rustyclockwork Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 (edited) Hello all, I'm starting over with a fresh install of the latest public version of Prestashop... before I started logging in a couple thousand entries, I wanted to post my ideas to see if there was a better or smarter way of doing this. My site will have things for sale, as well as a large reference section for historic purposes. 1. I'm not opposed to entering in each book, magazine, or essay in as a product without a price, but I'm not sure how Google would like that if I ever deal with their shopping feed thing again, plus, I'm not sure how to separate the product categories from the reference categories (by using CMS, I can have the products on one side, and the CMS info pages on the other side of my site). 2. My plans are to do this via CMS, but not sure how the built in Prestashop search would work with that... 3. Is there a specific package or something that I should install to do this more effieciently? Or should I just keep building a directory with CMS and make subfolders to categorize the library according to subject? Each book, magazine, or journal entry will have it's own CMS page, under a specific category or subject sub-folder. Thanks as always for any help. Jason Edited November 28, 2013 by rustyclockwork (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 Anyone have any ideas? Thank you again for your thoughts, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibndawood Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Hi, Can u give me an example ? because I am finding it difficult to understand your library collection concept. I will probably have a better idea if I understand your requirement. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Hi There, No problem... I'm wanting to display a collection of books that are held in a private library. I am currently using Prestashop's CMS to display subject headings of the library, then using CMS again to make each information page for each book. Since there will be a couple thousand entries, I was wondering if there was any other method that I should consider... It would be nice to have a template to use rather than re-writing each entry as I have to remember all the formatting rules I have set. Either that, or it would be nice if Prestashop's CMS page would allow to "duplicate" an info page right from the creation page. The site will also have things for sale not related to books, otherwise I would just make the site a "catalog only" I hope this information helps. Thank you again, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibndawood Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 From my experience, I can say duplicate content is always dangerous. There are couple of ways we can do this : * Tags - This is a good way to achieve but the downside is it might create duplicate tags (because of varied spellings). * Categories - I'd go with this. You can create a category called "Collections" and add various collections as sub categories. Since the relation between categories and products is one product can belong to many categories, you can add them to the category (for example : Fiction) and to the collection as well. What do you think ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) Hi, oh I just meant that I could "duplicate" an infopage regarding a book, change all the info, but wouldn't have to bother about the formatting for the new entry, as the formatting would already be there. Are the "tags" and "categories" that you mentionion add ons? I'll start looking into those as well... I realize that I would have to work on some custom code to enable the search bar to include CMS page content... I've seen articles on that, so it shouldn't be a major deal. Thank you! Edited November 30, 2013 by rustyclockwork (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibndawood Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) Yes thats what I meant by duplicate. When we have to update an information then we'll have to update in 2 places and it would become a pain particularly when dealing with lot of products. No they are not addons, Categories are "Associations" you will find this tab you add a product and tags are available when you add a product at the bottom under the "Information" tab Edited November 30, 2013 by ibndawood (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Hi, ok understood, I can see how I would want a book appearing in more than one category. Is there a way to place the parent category "library" away from the product categories (my product listing is on the left, and my information page listings are on the right), as I think it's important to separate this library category away from the stuff for sale. I really appreciate these suggestions very much, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibndawood Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hi Jason, I am not able to visualize how you want to differentiate categories and "library". Do you have a screenshot or a link ? I am glad to be able to help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hi there, Attached is the new site, obviously still under formatting construction and content population, but if you look on the left hand side, you will see "Old Foundry's Library" and after clicking on that link, you are seeing what the results are, which is a CMS created directory of the library's subjects... I will then show you what's on another partially finished Prestashop install, what I've been doing for each entry via CMS in the next post. Thank you, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 This is after you click on the "automatons, singing birds, and moving pictures section" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 This is then after you click on the "Automata, a Historical and Technological Study by Alfred Chapuis and Edmond Droz" This is what I would like each book entry to look like. Thank you, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibndawood Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Yes, I can see what you mean except one question about the last page. Is it OK for the book product page to look same as the book page within the library ? Otherwise we can achieve the same result as it is using the CMS. You will have to tweak your theme code a little bit so that we do not display the "library" category while listing the products. It is actually simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyclockwork Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Thank you again for offering some ideas... I think I'm going to go ahead and go with this current method that I'm doing... The things that I'm going to work on will be: 1. modifying the standard search to include CMS content 2. having a thumbnail next to each book listing 3. tweaking the code so the directory looks nicer 4. see if I can make a universal template for the books, so I can not bother about making sure the formatting is consistent throughout the library. I hope the coding above isn't a big deal, Thank you again, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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