Post your Shop!

[amarath]

Hi All,

Since launching ShopWindow Toolset we have seen some excellent integrations taking place, using both ShopWindow API and Client Software.

To help highlight and acknowledge your hard work, please post your ShopWindow Web URLs here.

Using this thread, we can all reflect on and appreciate your efforts.

Ill start it off, with our integration of Client Software:

http://www.shopwindow.com :D

Thanks

Amo

[IntroSites]

This is my Shop

www.click2compare.co.uk (http://www.click2compare.co.uk)

[madstock]

In addition to the fairly standard integration at http://www.shopwindow.me.am , we have also knocked out a version at http://www.specialoffers.at (this site is integrated with other network XML feeds, but means that if a merchant is on several networks we would go for Awin above any other).

[karsin]

These are mine, www.directboardsports.co.uk and thebuygolf.co.uk, do let me know if there is any error. thx!

[shopper]

Hi all, :)

http://www.a1-shopping-center.co.uk/shop-easy.php



Thanks for looking.

[ushop-online]

Although I posted elsewhere I will include here as well.

http://a1podium.com/shoponline/

Updated now to V2

[Bluesplayer]

Here is our mobile phone shop:

http://www.bluesplayer.co.uk/mobileshopping/category.php?c=348

Though the site is in the process of having a radical face lift so the shop might alter some yet. Though more than likely the edges will just become rounded. We also use the shop for mobile phones and computers with the menu urls at the top loading either into the shop. That way we can link to forum offers for phones and computers etc. Seems like different shops, which they are in a way as they are separate installations.

Working well though :) .

UPDATE

The shopwindow is nearly integrated now and mimics the rest of the site. You can see more or less the final design on the mobile phone store here:

http://www.bluesplayer.co.uk/mobileshopping/category.php?c=348

The designer who is working on my site is Chris: http://cbolson.com/. An amazing and clever designer that puts my own webdesign knowledge to shame! He is looking for extra work so you can contact him above should you require any help.

[sarcasticsheep]

Our shop is Mobile Deals Now: www.mobiledealsnow.com

It provides a range of contract and pay as you go mobile phone deals, from a wide range of online UK retailers

[Francaffi]

Here are 2 of my sites:

http://www.tile-master.co.uk
http://www.youget.co.uk This one still require customizing though.

Any constructive criticism are welcomed. :D

[stormdevil]

Here's my first effort.

Hints, tips, constructive criticism all welcome.

http://www.pricetamer.co.uk

:D :D :D

[Hackbridge]

Although I posted elsewhere I will include here as well.

http://a1podium.com/shoponline/


Nice shop, well done. I like the additional features about formula one, what's happening, where the next F1 race is etc. It's good. Well done.

Brian

[pricera.co.uk]

Hi,

We have lunched limited beta www.pricera.co.uk. You feedback would be appreciated. More to come !!!!

Best Regards,
Daniel D.

Price you have been looking for ..
US: www.pricera.com
UK: www.pricera.co.uk

[Hackbridge]

I have been very excited at the possibility of having my site http://www.choosingalaptop.co.uk provide computer related equipment to the general public.

Having loaded up the site initially, how can I make it specific to what I have intended ? Others have commented about the categories and merchants to whom they have not signed up for, some have opened up new possibities, but what about ones I have no interest ?

Is the integration easier said than done ? I'd appreciate some feedback on my thoughts as I really really want to get this right, as I'm advertising the site in the next couple of weeks and want it to look realy great :D

Kind regards

Brian

[LESMC1]

Here it is. Put a html front to it for better seo

[chartfieldconsultants]

A bit thin at the moment, as it's just ShopWindow, but at the moment it really exists mainly so we can stop running tools and DIY at mybathroomfinder.com (a non-ShopWindow site) and have them here to look after themselves. But there's plenty of room to expand with some 'real' content in the future.

Here it is: www.AllTheToolsYouNeed.com (http://www.allthetoolsyouneed.com)

The photos, incidentally, were a dollar each at istockphoto.com.

All feedback welcome!

[MarkC]

Hi what level of knowledge do you need in order to build a site like that. Or something that looks half decent I would love to have a go but wouldn't know where to start.

