Using document_general for artist bios - need a bit of help, please

[rtsy]

Hi everyone,

I have built a site for my cooperative gallery using v 1.3.9b, and a pre-built template. I searched the forum for help on the issues I've encountered, but couldn't find any posts pertaining to my problems and hope that perhaps you can help me. I've "bolded" the questions below.

The store section of the site is part of a bigger Gallery site. (www.orcasartworks.com, then click shop online in the center top tab.) Since not all of our artists have work for sale in our online store, I needed a way to showcase each individual artist's work and so I have been using the document_general category to create an Artist's Bio and Information section. As far as loading the category, it works just great. I have restricted the product type to be document_general.

The problems which have come up are: The bios show up when a user clicks on either the 'all products' or the 'new products' categories in the sidebox, as if the bios were regular products. They also come up when a user uses any of the search boxes.

This has become very problematic in customers becoming confused between the bios and the actual product listings. They are then wanting to purchase items which were only to represent an artist's work, not an actual piece available for sale. Is there a way to keep the bios "out" of the product searches and category listings?

The other issue I have is where I have set up a Meet our Artists tab in our sidebox which brings up a page of just the bios. This works just fine. But it is still a bit confusing for the user looking at the column heads across the top which say: Product image, Item name, Artist and Price.

Is there a way to change these heads on ONLY the bios page (the column headings are perfect for the actual product pages) to reflect the more appropriate: Artist'name, Bio, and Photos or Past Work? Or even to just delete the column heads on that page since the individual listings are self-explanatory?

Thank you so much for your time and help in advance. :)

rtsy

[dw08gm]

I think what you have done looks great and works fine.

My only suggestions are:

If the artist bios is relatively short, you could append the bios to the product description.

Or, if the artist bios is large or subject to grow, you could create a page for the artists using the About_Us mod:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=182

[dw08gm]

Or use the Product Extra Fields mod

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1331

Or Short Description Mod

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=271

[stevesh]

I've done something similar, but used the manufacturers field on the Product setup page for each, in my case, author. Using the Manufacturers sidebox (with text renamed) gives you a way to display each artist's works (products) and I 'cloned' the dropdown part of the Manufacturers sidebox and put it into a Blank Sidebox, with links to EZ pages which contain the authors' bios.

[rtsy]

I've done something similar, but used the manufacturers field on the Product setup page for each, in my case, author. Using the Manufacturers sidebox (with text renamed) gives you a way to display each artist's works (products) and I 'cloned' the dropdown part of the Manufacturers sidebox and put it into a Blank Sidebox, with links to EZ pages which contain the authors' bios.

Thanks very much for your suggestions, stevesh.

I am currently using the manufacturers section/sidebox for my artists who have products available in the online store. That's my renamed "Shop by Artist" dropdown. I'm sorry that I'm new to all of this, but are you saying that I could "repurpose" the existing manufacturers sidebox to create links to EZ pages which are separate from the "original" manufacturers (artists with work available in the online store)?

I did look through the help, tutorials and actual EZ page input screen, but am coming up with even more questions. I wasn't able to find an example of anything like I need in the help and forum sections. Would you be willing to allow me to see how you have done this on your site so that I could better tell how this would work for me? If you wouldn't wish others to see your site/link, I could send you my private email for you to send it to, if you are willing for me to look at it.

Thanks again.

rtsy

[rtsy]

Or use the Product Extra Fields mod

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1331

Or Short Description Mod

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=271

Thank you for your suggestions, dw08gm.

But if I understand the mods correctly from their descriptions, these would only "enhance" the existing product inputs, not create a completely separate place for the artists who do not have products currently available in the store. If I were to use any of the mods you suggested, wouldn't I still have the problem of the bios coming up in the searches along with the products?

Thank you for your time,
rtsy

[dw08gm]

Hi rtsy

About_us will allow a whole page dedicated to the artist, with or without products, and can be pre-formatted to include images and links to products.

About_us can be used instead of EZ_pages with Stevesh method.

I am not sure whether search is a major issue though, as customers could still get to the products via product links on the bios page - it might just take an extra click or two if they go this route.

[Ajeh]

You could customize the SELECT statements for all of these places to exclude the Document General product type so that they do not show up on these pages ...

Example: for the All Products, you can customize the file:
/includes/modules/pages/products_all/header_php.php

and change the code to read:

  $products_all_query_raw = "SELECT p.products_type, p.products_id, pd.products_name, p.products_image, p.products_price, p.products_tax_class_id,
                                    p.products_date_added, m.manufacturers_name, p.products_model, p.products_quantity, p.products_weight, p.product_is_call,
                                    p.product_is_always_free_shipping, p.products_qty_box_status,
                                    p.master_categories_id
                             FROM " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p
                             LEFT JOIN " . TABLE_MANUFACTURERS . " m ON (p.manufacturers_id = m.manufacturers_id), " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd
                             WHERE p.products_status = 1
                             AND p.products_id = pd.products_id
                             AND p.products_type != 3
                             AND pd.language_id = :languageID " . $order_by;

Also, you may wish to use the URL on the products where you have the set it for the Artist website ...

NOTE: the one you have set is including the mailto and causing the email to launch ...

NOTE: including the Artists email address as you are doing will result in the spamm bots grabbing the email address so you might want to consider a different method ...