Static Categories

[jinocycle]

Hello again, all!

This is a pretty simple problem that I'm sure I'm over thinking, but I guess I mainly wanted some reassurance.

I have a client that wants to try static category pages -- essentially a link in the Category page that goes to a static page with a PDF Catalog in it. From there you can "quick order" parts to go into a cart.

Just as a test, I made an HTML page that displayed everything well.
Obviously, we want PHP so that I can keep the headers, sideboxes, etc.

I know you can make static pages via EZ-Pages, but is there a way to access them via Sidebox and NOT the header menu?

I'm probably over analyzing thing

Can anyone confirm?

[kobra]

I know you can make static pages via EZ-Pages, but is there a way to access them via Sidebox

Enable the important links sidebox

[dbltoe]

So... Let's see if I've got this.
You'll have a category ('57 Chevy) with a product of Electrical where the customer will find the PDF of all the electrical items. Here's where I'm lost. Is the pdf to be embedded on a page with an included order form? Are you going to use some other method to track these orders as this would be a major change to the current database method?

[jinocycle]

Well, yes. But I guess I'll sort of make a duplicate that only references the pages I want it to...? Like, I want these pages to have their own box. Does that make sense?

[jinocycle]

No, you totally got it wrong lol

There's already a bunch of categories (we have over 150k products), but I'm adding a section with our PDF catalogs because some clients prefer flipping through the catalog. From there, they can order a product using the SKU since all of those products are in the catalog.

I'm not making any changes to the database.

[jinocycle]

Bump

Can I get any confirmation?
Thanks for the help so far, though. :)

[dturnertms]

To get any of the categories in the sidebox to display a custom page or open up a PDF file you might need to make a programming alteration to the file at

yourdomain/zen-cart/includes/templates/template_default/sideboxes/tpl_categories.php

In this code page you can hardwire particular categories to link to specific pages and it is fairly straightforward to do.