Programming glitch?

[clydejones]

Hi,

Thanks for the input you guys.

Yea, I would not have "hacked" the code if there was a better way. I wish the Admin options to disable actually worked, then none of this would have been necessary.

Merlin, removing the text from the define was one of the first things I did. Upon doing this, the meta tag title on EVERY single page still displayed the separator (" : "). This is a waste of 3 characters, pointless clutter, and looked stupid (it shows up in the browser bar and as the page title on search engines).

Besides just being generally annoying, I had decided I kind of liked the Title/Tagline showing up on my EZpages, category pages, etc. So hacking the code as I did was targeted specifically to product info pages.

Doing what I did will not cause any problems, will it?

They do work
But as Dr. Byte pointed out above you need to have:

Meta Tag Title: for your product

Meta Tag Keywords: for your product

and

Meta Tag Description: for your product

[DrByte]

It works just fine, as long as you've actually set product-specific metatag keyword and/or description text.

They do work
But as Dr. Byte pointed out above you need to have:

Meta Tag Title: for your product

Meta Tag Keywords: for your product

and

Meta Tag Description: for your product

Clarification: For the title to be affected by the settings, one must enter keywords and/or description.

[Feznizzle]

Clarification: For the title to be affected by the settings, one must enter keywords and/or description.

Oooooooh, I see! (said the blind man)

So what you are saying is that EVEN if you disable Title/Tagline at the overall Product Type Option level and on the specific product's metatag control page... it will still show up unless you manually type in keywords and/or description?

Wow. Ok.

But that is just plain silly. If you turn it off, it should just turn off. Or that is kinda how I feel.

I have thousands of products, but only a few do I bother manually entering keywords/descripts. For the other 90% of them, the automatically generated keywords and descriptions are just fine. Without hacking the code as I did, then 90% of my site would have the annoying title/tagline.

In my opinion, if this is not a glitch then the thinking behind providing the option to turn it off is flawed.

If you turn something off, it should go off.

-----

Quick aside, have you guys actually tried this? Or are you going from memory on how it is supposed to work? I honestly believe this is just a simple bug. The off button just does not work.

[Feznizzle]

In the event somebody finds this forum because they are experiencing the same headache, I want to make a correction to the solution I posted earlier about how I solved this. And I wanted to add a solution to take care of yet another problem I discovered.

++++

HOT DANG! Ok, I figured it out!!!!

Here is the problem clearly stated:
Even though the option is there to turn off the Title/Tagline meta tags, I was unable to stop Title/Tagline from appearing on my product info pages.


Here is my solution (backup the file first!):

1. Open this file - /includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php
2. Find this string of text -
   define('META_TAG_TITLE', str_replace('"','',$review_on . $meta_products_name . $meta_products_price . PRIMARY_SECTION . TITLE . TAGLINE));
3. Delete what I bolded above so it reads like this -
   define('META_TAG_TITLE', str_replace('"','',$review_on . $meta_products_name . $meta_products_price));
4. Save and you are done.

Here is yet another related problem that I was able to solve using the same file:
Instead of using my product page content for the automated description, my site's TITLE was being inserted into the meta tag description and then my Product Name was being repeated, then (*finally*) my product page content.

Here is an example. This is what I started with for META TAG DESRIPTION:
MyCompany Inc Brewer Chrome Goose Neck Exam Lamp-Floor Model, 10-40 watt - Brewer Chrome Series Gooseneck Exam Lamp Durable Chrome Finish12 foot power cord w grounded 3-wire plugSome assembly requiredUL certifiedHeight: 47" - 72"10 to 40-Watt incandescent bulb

This is what I was able to make it become:
Brewer Chrome Series Gooseneck Exam Lamp Durable Chrome Finish12 foot power cord w grounded 3-wire plugSome assembly requiredUL certifiedHeight: 47" - 72"10 to 40-Watt incandescent bulb

Here is how I got rid of the TITLE and the Product Name:

1. Open the same file as above - /includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php
2. Find this string of text -
   define('META_TAG_DESCRIPTION', str_replace('"','',TITLE . ' ' . $meta_products_name . SECONDARY_SECTION . $products_description . ' '));
3. Delete what I bolded above so it reads like this -
   define('META_TAG_DESCRIPTION', str_replace('"','',$products_description . ' '));
4. Save and you are done.

++++
The logic for not allowing the Product Name to repeat itself in the description?

1. This is already in the title.
2. This is already in the key words.
3. Having the Title and Product Name in there makes your Meta Description too long. Recommended length is 200 characters.
4. Usually the first paragraph of my page content (the one above is not the best example) is loaded with targeted words.
5. MOST IMPORTANT: Google (I'm guessing other SE's also) will actually *SHOW* your meta description in their search results if you have done a good enough job of with your meta tagging. *THEREFORE* it just as important to write your meta description for the human eye as it is to load the description with key words.

Hope that helps somebody.

[Feznizzle]

Yet another problem with automated Meta Tag, hoping someone can offer a solution?

The problem is that when my product page opens with like a bullet list of information, ZC does not insert a space between the end of the line and beginning of next.

This results in spelling errors and dilutes the key words. Here is an example:
Brewer Chrome Series Gooseneck Exam Lamp Durable Chrome Finish12 foot power cord w grounded 3-wire plugSome assembly requiredUL certifiedHeight: 47" - 72"10 to 40-Watt incandescent bulb

I'd love to insert a ", " between line breaks so it would read like this:
Brewer Chrome Series Gooseneck Exam Lamp Durable Chrome Finish, 12 foot power cord w grounded 3-wire plug, Some assembly required, UL certifiedHeight: 47" - 72", 10 to 40-Watt incandescent bulb

Any thoughts?

[DrByte]

Feel free to hack up your meta_tags.php module further. Remember: all the changes you make for your unique needs will have to be reworked whenever you upgrade.

[Feznizzle]

I guess that is the good thing about using an OS cart!

But *groan* I am not looking forward to that (upgrading+re-hacking).

One more quick question then I will shut up... I am not a programmer, but the changes I made are ok and will not kick any error codes will they? I mean, you might not agree with what I did philosophically, but *technically speaking* I have not caused any harm?