MatthewRitchie

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,5245 sts_external_pages_templates is packed and ready for your critissismsss as well as my spelling ;o) what a slog! my fingers are sore. i havent made a straight forward copy over contrib but have expained as much as possible and provided the files etc in respective folders. some files are prefixed with 'updated --- ' so as to not copy over your files but you must must must must must! read the pdf first. not too long at 4/5 pages. my first hack has been a hugely enjoyable one, from first head scratching through butting head against various hardnesses of walls etc to having no fingernails. the idea has finally come to fruit, hope you like it. i will soon add it into a mega-mega-mega bundle but im sure you can play withit yourselves and see what comes off it. spread the love osc'ers Matthew John Ritchie demo: not ready yet www.bluegreentechnologies.com

Hi Rafael I am slightly confused as to why you are going into column_left /right etc to hide boxes etc. there is no need to do this that i can see. your template file is located in: catalog/includes/sts_templates/full(or test)/ and is called: sts_template.html // the main one used for all pages if in default mode or index.php.html // for index if you set this through admin content/product_info.php_XX.html // for individual product pages content layout, XX is a number relating to the product, i dont know how yet. and box templates in the boxes folder. all is explained through the sts help manuals and some more tips can be found under the sts power pack contribution window: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4456/ to remove any box or content just delete from the template the variable name like $content, $breadcrumbs $newpage | $myaccountlogoff | $cartcontents | $checkout $catmenu$categorybox$manufacturerbox$whatsnewbox$specialbox$searchbox$informationbox etc. matt

p.s. update. EVERYTHING IS NOW WORKING FOR THE BUNDLE! BIG SMILES ALL ROUND - 4 weeks of utter confusion but now it works. too tired tonight but will pack it up tomorrow after checking through everything twice. Sigh of relief. good night all matt :D beaming!

Sucess at last, I have sts templates working for files outside of the catalog folder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am attempting to bundle it together with the mega power pack {register globals, sts, htc, dynamenu and stsnewpages} but now have a sticking point on dynamenu working externally. just one character change makes it work but breaks the links to images and href links. give me a shout if your interested in external sts templated pages. and if you want to know why you may want to use this addition, PM me and if requests are good i'll do a write up here. the bundle pack will be along shortly... Matt

Hi all again, question for nate: do you perhaps know if dynamenu uses the cofigure.php variable named: define('DIR_WS_HTTP_CATALOG', '/catalog/' ); because dynamenu flyout only works on a page external to the catalog when this variable is changed to define('DIR_WS_HTTP_CATALOG', '/catalog' ); (missing the forward slash). no matter what i set setdirroot() to or any other config variables, and i have tried many different permutations, this is the only thing that allows flyout to work external to osc. the external file is essentially a copy of catalog/index.php with adaptions made to configure.php (if - else conditional testing which directory the file resides and adapting the defined variables to suit). therefore all the includes and requires /only etc get their info from the osc catalog folder and so on. I hope this to be part of a bundled pack contribution with dynamenu working. bundel = register globals, sts, htc, dynamenu, newpages, and my contrib 'sts templates shared with external pages. many thanks matt

I am wanting to use dynamenu / phplayermenu outside of the catagory directory from where it is normally called. i have the instructions for phplayermenu.pdf but am a little confused about relative and absolute paths for $myrootdir and $mywwwdir and i am using windows development platform instead of linux for which the instructions are written. can you help... with a translation to windows paths. looking for: absolute - i.e i think form c: or from htdocs (apache server). i dont want to use relative because i now know it screws things up if dynamenu is used else where. and am looking to put the new variables in configure.php so they cant be seen. fingerscrossed. matt

I dont think bandwidth will be too much of a problem as I expect to only run a remote lookup once a day and I have plenty of bandwidth to play with (100gb/month), yep i also know it is not unlimited... anyway, just discovered a great technique to add new products to your remote website through your own home development server. Cpanel allows you to add ip addresses or host names who are allowed to acces your mysql server. to get the login details etc goto your remote server's includes/configure.php file and find this... at the bottom. // define('DB_SERVER', 'www.mysite.com' ); // define('DB_SERVER_USERNAME', 'myusername' ); // define('DB_SERVER_PASSWORD', 'mypassword' ); // define('DB_DATABASE', 'mydbname' ); and change the relative 'my_names' etc to what you need to access the remote mysql. easy ;o) this way you can edit everything in your osc site (products, descriptions configuration etc) via your home development environment instead of uploading a new or backed up dbfile.sql. ofcourse this only works for mysql, if suppliers are using msaccess pregreeesqlthingy, or others new unknowen_to_me coding is needed.

