Adding Sidebox with a list of all crystals offered

[mooncavecrystals]

I am looking through all of the info I can find, but have yet to find the exact same issue I need help with.

I have over 400 hundred products. My Crystal category has 318. I would like to create a side box that ONLY lists the crystals (not the books or kits or anything else) so that the link will pull up all of the same type of crystal when they click the link in the box.

it is a pretty extensive list, but I find a lot of folks don't want to use the search option and spelling of course is an issue, plus, they may see something in the list they had not even considered purchasing before hand.

This is not my website, but it has a good example of what I am trying to accomplish- Example site

Can anyone offer advice on how I can accomplish this task? I am not a pro at this so step by step would be appreciated. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

[Ajeh]

Do you have a link to your site that we could perhaps peek at?

Got a few ideas but it would help to see your site to build them from ...

[mooncavecrystals]

yes Mam'm my website is MoonCave Crystals

[Ajeh]

Have you thought of using the Manufacturers field as the other site is using the Brand for the Crystals?

You could then do searches on it as well as build additional functionality for how to locate the Products ...

[mooncavecrystals]

Is that a side box? I looked into it briefly but was not sure which one to use. How would i set up all the names?

[mooncavecrystals]

and I did find the manufactures listing under catalog. I was able to put in a crystal and add the url. My problem now is...I can't seem to get a manufactures side box to work with it.......suggestions?

[Ajeh]

First, go to the Catalog ... Manufacturers ... and add each of the Crystals ...

I would add a good image to represent that Crystal ...

Then, when you Add/Edit a Product, you can set a Crystal for each one from the Manufacturers list ...

Next, start by turning on the Manufacturer's sidebox ... add to a bunch of your Products the Manufacturer (Crystal) and then, test it out on your shop ...

Don't worry about being perfect right from the beginning ... you are looking to see what the built in features are such as:

1 Manufacturers sidebox

2 Advanced Search Manufacturers selection

3 Categories Selection then the Manufacturers filter

Once you see how that works, you can customize the language file(s) so that manufacturer is now called either Crystal or Brand ...

[mooncavecrystals]

Hm, ok, I went into categories, manufacture, and set up one for a test. (Abalone)

I then went to layout boxes controller and selected manufacturers.php. I turned it on, selected "right" and put in the number where I wanted it to fall into the column.

I reloaded the page and.......no box. No abalone. No nothing. What did I do wrong?

[Ajeh]

Add some of your Products that belong to Abalone to be set for the Manufacturer Abalone ...

Then try it ...

[mooncavecrystals]

oh i see! awesome! I had not set the product properly. Thank you!!!

so when I set the manufactures in catalog, i set it up as the name I want (abalone as an example) and then I do an advanced search and get the url that shows ALL abalone products and put the URL in the box provided?

then, I go to catalog, go into the Abalone product and make sure it "manufacturer" is selected.

yes?

thanks, I really appreciate your time and patience on my behalf!