In order to use a “custom” landing page for categories, some of the default functionality would need to be disabled, such as the displaying of products.
Creating a custom landing page can be as easy as adding the appropriate html code to the Full Description of any category.
Here’s the method I used to create “Show Products?” option for each category.
Note: this method can be used to apply other settings to categories.
Step 1. Create a language variable: show_products
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Step 2. Create a new field in the cscart database table: cscart_categories with the following parameters
Diamonds having loose diamonds as the primary category’s product also has MANY subcategories (diamonds pendants, diamond earrings, engagement rings)
Because there’s no point in showing a visitor all loose diamonds when more than likely they are interested in a very select group of them, turning off default product showing for this category is required.
The diamonds category is pretty much used as a place holder for within the category system. Displaying diamonds as products on this category’s page would defeat the purpose of the website visitor’s purchasing path that the company chooses (custom subcategory layout, predefined search results, etc…)
And setting up an option with Yes or No (default Yes) to show products maintains the original functionality of the CS-cart category system that will still be used by other categories not needing a custom layout.
Simple insert the custom landing page html in the Full Description and voila…
This option serves its purpose for now… However ideally what I’m going to code once our skin is done is a custom landing page admin addon for categories instead of using the built in behavior…
custom product details pages addon idea (I like brainstorming)
Each category can have it’s own product details page that will be applied to all products in the category, otherwise use product, otherwise use default
Each product can have it’s own product details page, otherwise use category, otherwise use default.
Diamonds having loose diamonds as the primary category’s product also has MANY subcategories (diamonds pendants, diamond earrings, engagement rings)
Because there’s no point in showing a visitor all loose diamonds when more than likely they are interested in a very select group of them, turning off default product showing for this category is required.
The diamonds category is pretty much used as a place holder for within the category system. Displaying diamonds as products on this category’s page would defeat the purpose of the website visitor’s purchasing path that the company chooses (custom subcategory layout, predefined search results, etc…)
And setting up an option with Yes or No (default Yes) to show products maintains the original functionality of the CS-cart category system that will still be used by other categories not needing a custom layout.
Simple insert the custom landing page html in the Full Description and voila…
This option serves its purpose for now… However ideally what I’m going to code once our skin is done is a custom landing page admin addon for categories instead of using the built in behavior…
custom product details pages addon idea (I like brainstorming)
Each category can have it’s own product details page that will be applied to all products in the category, otherwise use product, otherwise use default
Each product can have it’s own product details page, otherwise use category, otherwise use default.[/QUOTE]