Modifying header/footer/layout for Search, My Account, etc.

[lbjones]

I am attempting to customize an AC Gold store for the first time and running into some issues.

In AC7 you could set theme, layout, content/sidebar/header/footer scriptlets on any page. You can do this in AC Gold, but only for Webpages (Home/Contact Us), Category pages and Product pages. For pages like:
- Search.aspx
- Basket.aspx
- Members/MyAccount.aspx
- All the checkout pages
- etc.

... you are stuck with the default theme, layout, header, footer, etc. What is the recommended way to modify these pages? We can modify the out-of-box header (StoreHeader) but we'd prefer to put modifications in new/renamed files (so if we upgrade our changes are not overridden).

Help!

[mazhar]

have a look at http://help.ablecommerce.com/developers ... rGuide.pdf

[lbjones]

I've been told to look at this and I have already Instructions are on page 46, but these are carry-over from AC7 - this isn't valid for Gold. I told Fred that and he's having your documentation guy look into it.

Any other thoughts? At this point we are just editing the standard files to update those pages, but it would be good to know for future projects.

[kwikstand]

So, how does one modify pages other than Product, Category and webpages? This post is 2-1/2 months old. Doesn't anyone know?

[jguengerich]

I think the lack of other responses means you just have to change the aspx files as L. Jones mentioned.

[Katie]

We have a large number(42) of website aspx pages which are using FIXED layouts (layouts which are under ~/Layous/Fixed/ folder and can not be customized using layout editor). These fixed layouts are similar in structure to non-fixed layouts.

We have discussed converting these static aspx pages to a webpages framework and start using the normal manageable layouts for them. However, this is a high impact change, will take considerable time to implement, automatic upgrades will be problematic, and anyone who has made customizations will have to redo them. For these reasons, we are not moving forward at this time.

In case anyone would like to understand the process of converting the static pages so they work within the administration pages, here are the exact steps to convert a physical page to webpages framework:

1. Create a new ConLib control to hold the page contents and backed code.
2. Copy paste the XHTML code from .aspx page to respective ConLib page control.
3. Copy paste the backed code for .aspx.cs page to respective Conlib page control code file.
4. Compile the code and fix any broken namespace references etc.
5. Create new ConLib sidebar controls if page is using Sidebar or Three column layouts and there are inline contents for sidebars in the aspx page.
6. From store admin side, create a new webpage with the .aspx page URL and use new ConLib control as content. update the page title properly to match existing physical page.
7. Select the proper layout to match the existing page layout, create new layout if needed.
8. Delete the physical .aspx file.
9. Test by browsing to page URL to check if the new page matches the old page in all aspects.

Here are few concerns brought up by the dev team:

Customizing UI
----------------
At the one end, we will enable merchants to easily customize the layout of all store pages, but at the other end we will make it difficult for developers to make customizations to control. They have to understand how our webpages framework work and then have to check from admin side to figure out what ConLib control is being used for what page to make changes. They still have to use Visual studio for any content changes.

Security Issues:
----------------
Most of the checkout and members only aspx pages are under specific folders and are access restricted to only registered users using web.config file under those folders, but if we convert those to webpages framework, we have to figure out an alternate way to force the access restrictions.

Upgrade Issue:
-------------
The customers will face some issues if they have customized the store front pages. They have to port the changes from their old aspx files to respective Conlib page controls.

Now, keep in mind that I posted this information because I wanted you all to be aware of the pros and cons. If you ever want to upgrade your installation, then obviously we can't recommend that you go through the trouble of the conversion. Maybe in the future, (if we get enough requests), this will be something viable to work on. For now, changing the aspx pages directly would be the best option for customization.

[compunerdy]

Modifying files is not good for upgrading later.. On some I am sure we can change the names but it would be better to have a custom folder that the system checks for like in 7.0.7

[compunerdy]

This makes absolutely no sense at all. In order to modify the layout for search, basket, account, etc I have to either modify the layout pages or create custom ones and point basket.aspx etc to look for it. Either way this is going to be a nightmare every time we go to upgrade.

[jmestep]

We just make a new layout page if necessary. I think the admin function for setting layouts is nice for most merchants- it helps them to know what is available and allows them an easy want to change parameters without having to touch physical files. We ran into a lot of cases in the past where merchants botched up their site by changing things in Able 7 via the editor zone at the bottom of the page so this gives them an easier interface. For a more demanding design, at one point or another you are going to have to edit physical files and there is no way Able could have made an interface to handle all that every merchant would want.

[compunerdy]

If you want any changes that cannot be done via CSS then you must modify files and there is no place to put custom files that overwrite the default ones like in AC7. This is a major error in the way things where done and what will cause the most issues during upgrades. Unless I am overlooking something..

[jmestep]

For me, upgrades that have files in the custom folder are a lot harder than ones that have them in the default folder and I've probably done 50+ upgrades. I say this because when I do an upgrade, I don't just overwrite files indiscriminately. I download all the site files then use a file compare program to compare them with Able default files for that version. Then I integrate the customizations into a copy of the new version of Able files. I can compare files quite easily if they are in the same folder and zip thru the compare task quickly. If they are in different folders, like the custom folder, I have to open each file up, find the one that matches, then compare.
Once the upgrade is done, I still have the original site files and Able original files for reference if I need them.