Sheffield Blue Template Support Thread

Hi, all!

I'm creating a new website, https://www.book-oasis.com, and trying to modify the color palette some. The client loves the Sheffield Blue template, but wants it to be more of a teal color. We think it looks pretty good so far, but can't figure out how to change the color of the white central panel from white to a very pale teal. Please help? Thank you!!

DK_Scully:

Hi, all!

I'm creating a new website, https://www.book-oasis.com, and trying to modify the color palette some. The client loves the Sheffield Blue template, but wants it to be more of a teal color. We think it looks pretty good so far, but can't figure out how to change the color of the white central panel from white to a very pale teal. Please help? Thank you!!

If you will be making css changes to the template I would strongly recommend using firefox or chrome and the web developer tools. They will tell you which line of which file needs to be edited to make changes.

Thanks,

Anne

Anne:

I am using Firefox, but I haven't been able to isolate anything referring to that white center box. It's all about the various script pieces filling it.

Jo

After considerable experimenting, I was able to key in on tiny blank areas around the existing scripts, and find the right places to change. It looks pretty!! http://www.book-oasis.com But after an additional 4 hours of searching last night, I still cannot find where to change the mouseover text color in the dropdown bar from light blue to dark blue. Could someone please tell me the name of the correct file? I'll play with the color codes inside it until I find the right one, I don't need that much spoon-feeding...but knowing the proper place to look would be a real help. Thanks!

I've spent most of the day working on our new site (https://www.book-oasis.com) and have made a lot of progress, but I'm stumped by a couple of things. I just finished searching this forum for answers, but didn't found any. Maybe it's because my eyes are bleeding. LOL

We want to use the header bar to list book categories rather than Quick Links, Shop, etc. Instead, we want headers like Fiction, Non-Fiction, History, Fine Arts, etc. Each of these categories will have subcategories...for Fiction, for example, there will be general fiction, science fiction, light romance, young adult, etc.

I've studied your readme.html file. It says: "If you want to customize the header menu you can change any of the existing text and links in includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/sheffield_blue/headermenu.php" But when I look at headermenu.php, it says "These are used in conjunction with the various <li> tags in templates/YOURTEMPLATE/common/tpl_mega_menu.php" Obviously these two files work hand-in-hand...but how? If I risk making changes to the <?php echo labels, I presume I make changes to the headermenu.php files at the same time? Are there other files that will also need modifying? How will these headers tie together with the book categories we'll be setting up in Catalog - Categories/Products? Or will they; will this idea even work?

The other little niggly thing I'd like to fix is, the Search sidebar has a message inside it that says HEADER_SEARCH_DEFAULT. Where do I go to make that message disappear, so that the box is empty?

I really, really appreciate your help on this!!

DK_Scully:

We want to use the header bar to list book categories rather than Quick Links, Shop, etc. Instead, we want headers like Fiction, Non-Fiction, History, Fine Arts, etc. Each of these categories will have subcategories...for Fiction, for example, there will be general fiction, science fiction, light romance, young adult, etc.

I've studied your readme.html file. It says: "If you want to customize the header menu you can change any of the existing text and links in includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/sheffield_blue/headermenu.php" But when I look at headermenu.php, it says "These are used in conjunction with the various <li> tags in templates/YOURTEMPLATE/common/tpl_mega_menu.php" Obviously these two files work hand-in-hand...but how? If I risk making changes to the <?php echo labels, I presume I make changes to the headermenu.php files at the same time? Are there other files that will also need modifying? How will these headers tie together with the book categories we'll be setting up in Catalog - Categories/Products? Or will they; will this idea even work?

I started adding categories, and see that the primary categories are showing up under the SHOP link. Is it possible to pull them out of SHOP, and have them replace the existing Quick Links, Brands, About Us, etc. headers? Then have the subcategories listed beneath each of them?

DK_Scully:

I've spent most of the day working on our new site (https://www.book-oasis.com) and have made a lot of progress, but I'm stumped by a couple of things. I just finished searching this forum for answers, but didn't found any. Maybe it's because my eyes are bleeding. LOL

We want to use the header bar to list book categories rather than Quick Links, Shop, etc. Instead, we want headers like Fiction, Non-Fiction, History, Fine Arts, etc. Each of these categories will have subcategories...for Fiction, for example, there will be general fiction, science fiction, light romance, young adult, etc.

