Extended information page - i'd rather it wasn't a popup

[virgiltracy]

Hi

I am developing a site using Actinic Catalog for a book publishing company. We would really like to add a great deal of extra information for each of our books - back page blurbs, press quotes, extracts, launch event information.

So far I have been using the extended information popup, which works fine but is not very search engine friendly. So ideally I would like each book to have it's own extended information page that isn't a popup.

Is this possible? I can easily add a link to a new page, but it is a blank HTML document and doesn't fit into my Actinic design.

With thanks

Liam

[garyhay]

You can do this with a custom property.

You can also use Act_Primary.html as the basis for these pages just remove the NETQUOTEVAR:BULK part from the source.

[NormanRouxel]

If your worry is that search engines won't be able to follow the popup javascript and thus index these pages, then why not just add an extra bit of embedded html that links to these pages using a normal href. You could also make the link text a 1 pixel gif so that no-one would see it.

So if your popup was called popup001.html then somewhere in your product description you can have

!!<<a href="popup001.html><img src=pixel.gif></a>>!!

Norman

PS If anyone knows whether there's a NETQUOTEVAR containing the popup pages filename then that could be used to automate this.

[Mike Hughes]

It would be nice if someone knew how to automate this.

There are a few reasons why I'd like to do it:

1) I could include a 'buy' button within the page. Why make the customer close the window before clicking on 'buy' ?

2) The page could use my normal layout with all the relevant links on it.

3) A benefit of 2) is that page aren't 'orphaned' as far as google is concerned and would contribute towards the sites overall pagerank.

Mike

[virgiltracy]

Originally posted by garyhay
You can do this with a custom property.

You can also use Act_Primary.html as the basis for these pages just remove the NETQUOTEVAR:BULK part from the source.

OK, I get this. Created a new file called Act_additional_info.html, removed NETQUOTEVAR:BULK. Created a file based on this (called otto_ww.html) and used "Additional Files" menu to add it to actinic.

Added a custom property MOREINFO; this is a hyperlink to otto_ww.html, and added the customvar to Product_Line.html.

But actinic doesn't process it. All i get is the basic template shape, and lots of NETQUOTEVAR text in cyan.

[NormanRouxel]

Regarding making a normal link to the popup page so search engines can follow it.

Above I suggested.

!!<<a href="popup001.html><img src=pixel.gif></a>>!!


The following code patched into your Act_ProductLine template(s) will automate it.

<a href="info_NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTREFERENCE.html"><img src=pixel.gif></a>

You could try leaving out the <img...> bit and have no anchor text but I'm not sure how search engine friendly that would be.

Norman

p.s. For Actinic:-

Only slight problem I'm sure Actinic will fix this is, as it is a buglet, that if you copy and paste a product, then you must choose a new unique product reference but the extended info name doesn't update to reflect this. You are only warned about this duplicate name at site generation time. Tut tut.

[NormanRouxel]

It would be nice if someone knew how to automate this.

There are a few reasons why I'd like to do it:

1) I could include a 'buy' button within the page. Why make the customer close the window before clicking on 'buy' ?

Here's a readme I did some moths ago regarding moving the add to cart and attrivutes to the popup pages. I didn't take it any further - it was just an exercise - but it may be of use to you.

Norman

[sherkhan]

Taking this a step further:

I am trying to use the extemded pop-up page to capture product information (price quantity and product name), which can then be submitted as a form to a third party.

So the question would be, has anyone managed to take the values

NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTQUANTITY

and inserted these into form fields.

I have managed NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME OK, but the other two go horibably wrong.

I have attached my attempt, but any ideas would be grateful.

Thanks

[NormanRouxel]

See http://www.rouxel.cwc.net/actinicstuff.html

and look for

Additional example code to make popup page have submit and attribute buttons.

Norman

[sherkhan]

Excuse my ignorance, but I cant see how this works.

The current product page needs to still work as normal with a quantity selection on this page. All I want to do is pass the name, price and quantity elements (have now worked out name and quantity) to the extended pop-up. The user fills in other details on this page (usual contact details) and along with the product name, price and quantity, these are all posted as a form to an email address.

I just cant see how the PRICE information is embeded into a form element.

Kevin

[NormanRouxel]

I see what you're after now. You can put NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE onto your popup template but it generates alot of text. You just want the COST in a form field and this NETQUOTEVAR isn't valid outside of Act_ProductPrice.

Try this

new Act_ProductPrice.html

<!-- ProductPrice HTML begin -->
<!-- This template is used for the product price text. -->

<br><span class="actxsmall"><b><Actinic:RETAIL_PRICE_TEXT>NETQUOTEVAR:PRICEPROMPT</Actinic:RETAIL_PRICE_TEXT>&nbsp;NETQUOTEVAR:DISCOUNT_QUANTITY&nbsp;NETQUOTEVAR:COST</b></span><span class="actxxsmall">NETQUOTEVAR:TAXMESSAGE</span>
<script language=JavaScript>var CostVal = 'NETQUOTEVAR:COST';</script>
<!-- This template is used for the product price text. -->
<!-- ProductPrice HTML end -->

This now sets a JavaScript variable to contain the text of the cost field.


