Simple manufacturer list to replace scrolling list - add-on

Ophelia:

I have this installed, however, it is visually only showing 15 characters. I would like it to show at least 30+. How do I do this?

I've installed this tonight with no problem. Looks like an easy plugin. Otherwise, is there any way to extend the max chars? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

donnafoo:

I've installed this tonight with no problem. Looks like an easy plugin. Otherwise, is there any way to extend the max chars? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

/bonk

Yep. Gone to Admin > Config > Max Values > Length of Manufacturer's Name

Thanks for the great mod.

Thanks for the update on how to adjust the Manufacturer's Name for the Manufacturers sidebox ... always a help to others ... :smile:

Once again it's IE causing pain (spelled AAIIIIIEEE!)

Thanks Kuroi a very useful contribution - I'm having trouble getting CSS to apply to the box however...

the edit you provided in the readme did remove the bullets, but I added text-align left and it worked in FF, but IE is keeping it centered.

The text style is also applying a:visited { from the stylesheet

I can't seem to figure out **how to create a class to override **anything else that is trying to apply to it --- I don't understand enough CSS such as <ul> <li> and <a class=>

Thanks for the help

this appears to be due to padding (it is left justified but offset rather than centered).

I can't seem to track down the source of the pad or margin though.

My apologies. I forgot about that old IE habit of adding lots of margin to UL tags. Silly of me, given the number of times I've explained this in the forums. Add the highlighted line to the CSS in the readme and take your text-align:left out.> #manufacturerslistContent ul {

list-style:none;
padding:0;
margin:0;

}and let me know how that goes.

I added a little bit of left padding and now things align nicely and look the same in both FF - IE... just to take up forum space I've included a snip from my stylesheet -- I want to make the text in the box smaller but it is getting ignored and reverting to a:visited from line 29 of the stylesheet
How do we create a class for the <a class level that will supersede other CSS?

I know there is extra code in what I have :blush: but it might give clues to those intrested:

}
#manufacturerslistContent ul {
list-style: none;
list-style-type: none;
font-size: 10px;
background-color: #999966;
margin: 0em;
padding-left: .25em;
}
#manufacturerslistContent ul li{
padding-left: .25em
}
#manufacturerslistContent.sideBoxContent {
font-size:10px;
}
#manufacturerslistHeading {
background-image: url(../images/navbarbackground1.jpg);
}

THANKS

You're heading in the right direction, but with a twist against which i would strongly advise.

I recommend using ems for font sizes and pixels for horizontal widths especially, margins, padding and borders.

Why?

On the font sizes: most in Zen Cart are already expressed in ems and will scale in all browsers if a user who is getting on a bit (like me) and has dodgy eyes (like me) needs to increase the font size using browser settings (it's only a matter of time :wink:). All browsers will do the same for font sizes expressed in pixels too ... except for your favourite browser, Internet Explorer. That will stick resolutely to pixel size given, even when all text around it is expanding nicely.

For horizontal widths: there are some nice sites around that expand nicely as the font size is increased due to well-judged use of ems for all dimensions. The Apple Zen template is a good example. But you really have to know what you're doing otherwise the results can be catastrophic. Here's what goes wrong. In Zen Cart the side columns are usually a fixed width defined in pixels (not always, but usually). If the text size is increased, it needs more space, but if padding is expressed in ems that expands too, leaving the text not more space, but less. The only place it can go is into a very tall, sometimes very thin, often illegible and always unsightly column.

Hope this helps.

oh aged yet wise...

I read somewhere long ago about where/how to set the starting em but it has been lost to me. Reason I went with px is because I was so frustrated changing CSS without really knowing what the starting em was... In lieu of searching maybe I can impose upon you to offer us tutelage yet again. You really have enlightened me (and others I am sure) on CSS -- I can see Zen from here....not there yet...but ever so much closer

Thanks

the box header has become possessed with a link...

the header links to product info pages that seem to be whatever the previously visited product was - but not presenting as the manufacturer's list - just to the product - and then if you keep clicking scrolls through the list (I only have a few test products so all characteristics not known) -

this is an issue because of font decorations visited/links etc -- and navigation confusion...

I tried looking at the tpl_manufacturers_list.php and manufacturers_list.php to see if I could disable any links and I actually saw this:

$title = BOX_HEADING_MANUFACTURERS;
$title_link = false;

any ideas?

THANKS

wasana:

oh aged yet wise...

I read somewhere long ago about where/how to set the starting em but it has been lost to me. Reason I went with px is because I was so frustrated changing CSS without really knowing what the starting em was... In lieu of searching maybe I can impose upon you to offer us tutelage yet again. You really have enlightened me (and others I am sure) on CSS -- I can see Zen from here....not there yet...but ever so much closer

Thanks1em = the current font size. The default font size for browsers is equivalent to 16px. Many sites, Zen Cart included, then reset this in their body tag to 62.5%. that reduces the default font size to 10px and so 1em becomes equal to 10px, 1.2em = 12px etc.