I've studied your readme.html file. It says: "If you want to customize the header menu you can change any of the existing text and links in includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/sheffield_blue/headermenu.php" But when I look at headermenu.php, it says "These are used in conjunction with the various <li> tags in templates/YOURTEMPLATE/common/tpl_mega_menu.php" Obviously these two files work hand-in-hand...but how? If I risk making changes to the <?php echo labels, I presume I make changes to the headermenu.php files at the same time? Are there other files that will also need modifying? How will these headers tie together with the book categories we'll be setting up in Catalog - Categories/Products? Or will they; will this idea even work?

The other little niggly thing I'd like to fix is, the Search sidebar has a message inside it that says HEADER_SEARCH_DEFAULT. Where do I go to make that message disappear, so that the box is empty?

I really, really appreciate your help on this!!

If you want to show top categories in the header menu you will need to edit the includes/classes/categories_ul_generator.php file. I would recommend taking a look at an older menu module called CSS Horizontal Dropdown Menu With jquery which has an option to show only the top level categories as a guide.

Thanks,

Anne

Anne:

What am I supposed to modify? There are no category names listed. Sorry, but I'm a php moron, and this file is totally new to me. I haven't any clue what I'm supposed to do with it.

Jo

Okay, I followed your advice and downloaded the CSS Horizontal Dropdown Menu With jquery script. It uploaded easily. But now things are even worse. Not only are there buttons that probably looked good with the original template...but not with Sheffield Blue...stretched across the screen, and I don't know how to change them, but also I can't seem to get the headers or categories to come out right.

Instead of the first category showing up as Fiction, it still shows up as Home with Fiction listed beneath it, and some category names that are obviously from the tpl_mega_menu.php file. I don't dare try to remove them...I've already had to reinstall the .bak files way too many times already.

The second category does show up as Non-Fiction, though I'm not sure why it's all-caps instead of the upper/lowercase I entered. Not a big deal as long as it does what I want it to do. But then all the categories I want to use as headers show up beneath that, and they shouldn't...it should only show the Non-Fiction subcategories that I've entered so far.

The third category shows up properly as Science, with more category names from the tpl_mega_menu.php file listed beneath it.

The fourth category shows up properly as Medicine, but has nothing beneath it.

The fifth category shows up as My Account, and the sixth category shows up as Shopping Cart...even though I tried to change those to History and Erotica.

This isn't what I wanted at all, but I don't know how to make it look the way I want; it seems to bounce back and forth between multiple files, and every time I try to change something, I get a blank white page and have to reinstall the .bak file. I've learned a lot about php through installing and maintaining 8 other shopping carts...but I've never worked with this kind of thing before, and I just don't know what to do.

Ideally I want the header to look like this:

Fiction Non-Fiction Fine Arts History Medicine Science Erotica (which will be routed to another site entirely)

with the subcategories I've specified so far (and more to come) listed beneath each of those.

And ideally I'd like to get rid of the brown buttons, and fit these inside the pretty blue (now teal) Sheffield header ribbon.

Can someone please help me with this? :-} I'm trying to learn...I really am...but I'm way over my head, and not ashamed to admit it.

Well, through considerable messing around with it, I've managed to make a few positive changes. I deleted the whole thing and reinstalled it without the brown button overlay, so now it looks better and all the categories fall within the header banner again. The big question is, how do I get rid of entire drop-down categories that I don't want? Since I'm going to have links at the bottom of the page, I see no need to have them duplicated along the top. Ideally I'd like to rename Quick Links to Home and have it just be a static link, followed by Categories, Authors, and part of the Info block (the Log In and Create An Account part). Since there'll be room for it then, I'd also like to move the Search field back into the header bar. Not sure where I lost that one; I've made so many changes that I can't remember where it was.

Please help? Thank you!

DK_Scully:

Well, through considerable messing around with it, I've managed to make a few positive changes. I deleted the whole thing and reinstalled it without the brown button overlay, so now it looks better and all the categories fall within the header banner again. The big question is, how do I get rid of entire drop-down categories that I don't want? Since I'm going to have links at the bottom of the page, I see no need to have them duplicated along the top. Ideally I'd like to rename Quick Links to Home and have it just be a static link, followed by Categories, Authors, and part of the Info block (the Log In and Create An Account part). Since there'll be room for it then, I'd also like to move the Search field back into the header bar. Not sure where I lost that one; I've made so many changes that I can't remember where it was.

Please help? Thank you!

The easiest way would be to just hard code a static menu.

Thanks,

Anne

Anne:

Okay.......how would I do that? I studied the script you suggested, but I'm just barely starting to scratch the surface on php. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially since it obviously involves changing multiple files at once. I don't know which files to change.

