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Tubby Tabby needs some help.


inetchoices

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Howdy all:

 

I'm absolutely terrified to do this, but ::swallows her pride:: it needs to be done.

 

My site is not finished, but we went live anyway because - well - because I'm disabled and we need the money.

 

I have lots of clickthroughs, lots of browsers, but no buyers. I need some help.

 

I don't know what to do other then to present the products and list the price. After that.. I'm clueless.

 

The goal of our shop is to present gift items that are either collectible or unique and unusal. I think we covered that part. These items are not cheap. Also, all of my vendors drop ship their handmade (or manufactured) wares directly to my customer. I never actually touch the product.

 

Take it easy on me folks. I'm not a web designer, I'm not a programmer, and I need some serious help (detailed instruction highly appreciated) for fixing this site.

 

::gulps::

 

Ok.. the url of my shop is Tubby Tabby? Gifts & Collectibles

 

Ok.. now you can all go tear it apart :-)

 

Have fun, be kind, and above all - please help me fix my shop :-)

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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Some I would do right off the bat:

 

1. Remove the product notifications from the right column. You aren't selling stuff that will update per se so there really is no reason to be notified of anything.

 

2. Move the Information Box to the footer. The primary information on your site is products, etc. The policies, shipping practices and such should be considered secondary.

 

3. Remove the account, basket, and checkout images from your header. Though they are very nice they pull your eye away from the store logo (which is very nice). From what I have seen many different sites have started putting search boxes there -- I would recommend the same for you.

 

4. Remove the categories arrow & number -> (36), doesn't look good ever.

In payment_options page last word should be questions, no quesions.

 

This needs to be re-worded (shipping.php): Most of our specialty vendors ask for 2 - 3 weeks to fulfill your order. Most times, these vendors fill orders in less than the 2 -3 week specified time. (redundant) I think you can get away with just saying that vendors require up to 3 weeks to fulfill your order. Any orders that ship sooner just go to excedding your customer expectations. :D

 

Take a look at the login routines in the tips & tricks section of this forum -- it tightens that up nicely.

 

You have a great start to your site, and I look forward to seeing it when it is finished.

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Dear Matt:

 

Ok, excellent feedback. Thank you!!

 

1. Done (I think) I commented out the product notification in /includes/column_left.php. I hope that was all I needed to do.

 

2. Done. I am going to make some improvements to it now that I know it works :-)

 

3. Done. I wondered about this, but wasn't sure. You were right about it detracting from the logo.

 

4. I don't understand the first part of this suggestion. Where would I remove these category arrows and numbers? I am not sure what this means or where to find it?

 

5. Shipping.php is fixed. Thank you for your sharp eyes :-)

 

6. I've been going over the login routines post for the past week. I've been told be other web devs that "profile" is a bad word. Are there any other words besides "account" or "profile" that get the point across to the customer that "I need your shipping address to server you!" without pushing "Sign up" in their faces? I think people are terrified they are going to get spammed :/

 

Ok.. good first round. Thank you very much for your help and your compliments. (I worked really hard on that logo and I'm no artist ;-)

 

Next??

 

Khim~

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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3. ... From what I have seen many different sites have started putting search boxes there -- I would recommend the same for you.

 

How do I go about putting the search box up in my header.php?

 

I'm not php savvy. I've just been lucky so far.

 

Can you outline the steps I would take to do this little mod?

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Khim~

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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Hi Khim!

 

I love your "Tubby Tabby" as well as the overall theme of the site. You have very interesting products and I'm sure you'll do well. It does need a little "wow" factor and I'm sure it won't take much to get it. Here's a couple ideas that might help...

 

1. Unless it is a requirement or you are receiving compensation, I would remove your webspace providor's link from the footer.

 

2. There is a lot of white. How about changing the overall background to the color of the light tan in your logo while leaving the background inside the boxes white. You would have to change the "categories" and "lets see what we have here" text to black, as well as the links under the category images, so they would show against the new background.

 

3. If you are going to move the search up top anyway, I'd move or eliminate the remaining two boxes on the right side. This will allow you to get ride of the whole right column, freeing up more space for products.

