Uniform listing display?

[stride-r]

I'd like to make the category product displays the same as that used for "all Products", "new products", & "featured products". Currently they are very different layouts. Is this possible?

[gjh42]

Search the forum for yellow1912's "Using one single listing template" thread.

[stride-r]

Thanks for the lead .. and yellow1912's "Using one single listing template" post is a terrific one.

...but my issue is pretty much the opposite - the template format i do NOT want to adopt site- side is the one accessed at "Admin->configuration->Product Listing".

My preference is just the opposite - to apply any one of the templates used for "new products" or "special Products", etc.

The reason is that i find the template that yellow1912 adopts site-wide to also be the least flexible as its more rigidly table-based. Better to use one that's not table based so that we can have greater control through css.

Someone in that post also mentioned that version 1.4 is likely to adopt a site-wide unifom template - which would be terrific ....but lets all pray that a rigidly table based template is NOT the one the choose to apply.

[rstevenson]

I've seen hints that v1.4 will do away with tables for page layout. But whether it does away with tables for laying out product listings, I don't know.

If you think about it, tables make sense for listing products, since any list of items is, in fact, a list of tabular data.

But tables do present problems, at times, in some browsers, with the proper cascade of styles. So it wouldn't hurt to keep their use to a minimum.

Rob

[stride-r]

tables make sense for listing products, since any list of items is, in fact, a list of tabular data.

Hi Rob,

You're right ...but the problem i have with using tables for this purpose is that, when you try to customize the layout of Product listing, via admin, all it does is add or remove columns from the table. (ex: add or remove the Manufacturer field from the product listing and see what i mean) There's very little one can do to fine tune a layout when each of the data fields is locked up in its own table cell.
If one must stick with a table layout ...then i hope they at least include in Admin a means to specify the order of the fields in the table ....or better yet - give us a set of swappable base templates , each with a different initial layout, just for that purpose?!
Hey, a guy can dream can't he?!?

[rstevenson]

I dream too. With mixed results.

But in this case, you can use CSS to control the appearance of the various chunks of table -- though you may need to edit code to add class identifiers so you can do that. And you can, of course, edit the proper php file to change the order to your preferred set up.

But yes, an admin-based layout tool would be great. I think it may be along in version 1.6 or so.

Rob

[Kim]

But yes, an admin-based layout tool would be great. I think it may be along in version 1.6 or so.

Gee, aren't you going to be happy when our next big release comes out.

[bigbadboy]

I disagree with the statement about tables restricting flexibility that CSS offers.
Simply find the table and add an ID to it and CSS flexibility comes flooding back.
Use the automatically built table to build the structure and CSS to add styles.

I always do this and have no problems.

(but yes, the less tables there are the better!)

[yellow1912]

You can have any style of layout you ever want with css based template.
But that doesn't mean you cant tweak the default category listing template to use table based. It's all up to you.

[rstevenson]

Gee, aren't you going to be happy when our next big release comes out.

Yay! I expect to be happy anyway, but I just got happier.

Rob