I am looking for a way to link to remote database servers and get basic information like stock items and quantities. I guess this is rather simple once you have login details arranged; this happens too when a new products page is opened in the browser but i am wanting to get the figures, descriptions, prices, quantities etc from many different suppliers and manipulate it to fit my site. With approvial ofcourse ;o) matt

brief update... I am now getting very close to linking sts template to external files so that the template can be shared by new files, it will hopefully read the content of previously written files with only minor adjustments/additions to those files. finders crossed, and hopefully not to many more walls will crumble from the incessant headbanging ;o).

in relation to: MEGA STS POWER PACK BUNDEL registerglobals sts4.5.2 htc2.6.3 dynamenu megapwrpac_fixMatthewRitchie13 Jun 2007After much head scratching a fault has been found and here is the fix. problem: i over wrote a file somehow so this is the replacement with the missing code put back where it should be. this file goes / replaces file in: catalog/admin/includes/functions/general.php one file only; please write down the path or keep this page open for reference - no text.txt help instructions. sorry folks, mjr. please see http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4456 for fix file.

Thought I should ask here too, hopefully you might recognise these errors... Fatal error: Call to undefined function tep_get_products_head_title_tag() in /home/*****/public_html/shop/admin/categories.php on line 583 [displays under] Meta Tag Information, Product Title Tag: Im getting the above when in admin and trying to add new products, also: Fatal error: Call to undefined function tep_get_category_htc_title() in /home/*****/public_html/shop/admin/categories.php on line 1016 when editing catagory info. using sts 4.5.2 & htc bundel. home develop comp has the same setup but in add new products under admin, i dont have the normal buttons for update and cancel (same too on remote server). also, after Product Title Tag: is blank, nothing there??? I have included:Files for normal template sts_user_code.php;headertags.php under sts module. any ideas please?

Fatal error: Call to undefined function tep_get_products_head_title_tag() in /home/*****/public_html/shop/admin/categories.php on line 583 [displays under] Meta Tag Information, Product Title Tag: Im getting the above when in admin and trying to add new products, also: Fatal error: Call to undefined function tep_get_category_htc_title() in /home/*****/public_html/shop/admin/categories.php on line 1016 when editing catagory info. using sts 4.5.2 & htc bundel. home develop comp has the same setup but in add new products under admin, i dont have the normal buttons for update and cancel (same too on remote server). also, after Product Title Tag: is blank, nothing there??? I have included:Files for normal template sts_user_code.php;headertags.php under sts module. any ideas please?

this may not work... but worth a try... try copying the admin folder into your catalog directory. ******* before doing the below stuff, backup the files mentioned i.e. make a copy in the same folder will do - this will help backtracking through the below instructions if it doesnt work. ******* also wait a couple of days - you may get a better solution from another member with better knowledge than myself ;o). then you will need to edit admin/includes/configure.php to reflect where admin is now located use the admin tools to open configure.php and find something like this: define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/admin/'); // absolute path required define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', 'C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/admin/'); // absolute pate required and add '/catalog/' in the right places, something like this: define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/catalog/admin/'); // absolute path required define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', 'C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/catalog/admin/'); // absolute pate required if your host is running linux the paths will be slightly different. something like home/yourname/public_html/ fingers crossed p.s. your host has put the admin folder outside of the catalog folder to make it harder for crackers (black hat 'hackers') to find and do damage to your site. It is a usefull adaption!

just had a brain wave: full size: http://www.bluegreentechnologies.com/ws.JPG what i have been attempting to do above is to input additional information about products say in how to or diy worksheets into the osc shop framework. ideally i would like a second dynamenu menu hovering over the top of the breadcrum trail as seen in the picture, but this would not be linked to the products directly as in the catagory listings. the horizontal menu would cover the topic areas but not the porducts. the way i was attempting above was to link to external files and build the osc components arround the content through using the one sts default template for all pages, but the brain wave is to: (1) point to one new page and have it load information like index depending on the 'catagory'/howto topic clicked. (2) the easiest way to do this i can now see is to have this information loaded through a new BOX just like how dynamenu works, that replaces the 'new products for janurary' etc. (3) however as said above, i want the information fed from outside of the catalog directory instead of includes/boxes. the reason being that includes/boxes is embedded in osc and not eassily accessible from root and for sepparation of topics with folders outside of osc. im thinking this is much easier than the route above, any tips on pointing to folders outside of osc via sts & boxes type input would be highly appreciated. I hope repayment though a package download for everyone would be sufficient. matt... cheers folks...

I would like to provide this here for reference: when the sts start capture function is run/called, the content information in a file such as index.php is saved into memory as a string. the content information that is required is found between the "body_text" and "body_text_eof" comment tags. therefore for sts to work, all the information before "body_text" and after "body_text_eof" is stripped away leaving only the information required. the function that does this is called: // STRIP_CONTENT_TAGS(): function sts_strip_content_tags() and is found in includes/functions/sts.php why do i want to know this? - any new page added to osc and used by sts to share a template [say sharing default across the whole site including files outside of osc catalog folder] must have the content start with <!-- body_text //--> and end with <!-- body_eof //--> i will be testing newpages added outside of the osc catalog folder, and files located in other folders steming of off the site root. i expect there to be a way of pointing to these external files and having their content captured in the same way as osc files. because i do not yet have any files outside of osc of any significant value i am attempting to share the one sts template file across many 'donor' files so that later down the line when i have other folders and files i will not need to change each and every individual file or included header when a site style is changed. stylesheet.css is fine for the colours etc (im not expert at css yet) and will still be used. Im not quite sure where this will lead but hopefully it will eventualy have value. thanks matt.

