Page titles and meta data mess...

Hi there

I am making some optimisations to a Zen Cart site that has had some customisations added, including a custom template. The main issue I am having is taking control of the page titles and meta data content for each page - I have searched extensively today and found a lot of posts on the use of an override meta_tags.php file but I do not seem to be getting anywhere with this. It's been a while since I used Zen Cart/OS Commerce but I am am a professional web designer and use Magento and Joomla frequently so I am up to speed with variables and how this stuff should work - this has got me stumped because no matter what I try I cannot get it to work properly.

I simply need to be able to define the page title and meta data for the home page, and then have the category and product page titles to follow a preset formula and for the category and product meta data to inherit the content placed in the admin area.

Anyone shed light on this please?

Thanks

Nick

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?104-how-do-i-set-up-metatags-for-my-site-or-per-product-for-search-engines-to-find

Hi Kobra

Thanks for this quote but I have read this and other posts and followed the instructions but nothing seems to work. Here's (exactly) what I want to do:

1. Define Home Page Title and Meta Description
2. Have each category page title inherit the title of the category (as set in admin)
3. Have each product inherit the product name followed by the category name split by a pipe ( | )
4. Be able to define page titles and meta descriptions for the other CMS pages (About Us etc)

As it stands now I have a meta_tags.php file in the correct location that only seems to have an effect on the page title of every page on the site - the admin end data is being completely ignored?

Any idea why this is?

Thanks in advance...

As it stands now I have a meta_tags.php file in the correct location that only seems to have an effect on the page title of every page on the site - the admin end data is being completely ignored?
Are you stating that when you are in the admin that page titles are not what you expect???

If so, only you should be accessing the admin...

kobra:

Are you stating that when you are in the admin that page titles are not what you expect???

If so, only you should be accessing the admin...

What I mean is that in the admin there is both page title and meta description content set at category level and product level (via the meta icon to the right) but on the front end you do not see these values at all when you go to those categories and product pages, just the main site title.

What I would like is to et the content for those pages and it be echoed on the front end when you browse to those pages.

You say you have a custom template, and you are not getting the behaviour you expect. If you have performed all the standard settings and configurations, and are STILL not getting what you expect, then the fault could be down to the template. Many COMMERCIAL templates (TemplateMonster, Algozone) are known to rip the heart out of core functionality, and that is why no experienced zenner will use them, nor recommend them.

If you SWITCH your site back to "classic" template, what happens? (Assuming that the classic template has not been tampered with, or that other CORE files (eg: Module files) have not been wrecked either).)

I'll re-phrase that, I have inherited the development of a site that uses a custom template so it seems like I am picking up the pieces here. Unfortunately as the site is live I can't switch templates easily, though I could do this perhaps at an off peak time.

How many dependancies are there with regards to page titles and meta data? I may have to re-construct what I can to make it work for the client.

Thanks

Nick

No advice can be given until you determine where the problem lies. Now, whether the site is "live" or not is immaterial. Set it to "Down For Maintenance" for an hour or so and do some diagnostics.

A general first step is to revert to CORE behaviour - and as I said, this is usually just by switching to classic in the template selector.

If the behaviour is corrected, then you have narrowed down the issue to files in the CUSTOM template. If the behaviour persists, then you have a big task ahead of you, because that would suggest that someone has changed CORE files (ie: files with no over-ride capacity).

If someone has taken a chainsaw to core code, then there is NOTHING we can help you with until we get sight on that core code. It's like asking a doctor to diagnose a patient without being able to see the patient, examine the patient, touch the patient.... and by asking to doctor to remain outside the patient's room as well.

With some zencart sites comprising nearly a million lines of code, it is not possible to even start speculating as to where the problem lies...

Do the basic diagnostics and come back with the result.

Have you looked at PRODUCT TYPE SETTINGS?

Log into ADMIN

Then under CATALOG menu, choose PRODUCT TYPES

Make sure PRODUCT GENERAL is highlighted in the row of product types on the left,

Then click EDIT LAYOUT.

Under that option, there are some SELECTORS for meta data...

schoolboy:

Have you looked at PRODUCT TYPE SETTINGS?

Log into ADMIN

Then under CATALOG menu, choose PRODUCT TYPES

Make sure PRODUCT GENERAL is highlighted in the row of product types on the left,

Then click EDIT LAYOUT.

Under that option, there are some SELECTORS for meta data...

Hi Schoolboy...

I did that already and everything is activated. I've communicated with the site owner expressing my wish to take site offline and investigate a bit further. I'll probably do a vanilla install of Zen Cart on my server as well to further examine the files and see if I can sort this mess out.

Thanks for your help, I will let you know how I get on.

Can you tell us the NAME of the custom template? (or provide a link to the site)? If you don't want the full URL shown, then just the domain name will do.