBrand\View\BrandsPage class
- templates from the skins/default/en/modules/QSL/ShopByBrand/brands_page/ directory have been moved to the skins/default/en/modules/QSL/ShopByBrand/items_list/brand/ directory

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Shop By Brand v5.2.7 has been released.

It uses the new method of adding items to the primary storefront menu (now, when editing the menu, the Brands link appears as "{brands}" instead of the direct URL).

No other changes have been made, so you may skip this upgrade and wait for the next.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

hi, is in your plans add the product filters in the brand page ??

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hi!

Yes, it is in my long-term plans.
Unfortunately, most likely it won't appear in the module in the short term (not within the next month).

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Shop By Brands 5.2.8 has been released.
It fixes the problem with the Brands block not visible on mobile devices.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

The new 5.2.9 version of Shop By Brand module fixes the problem with Brands page not ordering brands as per the module settings.

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Hello, Great work I really love the mod.

I would like for the brand logo to appear above the product title on my product description pages. Is this possible?

Re: Shop By Brand module for X-Cart 5
 

Thank you for the feedback!

It is possible with a tweak implemented as a custom module.

Shop By Brand module displays the brand logo via this template file:
skins/customer/modules/QSL/ShopByBrand/product/parts/brand.twig

The template uses the @ListChild directive to make the logo appear in the "product.details.page.info" and "product.details.quicklook.info" widget lists (that are displayed below the product title).

So, to move the logo to a different place you should "substitute" this file with a custom one that will attach it to different "widget lists" by changing names of the lists in @ListChild directives (or the weight parameters).

In your case changing the weight will likely be enough.

You can enable the Webmaster mode (Look & Feel -> Layout) to see what displays in which "widget list" appear on your site pages.

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

The new 5.3.6 version of Shop By Brand module is available for downloading.

It comes with a number of fixes for the following problems:
- selecting "None" as the attribute to store brands resulted into a fatal error
- brand pages not being added to the XML Sitemap
- deleting the attribute configured to store brands caused orphaned database records
- broken layout of the Brands drop-down field on the product search page (Crisp White theme)
- pager widget having wrong styles on the page listing brands in the storefront (Crisp White theme)

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

Hello,

It's possible to show the brands with a dropdown at sidebar?

Thanks

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

Out of the box the module doesn't have this feature, but it is possible by creating a custom module.
How would you like this dropdown to work?

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

What I wanted to see is if there is a possibility to display a drop-down menu that replaces the current list of brands, simply with the title "Brands" and a drop-down menu that allows selecting each brand, and when selected go to the page of that brand.

Thanks

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

\XLite\Module\QSL\ShopByBrand\View\BrandsBlock is the widget that renders the sidebar block.
You are likely to replace its template from your custom module and add a JavaScript that changes the page on selecting a brand in the dropdown.

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

Ok, thanks.

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

Hello,

I want to know if it is possible for vendors to add and manage their own brands. I have x-cart v5 MultiVendor version.

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

On the MultiVendor module settings page there is a setting that will allow vendors to add new brands when editing products: "Vendor access to global attributes".
However, brands are shared between vendors, and only administrators can edit information about brands (logo, description, ...).

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

With v4 each vendor can add and edit their own manufacturers.
It is possible to do the same with v5?

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

The brands module uses the attributes logic built into X-Cart 5. The brand field is just an attribute field.
In X-Cart there is no function for vendors to have attribute values which other vendors cannot see. Any value that a vendor enters into an attribute field becomes available to other vendors too.
I believe you can change this logic from a custom module, but I'm not sure how complex that modification will be.

Re: "Shop By Brand" module for X-Cart 5
 

And could it be we add and enable an admin with just the role of managing brands?