 

4. Spicing up the info boxes could really add some impact. One of my favorite set of info box borders is at Teana's Teas. They are more appealing and the drop shadow effect really sets them off.

 

5. As far as a less provocative term than "profile" or "my account", I too have had that in the back of my head. One site I saw had "Your account" and that seemed a little better. Also, "your shipping info" seems to me to be a bit less scary as customers will realize you need their shipping info and it may ease concerns about getting on spam lists or giving out other personal info. Just a thought.

 

6. Personally, I like the date and number of hits at the bottom of the page but a few people have commented on this on other peoples' sites. Customers know what day it is and don't care how many hits you have. If you choose to remove these, you could move the links that are below that line up to take their place.

 

7. Your site looks equally good in 800x600 and 1024x768. Many people design for one or the other and never check things out in any other resolution. Cudos!

 

8. You might remove the "This product was added to our catalog on..." message from the product info page.

 

I'll try to put together what you need to put the search in the header and remove the "->" and the item count from the category list. If I forget, feel free to pm me. I tend to be rather distractable lately :)

 

 

hth

 

Good luck with your store and have a happy thanksgiving!

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Ok, nothing on tv so I put together what you needed :)

 

1. Remove category counts.

 

Go to "Admin | My Store | Show Category Counts" and set to False

 

2. Remove "->" from after Category names that have sub-categories.

 

Find In ?/include/boxes/categories.php?,

 

if (tep_has_category_subcategories($counter)) {
     $categories_string .= '->';
}

 

Replace with:

 

// if (tep_has_category_subcategories($counter)) {
//       $categories_string .= '->';
//}

 

3. Move Search function to Header.

 

Find in "/includes/header.php":

 

<td valign="middle"><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT) . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'oscommerce.gif', 'osCommerce') . '</a>'; ?></td>

(This is where you display your logo)

 

Add After:

 

<td align="right">
<?php echo tep_draw_form('quick_find', tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADVANCED_SEARCH_RESULT, '', 'NONSSL', false), 'get')
. BOX_SEARCH_TEXT . '<br>' . tep_draw_input_field('keywords', '', 'size="10" maxlength="30" style="width: ' . (BOX_WIDTH-30) . 'px"')
. tep_hide_session_id() . '  ' . tep_image_submit('button_quick_find.gif', BOX_HEADING_SEARCH) . '  '
. '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADVANCED_SEARCH) . '"><b>' . BOX_SEARCH_ADVANCED_SEARCH . '</b></a>'; ?>
</td>

 

The text around the search box is defined in "/includes/languages/english.php" (and any other languages suppoted).

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Hit return too early...

 

The text surrounding the search box is defined in these statements:

 

define('BOX_SEARCH_TEXT', 'Use keywords to find the product you are looking for.');

define('BOX_SEARCH_ADVANCED_SEARCH', 'Advanced Search');

 

 

 

If that isn't what you wanted, let me know and I'll revise it.

 

Good luck and have fun! :)

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Here's a prettier version. Note that text and width are hard coded.

 

          <?php // * Quich Search * // ?>
         <td align="right" valign="middle">
           <?php echo tep_draw_form('quick_find', tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADVANCED_SEARCH_RESULT, '', 'NONSSL', false), 'get'); ?>
             <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
               <tr>
                 <td align="center"></td>
                 <td align="center" class="main">
                   <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
                     <tr>
                       <td align="center" class="main"><?php echo 'Quick Search:'; ?></td>
                       <td align="center"><?php echo tep_draw_input_field('keywords', '', 'size="10" maxlength="30" style="width: 150px"') . tep_hide_session_id(); ?></td>
                       <td align="center"><?php echo tep_image_submit('button_quick_find.gif', BOX_HEADING_SEARCH); ?></td>
                     </tr>
                     <tr>
                       <td></td>
                       <td align="center" class="smallText"><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADVANCED_SEARCH) . '"><b>Advanced Search</b></a>'; ?></td>
                       <td></td>
                     </tr>
                   </table>
                 </td>
               </tr>
             </table>
           </form>
         </td>

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Mike:

 

I have tried and tried to add the modifications to the Search box and I can not get it to go all the way to the right of my header.php.

