Create Author Page For Books

Developers Frontend
1

Greetings all,



My client's cart is a storefront for books. She's got the individual books organized by topic (i.e. cooking, organizing). However, she would also like to have pages dedicated to each Author.



I know I can manually create a page for each author, but I would like to be able for that page to list that author's products as well. Can a more experienced user of CS Cart suggest a general strategy for doing this?



I imagined that I would be able to create a new attribute for a product, call it Author, and then list products by that attribute, but I can't seem to be able to find the functionality for this.



Thanks!

2

All right, here's what I've done:


  1. I've manually created a page for each author.
  2. In the block manager, I've created a new blocks location/layout for each author page.
  3. On each of those block locations, I've created a specific “products” block for that page, and manually selected the author's books for that page.



    This is pretty dang inefficient… I have to manually add each author's product to their pages. Plus, I've now got a dozen new block locations to manage - if I make changes to the sidebars, I have to change it manually on EVERY author page.



    One simple feature that would make this easier is to be able to add blocks PER PAGE… honestly, I don't understand why this isn't a feature.



    I sure would like some suggestions as to how I could have done this more intelligently, because I'm certain there's a way… thanks!
3

You could assign the author as a Product Feature. Using Select Box Extended type, you can add an image and a description for each of unique value. the image and description are included in at the top of the list of products that have that feature.

Make the feature into a filter and you are good to go.

It's very similar to a page for each, and can have an SEO name. There is a simple mod you can do to the product features template so you can add more linking to the feature list in the product tabs.

4

Yep, like Magpie said, just use extended features. Then use the mod here on the forum to end up with the features tab being something like what I've done at http://www.saltwatertogo.com/kent-marine-450-gm.-kalkwasser-mix.html



Thanks,



Brandon