[authcode]

Hi what level of knowledge do you need in order to build a site like that. Or something that looks half decent I would love to have a go but wouldn't know where to start.

There's two main options:
1) Install and customise the ShopWindow Client software.
2) Code a site using the ShopWindow API and a server side scripting language.

For option 1 you will need to know how to FTP to get the client software on your web server. There's not much HTML knowledge required when using the client software because most of the HTML is generated using templates. However, you'll have to figure out how SMARTY (the templating software) works and how to use it to customise your pages. If you want to significantly change the contents of your pages you'll have to read the API documentation to understand the requests and responses you'll need to work with.

For option 2 you'll need experience of a server-side scripting language such as PHP. You'll also need to read up on the API and figure out how to make requests and handle responses. If you use parts of the client software you won't need to deal with SOAP directly. Experience of object orientated programming will help greatly though if you decide to code a site from scratch.

Hope this helps.

[Selfhost]

Please check out the new 'Shop' on the National Business & Shopping Directory

http://0044.biz

Cheers, Geoff

[chartfieldconsultants]

Hi what level of knowledge do you need in order to build a site like that. Or something that looks half decent I would love to have a go but wouldn't know where to start.

Hi Mark -

All the technical coding jiggery-pokery is as Authcode says above. I'm generally all at sea when it comes to scripting languages and stuff like that.

In terms of making it pretty, that's what my day job is: web designer specialising in CSS-based layouts and suchlike.

As a rough guide, the first thing you have to be able to do is look at the template structure provided in the basic Shopwindow download and understand how the completed page is constructed and which bits of functionality slot into which bits of page structure. If you can look at the code and think 'a-ha - those lines of code give me my hot picks, if I lift them wholesale from *there* I can move them into a new right-hand column when I've added one' then you're off to a good start.

When I was starting out I used this site to generate CSS-based page layouts (I write my own from scratch now, but I learned some of the basics from dismantling the code generated here).
http://www.inknoise.com/experimental/layoutomatic.php

That'll give you a layout, and hopefully you can move all the Shopwindow bits and pieces around to the parts of the page where you want them. After that, you have to deal with issues of sizing and spacing and general attractiveness. The attached file will give you a start (if you rename it master.css) by resetting a lot of browser defaults and creating a few useful basic styles. Dunno if it conflicts with the generated template from layoutamatic though - haven't checked, sorry. I didn't write it myself, by the way, I found it somewhere online and now can't remember where.

My favourite trick for creating colour scemes is to pick a photo first, then take colours from it for the main site scheme. At AllTheToolsYouNeed.com it's the dark grey of the girl's top, and a shade of brown from her hair. A better example is the not-quite-finished http://www.mybedroomfinder.com/directory.html (home page is currently disconnected).

In most sorts of designs, the CSS background-image property is your best friend. You can use it for a one-off watermark or design in a div, or a photo that's just there for decoration (ie not an important information-giving pic like a product photo). But it's most powerful when set to repeat in one direction or the other. A 1px wide, 50ish px high, image that repeats horizontally at the top of a div is a great way to give it a decorative top such as a gradient. And a 1500px wide, 1px high background image that is centered at the top of your page and repeats vertically down it will let you create what's known as 'faux columns' - coloured columns for your content to sit in.

The best CSS beginners' book I've come across is Simon Collison's Beginning CSS Web Development (www.colly.com). The CSS Zen Garden was an inspiration in terms of discovering what was possible - it's a showcase with lots of designs using the same HTML but different CSS.

Other useful sites:

* A List Apart http://alistapart.com/
* Tutorials on MaxDesign, especially on list-based navigation and the much under-used but ruddy brilliant definition list http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/ and http://css.maxdesign.com.au/
* The Man in Blue, on styling forms http://www.themaninblue.com/writing/perspective/2004/03/24/
* istockphoto.com has loads of brilliant photos for a dollar a pop
* Famfamfam has thousands of little icons to download and use for free http://www.famfamfam.com/
* 'Favicons from pics' - generate a favicon easily http://www.html-kit.com/e/favicon.cgi
* Squidfingers - has lots of stylish and retro backgrounds you can tile across your page. http://www.squidfingers.com/, example backgrounds: http://www.squidfingers.com/patterns/4/

More advanced tricks:

* sIFR - dynamic Flash text replacement. Use regular HTML for your headings, have them transformed on the fly into any font you like whether or not it's on your user's machine. Tricky to set up but seriously impressive when it works. http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/
* Nifty Corners - make your site less boxy to look at by rounding the corners of elements in it http://www.html.it/articoli/niftycube/index.html
* Leightbox - a sort of pop-uppy, lightbox thingy that's search engine friendly and not irritating http://blog.eight.nl/articles/2006/02/21/fire-lightbox

Hope this is useful...

