Salesmaker not show under Specials?

If I create a Special the products show on the main page under specials. This is what I expected. However if I create a Salesmaker I do not see those products in the category show up in the specials area. Shouldn't those products show up there? Am I missing a setting or is that how it works?

Thanks in advance.

Mike

That's how it works.

A Special is a Special.

A Sale is a Sale.

SaleMaker items affect the price.

Specials affect price, and are highlighted in the Specials sidebox/centerbox.

So anyway to feature some of the products on sale on the front page like the specials? I do not want to make each product a special when I can select the category in salesmaker.

Thanks for the quick response.

Use the "Featured Products" ?

I would like to add some text or an image on the top of the Specials page that directs customers to items that are on sale via Salemaker. Can someone help me locate which file I would edit and an extra favor would be to tell me where in the file I could add the info. I am horrible when it comes to editing php files. I never know where its safe to add my html and I end up with errors. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

:smile:

craftzombie:

I would like to add some text or an image on the top of the Specials page that directs customers to items that are on sale via Salemaker. Can someone help me locate which file I would edit and an extra favor would be to tell me where in the file I could add the info. I am horrible when it comes to editing php files. I never know where its safe to add my html and I end up with errors. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

:smile:

For anyone who also wants to know.....

I figured this out myself. I made a banner to put at the top of my specials page that says something like "ALL KEYCHAINS ALSO 25% OFF - CLICK HERE". You can insert the image or text into this file:

/includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_specials_default.php

directly underneath <div class="centerColumn" id="specialsListing">

(which is line 12 by the way)

Example:

and save in your override folder:

/includes/templates/YOUROVERRIDEFOLDER/templates/tpl_specials_default.php

Also, I usually enter the width and height in my <img> tags, but not for this one. Instead of having to edit this file whenever I want to take the banner down, I'll just create a 1x1 pixel white image and I'll replace my banner with the 1x1 pixel image in my image folder.

:smile:

DrByte:

That's how it works.

A Special is a Special.
A Sale is a Sale.
SaleMaker items affect the price.
Specials affect price, and are highlighted in the Specials sidebox/centerbox.

I've decided that even if this is - as designed its not as needed. :cry: :cry: Pulls hair out. :blink: :blink: When you rotate sales on 40 products on a monthly basis... I can do a selection of 3 categories in the sale maker... (took 30 seconds) OR manually select 40 different products and set the "sale" or "feature" element for each. (going to estimate a good couple hours or more)...

What is required as part of the sale maker is a flag to set the entire group as a "special" or a "feature" as well.

See it would be okay if you only had 1 product on sale or only did it every few months....

You could make a Category called: Sale

or something similar ...

Then you could use the Multiple Categories Link Manager to copy all of the Products from 1 Category to another as Linked Products ...

Then use the Multiple Categories Link Manager to set all Products in the Sale category to be the Master Category so that the Sale set in SaleMaker now works on these Products ...

After the Sale you can use the Multiple Categories Link Manager to reset the original Category as the Master Categories ID and then use the Multiple Categories Link Manager to unlink these Products from the Sale category ...

To get to the Multiple Categories Link Manager just find a Product and click on C for Copy and the link for Multiple Categories Link Manager ...

NOTE: be sure to backup your database first before using this and until you become familar with how it works ...

I'd just like to add my voice to the "Let's-allow-sales-into-the-specials-display-hallelujah" chorus. :lookaroun

A "Display sale with specials" flag in the sale-maker form would be great. I know this will involve more programming, so when they pass the hat to me, I'll pony up 60 bucks. (If enough of us pledge 50 or 60 USD, perhaps an ambitious Zen-Cart developer will write and post the contribution?) I don't donate for many Zen-cart contribs, but this one would make the difference between a "very good admin" and an "excellent admin."

Plus, my clients are already stretched too thin with the admin learning curve. I can't explain to them why they should set specials for every individual product when they would rather put an entire category on sale and have it displayed on the index, listings, sidebox, etc.

They will, however, pay their web designer a little more for introducing them to a powerful-yet-accessible selling tool. :flex:

Tonight I spent several hours inside the intestines of the SaleMaker, hoping to form a strategy with which to

1. Get sale_date_end and display its value with the product's sale price.
2. Include sale products in the specials listings, e.g. beneath main_page or index.I quickly realized the complexity of SaleMaker would make it nearly impossible to achieve these aims -- and now I'm re-thinking this little project and would appreciate a reality-check.

