Norcascade help

Another automatic cascading menu for Actinic 5 onwards. This one allows more modern DHTML effects.
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Norcascade help

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi,

I'm revamping my original site to make it easier & quicker for the customer. I've duplicated the site and the one which I'm amending can be seen at: http://www.aloeveragifts.com (looks very scrappy as i'm nowhere near finished!)

I'm using the smart theme in actinic and currently in the process of:

*Reducing site size to support screen resolution
*compressing images to make them load faster
* Install Norcascade

Ideally what I'd like to do is replace the current menu with Norcascade - but all I seem to be able to do is install it so that it sits over the top of the existing menu.

I particulary like http://www.celebrations-party.co.uk

Can you give me any advise on how I do this pleas??
Thanks
p.s - donations have been sent
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

Hi, Linda

If you look in Act_Primary.html you'll see

Code: Select all

<td class="thinred2">
 <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2">
  <tr>
   <td>
    <script language=Javascript1.2>
     document.write(YahooSections(section_tree)) 
    </script>
   </td>
  </tr>
 </table>
</td>
This is the box that lays out the Actinic Section List.

now if you replace that with simply

Code: Select all

<td height="280">
</td>
You will have removed the code that displays the Actinic section list and set the height of the now empty area to suit your NorCascade menu.

Now you also need to run the NorCascade program and adjust Level 1, H Offset and V Offset to place the menu in that box.

You may also want to uncheck V Lock so that the menu scrolls with the rest of the page.

If that all works as you expect you can also Edit Act_Primary and remove the last bit of the Actinic section tree stuff, namely

Code: Select all

<!--@act NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONTREE_RAW -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" TYPE="text/javascript">
<!--
function YahooSections(ar)
{
var strIDs = '';
for (var i=1;i<=ar.length;i++)
  {
  if (ar[i].sURL != null)
    {
    strIDs += '<a href="' + ar[i].sURL + '"><span class="actxxsmall"><b><font color="NETQUOTEVAR:FGCOLORCSS">' + ar[i].sName + '</font></b></span></a><br>';
    strIDs += '<br>'
    }
  }
return strIDs
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
As this code is now redundant and unnecessarily loads a rather large JavaScript file.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Thanks...

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Thanks for the reply - I've sorted out the code and it works fine and I attempted to amend the Act_brochure primary template - but it sent my page all out of line.

To make sure I get it right - can you please let me know which code I should change / remove etc... - Thanks

also.. since I've done the change I attempted to export a site snapshot so that I could upload to the correct server to provide a link showing the changes but I received this error message:

FATAL ERRORS
(File SnapshotWizard.cpp, Line 816) - Archive error 5 - The compression operation failed
Library error - Can not open file C:\Program Files\Actinic v7.1\Sites\Aloe Vera and You\ActinicCatalog.mdb ! has been caught.

Does this have anything to do with the recent change?

Thanks :)
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

The code in Act_BrochurePrimary is

Code: Select all

<td class="thinred2">
 <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2">
  <tr>
   <td>
    <script language=Javascript1.2>
     document.write(YahooSections(section_tree)) 
    </script>
   </td>
  </tr>
 </table>
</td>
this is identical to my prior post and should be replaced with

Code: Select all

<td  height="280" class="thinred2">
</td>
Indeed it would be better to include class="thinred2" fragment in the Act_Primary change as well.


If you're getting a misaligned page it's probably because you've not followed these instructions exactly and have amended either too little or too much. Another way of looking at this change is that we're removing everything from <table ...> down to the next </table> and adding a height="280" to the <td ...> tag.

I can only see the live site pages, not the Act_Primary.html or Act_BrochurePrimary.html and so have to somewhat guess what these look like.

If you're still stuck you can post these templates here. Between [ c o d e ] and [ / c o d e ] tags (type them without the spaces) so I can see what they really look like.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Thanks

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Thanks for this info. Looks like I may have got a bit 'giddy' with the code and removed a bit too much.