Andy

[Bud]

Won't bother with the link......

90% of the time it looks like this:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

[Jono]

My first move into this area can be followed here:-

http://www.homeandgardenweb.net/

Any guidance, observations, etc.., gratefully received

Jon

[davsalt]

Hello

The Vaudaville Directory is now launched.

Please check out www.vaudaville.com (http://www.vaudaville.com)

Regards

David Shepard

[kalvinparker]

here's my shop, but how do I make mine like everyone elses and customise it?

http://www.tayoo.co.uk

Many thanks in advance ;)

[TrafficProducer]

Compare Bargains (http://www.comparebargains.com/index.html). Discounts and special offers. Compare Prices on Special offers, discounts and bargains. Buy very cheap special great savings links. Bargain and Discounts on presents, gifts for Someone Special or for a Business trying to reduce cost to its customers. Save some of your cash and still get great quality items. Something for everyone. Great RETAIL THERAPY... Bargains Compared cutting costs.

Appears to be slow finding items...

[TrafficProducer]

http://www.pricetamer.co.uk

pricetamer Slow

I would change the first page, so that this at least it loads quicker.


Speed is the same issue I have, when searching ect, at Compare Bargains (http://www.comparebargains.com/index.html)

[TrafficProducer]

Here's my first effort.

Hints, tips, constructive criticism all welcome.

http://www.pricetamer.co.uk

:D :D :D
pricetamer Slow

I would change the first page, so that this at least it loads quicker.


Speed is the same issue I have, when searching etc, at Compare Bargains (http://www.comparebargains.com/index.html)

[Bluesplayer]

I notice on Pricetamer you are showing discount codes. Might like to incorporate a forum for such. I show my forum inside my shop on the first page with all the discount codes and special offers etc scrolling upwards. Not hard to do using an iframe. I use the minibb forum for doing this as it is very fast and easy to handle, though I have bough the anti-spammer add on for it.

(PS. Still working on redesigning my shop - check out the colour changer!)

Regards
Bluesplayer

Edit: Just added a 'Livehelp' graphic display. Amazing and FREE software. Check out my site to see it working or go directly here: http://www.craftysyntax.com/. Visitors can send a message if you are offline or talk directly if you are on. Fantastic software that has incredible features.

[Bud]

I've still got plenty of work to do as I know there are some issues, and more to add, but here's my site:

www.TheOffsetShop.co.uk (http://www.theoffsetshop.co.uk)

HUGE THANKS to IntroSites for the tremendous help with the coding (the bits that don't work are my fault - I'm still tinkering).
As they say, "I couldn't have done it without you".

If anyone has any thoughts or comments they would be most welcome.

Cheers
Bud

[pricera.co.uk]

Hi,

We have lunched limited beta www.pricera.com. You feedback would be appreciated. More to come !!!!

Best Regards,
Daniel D.

the price you have been looking for ..
US: www.pricera.com
UK: www.pricera.co.uk

[Confuscius]

http://www.pricera.co.uk/ComparePrices/Clothing/Womens-Dresses/Dresses_.aspx - is this really using Shop WIndow data? What is the relationship to Price Grabber?

Very puzzled?

[e4eureka]

www.e4eureka.co.uk/GiftStores
www.recipejoint.com/GiftStores

[fuzionit]

www.e4eureka.co.uk/GiftStores
www.recipejoint.com/GiftStores

Hi

Nice sites but there is a problem with the Recipe Joint header graphic. It breaks up into 3 slices at high res. :)

[Ihesson]

Hi here is my shop, using intro_2 template.
http://www.brightbuyer.co.uk


Heres my new comparison site using v2

http://www.checkcompare.co.uk


adapted the default template on this one

[PAdams]

Hi all,

Here's my effort. I'm really struggling with php and Smarty though.

http://www.todaynet.co.uk/stores/uk/index.php

PAdams.