However, if you reset the em for a div, everything inside it will take the new value and if you do it again for something inside the effect will be multiplicative. So for example, if you changed font size to 2em (20px) for a wrapper and then set the font-size for a piece of text inside that wrapper to 1.5em, the resulting text would not reduce to 15px, but increase to 30px.

wasana:

the box header has become possessed with a link...Impossible to diagnose without seeing, but I'd take a look at what you have in your previous box. This sounds like an <a> tag not being closed in an earlier sidebox and carrying on until it find the next </a>, and very unlikely to be anything to do with this mod.

Thanks Kuroi -

nuts and bolts understanding of CSS coming together thanks to you.

I'm not sure what you mean by

an <a> tag not being closed in an earlier sidebox
could one of the other contributed sideboxes be impacting this sidebox? wow. :huh: I will look. Login sidebox had a glitch regarding making links on words that shouldn't have link - which in turn could have been caused by another box... maybe it's going to be a bit of a do over and uninstall some contributions.:no:

Mfg List header link id'd by FireBug (my new best friend) as

<h3 id="manufacturerslistHeading" class="rightBoxHeading"> <a **_moz-rs-heading**="" href="http://localhost/blahblahblah/index.php?main_page=product_info&product_id= numberX&zenid=xxxxxxx...

"_moz-rs-heading" search on google - suggested a few things but nothing definitive. it might be added by Firebug when there is an html error - something about <a> tags round block elements --- another site referred to it as "pseudo-attribute-selector"

I did change the name 'manufacturer' in english.php

define('BOX_HEADING_MANUFACTURERS', 'somethingelse); but not anywhere else and I don't think that is going to affect anything.

it is all just too weird :wacko: but it is sort of a important bothersome issue - the sidebox mfg list is going to be a prominent feature of the site...

Thanks for the support - if I uncover a solution I will post. If anyone recognizes what might be going on I'd appreciate a word or two.

wasana:

I did change the name 'manufacturer' in english.php
but not anywhere else and I don't think that is going to affect anything.Better tell us exactly what that line now says!

Hi - I am pleased to announce that the problem is coming from another contributed sidebox. Once I diagnose whether I did it in edits or it came from them I'll let that forum know.

Thanks for the help - the one sidebox affecting another is something we mere mortals wouldn't have expected...

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to use manufacturers list sidebox but what I would like to have is a list of 10 brands and then another column and another 10 of them next to the first column.
I would like to place it not as a sidebox but as a bigger box on the bottom of the page as shown on that web site: http://www.cherryculture.com/
I don't know php enaugh to do it by myself. Can anyone help to solve that problem? I'm pretty much familiar with the structure of that sidebox and zencart. Thanks a lot in advance.

Could someone direct me to where/how I would change the title "manufacturers" on the manufacturers box?

corelus:

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to use manufacturers list sidebox but what I would like to have is a list of 10 brands and then another column and another 10 of them next to the first column.
I would like to place it not as a sidebox but as a bigger box on the bottom of the page as shown on that web site: http://www.cherryculture.com/
I don't know php enaugh to do it by myself. Can anyone help to solve that problem? I'm pretty much familiar with the structure of that sidebox and zencart. Thanks a lot in advance.Apologies, only just seen your question. This can be done and isn't too difficult, but would require some programming in PHP. I've seen this done on other sites and have added it to my todo list. But if you need it in a hurry and aren't ready to learn some PHP, I'd recommend the commercial help wanted section of this site.

tammyt:

Could someone direct me to where/how I would change the title "manufacturers" on the manufacturers box?Good question. I have added the answer to the wiki for this mod

Kuroi,

I'm trying to attain something similar to my old layout here, but by using this manufacturer list mod. I previously created subcategories for each manufacturer, and that threw in a whole lot of strife in terms of duplicated content and everything else.

Currently I'm at this stage, where you can see the manufacturer list poking out the back of the top of the type column.

The entire left column has been set to display:none and I'm getting the manufacturer box to display in its current form by calling it in my /includes/templates/your_template/templates/tpl_index_categories.php through this code:

* @version $Id: tpl_index_categories.php 4678 2006-10-05 21:02:50Z ajeh $
 */
?>
<div class="centerColumn" id="indexCategories">
<?php if ($cPath == '1' or $cPath == '2') { //show 3 subcat boxes
  require(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/categories.php');
  require(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/your_template/manufacturers_list.php');
} else { //standard output ?>
<?php if ($show_welcome == true) { ?>
<h1 id="indexCategoriesHeading"><?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?></h1>

So, the manufacturer list appears in the main body of the page, but it is without a unique div id, so I can't style it in CSS.

Any recommendations? The code I am using to call the manufacturers list is seen in this post by gjh.

Thanks for any help!