Short Description for Categories... have a description above & below product listings

LINK: https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=355

Hi Guys!

I'm in the final stages of setting up this new mod. Basically this allows you to SPLIT your category descriptions into two parts. One part comes before any products or subcategories, and another part comes after any products or subcategories. This add on also places a "more info..." link directly after the first description, so your customers can "jump" down to the secondary description.

This add on will be useful for people who have LENGTHY category descriptions, and who don't wish to force their customers to scroll down to find the products or subcategories.

You can see this mod in action here:
http://www.applezen.sagefish.com/ind...=index&cPath=2

If there is NO secondary category description, there will be no "more info..." link. You are also able to adjust the "more info..." text via a language file.

Any interest in this add on? And any feature requests in addition to what you see?

Hello Jade,

That sounds like a cool addition, I would be interested in it. There is a lot of info I would like to add to my categories, but I don't want to overload the customers! I think this is a great way to get round it, brilliant!

Thankfully,

Heathenmagic

This has been added this to the download section!

Short Description for Categories

This is the first mod I've started from scratch (well its a simple one), all on my very own, so be gentle! :P

Hello Jade,

Brilliant contribution, works very well!

Thankyou :lookaroun

WOW, great work Jade. I was just looking for this and could not do it myself. :clap:

Now how about doing the same split for the product detail page? There would be much use for this as well....just in case you have some spare time and don't know what else to do? :D

Interesting. I did something similar myself. I keep getting lcients who, on the individual products page, want a description above the image, and the rest of the description below the price box. (Or some variation thereof.)

A couplr of months ago, I figured out how to add a secondary decription field for just this purpose (using HTML and absolute positioning to move things arouns was a completle PITA)

So, for example, on of my most recent clients wanted:

Title here
City and State where photo was taken here
price/attributes/quantity box | Image of product
more detailed description here

To get the "city/state" stuff to show up directly beneath this tite, we needed to put it in the description box. However, we also needed the main description area, as well - but we couldn't split the two up in the visual layout without adding in HTML, and using the CSS to absolutely position the city/state stuff to sit above the proce box stuff.

So with this new client, I just figured out how to add two (or more) extra description fields to make life easier. I've also been asked to make it a mod, but I don't know how to do that. Do you think it would work well with yours?

There's a short description mod for products already in the download section, I believe.

Jade, great mod. Thank you.

I noticed that if I want to edit a category, it only works with the text editor. When I try to edit with HTMLarea, it just opens as text anyway with no formatting toolbars.

If I choose FCKeditor, only the upper part is working with all the formatting tools but no split page for below the images. Any idea why this is and how we can use at least one of the editors for both parts?

I would love to see this in action to see what it looks like. The link you have the mod showcased on doesn't work anymore, it is a broken link. Does anyone have this working on their site where I can view it?

much appreciated!

simetra:

I would love to see this in action to see what it looks like. The link you have the mod showcased on doesn't work anymore, it is a broken link. Does anyone have this working on their site where I can view it?

much appreciated!

Sorry about that!

http://www.zencart137.jadetrue.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

mydanilo... I'll look into that issue soon!

Jettrue, thank you. Do you or anybody else experience the same or is it just me?

mydanilo:

Jettrue, thank you. Do you or anybody else experience the same or is it just me?

I just tested, and its working fine for me, both with HTMLarea and TinyMCE (I added this one, and like it better). What version of zen cart are you using?

I use 1.3.7.

Do you see the htmlarea tools for both text areas? If I choose htmlarea as editor, it opens both areas in just text mode, no tool bars for editing.

mydanilo:

I use 1.3.7.

Do you see the htmlarea tools for both text areas? If I choose htmlarea as editor, it opens both areas in just text mode, no tool bars for editing.