I have put together a collection of contributions under the stspowe pack contrib which include: register globals sts 4.5.2 htc 2.6.3 and dynamenu please see: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4456 easy install with instructions on how i did it so you can add new contribs to it if necessary. i will be extending the package soon. matt

Many Thanks for the tips Bill, You are certaily the god sent guru of sts. I will Get started straight away looking through these links. Much Appreciated matt

------------------------------------------------------- Having looked arround it is my current belief that the file includes/configure.php could be altered to point sts to files outside the catalog directory. on the other hand it may be possible to go into the sts code itself and find where "DIR_FS_CATALOG" is used and substitute it for a hard coded path nested in an if statement: if ( in osc ) { do normal } else { capture info from osc & outside file then build template} ------------------------------------------------------- I'm strugaling - Any ideas would help here, many thanks. matt

http://www.diamondsea.com/sts/sts_faq.html11) How does STS Work? Answer: STS works by selectively capturing the output of the various OSC programs and storing key portions of the output in $template["variablename"] variables. It does this through the STS_START_CAPTURE, STS_STOP_CAPTURE and STS_RESTART_CAPTURE functions. After all the OSC output has been captured, STS reads in the appropriate HTML Template file into memory. It then performs a find-and-replace for each of the $template variables and then sends the updated file to the client's web browser. It also does a little bit of magic trying to detect javascript code and forms so it can layout the code correctly.

can sts be expanded to files and folders outside of the catalog directory so that say a page called 'about us' in http://www.mysite.com/company/people/about_us.php can have the same look and feel? 2. what does sts detect in files when capture() is run to populate the $content in the template page? can this be emulated in other files. I do have sts_new_pages setup but would like to segrigate information not related to selling through a osc shop/catalog into different folders steming from the server/httproot for administration purposes but would like to keep the theme (inc some features) of the shop echo'd throughout the whole site. The idea is to ease the process of changing the layout of the site through the one template file. Matt

WHAT EASY POPULATE DOWNLOAD IS THE MOST RECENT! FULL PACKAGE AND WHERE CAN I GET IT. THE CONTRIBUTION PAGE IS SO CONFUSING AS IT JUMPS FROM VERSION 3.0 BACK TO 2.76 BUT WHICH ONE IS THE BASE PACKAGE THAT WORKS AND WHERE ARE THE SUPPORT THREADS? Your help will be much appreciated.

I have found a free template site and downloaded all of the different templates to play with. free to use as long as you keep the link intact or contribute a template and you can remove the link. http://www.webpagedesign.com.au/ download an example and plugin the sts variables '$catagories' etc where you want them and rename it sts_template.html to have it template every page. ive noticed there is some java script in some for the templates but this can be removed if necessary. matt

finally ive had some sucess!!!!! my first contrib will be: STS_MEGA_POWER_PACK_BUNDLE parts 1 & 2 .zip/s part 2 = modified files only, doccuments and development instructions. this bundels: register globals stsv4.5.2 htc2.6.3 dynamenu i have also included instructions/tutorials of what i have done and the relevant documentation for each of the components. http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4456 topic: http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?sho...p;#entry1078422 matt

Hi dave, sts is easy to do and it makes all the design layout real easy. just download either/or sts on its own http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1524 sts + header tags --- 'STS4 Power Pack' http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4456 they both have full instructions to get going, 10minutes id say. unless you do something like me above! you might also like sts loaded with dynamenu Dynamenu & STSv42 Jan 2007 .m.

Permissions settings for the C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/catalog/includes/header_tags.php file appear to be incorrect. Change to 777 Permissions settings for the C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/catalog/includes/languages/english/header_tags.php file appear to be incorrect. Change to 777 in admin -> header tags i believe to do this on a windows platform you right click - properties - checkbox for read only or leave all boxes unchecked? this is the blurb from somewhere else, cant remember where i copied it from: SETTING PERMISSIONS: 4. Make sure that the permissions on all of the folders are set to 755, and if that does not work then set them to 777. Make sure that the includes/configure.php file and the admin/includes/configure.php file are set to 777 for the duration of the install. Once the install is complete reset to 644, 444, or 400 depending on your server setup. 6. After the install create a folder called 'backups' inside the 'admin' folder (via FTP), and delete the install folder. Reset permissions on the two configure.php files. The easiest way to reset file permissions is to use the File Manager within your Web Hosting Control Panel. How this works exactly differs according to which control panel your hosting company provides e.g. Ensim, cPanel, Plesk etc. Q - at the localhost so how should i reset file permission?? On a local install you just go to the file itself, right-click, select Properties, and tick the Read Only box.