Now working fine - although not yet uploaded to http://www.aloeveragifts.com until I've made some more changes

Regards
Linda
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Adding images to the menu

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi,

still busy revamping the site - and was wondering how I get an image into the menu like the one seen at:

http://www.merlinarcherycentre.co.uk/

Thanks

revamping site at: http://www.aloeveragifts.com
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

Greate an image that suits your menu. Make it big enough to fill the whole cell.

Then in NorCascade / Level1, 2, 3; fields Background (Mouse Over and Mouse Out), replace the colour code with the URL of that background image.

E.g.

replace

#CCCCDD

with

http://www.mysite.com/acatalog/menubkg.gif

Then add that image in Actinic / Advalced / Additional files

You can use different images, if you prefer, for the Mouse Over and Mouse Out.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Looking good ....

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Thanks for your help so far, I've managed to add the logo and do some alterations of the text as pointed out in an earlier discussion thread, but would appreciate your help with the following if possible??

Test site: http://www.aloeveragifts.com

1. How do I move the text over so that it all stays in line but doesn't cover the image?

2. Is there a way I can put a dashed border between each section - not sure if I'll like it but would like to see what I think

3. I've managed to add additional links to pages in the menu again thanks to an earlier discussion thread but I was wondering if there was a way that I could add the brochure pages to the menu so that if a customer goes into the 'catalog' part they can easily go back to items on the brochure page.

Thanks

Lind :?
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

1) In NorCascade / Styles / Text Styles, add some left-padding into the definition. E.g. add

padding-left:25px;

2) Add the line to the background graphic.

3) This can't be done automatically. Actinic generates nothing that lists the Brochure pages. However there's a post here regarding adding custom links to the menu. See http://drillpine.biz/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9 for the post. It's a complex workaround.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

It's going well...

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Thanks for your help with this. The site update is going well, however for some reason I seem to have changed a few things and not sure what I've done.

The headings in the menu have centred and I was wondering how I get them to align to left again?
- This has possibly got something to do with me centering the page on the site.

Also I'm trying to create the same theme throughout - can you please advise which other templates I need to amend so the customer receives same menu format - eg. checkout??

Updated website is at: http://www.aloeveragifts.com
Original website is at: http://www.aloevera-and-you.com

Regards

Linda
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

You have made many changes to the settings in NorCascade / Styles. You [probably need text-align:left in the Text Style entries. I've no way to tell which other changes are deliberate and which are accidental.

All I can tell you are the original settings:-

Text Styles

Code: Select all

.lowText { text-decoration: none; color: #000000; font: 12px "Arial, Helvetica"; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle }
.highText { text-decoration: none; color: #FFFFFF; font: 12px "Arial, Helvetica"; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle }
Border Styles

Code: Select all

.itemBorder { border: 1px solid #666666 }
.itemBorderBlank { border: 1px solid #CCCCDD }
Button Styles

Code: Select all

.buttonText { text-decoration: none; color: #FFCC99; font: Bold 12px "Arial, Helvetica" }
.buttonHover { text-decoration: none; color: #99CCFF; font: Bold 12px "Arial, Helvetica"; padding: 1px }
.buttonBorder { border: 1px outset #339966 }
.buttonBorderOver { border: 1px inset #CC9966 }
It my help if you backup the file norcascade_config.ini in your Site folder before tinkering as this contains all the NorCascade settings.


As for getting the same layout on every page. This is done via the Actinic Templates listed in Design / Layouts / Primary Templates.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Final Request - I promise.

Post by aloebridge123 »

Thanks for your help so far.

Still working on it, however I've noticed that when the level 2 and 3 menu opens the background logo only appears if I hover the mouse over.

What do I need to to do to get the background image to show permanently?

Regards
Linda
http://www.aloeveragifts.com
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

Hi, Linda

It's a typo. Look very closely at:-

http://www.aloeveragfits.com/acatalog/logobutton.jpg

which I presume is in your NorCascade / Layout / Level2 / Background.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Thanks

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Thanks - working now.

Regards
Linda
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Me again - definitely final help please

Post by aloebridge123 »

When viewing my site: http://www.aloeveragifts.com in a smaller screen the menu seems to move to cover part of the middle section - is there any way I can fix it in position and if the customers screen size is smaller it doesn't move?

Thanks

Linda
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
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