Custom Changes and Modifications

[TTMedia]

Hi,

I am trying to get a better understanding of the level of control I have over any modifications I want to make to the functions of the system.

Also, how am I able to upgrade to the latest patches/releases. I would like to pass this information onto my programmer.

Thanks

[AbleMods]

That's about a 60-page answer to your question.

The majority of changes do not require "source code", you simply modify the user controls and page code provided with your purchase of AC7.

If you intend to make changes to the base classes and methods, such as adding fields to tables, that requires purchase of the source code.

I've personally made extensive changes to AC7 and not even come close to having to change the base classes. But your needs may be different.

Unfortunately there is documentation that specifically designates what is/isn't part of a base class. You learn that pretty quickly as you begin to develop modifications and study the AC7 code files.

[TTMedia]

Ok,

Maybe you can help me out with what I am looking to do.. or well, the best way to do it.

I have a site that sells sunglasses and there are several navigational areas.

There is a horizontal navigation along the top and then navigation along the left hand column. The question is, is that my side navigation is actually broken up into 3 main sections. One is the core sunglasses categories (like accessories, displays, top selling etc.) the next section is for Sunglasses Categories (mens, womens, aviator etc.) and last section is a list of brands. How can I setup the backend so that I can easily add/remove a link from each one of these navigation sections.

The only other option I see is to make each of the sections into its own include file and manually add the links to it when I want to make changes.

[AbleMods]

Use the category structure design in AC7.

Look at how my site is set up with the URL in my signature. I easily have over 100 product categories, but there's only 9-10 visible on the main page.

Within a category, visitors drill down into sub categories to find the product they way. AC7 automates all that navigation for me. All I did was create some links to the top-level categories themselves.

In your case, make 3 top-level categories. Then put your sub categories underneath them as you want your products divided.

Then just determine the URL's necessary to those top level categories and put links on your home page however you want. I use a control for my menu but I also just have regular links about halfway down the home page.

[AbleMods]

After re-reading your post, maybe my last suggestion isn't going to be the result you want.

The "shop by brand" is what's hanging me up. You'd have to write a user control that creates links to all the manufacturers currently set up in your site. If you only have a few, then you could hard-code those URL's.

There is a search feature in AC7 that shows all products for a certain manufactuer - I don't know it off the top of my head because I don't navigate that way in my site.

Any product page will show you though - the default page has a link to the manufacturer "Other products by this manufacturer". Check that out.

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello,

If you intend to make changes to the base classes and methods, such as adding fields to tables, that requires purchase of the source code.

One quick note: You should never modify our tables even if you have the source, you'd want to create a new table for the extra data and reference it by ID... e.g. Product_ID.

Even if you had the source you wouldn't normally want to modify our classes or methods, you'd want to copy that code out re-name the class and then call that class down in the pages while still using an un-modified version of the CommerceBuilder.dll so you can easily upgrade and get bug fixes.

[AbleMods]

Very good point.

Bad Joe...Bad Joe!