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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    Default Need Help With Mod I'm Writing on one little piece I'm missing...

    Hello All,

    I hope I've posted this to the right forum category. If not, please forgive and the forum admin could put where appropriate...

    I'm writing my own mod because I'm frustrated with other mods that don't either get the job truly done AND/OR there is other features sorely missing for EASY administration.

    But I'm stuck on where to initially put the "Hook" into Zen Cart so the mod will have a proper starting point. What I'm looking for is where I can, at one central point (a particular .php file? or several?), add the code to where it would allow me to add to the URI stream right after "&product_id=" so I can insert and pass the initial data to get the process started for managing options by dependicies, etc. Perhaps there is a "zen_does_this()" function I can use or mod to make it happen?

    In other words, as the cart's initial Home Page (index) is created, each referenced product on the page has a clickable link to go to the Product Info page (and the link always ends with: &product_id=# ). Where do I go to add more to the URI right after the &product_id=# ??

    Any suggestions, hints, tips (or outright solutions, LOL) will be greatly appreciated!

    And if you're curious, here is what my mod will do:

    1. Product Option Dependencies by Attributes (95% Done)
    The heart of the whole mod and something that ZC sorely
    needs (and done right, IMHO).

    2. Product Images by Attributes (60% Done)
    When you change a garment style, the image should change
    with it (say from Tee to Hoodie), don't you think? What
    about designs/artwork printed on light or dark garments?
    Typically there are 2 design versions/images for whether
    printing on a dark or light garment. This is no longer a
    problem as the mod displays the image you want!

    3. Product Stock by Attributes (35% Done)
    Keeps track of Stock on a per product attribute level.

    4. Product Suppliers (& SKU's) by Attributes (35% Done)
    Often garments come from different suppliers depending on
    attributes of style, color, size, etc. When sales occur,
    you either have an inventory of blank stock garments on
    hand (expensive) or you order from suppliers what you need
    to fulfill the sale. Now you can run a report on unfilled
    sales to know exactly what you need to order and from which
    supplier to order it from. Who needs a big inventory now?

    I am handling dependencies from 2 to 4 assigned options to a product and can handle all variations easily and quickly. (Plus, you can Hide or Show all used or unused variations of dependencies. Quite cool, I think.)

    The mod (at this time) ONLY handles the use of PULLDOWN's for option/attribute selections. Primarily because pulldowns are the most efficient way to handle the number of variations AND dealing with limited display area on the Product Info Display page.

    There will be added tools for easily copying data/option sets, image sets, etc. to other products as well. Very handy for those who have garment products such as T-shirts and other types of clothing based on style, color, and sizes. (Pants/Trousers have need of 4 options: Style, Color, Waist Size & Inseam Size)

    The admin backend is nearly complete and functions fully, where you setup all the dependencies, etc. just from reading/pulling options & attribute names/values from the database.

    And because I do have a warped sense of humor and known to be an irreverently funny guy...

    I have named my mod: Garment Attributes With Dependencies And More!

    or... GAWDAM! for short.

    Chris Lemke
    aka: Mega Moonshine

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    UK
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    Default Re: Need Help With Mod I'm Writing on one little piece I'm missing...

    By adding another parameter to the URL you raise the spectre of creating multiple Duplicate Content issues.

    This is where there are a bunch of pages that basically return the same content but with just a change of image and/or small change of wording.

    How does your mod interact with canonicalisation modules to ensure that searchengines combine the rankings for all of the alternative URLs, rather than let them all compete against each other in the SERPs?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    North Las Vegas, NV
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    Default Re: Need Help With Mod I'm Writing on one little piece I'm missing...

    By adding another parameter to the URL you raise the spectre of creating multiple Duplicate Content issues.
    Good point, one I have not yet considered. My first thought to overcome the issue would be to POST vs GET any data pairs to keep it out of sight, off the address bar (so to speak), etc. Don't know if search engines ignore POST data or not...

    How does your mod interact with canonicalisation modules to ensure that searchengines combine the rankings for all of the alternative URLs, rather than let them all compete against each other in the SERPs?
    I am planning to use an SEO product that cleans all of that up and if necessary, to customize it to strip out potential duplicates.

    You have brought up some good points and I will properly address them at the time it becomes an issue. For now, it is a much bigger problem not having a mod that can make Zen Cart work for me the way I want (need) it to...

    I'd rather have a website that works and is easy to maintain than have the best SEO rankings... To a point, I will admit.

    So, any suggestions on where to initially put the "Hook" into Zen Cart that I originally posted about?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
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    Default Re: Need Help With Mod I'm Writing on one little piece I'm missing...

    Links are built using the zen_href_link function. However, this is very core so you mess with it at your peril, and since any changes you make will be unique to your site, there's not a lot of support that anybody else will be able to give you if you create a problem by doing so.

    That's the central place, your alternative would be looking for the places that that function is called in the areas in which you want to make the change.

    Using POST rather than GET would probably be a ton of work as it would require changing every affected link simple links into a form, and since I suspect that many of the links you'd want to change would already in forms, restructuring whole pages to reduce the scope of those forms (where feasible), or changing how those forms work to accept multiple submits, which in turn opens up some frustrating cross-browser differences in how forms are processed.
    Kuroi Web Design and Development | Twitter

    (Questions answered in the forum only - so that any forum member can benefit - not by personal message)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    Default Re: Need Help With Mod I'm Writing on one little piece I'm missing...

    Kuroi, you mentioned several things that I suspected and you confirmed.

    To mess with the zen_href_link function is as you say, perilous and would be very troublesome to many.

    And if I did, I'm thinking that I would still have to go to each .php file that calls it to pass the parms I would want - and if I'm already in the file(s) that call the function, why don't I just make the changes there in the first place? Duh!

    I was/am just looking for a way to touch/modify one file rather than many, but I don't think that will be an option. Looks like I will have to touch several - and to do it right to find all the ones needing to be touched up will require much trial and error...

    Oh well. Thanks for your feedback and input.

    Chris

 

 

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