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STS vs BTS


tripp

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I know it's probably a designers preference, but does anyone have a pros/cons list for each of the templating system contributions? (Simple Template, Basic Template, more?)

 

I'm really new to OSC but it looks great so far, I'd just like to make informed decisions when choosing a design direction. Any suggestions are welcome!

 

Thanks!

Chad Arimura

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Just my opinion Chadd, but there really isn't any competition between the two template systems. I only fiddled with both for an hour or so and decided to hard code instead, thus my knowledge of the two isn't vast. Both are good - very good in fact, but each approaches the subject differently. STS allows you to move things around on the page easly whilst BTS tends to modify the existing layout. Both are NOT extemely flexible because OSC isn't designed with easy modification in mind.

 

Why not set up two instances of OSC on your server, be it hosted or at home. Run each template system on different copies of OSC and decide for yourself which is best. As I said, I reverted back to the old system of slogging it out because it gave me more scope.

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You are right. I made so many modifs to the original OSC that the templates have become ambiguous.

 

I use Dreamweaver or Notepad to make the necessary changes. Works better.

--- DontheCat ---

 

Obviously the truth is what's so

Not so obviously, it's also so what.

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That's what I was thinking.... setup two instances and check them both out. It's important that I get a lot of this PHP code separated from the presentation HTML, and I noticed both moving that direction.

 

Thanks for the opinions. Any other comments are appreciated.

 

Chad

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Go into the My Store forums and ask this same question and you'll hear stronger opinions and examples of site done using a template system. I have seen some impressive sites that don't look like the typical osC layout, which is their biggest advantage.

 

Personally, I wasn't able to get it to work and I am running a development version at home and a live version on a remote site, but I couldn't get it to work. I can't remember what the problem was, but in general these template sites are a good idea because you could change you site a little quicker and easier, theoretically.

 

Joey

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That's what I was thinking.... setup two instances and check them both out. It's important that I get a lot of this PHP code separated from the presentation HTML, and I noticed both moving that direction.

 

Having tried both contributions, I think that, based on the statement above, the Simple Template System (STS) suits you better. Install osC, install STS, modify one template file and you are ready to go!

BTS is also very good if you want to customize even more the look of your site, but don't want to play directly with the original files ... personally for a more elaborate (and original) site design I have choosen BTS, even if it's more work to do!

 

But do try them both and make your personal opinion!!

Antonios

 

olympicslogo_en.gif

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Chad,

 

Separating PHP from the HTML isn't going to be easy. What I've done to overcome the problem to a certain extent is wrap the middle frame around the outside frames. This isn't easy to explain (or do) so I've enclosed a working example here. If you remove the overiding background colours frm your CSS, you can even colour this page to suit yourself. I did the same with the infoboxes but lost them last week. I'll do them again, but they do take a long time. Some of the solutions in the wiki help resolve a few infobox problems but not all. I hope you enjoy this example and hopefully it will inspire yourself and others to work with me in humanizing OSC.

 

Header.php

<html>

<div align="center"> 
<table width="760" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10">
     <tr>
          <td align="right" valign="middle" height="60"> 
                <div align="center"> 
                <p>The header goes here<br>
                (This is header.php)</p>
                </div>
          </td>
    </tr>
</table>
</div>	
<table width="760" border="1">
   <tr>
       <td width="135" align="center" valign="middle"> 
           <p align="center">Left side<br>
           infoboxes <br>
           go in here<br>
           <br>
           </p>
       </td>
      <td width="495" align="left" valign="top"> 	 
          <!-- main gunk goes here -->
          <!-- rest of table in footer.php -->

 

Footer.php

 

<!-- Don't remove any table commands here. The rest of the table is in Header.php -->

       </td>
       <td width="145" height="208" align="right" valign="top"> 
           <!-- Right Navigation -->
           <br>
           <br>
           <div align="center"> 
           <p><br>
           Right Side <br>
           infoboxes<br>
           go here</p>
           </div>
        </td>  
   </tr>
</table>

<!-- Start of Footer -->
<table width="760" border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" align="center">
   <tr>
       <td class="notice" align="center" nowrap height="51"> 
           <p>The footer goes here <br>
           (This is footer.php)</p>
       </td>
   </tr>
</table>

 

Index.php

 

<? include("header.php") ?> 
<table width="100%" cellpadding="2" border="0" bgcolor="#CCCCFF">
   <tr>
       <td>Navigation bar goes here</td>
       <td>
           <div align="right">Account info can go here</div>
       </td>
   </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" cellpadding="6">
   <tr>
       <td>
           <p>This is actually index.php (or product.info...) in this area.. 
               Thus, when designing or modifying a page you don't have to worry 
               about millions of tables choking your code like they do in OSC. 
               One table is all you need here but you can have more if you want. 
               To make it all happen, just add:</p>
           <p>include("header.php") to the top of your page then fill 
               it with guff. When you're finished, just add:</p>
           <p>include("footer.php") to the bottom of the page. When 
               you run the script, the header and footer will join up and wrap 
               all this guff in the middle. As you can see, it works perfectly 
               and it cleans up the OSC code. By deleting certain classes that 
               control the background in your CSS, you can even colour your page 
               to suit yourself. </p>
           <p>All you have to do to OSC is carefully remove all the outer table 
               borders on each page, reposition the nav and account bars and 
               it's all done. </p>
           </td>
   </tr>
</table>
<? include("footer.php") ?>

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See my post here.

 

That's what I was thinking.... setup two instances and check them both out.

That is exactly what I ended up doing - 2 basic installs of osCommerce, then on one I installed STS and the other I installed BTS.

 

NB. If you decide to go with either option it is best to incorporate which ever you decide BEFORE doing any other mods.

 

It's important that I get a lot of this PHP code separated from the presentation HTML, and I noticed both moving that direction.

IMHO, I think BTS does this a lot more than STS.

 

For the record I ended up going with BTS, and am really happy I did.

 

Hope that helps!

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