Edit category listing and search result pages

[kevinhankens]

Hello. I've seen this question asked before, but I still cannot figure it out for the life of me. For featured, new and special products you can edit the template file to redesign the listing pages. However, I can't figure out how to edit the layout of the category listing and search result pages.

The elements on the page are generated in modules/product_listing.php, but I can't figure out where it creates the tabular display. I would prefer to just put them in DIVs so that I can manipulate the layout with the CSS file. I could create my own loop in the module file, but I would rather leave the module files alone.

Basically, instead of having the three-column layout: thumbnail | description | price/add to cart, I would like to have thumb | short description/more info button.

If anyone can give me a hint, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks!!

Kevin

[TinaS]

Kevin the display / layout pages are in includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/templates

Take a peek in there for the files you want to change

[kevinhankens]

OK, I figured out that in the template directory, common/tpl_tabular_display.php creates the table layout. I think that I'm going to try and manipulate this file to put things into DIVs instead of tables.

Does anyone know if this will break any other layout pages?

Thanks!

Kevin

[DrByte]

tpl_tabular_display.php is for generating table-based output

if you want div-based output, use tpl_columnar_display.php instead. Just point to the alternate file and it's div-based instead of tables. Minor tweaks might be required, but it's the same basic data-feed.

[kevinhankens]

Great! Thanks for the advice.

Do you guys know if there has been any discussion about using a more pure templating system like Smarty, et al.? That would make this process sooo much easier. In order to do some pretty minor tweaks, I'm having to edit module files, which is problematic. It would be nice in the future to have a better separation between the application and design layers.

That's just my two cents. I really don't want to step on anyone's toes though :) ZC is BY FAR the best shopping cart that I have used. My hat is off to the developers and contributors!

Kevin

[kevinhankens]

OK, nevermind the Smarty comment - I did some reading in the forum regarding the issue :)