Headers and Footers

[dc8johnson]

First, I appreciate the effort you and your team have gone through to create a new framework for the future development of the AbleCommerce product. One of the things we've really liked about AbleCommerce since we started using it is the strength of the core product and the flexibility to customize a site to our customer's needs and wishes using standard Microsoft tools. It has been so much easier to customize AbleCommerce than any of the PHP based ecommerce packages we looked at. So my questions today are about your expectations for how our customizations should be implemented in this new version so that we can easily upgrade as you continue to expand the product.

To put these questions into perspective, customers don't always choose what is currently considered best practice when they want to implement a feature. We feel it is our job to explain to them the current best practices and explain any potential pitfalls or limitations if their desired solution takes them in a different direction. If they still want something other than what is considered best practice and we don't think it's an unsafe approach, then we do as they ask. They are the customer and they are in the best position to know their customers. So that means we customize.

The questions. We've just started looking at GOLD to see what it will take to move an existing customer to this new version and we have question about headers and footers and custom controls and layouts.

In the previous versions we could have multiple header and footer scriptlets defined so we could easily use different headers or footer on different pages. In the new layout editor there is just a checkbox for header and footer. Checking or unchecking just turns on or off a line in the layout file. We don't seem to have any options for selecting a different header or footer without manually editing the layout file. If we do manually edit the new layout and then go back to the layout editor to change anything and save it, our layout reverts back to using the ConLib/StoreHeader.ascx or footer.

Also, in the past the convention was to put our custom controls in the ConLib/Custom folder. And any custom controls would show up in the ConLib list for adding to a sidebar, etc. How does the "Available Controls" list get populated? How can we customize while still using the new layout features?

In summary, we understood how our customizations fit into the framework of the previous versions of 7.0.x. How do you expect our customizations to interact with the new core product? It seems that how we customize may need to be done differently now. We don't want to build our customizations in a way that makes it unnecessarily difficult to upgrade to future versions.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Howdy David,

Didn't want you to think we're not watching the forums on 'opening weekend', but I don't have a specific answer to your question as of yet.

I can say that we moved more towards the developer in this release. Where in the past we've tried to walk down the middle of the road and provide both a web based editing system that favored less technical folks, while providing strong clean code when you really start to dig in.

What happened with this approach is that when you started to customize things you ended up making two changes to accomplish one. With this release we've moved a bit more to the direct editing of the files while relying less on making changes via the web interface.

WHY? Most of the stuff that happens at the developer level is done while the store is in it's 'creation' stage and we've worked to make it easier for technical folks to get things done. Once the hand off happens to the store owner there is still all the tools they have come to expect.

While I'm certain I didn't answer your question, I hope to of provided a bit of insight into the direction we took.

[jcw2m]

Please post answers when they are known for dc8johnson's questions above when they are known. My role with Web 2 Market is primarily focused on front end development with adjustments to code behind as needed to support layout and design requirements. Multiple headers and footers amongst other customization requirements. This will likely continue to be important to our clients.

Thanks!
Julie

[Logan Rhodehamel]

I am working on some better support for configuring the header and footer through our layout manager for our next update.

With AC707 and below we used to advertise the custom folder in ConLib as being the place for your custom controls. This seemed to cause a lot of headache - especially with regard to attempts at customizing controls that were referenced by other controls. We decided not to continue recommending this practice. Instead place your new custom controls into the ConLib folder and/or make direct modifications to our default controls when needed.

Available controls gets populated by examining the controls in the ConLib folder (and it's subdirectories). It looks for controls that implement the CommerceBuilder.UI.ISidebarControl interface. If you create new controls, you can do the same and your control will be included into the list. (In our next update, header and footer controls will additionally be supported in this fashion with IHeaderControl and IFooterControl interfaces.)

[dc8johnson]

That's great news on the new IHeaderControl and IFooterControl feature!

