8 replies to this topic

[gamesxs]

Hi all, only been 2 years since I was on here, life changes etc!
Anyway, was asked by my sister to make a site for her, no problem I thought, download oscommerce and sorted, how wrong was I!!!!

So in the past have used oscommerce but am not a programmer or a professional website builder, just a bloke who likes to learn!

Got version 2.3.1
Installed it
Thought I would change it!

Wrong.

Searched this forum for answers, love you all but 2.3.1 is hugely different!

You will now have new members completely lost, they will search for the basics and try to find such things as column_left files etc, which don't exist!
Your basic old help forum chats will not now help new people. I thought that I must have forgotten loads so I re-read all the basic question files.
No help for 2.3.1 to start with!

I thought this cant be right, so searched more, Burt solved things but he doesn't know it. (thanks Burt)

When to his site and he spoke about a thing called 960 grid?????

Searched for 960 grid, found it, learnt a bit. Without finding about this I could never, if completely new, had any chance with 2.3.1

Burt thanks. (was going to buy a template from you but because of your teaching on your site, wont need to.)

So, 960 grid..
Start off I would like to say that there is no column left or right files. These are now modules.

2.3.1 has 24 columns ( again search for 960 grid, it will tell you 12 or 16, but you can have 24)
The body content of oscommerce  has 16 columns.( index.php)and is pushed right by 4 columns
The categories boxes have 4 columns.(and are controlled mainly by template top, template bottom, header, footer)
Not completely true but a place to start.


The setup of this is:
The container is how large your site can be, it is 960 pixels wide.

container_24  (all rows must add up to 24 columns), a column is called a grid. Therefore grid_5 means 5 columns.
All numbers below are pixels
there is a margin of 5 pixels either side.  
grid_
1.   30        
2.   70        
3.  110        
4.  150        
5.  190        
6.  230        
7.  270        
8.  310        
9.  350        
10. 390        
11. 430        
12. 470        
13. 510        
14. 550        
15. 590        
16. 630        
17. 670        
18. 710        
19. 750        
20. 790        
21. 830        
22. 870        
23. 910        
24. 950


You can push and pull objects, so left and right, these also have a pixel value:

         push right   pull left
push_then number
or
pull_then number

1.            40         -40
2.            80         -80
3.           120        -120
4.           160        -160
5.           200        -200
6.           240        -240
7.           280        -280
8.           320        -320
9.           360        -360
10.          400        -400
11.          440        -440
12.          480        -480
13.          520        -520
14.          560        -560
15.          600        -600
16.          640        -640
17.          680        -680
18.          720        -720
19.          760        -760
20.          800        -800
21.          840        -840
22.          880        -880
23.          920        -920

More things:

prefix-5 (leave blank 5 columns before object) etc.
suffix_2  (leave blank 2 columns after object) etc.

nested grid units.
alpha  and omega class.

alpha ("first") and omega ("last") classes that must be applied to any grid units that are the
children of other grids.
Obviously, the alpha class will be applied to the first child and the omega class to the last child.
Essentially, these classes provide a margin fix so that you can nest grid units inside of other grid units.

I know that I have not explained this well but I am only now learning it. But I hope it helps.

2.3.1 is different to the version I knew, and I think it needs a different forum.

[gamesxs]

Also, as I can find, to change colours of info boxes, you need to change things in:

catalog/ext/jquery/ui/redmond/jquery-ui-1.8.6.css (some of these are images)

Difficult for new users!!!!!!!!!

[kymation]

Changing the colors should be done by creating a new theme using Themeroller and installing it, not by hacking up the Redmond theme. This needs better documentation, and possible some automation. Hmmm.....

Regards
Jim

[burt]

gamesxs, on 02 December 2010 - 10:24 PM, said:

I thought this cant be right, so searched more, Burt solved things but he doesn't know it. (thanks Burt)

When to his site and he spoke about a thing called 960 grid?????

Searched for 960 grid, found it, learnt a bit. Without finding about this I could never, if completely new, had any chance with 2.3.1

Burt thanks.

Bows    

Quote

(was going to buy a template from you but because of your teaching on your site, wont need to.)

D'oh!  

Quote

2.3.1 is different to the version I knew, and I think it needs a different forum.

GOOD idea!

[Xpajun]

burt, on 03 December 2010 - 10:18 AM, said:

GOOD idea!

Agreed!!

[m4w29c]

Xpajun, on 03 December 2010 - 10:29 AM, said:

Agreed!!

Speaking as one of those newbies, I agree whole heartedly! Having a heck of a time learning the ropes...

That said, the members have been VERY helpful!!!

[tonymatt]

Yep, trying to learn this new design.  The concept seems fine but we need some kind of basic guidance to get started.  What I think may work best is a visual of the grid.  If we could see the grid in some type of image I think anybody who gets started on 2.3.1 will absolutely get s quicker grasp.

[kymation]

You can use the 960 Gridder bookmarklet to overlay a grid on your page.

Regards
Jim

[tonymatt]

I thought the 960 was an osc thing.  Thank you for the help, much appreciated.