I am looking for a php/my-sql programmer to produce a basic CMS for me to integrate w

Partners Ideas & Requests
1

I am looking for a php/my-sql programmer to produce a basic CMS for me to add onto the side of CS-Cart.



I want to create a product in CS-Cart as normal, however I would like to place a script in the ‘Full description’ field that will refer to a related record in a new table.



The new table will contain fields such as:

  • Brief Description
  • Link to Datasheet
  • radial button for internal or external link
  • Link to Operating Instructions
  • radial button for internal or external link
  • Bullet Points
  • Technical Specification



    When the CMS is accessed, a list of products from CS cart appears.



    Selecting a product shows the information from CS cart, as well as the information from the related record, if already entered, in a form. The related record can then be created or modified accordingly and can be submitted back into the table.



    The script in the CS-Cart ‘Full description’ field will display the product information on a predefined format.

    If a field in the related table is blank, no information will be shown for this field on the product information page.
2

I guess I’m a bit confused… can’t just just add the fields that you want in product features and put the information in there for each product?

3

The problem with the product features option is that the information is displayed like this:







and I want it to like like this:







At the moment, I feed the info into a filemaker database, it spits out a code which I paste into the ‘Full description’ field on CS-Cart



Doing it through a CMS on the site easily allows global changes to format and makes it looks much neater for different types of products & services. It also increases accessability.



If it is possible to do this using the product features fields this would be good, however I would still like an external CMS to link into the CS-Cart table as I think it will give me the following benefits:


  • Safer for use by employees (stops records from being deleted)
  • All the info and available fields displayed on one page
  • Allows changes to be reviewed before upload to CT-Cart table
4

I have downloads like manuals and instructions for my products as well. I used Snorocket’s Product Tabs mod that is available at http://www.snorocket.com to accomplish this. Basically all I did was add a tab called downloads and made my links inside that tab. Everything funtions nice like this and it is kept organized as well.



Brandon

5

Thanks Brandon, I have made a dnoation and am waiting for the download link as we speak.



I would like a stand alone module as well though, do you have any contacts who could help me on this one?



I am really looking for conditional formatting on the full description field from a stand alone page.

6

Satrex are you using the latest version of CS 1.3.5 sp4 or are you using sp3, let me know, Thanks - Sno

7

Satrex - you can do this using the tabs expansion. I have used this to programmatically add a global zoomify tab.



However a slight modification is required.



First, create features that will hold your URLs. Make them hidden.



Second, when you install the product_tabs mod, you will need to modify a few line in skins/CUSTOMERSKIN/addons/product_tabs/product_tabs.tpl:



{foreach from=$tabs item="tab"}


{if $tab.main_pair.pair_id}




{include file="common_templates/image.tpl" show_detailed_link="Y" obj_id=$tab.tab_id images=$tab.main_pair object_type="common"}

{/if}
[COLOR="Red"]{eval var=[/COLOR]$tab.tab_text[COLOR="Red"]}[/COLOR]


{/foreach}




After that, it is possible to refer to smarty variables within the tab description text.



However to do what you are asking, I found I had to iterate through feature description/value pairs - which means including something like the following:




{foreach from=$product.product_features item="pf"}
{if $pf.description == "[I]feature_name[/I]" && $pf.value !== ""}

(here's where you do fun things using $pf.value)

{/if}
{/foreach}





What this will do is allow you to have constant feature fields that you can use across all products - and then link the product to the global tab whenever you need it to show up.



You can expand this to include a lot of formatting options - with features it is a little cludgey because of how the arrays are assigned.



If anyone knows how I can reference the features array without iteration I’d LOVE to hear that…