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#1 2006-03-23 22:22:03
- yonnermark
- Member
- Registered: 2006-03-23
- Posts: 35
Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
Hi
At the moment I am manually updating the following website using static pages and some php includes:
www.markgoodwinpianos.co.uk
I use php includes for the left and right columns and to make certain stocklists appear in several different pages. So that helps but I REALLY REALLY REALLY need a CMS to make my life easier. So I’m wondering if TXP will work for me.
HERE ARE MY NEEDS:
1. Preserve current directory structure and filenames
2. Have various stocklist pages such as:
– a – every single piano in stock
– b – every grand piano only
– c – every upright piano only
– d – every yamaha upright piano only
etc etc
So as you can see, this would require that the page draws information from a master stocklist and only publishes particuar pianos on particular stocklist pages. Hope that was clear.
When I get a new piano in stock I want to create a new page for it include up to 10 photos and some simple text and maybe a video file too (I’ll probably embed a google video though so that’s fine). Then I want links to that new piano from all relevent pages. So if it is Yamaha Grand Piano it will appear on 3 stock pages ie. Yamaha page, the grand piano page AND the complete stock page.
Is this all possible?
Is this going to be fairly straight foward? I have lots of experience working with html, css and some basic php experience. I am commited to webdesign and am able to work through problems.
However, if this is a big deal I would consider paying someone to install/configure a CMS system that I can then maintain easily on my own.
THANKS!!!!
I tried to be concise. Sorry if I waffled on a bit
Regards,
Mark
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Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
You might consider this.
Off-the-shelf Textpattern has a limitation of up to two categories per article, which might be a restriction you would have to stress when you wanted to list pianos by type, by brand, by whatelse?). Rob Sable wrote a plugin which accomplishes that and allows for unlimited categories.
So, it looks feasible with careful planning.
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#3 2006-03-24 10:07:51
- yonnermark
- Member
- Registered: 2006-03-23
- Posts: 35
Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
[quote]Off-the-shelf Textpattern has a limitation of up to two categories per article[/quote]
yes I’d need more than that.
I need each article to be in up to 4 different categories at once.
Am I able to specify the filename of new articles easily?
Can I give them a .php extension? (just to keep my filenames all the same when I cross over)
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Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
yonnermark wrote:
I need each article to be in up to 4 different categories at once.
Then you would have to use either Rob’s plugin or use some of the 10 custom fields to cluster your goods.
Am I able to specify the filename of new articles easily?
Yes.
Can I give them a .php extension?
Yes.
(just to keep my filenames all the same when I cross over)
I wouldn’t go that route, but redirect old to new URLs with a few entries in .htaccess:
Redirect permanent /old/document/name.php http://www.example.com/new/address/for/document-here
Redirect permanent /old/document-2/name-2.php http://www.example.com/new/address/for/document-2-hereReason: Though you could specify file names (ressource names, to use the correct term) manually, Textpattern does a fair good job of determining them automagically, so why bother.
Last edited by wet (2006-03-24 11:07:58)
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#5 2006-03-24 11:24:50
- yonnermark
- Member
- Registered: 2006-03-23
- Posts: 35
Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
thanks for that excellent info:
[quote]Reason: Though you could specify file names (ressource names, to use the correct term) manually, Textpattern does a fair good job of determining them automagically, so why bother[/quote]
The reason I need to bother is because I need the URL to contain the unique stock number of a particular piano but I don’t want the stock number to be contained in the page heading/title.
Page Heading should look like – YAMAHA U3 UPRIGHT PIANO FOR SALE UK
Page title should be – p153-yamaha-u3-upright-piano.php
I am very pick about these things for SEO reasons. Every page title, page heading and page filename should be exactly as I specify.
So far sounds like I can achieve what I want to do here.
I don’t need e-commerce as no-one buys pianos online anyway. They browse online then visit shop (at least that’s what they do for antique/rare pianos anyway)
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Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
yonnermark wrote:
I am very pick about these things for SEO reasons. Every page title, page heading and page filename should be exactly as I specify.
That will be fine for Textpattern as it makes absolutely no presumptions for those tags and page elements (though it exhibits some reasonable defaults for the majority of us), you are free to build a template layout to your requirements.
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#7 2006-03-24 12:41:01
- yonnermark
- Member
- Registered: 2006-03-23
- Posts: 35
Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
I’m beginning to feel guilty for asking so many questions so I’m now just going to pour out every question that is currently in my head rather than little questions in lots of different posts. Hope that’s OK. No obligation to help me of course :)
1. So I need to make a new article for every piano in stock right?
2. I need to make a new article for every stocklist right? (I have about 15 different stocklists of pianos etc yamaha upright pianos, steinway grand pianos, all yamaha pianos, all steinway pianos, all pianos, special offers pianos, new pianos, used pianos. The list goes on. Its a new article for of those stocklists correct?
3. How do I populate a particular stocklist? Do I use php includes to call the contents of one or more articles onto the new stocklist page?
4. Do I need to create the links in my navbar using the built-in link creation system? Do I basically never hand-code a link because this will remove the dynamic functionality?
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Re: Can I convert my piano shop into TXP? (link included)
yonnermark wrote:
1. So I need to make a new article for every piano in stock right?
Yes. You would write one article per sales item. Add descriptive text, image, price, whatever (title, excerpt, body text and up to 10 custom fields are at your disposal).
Plus: One article categorie per item cluster (e.g. Yamaha, Steinway, Bösendorfer; Tiny, Medium, Large; Used, New,…). You can create as many categories as you like, describing every distinctive property you can imagine (brand, quality, price level, corpus material, whatever).
Plus: Assign a choice of categories to said article to specify:
- This piano’s brand is Bösendorfer
- This piano’s size is Medium
- …
(as you might notice, I have no profound knowledge of pianos at all).
As stated before, Textpattern can hold only two of those categories per article, but there are ways of stretching that limit by using Rob’s plugin. As an alternative, you could use four of the custom fields to hold those properties (There will be no drop-down list for custom values to choose from but only text entry boxes as you would have for categories, so you lose a bit of comfort).
2. I need to make a new article for every stocklist right?
No. textpattern has a built-in facitlity which lists articles sharing a common criterion, for instance having an identical category, so all Bösendorfer pianos or all Big pianos would be inserted into that list automagically by being assigned to that certain category. Textpattern also cares for paging, so this list will break every 10 or so articles (definable).
If you cared to take a look at my personal website (which is a kind of blog): The homepage lists all article without any filtering sorted by posting date. Think of this as your stock list. I wrote a number of articles which I assigned to a category called “textpattern”. You can easily apply this filter by browsing to this location. This works almost without any efforts from a site builder’s side, being a built-in Textpattern feature. My only effort was the assignment of articles to a certain category.
Are you still with me?
3. How do I populate a particular stocklist? Do I use php includes to call the contents of one or more articles onto the new stocklist page?
You will have to build a template which contains regular HTML tags (as you do now) and mix it with some Textpattern-specific tags which render single articles and lists thereof.
4. Do I need to create the links in my navbar using the built-in link creation system? Do I basically never hand-code a link because this will remove the dynamic functionality?
You are free to use any method of link creation which fits your needs. You can either go a manual way or create dynamic links which adapt to the content of your site with every change you make. Depends on your requirements.
From my point of view, you can start building a Textpattern powered site without intimate knowledge of the system and refine it later on. The more you learn, the more you will appreciate Txp’s enormous flexibility. If you are used to PHP you can even extend Textpattern to suit your needs without messing with the core code and implement custom functionality in your own plugins. I did my (very simple) first plugin within my first four weeks of Textpattern usage.
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