Yup.

http://www.jadetrue.com/drop/admin-html-area.gif

A great feature would allow the admin to turn off the description for all of the extra pages of products - so the descrip would only show up once - on the first page of products of a given category.

ploogak:

A great feature would allow the admin to turn off the description for all of the extra pages of products - so the descrip would only show up once - on the first page of products of a given category.
That's a good feature suggestion for zen cart in general, but not something really for this mod. :cool:

Hi Jade,

I got it to work with htmlarea but not with fckeditor. I had to change may admin ssl settings. I ran all admin pages in ssl mode an this caused the problem.

Fckeditor is actually deleting the second text if I edit in the first text area and then save. Seems to overwrite with blank. :(

The code is missing the changes required for fckEditor. Look for this:

  if ($_SESSION['html_editor_preference_status']=='FCKEDITOR') {
            $oFCKeditor = new FCKeditor('categories_description[' . $languages[$i]['id']  . ']') ;
            $oFCKeditor->Value = zen_get_category_description($cInfo->categories_id, $languages[$i]['id']);
            $oFCKeditor->Width  = '97%' ;
            $oFCKeditor->Height = '200' ;

// $oFCKeditor->Config['ToolbarLocation'] = 'Out:xToolbar' ;
// $oFCKeditor->Create() ;
$output = $oFCKeditor->CreateHtml() ;
$category_inputs_string .= '<br />' . $output;

You will find the above code twice, once for new categories, and once for existing. Right below this code, add:

            $oFCKeditor2 = new FCKeditor('categories_description_sub[' . $languages[$i]['id']  . ']') ;
            $oFCKeditor2->Value = zen_get_category_description_sub($cInfo->categories_id, $languages[$i]['id']);
            $oFCKeditor->Width  = '97%' ;
            $oFCKeditor->Height = '200' ;

// $oFCKeditor->Config['ToolbarLocation'] = 'Out:xToolbar' ;
// $oFCKeditor->Create() ;
$output = $oFCKeditor2->CreateHtml() ;
$category_sub_inputs_string .= '<br />' . $output;

So, remember to do this is BOTH places and it will work fine. I have a heavily modified categories.php, else, I would update the contribution. Perhaps the owner can do so for the benefit of all.

sfatula:

The code is missing the changes required for fckEditor. Look for this:

  if ($_SESSION['html_editor_preference_status']=='FCKEDITOR') {
            $oFCKeditor = new FCKeditor('categories_description[' . $languages[$i]['id']  . ']') ;
            $oFCKeditor->Value = zen_get_category_description($cInfo->categories_id, $languages[$i]['id']);
            $oFCKeditor->Width  = '97%' ;
            $oFCKeditor->Height = '200' ;

// $oFCKeditor->Config['ToolbarLocation'] = 'Out:xToolbar' ;
// $oFCKeditor->Create() ;
$output = $oFCKeditor->CreateHtml() ;
$category_inputs_string .= '<br />' . $output;

You will find the above code twice, once for new categories, and once for existing. Right below this code, add:

            $oFCKeditor2 = new FCKeditor('categories_description_sub[' . $languages[$i]['id']  . ']') ;
            $oFCKeditor2->Value = zen_get_category_description_sub($cInfo->categories_id, $languages[$i]['id']);
            $oFCKeditor->Width  = '97%' ;
            $oFCKeditor->Height = '200' ;

// $oFCKeditor->Config['ToolbarLocation'] = 'Out:xToolbar' ;
// $oFCKeditor->Create() ;
$output = $oFCKeditor2->CreateHtml() ;
$category_sub_inputs_string .= '<br />' . $output;

So, remember to do this is BOTH places and it will work fine. I have a heavily modified categories.php, else, I would update the contribution. Perhaps the owner can do so for the benefit of all.

Thanks Steve,

Sorry guys that I haven't taken the time to work this out, Steve, thanks for making it easy for me! I'll update the contribution in the next couple of days.

Let's make sure someone else claims it works as well? It appears to be working for me, but, I'd like to see someone else using that editor confirm it.

But I am conservative on these sorts of things.