View Full Version : Should I be learning new code skills?
Hi everyone!
I'm Simon and I'm new to this forum... just introducing myself and saying hello! Hope to 'meet' you all in due course.
I'm a little confused by ShopWindow and would be very grateful for a pointer from some more experienced people...
We're trying to create an online 'classical music' store (http://www.cmukshop.com/) to compliment our Classical Music website (classicalmusic dot org dot uk) but it looks like the client software won't allow enough breaking down of categories and things
(eg i'm trying to create a music instrument store where you can click 'violin', 'piano', 'trumpet', etc etc etc to go to a selection of those instruments)
Please could someone possibly advise..... is this something that can be done by learning to use the API? And if so, what skills need learning? I have done a little bit of html but i'm not a professional IT person ... though willing to learn :)
Thank you all very much in anticipation, and i look forward to being part of your community!
with best wishes
Simon
IntroSites
15-02-08, 12:36
Hi Simon and welcome aboard,
Yep id say API is the way to go for specific items, just download the API files and documentation and read - play - read -play you will soon get the hang of it.
Have Fun
Hi there Simon.
Personally i'd say if you don't know the basics already, you should learn at least the basics of how Smarty works (if you plan on using any of that part of it) and how the ShopWindow scripting works inside out if you plan on using it for the long term.
There's nothing worse than needing to add something or change something and not knowing exactly what your looking at, it is very frustrating, but besides that, not knowing your own site is like being given a speech to read out to a room full of people and not knowing what your reading out, as it's in a foreign language. It's important for your sites security, future development, addons, customisation and all that, but it also helps when it comes to being able to report bugs, ask for new features and the likes.
What i'd also say, is that if your skills are at a basic level right now download and install the full ShopWindow client first and have a good play around with that first until you get used to the way it all works, as it's a lot easier in my opinion than the API. Then advance on to playing round with the API and putting it live on your site as a proper shopping section afterwards. Don't try to run before you can walk with this stuff, it's easy once you get it, but it can be enough to make you walk away from it completely if you get stuck with a major problem and can't get your head round it.
The most fun part of things like this is when the penny drops, when you suddenly start understanding how it all works and it stops looking like some weird unknown foreign language.
Thank you so much guys! I really appreciate your advice.
Simon
A simple way to make SW behave in the way you want, is to get rid of the present category tree. Delete it all and replace it with your own links to the categories you want to show. You'll have to look through the resulting site for links that point to categories you don't want (deleting certain smarty calls as you find them). Also, go through your AffWin account and block all none relevant merchants.
As for learning new coding skils, not sure what you already know but every day is a school day!
for html brush ups, try http://www.htmlgoodies.com
for some natty DHTML try: http://www.dynamicdrive.com
CSS Style can be learnt here: http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
All PHP problems can be worked out by visiting: http://www.php.net
Not sure where to find SMARTY stuff. Tbh, once you know html and php, it becomes pretty self explanitory
After looking at your link above: affilistore is badly coded, laid out, designed and structured. The search system is based on a LIKE query (no relevancy whatsoever), all sent variables are unsanitized (leading to big security holes), the database structure is way too simple and everytime you update product feeds you effectively delete every page of your site and replace it with new pages on new urls. Search engines go NUTS!
Unless your business is already dependant on it, I'd do away completely.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Though I new the basics but need to brush up on that.
Where can we find out in detail about "Smarty"...
The other thing about the API is that it doesn't auto refresh, would also like to see the ability to add more that the widget can take and for it to randomly go through the selected items...
e.g. Widget takes 6 items I select 12 and the display shows any 6 from the 12
John
My websites www.invernessphotographic.co.uk (http://www.invernessphotographic.co.uk) and www.namesakes.me.uk (http://www.namesakes.me.uk)
My attempt at the shop www.namesakes.me.uk/shopwindow/ (http://www.namesakes.me.uk/shopwindow/)
Where can we find out in detail about "Smarty"...
http://www.smarty.net/ The official smarty website.
Although strictly speaking you shouldn't really need to touch smarty to achieve things with ShopWindow, as the code provided by AWs is done specifically in a really simple and easy to use type way and all the smarty stuff is pretty much hardcoded.
By the way, you shouldn't really be putting links to your sites in your posts all the time, that would be seen as spamming, best thing to do is to put them discreetly in your siggy, we are all trying to achieve the same thing and no member on here is ever likely to buy or shop through another members site, that's just the way it is, helping each other is one thing, but we are all still essentially competing against each other for sales. :)