It seems like direct modification to your default controls could cause problems with updates. One benefit of putting our customizations of the default controls into the Custom folder meant our controls weren't overwritten by an update. We did have the additional step of comparing any updates with our customized versions so we could pickup bug fixes or enhancements, but that seems like a necessary consequence of our customizations.

So how will updates be dealt with if we modify the default controls?

[jmestep]

I do the upgrades at Web2Market and it always takes a lot longer with conlibs in the custom folder. I can't use the folder compare in BeyondCompare but have to use a one at a time file compare since they are in different locations. I never do upgrades without checking all the files against Able's default code, even if the client says there are no customizations, because there usually are ones he might have forgotten. If a merchant keeps the original files and checks before overwriting, it's not a problem. I realize some merchants might just upgrade their site blindly, but they still could run into a problem with conlibs in the custom folder because if they don't do anything to those and Able changes in one of the conlibs, then pages of their site could break anyway.

[Logan Rhodehamel]

What Judy writes is probably the best practice for upgrading a site with any kind of customization. A good comparison tool like BeyondCompare, Araxis, or WinMerge will show you what files are different between our install set and your local copy. From there you can migrate in updated files and merge any updates we've made in with your customized versions.

Alternatively, you could create your own controls in the ConLib folder - assuming you choose a unique name it isn't likely to be overwritten by future updates. Or, you are free to continue using a Custom folder to house your controls if that has been successful. The new layout system will still recognize the controls and put them in the list. The difference is in Gold there is not a system of automatic override if there are two controls by the same name. It will consider them as two different controls.

[AbleMods]

The new layout system will still recognize the controls and put them in the list.

I didn't see this behavior this weekend. I must have done something wrong.

So you're saying we can still create a /ConLib/Custom/ folder, put our controls in there and the layout system will pick those up and we can choose them from the list?

Is there a standard that developers should be coding into the custom user controls so the layout system picks them up correctly?

[Logan Rhodehamel]

Yes Joe... for your custom controls to be picked up by the system they must implement the ISidebarControl interface. If that isn't in place the system won't recognize them as controls to make available via the UI. It sounds like I'll need to work up a sample of how to make custom controls compatible with the layout editor.

[AbleMods]

t sounds like I'll need to work up a sample of how to make custom controls compatible with the layout editor

That would be most helpful. Or a snippet from an existing control would probably work just as well.

So even if the custom control is for a header or content section, we'll still implement ISidebarControl?

[Logan Rhodehamel]

Our layout editor only supports controls for sidebars in the current release. An update is forthcoming that will add support for header and footer controls as well and for those the interfaces are IHeaderControl and IFooterControl respectively. The MiniBasket control gives an example:

Code: Select all

    public partial class MiniBasket : System.Web.UI.UserControl, ISidebarControl

This assumes CommerceBuilder.UI namespace is included in a using statement (for ISidebarConrol).

[dc8johnson]

Logan,

The new R2 layout editor looks great! Having the ability to change headers and footers is fantastic.

What is the expectation regarding the checkout pages? It looks like they use the layouts in the FIXED folder. Our footer in the checkout should stay the same as the rest of the site, we're still thinking about the header. For now we'll just edit the layout files in the fixed folder directly, but are there plans for making those accessible through the admin?

Thanks,

[Logan Rhodehamel]

I would imagine if there is a lot of interest or positive feedback about the layout editor in general we would want to expand it. But for now there aren't any fixed plans that I'm aware of to enable modification of the basket layout from the admin. You can edit the fixed layouts to suit your particular needs.

[euroluxantiques]

This new layout editor definitely makes more sense to me than the last release.

I would make a suggestion to append the subfolder name (if applicable) to the control name in the Available Controls picker box, for those of us who do use a Custom or other folders. Of course, I could just rename my control, but I do like to keep the name of the control consistent with the default control, if possible. Please post here when the Available Controls has been updated to work with headers and footers. Thanks!