Any help you (or anyone else) could offer would be greatly appreciated. It's a gorgeous template, and I really want to be able to use it...every new challenge helps teach me more. :lookaroun

Jo

Hmmm, still no answer. Would it at least be possible to give me a sample of the static code, so I can try to puzzle it out?

DK_Scully:

Hmmm, still no answer. Would it at least be possible to give me a sample of the static code, so I can try to puzzle it out?

If you just want to hard code the menu, it is just an un ordered list. There are many examples on the internet for this. You can also do a view source of the demo for the exact structure.

Thanks,

Anne

Hello Anne,

I am no ZenCart expert, please bear with me.

In following the installtion steps for this gorgeous template, after backing up my database, and since this is a first time installation of any picaflor-azul templates, I copied and pasted the contents of each sql file and hit send. After the first one changing to rows, then the next 3, went to define pages and there is no about us page to define. YIKES!

Did I do something wrong? How can I fix this?

Thanks for your time,
Robert

DK_Scully:

Well, through considerable messing around with it, I've managed to make a few positive changes. I deleted the whole thing and reinstalled it without the brown button overlay, so now it looks better and all the categories fall within the header banner again. The big question is, how do I get rid of entire drop-down categories that I don't want? Since I'm going to have links at the bottom of the page, I see no need to have them duplicated along the top. Ideally I'd like to rename Quick Links to Home and have it just be a static link, followed by Categories, Authors, and part of the Info block (the Log In and Create An Account part). Since there'll be room for it then, I'd also like to move the Search field back into the header bar. Not sure where I lost that one; I've made so many changes that I can't remember where it was.

Please help? Thank you!

Ahhemm.. Scuse me for a quick step in as though the question may (dunno') apply to this forum as well, but I happen to know that the true template in question is the responsive template which is in a different thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?210062-Responsive-Sheffield-Blue

Ok, so after chatting with mc12345678, I understand there are a few fixes to make this template work properly. Like coping define_about_us.php to 2 areas. However, apparently nothing about my present problem which is now, I can't change to the sheffield blue template, although it is listed and it appears as the choosen template (default) I go to set the side boxes and it says it is the basic blue template that I installed last night. (two diff. templates). I go back to set templates and its listed as basic blue not sheffield blue. :(

RAD1964:

Ok, so after chatting with mc12345678, I understand there are a few fixes to make this template work properly. Like coping define_about_us.php to 2 areas. However, apparently nothing about my present problem which is now, I can't change to the sheffield blue template, although it is listed and it appears as the choosen template (default) I go to set the side boxes and it says it is the basic blue template that I installed last night. (two diff. templates). I go back to set templates and its listed as basic blue not sheffield blue. :(

Your problem with installation is not typical. I would recommend following the installation instructions in the readme.html file closely to find out what you have done wrong.

Thanks,

Anne

Thanks Anne, I went back into to the database and found the table zen_template_select and in there were only the two templates basic blue and responsive shffield blue, I deleted the row with the stuck template name and was able to change to the sheffield blue one on the bak-end! Hopefully this can help anyone in a similar situation.

I made it through to the end of the instructions and the site looks good to me, but am having one odd problem. My new product listing which would be a grid of 9 3 across, 3 down, but mine are being sized 4 across so it looks like row 1 =3, row 2=1, row 3 is 3, row 4 is one. My config / tools / Product Listing - Columns Per Row is set at 3. I changed it to one, two and three and 4, but it remains in what seems like the 4 position. A look at the page with Firebug, I see a <br class="clearBoth"> after every 4th product listed under new products tab in center. The css is coded at 31% width still. Yikes!

Site = http://shimmys.net

RAD1964:

Thanks Anne, I went back into to the database and found the table zen_template_select and in there were only the two templates basic blue and responsive shffield blue, I deleted the row with the stuck template name and was able to change to the sheffield blue one on the bak-end! Hopefully this can help anyone in a similar situation.

I made it through to the end of the instructions and the site looks good to me, but am having one odd problem. My new product listing which would be a grid of 9 3 across, 3 down, but mine are being sized 4 across so it looks like row 1 =3, row 2=1, row 3 is 3, row 4 is one. My config / tools / Product Listing - Columns Per Row is set at 3. I changed it to one, two and three and 4, but it remains in what seems like the 4 position. A look at the page with Firebug, I see a <br class="clearBoth"> after every 4th product listed under new products tab in center. The css is coded at 31% width still. Yikes!

Site = http://shimmys.net

I just looked at your site and you have the new products set to 4 across. Check this in admin---configuration--index listing.

Thanks,

Anne