How do I put more than one product in a What's New sidebox?

[mattkevan]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help-

I want to put six random what's new products - image only, no description - in a custom whats_new sidebox that is displayed on an external page (using DrByte's single_sidebox method).

The page is http://www.theillustrationgallery.com/index2.php

Is it possible to do this? If so, how? It's driving me mad.

I've already tried the method mentioned in
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...oducts+sidebox
but I couldn't get it to work.

Also, is it possible to make a sidebox which displays the image and title of a specific product category? See the current exhibition and previous exhibition boxes on my index page – I want to turn them into sideboxes which automatically display the right content.

Thanks for your help!

[Ajeh]

Funny you should ask that ...

The other day someone was wondering how to do something like this ... and DrByte and I got a little over zelous and wondered how hard would it be to make the sideboxes for:
What's New
Featured
Specials
Reviews

Able to display 1 or more random products and not repeat the product within the same sidebox and not be slow ...

Then ... in a moment of Zen Cart brillance ... the multiple random sideboxes were born!!!


And ... just for you ... it will be in the upcoming release of Zen Cart v1.3.8 ...

No ... no ... please ... no applause is needed ... just send money ...

[mattkevan]

Hey Ajeh, thanks for your reply.

That sounds perfect! When will it be released? Can't wait...

Having said that, I haven't got round to upgrading to 1.3.7 yet (whoops).

Cheers,
Matt

[Ajeh]

You work on the upgrade to v1.3.7 and we will work on the v1.3.8 release and see who wins ...

[Florin]

Ajeh, when v1.3.8 is released, is the upgrade from v1.3.7 done smoothly? I mean, I added many features and done changes to many .php files, that it would be hard to lose them and look again for them ... Can it be a sort of add these files to /includes/languages/etc. etc.?

[Ajeh]

Templates and override files do not get overwritten when used correctly ... that is the point of your personal overrides directory ...

As to changes needed for them, get something like Beyond Compare from scootersoftware.com

This let's you compare a clean old zencart to a clean new zencart to see differences ... this will show you full differences between 2 versions ...

You can also compare clean new zencart to your override files to see the differences, if any, more readily that might affect your files ...

If you never touched a file, and never made an override for it, then the files just will work on their own without any changes on your part ...

The upgrade of the database is managed by the /zc_install on the Upgrade Database ...

It is a good idea to upgrade a test directory and copy of your database first to see if you will run into any issues that might require tweaking to the files ...

Backing up both your site and database prior to any kind of upgrade is important ...

[jimi089]

Is there any way to do this in 1.3.7 without waiting for the upgrade? This seems like it should be a simple feature.

[Ajeh]

sure ... rewrite the code until we get the v1.3.8 out ...

[jimi089]

So no helpful hints on the code?

[Ajeh]

It is re-written for too many things to even begin translating ... so nope ...