 

My logo is dead left, but when I try to insert the search box using the above code, it sits just a little to the left of the "My Account | My Basket | Checkout

 

It just looks odd.

 

I am so php/html stupid. I've tried fixing the tables, but to no avail :-(

 

Help?

 

Khim~

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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You should have this line in your header.php to display your three header graphics. Currently, they are being displayed all the way to the right on your page:

 

<td align="right" valign="bottom"><?php //echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_ACCOUNT, '', 'SSL') . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_account.gif', HEADER_TITLE_MY_ACCOUNT) . '</a>  <a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART) . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_cart.gif', HEADER_TITLE_CART_CONTENTS) . '</a>  <a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, '', 'SSL') . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_checkout.gif', HEADER_TITLE_CHECKOUT) . '</a>'; ?>  </td>

[code]

 

If you replace that line with the following code, it should be what you want. Stick that in and if it doesn't work enable view source so I can go look and see what's up.

 

Feel free to email me. I'll leave it running so I don't forget to check it :)

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Sorry, it must be early :)

 

Replace this:

<td align="right" valign="bottom"><?php //echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_ACCOUNT, '', 'SSL') . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_account.gif', HEADER_TITLE_MY_ACCOUNT) . '</a>  <a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART) . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_cart.gif', HEADER_TITLE_CART_CONTENTS) . '</a>  <a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_SHIPPING, '', 'SSL') . '">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'header_checkout.gif', HEADER_TITLE_CHECKOUT) . '</a>'; ?>  </td>

 

with this:

<?php // * Quich Search * // ?>
        <td align="right" valign="middle">
          <?php echo tep_draw_form('quick_find', tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADVANCED_SEARCH_RESULT, '', 'NONSSL', false), 'get'); ?>
            <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
              <tr>
                <td align="center"></td>
                <td align="center" class="main">
                  <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
                    <tr>
                      <td align="center" class="main"><?php echo 'Quick Search:'; ?></td>
                      <td align="center"><?php echo tep_draw_input_field('keywords', '', 'size="10" maxlength="30" style="width: 150px"') . tep_hide_session_id(); ?></td>
                      <td align="center"><?php echo tep_image_submit('button_quick_find.gif', BOX_HEADING_SEARCH); ?></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                      <td></td>
                      <td align="center" class="smallText"><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_ADVANCED_SEARCH) . '"><b>Advanced Search</b></a>'; ?></td>
                      <td></td>
                    </tr>
                  </table>
                </td>
              </tr>
            </table>
          </form>
        </td>

 

and it should work.

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Thank you Mike and Matt for all of your help and the coding you have done to get my search into the header.php.

 

I can't thank you enough.

 

Now I have another problem.

 

My customers are running.

 

They get to the "create_account.php" and they are gone. They abandon their cart and run for the hills.

 

Oh what am I doing wrong??

 

How do people expect me to ship them their purchases if I don't have their info on file?? Is there a way to remove the phone number part?? I have to have a valid email address (can I depend on people to give me one??) in case something goes wrong with their order.

 

What am I not doing right??

 

::cries::

 

Help :(

 

Khim~

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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Hi there, martonz :)

 

I'm using cieto's Featured Products contribution which you can find here.

 

Make sure to read through all of the documentation and be VERY careful entering in the new lines in your files. back up. Back up. Did I mention Back Up all of your files and your Database before adding this or any contrib ? <G>

 

If you have a fresh install of MS2, adding this feature will be a breeze. If not, I wish you the best of luck. I borked it about 12 times before I got it right :-)

 

What it does is that it replaces the "New Products for this month" box (which I didn't like anyway because I add my products by vendor which means that the latest new products might all be chairs :( )

 

Have fun, and I think there is a link to the forum discussion on the Featured Products mod on the contributions page I listed above.

 

Cheers,

 

Khim~

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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:: News Flash::

 

Mike,

 

I got the Shared SSL to work!!!! See... being on a Mac can make ya crippled in the head. We don't get to learn all of those nifty /path/foo rules that you window$ guys do :-)

 

Needless to say, I took a crash course in my Terminal late last night and grew another brain cell!

 

Khim~

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup :-)

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