AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

Hello,

We are evaluating ablecommerce for our ecommerce solution. My question surrounds ablecommerce's functionality to allow a non-developer to create a page within ablecommerce and have that page appear in a menu area for pages such as 'shoe sizing', or 'shoe care'. If someone could tell me these steps to take, I'd appreciate it.
- how to create the a page and not have it be a webpage under a category by a non-developer.
- how to hook that page to a menu area - for example the menu area on http://www.thebahamatowelcompany.com/ in the bottom of the page, where Quicklinks appears or on http://www.tobacco-barn.com/Pipes_And_Tobacco.aspx in the navigation where 'Gifts for cigar fans' appears.
- We have gone to Content-Website & Layout, and copied an existing content page, renamed it to Test, but do not see how to hook it into a menu.

Our reasoning for wanting to do this is to allow the store owner, who is not technical, to add a new product line and then be able to add associated content pages for that product line. All comments are much appreciated.

Thank you,
Rhonda

You can add a link under a category by navigating to that category and selecting link in the lower right corner. Then fill in the page that comes up. If you want to add the link somewhere else, like in the header, you would add it in the header scriplet like this, for example. This site has a link in their header for a custom page of new products:
http://www.uptownenterprises.com
<td width="31%" align="center"><a class="arial" href="~/newprods.aspx">New Arrivals</a></td>
They also have webpage made within the Able system that can be edited from the admin
http://www.uptownenterprises.com/Zippo- ... -W7C0.aspx

Hello Judy,

Well, I want to insert some pages on footer like the page http://www.uptownenterprises.com/ you showed us. (they have about us, privacy policy etc) How they did it?

For example, I want an "about us" webpage. I tried to create a webpage and a link and had no luck. I can't make the about us webpage show on AC7 store.

Can you explain how to do this?

Thanks

Hi Judy,

Thank you for the info. I too want to do what the next person is asking. Can't figure that one out. My main concern is that a non-tech user would need to know either ASP.NET or HTML. We'd like to avoid that at all costs while still allowing them to add new pages.

Thank you,
Rhonda

Uptown Enterprises moved over from an Able 5 site and already had some of those pages set up. Here is how your user would do it easily in Able 7- you can vary the procedure. When you are in the admin, you can't put a web page generated there as a first level category, so here is how you would do it if you want to set the pages up, but not have them show under a category. Let's say you have category Info Pages. Then in that category, click to add Webpage on the right.
Fill in the page title and the contents of the page. After it is saved, you will be back in the listing for the Info Pages category. If you want to put a link to that page somewhere else on the site, you can navigate to that page in the browser to get the URL, something like http://www.directpaintball.com/Payment- ... C4230.aspx. After you get that URL, you can make the category hidden (ghost) if you want so that it won't show up in the left menu. Then you can use that URL to put a link somewhere, like in the header or the product description. You don't need to use the whole URL, just the page name. If you want to also display the content under another category- say you have different products that have the same helpful information and you want to show that information under a category. Then you add a link to that category using the Link button on the right in the admin view of that category. If the link doesn't show up on the customer side, some category display pages show links and some don't so you would need to use a different display page or customize the one you are using.
Here is an example in an Able 5 store using the same procedure. He has the Click Here Softener Calculator as a link on several pages and it clicks back to the home page where the calculator is.
http://www.affordablewater.us/Clack-WS1 ... --C89.aspx

He also has an Instructional Manuals category at the bottom of his left menu and all the links on that page are webpages he has set up using a similar procedure in the admin.

Hi Judy,

Thank you, I did understand how webpage works, but i'm still a bit confused about how LINK works and what is its real purpose. Could you give more examples of LINK use?

The link can be used if you have items under a hidden category and you want to put those links somewhere. It works to put in links to external websites. It also works if you want a category of products to show in another place or specific products to show in other places-- you don't have to create copies of them and then have to edit in two places. You just use the link feature.