Why would I tinker with Specials/SaleMaker?

I love SaleMaker's ability to simultaneously apply dated discounts to multiple products. And I love Specials' ability to display discounts beneath main_page, listings, etc -- plus, I've modified Specials to display the end date, which creates the urgency buyers need to seize the moment.

My problem?

I want the best of both worlds: ability to apply dated discounts to just one product or multiple products -- AND display those discounts beneath main_page, listings, etc with end dates.

Rather than muck around in SaleMaker with its many facets, wouldn't I be smarter to build an admin utility that enhances the Specials admin interface? This would let the admin select multiple products (checkboxes?), specify start/end dates, and specify amount-off or percentage discount -- then click the INSERT button, and voila! -- a new row is inserted into SPECIALS for each products_id selected.

Am I off my nut, or would this approach require less agony than trying to get from here to there via SaleMaker?

Hi All,

Just my two cents and my best solution, so far, to the best of both worlds:
http://www.kellyscountrycorner.com/shop/index.php?main_page=specials
This may not be the best, but at least it alerts your customers to other sales in your store.
You will need to alter your modules/includes/pages/specials/main_template_vars.php. I don't know if there is an override for this or not. But if so...use it.

Thanks,
Kelly

Thanks Kelly. I'm puzzled, though: couldn't one achieve the same thing enabling sideboxes/specials.php in Tools / Layout Boxes Controller -- while enabling Special Products display on Main Page via Configuration / Index Listing?

Sean> sleepless:

You will need to alter your modules/includes/pages/specials/main_template_vars.php. I don't know if there is an override for this or not. But if so...use it.

Hi Sean,

I'm not sure what you mean. When a customer clicks on the Specials link they are probably expecting to see all the specials/sales in my store. Unfortunately they only see individual items that I have placed on Special not other items that are currently on sale in my store. I have quite a few items discounted and unless the customer clicks on that category they won't know. So...by adding the box with the alert/notice they will see not only the individual specials but my sales as well.
As far as the sidebox, that will also only show the individual items.

Thanks,
Kelly

Does your "specials" page index both salemaker products and specials products? If so, I didn't get it prior to reading your reply -- I'm not fully awake yet. :sleepy:

Regarding sideboxes/specials.php, isn't it possible to enable Single Column status (instead of Left/Right Column) to show more than one at a time?

I still think the way to go is enhance Admin/Catalog/Specials so one can assign a special to entire categories or subcategories simultaneously. Doing this would make Salemaker obsolete, streamlining the core Zen-Cart admin.

Now if I only had the means to modify Admin/Catalog/Specials. :(

Sean> sleepless:

Hi Sean,

I'm not sure what you mean. When a customer clicks on the Specials link they are probably expecting to see all the specials/sales in my store. Unfortunately they only see individual items that I have placed on Special not other items that are currently on sale in my store. I have quite a few items discounted and unless the customer clicks on that category they won't know. So...by adding the box with the alert/notice they will see not only the individual specials but my sales as well.
As far as the sidebox, that will also only show the individual items.

Thanks,
Kelly

tvadpro:

Now if I only had the means to modify Admin/Catalog/Specials. :(

My problem with this is that I'm using the normal price & 'Specials' price to display 'Recommended Retail' and 'Our price' (addons to this effect haven't been working for me :frusty: ) and need the sale maker functionality as it functions, but to display on the main page. I'll have to do some fancy footwork to get this to work...hehehe

Has anyone managed to do this? I use specials for all my discounted products (or wishing to do so) so when there is sale season everything is automatically aligned under specials.. But the sale maker is not making to the cut...

Anyone successful?

I found a quick work around. I just changed the wording on the "specials" page to read " Specials for the Month". Then I just set my specials to go for that month only. I edited the /public_html/includes/languages/english.php file, in the NavBar_title.

This is really something that should be built into Zen Cart. To a customer, a special and a sale product are the exactly the same thing. They should both show under the specials page or in the specials centerbox. There needs to be a central place where you can show ALL sales and ALL specials on a single page.

Yes it would be helpful ... I have been working on something like this ... not a lot of fun ... :blink: