X-Cart forums

[Aragorn]

Hi... I'm a newbie struggling along to learn xCart / PHP / TPL etc.etc.etc....

Any help (step by step) would be appreciated.

(1) I want to create a another "sub menu" like the Categories Menu on the home page called Manufactures. How can I do that easily?

(2) I want to add a few "speed bars" at the top of my home page. I see where to do that in ADMIN site, but after I define a .php file... now what? (For example, if I want to create a "speed bar menu item" called ABOUT US... do I create a aboutus.php file?... and if so, how do I do that?

(3) I also use NetObjects Fusion and want to use some of the NetObjects pages in xCart... how can I do that? (Or should I try to insert xCart into NetObjects Fusion?)

(4) How can I learn quickly what all the symbols in the .tpl files stand for (I'm sure much of this is HTML... which I probably need to re-learn... but is there a "crib sheet" for .tpl somewhere?)

(5) How can I have 2 columns and 2 rows on the front page for my FEATURED ITEMS?


Thanks for any help, insights, or direction.

Kindest Regards,
Aragorn



X-Cart Gold edition latest version
Running on Apache Server
PC running Windows 2000

[natalieb]

Hi,
Best is to post these questions in another forum.
instead of Mods. Better post your questions in template editing or something.

Here is my bit:

1) Best is to copy an existing menu (piece of text) and just paste it where you want it.
Go to edit templates,customer folder and copy for example { include file="help.tpl" } in the home.tpl and paste it where you like on home.tpl

Or :
Create a new tpl named manufacturers.tpl, just right in the first page of edit templates.

Now go to customer folder, home.tpl and add the following where you want. For example right after specials.
{ include file="manufacturers.tpl" }
Don't forget to put
before and after.

Now you can edit your manufacturers.tpl
Here you can add your text or whatever you like.
It might be handy to use the languages in here so you can easily change the content.

Example manufacturers.tpl

{* $Id: manufacturers,v 1 2004/08/05 15:30:40 svowl Exp $ *}
{capture name=menu}
<class=VertMenuItems>
PUT YOUR TEXT HERE (or $lng.txt_manufacturers)
{/capture}
{ include file="menu.tpl" dingbats="dingbats_products.gif" menu_title=$lng.lbl_manufacturers
menu_content=$smarty.capture.menu"}
END

Of course you need to add labels and text if you wish to use the languages.
Just make a
manufacturers label
manufacturers text
Also you can change the dingbats or leave it out.

2) Just create the speedbar you like
Go to static pages and create a new page: About us
Copy the link that will point to this page and paste it in the link field of your speed bar.

4) You will learn quick enough in working with x-cart

Handy is to get familiar with the language labels and text.
This way you just change text easily in the languages.
Labels go on top/ the name of a menu for example
and text is the content. You can make your own and insert anywhere you like.
See news.tpl for example
{$lng.txt_subscribe_monthly}

And look into the "include files"
If you know that you have the basics.

5) In the admin area go to general settings, in the drop down menu choose appearance
Here you can choose
Display products list in multiple columns (1-3) (leave empty to use standard format): PUT 2
If you only want the featrured items to look like that tick the next box too
Display only featured products list in multicolumn format


The rest...netvusion...no idea
Last:
BACK UP before you do anything

[Aragorn]

Thanks Natalie... this is great!

Will get to work right away.


I appreciate it!
Aragorn

[Aragorn]

Hi Natalie,

If I may... a followup question or two:

1) I've created a manufacturers.tpl (copied the categories.tpl and replaced every "categories" with "manufactures")

Here is the code for that:

{* $Id: manufactures.tpl,JBv 1.19 2003/11/11 14:02:32 svowl Exp $ *}
{capture name=menu}

<class=VertMenuItems>


{if $active_modules.Fancy_manufacturesne ""}
{include file="`$fancymanufactures_config.modules_path`/fancy_manufactures.tpl"}
{else}
{if $config.General.root_manufactures eq "Y"}
{section name=manufacture_num loop=$manufactures}
<font class=manufacturesList>{ $manufactures[manufacture_num].manufactures_name|escape }</font>

{/section}
{else} {section name=manufacture_num loop=$submanufactures}
<font class=manufacturesList>{ $submanufactures[manufacture_num].manufactures_name|escape }</font>

{/section}
{/if}
{/if}



{/capture}
{ include file="menu.tpl" dingbats="dingbats_manufactures.gif"
menu_title=$lng.lbl_manufactures
menu_content=$smarty.capture.menu }




2) I get the following error

Parse error: parse error in /home/maxtarco/public_html/store/templates_c/.^customer^manufactures.tpl on line 10


Any ideas?


thanks,
Juergen


PS - how do I move all this to the correct forum? (thanks )

[adpboss]

I am sure one of our trusty moderators will come along and move it.

If you have a question about how to correct or implement a mod, please don't add it to this thread. Add it to the existing one. That will help other users who encounter similar challenges.

Template Editing is the forum you should be using for stuff like this...