Now in Act_ExtendedInfo.html put

NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE

somewhere to display the price (and set the JavaScript CostVal variable), and AFTER that have

<script language=JavaScript>
document.write('<input type=hidden name=mycost value="' + CostVal + '">');
</script>

Note that the forum sometimes munges Java Script above - it should be one word.

Norman

[sherkhan]

Hi Norman

I tried this, but unfortunately the price is not passed. I have pasted both the product price template and the extended info template below. Any ideas what is wrong. (I have kept the extended info template to its bare minimum, and am just testing by emailing to myself)


ProductPrice HTML
<!-- ProductPrice HTML begin -->
<!-- This template is used for the product price text.The extra javascript creats a variable to allow price to go into a form field in the extended pop-up window -->

<br><span class="actxsmall"><b><Actinic:RETAIL_PRICE_TEXT>NETQUOTEVAR:PRICEPROMPT</Actinic:RETAIL_PRICE_TEXT> NETQUOTEVAR:DISCOUNT_QUANTITY NETQUOTEVAR:COST</b></span><span class="actxxsmall">NETQUOTEVAR:TAXMESSAGE</span>
<script language=JavaScript>var CostVal = 'NETQUOTEVAR:COST';</script>
<!-- This template is used for the product price text. -->
<!-- ProductPrice HTML end -->

Extended window html
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<Actinic:WINDOW WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="350"/>
<TITLE>NETQUOTEVAR:PAGETITLE NETQUOTEVAR:PAGEHEADER</TITLE>
<Actinic:BASEHREF VALUE="NETQUOTEVAR:BASEHREF"/>
<META NAME="ACTINICTITLE" CONTENT="NETQUOTEVAR:PAGEHEADER">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="actinic.css">

<script language=JavaScript>
var CostVal = 'NETQUOTEVAR:COST';
</script>

</HEAD>
<BODY NETQUOTEVAR:BGIMAGE NETQUOTEVAR:BGCOLOR text="NETQUOTEVAR:FGCOLOR" NETQUOTEVAR:LINKCOLOR NETQUOTEVAR:VLINKCOLOR NETQUOTEVAR:ALINKCOLOR>

<FORM name="form" METHOD="POST" ACTION="mailto:kevin@servon.uk.com">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="SID" VALUE="">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="PAGE" VALUE="PRODUCT">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="ACTINIC_REFERRER" VALUE="">
<script language=JavaScript>
document.write('<input type=hidden name=mycost value="' + CostVal + '">';
</script>

<TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<TR>
<TD>
<p> <input type="text" name="Product" value="NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME"></p>
<p>NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE </p>
<p>NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTQUANTITY</p>
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</form>
</BODY>
</HTML>

[NormanRouxel]

You have to reference NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE in the extended template BEFORE you use it to create the hidden field with my JacaScript bit. Also I'd left a ) out of the document.write statement.

I.e (here's a snippet).

<FORM name="form" METHOD="POST" ACTION="mailto:kevin@servon.uk.com">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="SID" VALUE="">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="PAGE" VALUE="PRODUCT">
<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="ACTINIC_REFERRER" VALUE="">
<TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<TR>
<TD>
<p> <input type="text" name="Product" value="NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME"></p>
<p>NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE </p>
<p>NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTQUANTITY</p>
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<script language=JavaScript>
document.write('<input type=hidden name=mycost value="' + CostVal + '">');
</script>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</form>

Also (for diagnostic purposes) you can include (again below the NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE).

<script language=JavaScript>
document.write('Cost is ' + CostVal);
</script>


Just to see what's going on when you look at the extended info page.

Norman

[sherkhan]

Hello Norman

Yep, that was it. The form returns the value of

&mycost=%A3169.00

the price being 169. Out of interest do you know where the %A3 would come from?

Thanks for you help.

Kevin

[NormanRouxel]

That'll be actinic converting the £ sign into a html value. You can try stripping it out via amending - also the decimal point gets munged. That's fixed too:-


<script language=JavaScript>
CostVal = CostVal.replace(/&amp;#163;/, "£");
CostVal = CostVal.replace(/&amp;#46;/, ".");
document.write('<input type=hidden name=mycost value="' + CostVal + '">');
</script>


Norman

[Needahint]

Hi Iam am new to actinic and iam trying to design a site,

how do i create a custom extended page for my product, that is shown inside my site and not a blank or pop up page,

i have found a site that uses actinic and is a perfect example of how i want my site to look and work, the extended info page and overall site is really well done.

http://www.standanddeliver.com/


any help on how they have done this would be good

[RuralWeb]

The site uses a plugin from drillpine.biz