[Mel]

Hi all,

Here's my effort. I'm really struggling with php and Smarty though.

http://www.todaynet.co.uk/stores/uk/index.php

PAdams.

All the category thumbnails are showing as distorted on my screen both in IE and Firefox

The hotpics thumbnails are rendering without problem

Mel

[PAdams]

Hi Mel,

Yes, that is an issue with 'ShopWindow'

I don't yet know how to fix it.

Paul.

[Gawk]

Paul, this is a problem with the template hard coding the image height and width at 90px (should be 70px I think). From memory the file causing the problem is 'product_display_list.tpl', remove any instance of width="90" and height="90" from the image tag.

Hope this helps.

Hi Mel,

Yes, that is an issue with 'ShopWindow'

I don't yet know how to fix it.

Paul.

[t0pguy]

I trial my shop on here !
Thanks to looking.
http://www.masboni.net/store/ (http://www.masboni.net/store/)
I want to buil my webstore in here
http://www.masboni.com/

[Andy]

I think the idea is to show people your finished shop :cool:

[jscommission.com]

Here is my store. There are some changes on it as scripting and design. Works perfect. Will be glade to see your opinions and sugestions. Thanks.
Outdoor shopping Europe (http://jscommission.com/shop/index.php)
The shop is intefrated as part of JS Commission Outdoor store
Outdoor Outlet Store (http://jscommission.com)

[Ihesson]

Actually 3 shops now , new v2 shop added


Brightbuyer price comparison (http://brightbuyer.co.uk)

Find appliances (http://find-appliances.co.uk)

V2 shop

http://www.checkcompare.co.uk (http://checkcompare.co.uk)

[pikers]

Last night I completed my site its www.magicmarketplace.co.uk which is on my own webserver.
I think that I will chance the colour scheme

[tidge65]

Hi All,
Still constructing my shop but would like you to comment on what i have done so far.
www.software2you.co.uk
any pointers would be much appreciated.

[babrees]

Hi All,
Still constructing my shop but would like you to comment on what i have done so far.
www.software2you.co.uk
any pointers would be much appreciated.

Thought I would point out that your main column is displaying below your left hand column

[jeffco]

Here's a faily standard version of shop window.... a nice shade of blue :-)


http://www.newscoop.co.uk

any suggestions?

[tansks]

I just got my shop up at GrandStore (www.grandstore.co.uk).

[IntroSites]

We seem to be posting new shops in the same thread :confused:

V2 Shop Thread (http://www.shopwindowforum.com/showthread.php?t=827)

[ingramh]

not working

[mrpointy]

Hi,

I've just finished my new shop UK Shopping Spree (http://www.ukshoppingspree.com) based on V2 of the Client Software. Would appreciate any comments you have on it :)

Cheers

[PAdams]

Hi again,

Having just discovered V2 I've just done a major overhaul of my site. I have just made my new megastore live today and I'm very pleased with the results.

http://www.todaynet.co.uk/uk_stores.php5

I wasn't struggling so much with V2, perhaps because It is cleaner or maybe I'm just getting used to the code. There are some obvious improvements.

I'd still like to know how to pull out separate 'category' pages. (I can see how to restrict the whole site to a particular category, but it doesn't help).

regards to all

P Adams

Hi All,

Since launching ShopWindow Toolset we have seen some excellent integrations taking place, using both ShopWindow API and Client Software.

To help highlight and acknowledge your hard work, please post your ShopWindow Web URLs here.

Using this thread, we can all reflect on and appreciate your efforts.

Ill start it off, with our integration of Client Software:

http://www.shopwindow.com :D

Thanks

Amo

[Pablo70]

I've tried to change the style completely...there are still a comple of issues but it's getting there.

www.foundit4sport.co.uk (http://www.foundit4sport.co.uk)

Pablo

[xfactorjunction]

Hi,

Our new site is www.compareanyproduct.com . Can you guys give us some review on it. Your help would be much appreciated.

Regards

Abhi