Norcat layout issues

[Greg Joy]

Hello Norman,

By way of introduction my name is Greg, and my company (joythestore.com, a fashion retailer) have just begun using Actinic/Norcat. I wanted to know exactly how to alter the layout of the product description with the product image and size matrix. At the moment, the product description is to the right of the product image, and I want the prod des to appear below the prod image.

Also, how do I set the parameters for the paragraph of the prod des? For example if I wanted to make the paragraph narrower or one set size etc?

Any help you can volunteer would be much appreciated!

Regards,
- Greg

[norman]

There's a bit of juggling required to move things around. Also some layouts are impossible due to limitations in T2T, Norcat and Actinic.

Starting at the Actinic end, the product layout is via a customised product Template Norcat_ProductLine.html (there's also a variant Norcat_ProductLine-NoImage.html which you should keep identical to Norcat_ProductLine.html with the single exception that NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE should be commented out).

If you use a 6 digit product image (1st 6 digits of T2T barcode) then that image is displayed via NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE which calls Act_ProductImage.html to generate the code.

If you use 9 digit image filenames (1st 9 digits of T2T barcode) then that image is intended for a particular colourway and is displayed to the left of that colours sizes in the buy button matrix. These images should be kept quite small (100 - 200 pixels wide) to allow room for a large size range (especially important if selling shoes or bras).

Within Norcat_ProductLine.html you can move NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE and NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION around (and also possibly make changes to Act_ProductImage.html to affect the image style).

Now as for your T2T Notes and the Norcat generated table of colour / size buy buttons. We run into the first limitation here. There's only one variable NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION available for us to pass such a large amount of data into Actinic with. The result of this is that the Notes and Buy matrix are always linked together.

There is some flexibility in the Notes layout here. If you go to Norcat / Config / Advanced / Tables / TextPos (near the bottom) you can set this to Top, Side or Bottom (with respect to the Buy matrix). So the general Notes text can be positioned in 3 places.

If you choose Side, you can also set TableClr to the estimated number of pixels left after the table is generated that must be available to place the text to the side. If there's no room then the setting in IfNoRoom is used.

As to Notes text style, etc. If you look in Norcat / Config / Advanced / Text Position / Text Style, you'll see the prefix and suffix used for text in these 3 possible locations.

[Greg Joy]

Hello Norman,

With regards to the product page layout, I tried editing the norcat_productline.html page to no avail. I've attached a bit of the code which in theory would place the product image above the text, with both aligned to the left, but nothing changes when I update everything. Am I doing something wrong on the update? I've attached some of my code.

<span class="actxsmall">
CUSTOMVAR:HIDDENFIELDS
<table border=0 width=100%>
<td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE
</table>
<table border=0 width=100%>
<td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION</td>
</table>
NETQUOTEVAR:EXTINFOLINK
</span>

Any ideas?
Cheers,
- Greg

[norman]

That code is nearly OK - but there are no <tr> and </tr> tags. Try

Code: Select all

<table border=0 width="100%">
 <tr> 
  <td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE</td>
 </tr>
 <tr> 
  <td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION</td>
 </tr> 
</table>

[Greg Joy]

Thanks for that, inserted the code but there's still no change when I update! The text is still placed on the side of the image. Am I doing something incorrect when I update? Or is there possibly a conflict within the Norcat 'advanced' settings?

[norman]

Have you a live page I can look at to see what's happening?

[Greg Joy]

Yup, have a look at http://s120997931.websitehome.co.uk/aca ... 18613.html. Any help much appreciated!
Cheers,
- Greg

[norman]

I don't see the code I posted

Code: Select all

<table border=0 width="100%"> 
 <tr> 
  <td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE</td> 
 </tr> 
 <tr> 
  <td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION</td> 
 </tr> 
</table>

in your example product. Double check it's there or even add some visible text so you can see what's happening (or not).

E.g.

Code: Select all

IMAGESTART<table border=0 width="100%"> 
 <tr> 
  <td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE</td> 
 </tr> 
 <tr> 
  <td align="left">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION</td> 
 </tr> 
</table>DESCEND

[Greg Joy]

Thanks a lot for that Norman, it's worked fine! But in the actual Dreamweaver page of the Act_Primary, the product code is placed in a table next to the navigation bar, and distorts where the bar is placed depending on the size of the image etc. Is this another config problem?

[norman]

Look in Act_ProductBody.html (which starts the layout of your products). I see:

<TABLE WIDTH="NETQUOTEVAR:ACTSTDWIDTH" COLS="3" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD WIDTH=500></TD><TD WIDTH=36></TD><TD WIDTH=200></TD></TR>

Now NETQUOTEVAR:ACTSTDWIDTH is set at 620 so you're asking for a 620 wide table but the cells within it add up to 736! Change the WIDTH=500 to WIDTH=384

PS don't forget to remove that IMAGESTART and DESCEND stuff from NorcatProductLine.html (it's showing on all your products right now).

[Greg Joy]

Hello again Norman,

With regards to code generating the product descriptions, I previously had a problem where the horizontal items on the table were being stretched, due to incorrect size code in the Act_productbody.html. I'm now getting a similar problem, where I want everything aligned at the top, but the product info is pulling the navigation bar on the left of it down the page. Any ideas?

Best regards,
- Greg

[norman]

As with your other post today - if you can point me to a page, describe what's wrong there, and say what you want instead then I may be able to help.

[Greg Joy]

Hey there, ignore my last query, I've managed to sort that one out. Cheers anyway!