A Happy User - But here's a Wishlist of features or workarounds I'd like

First, thanks for a great application - it really streamlines my processes - Well done Sam.

Now here's a few things that I wish for that would make the application even better

1. I need to be able to create links in a few other sites to specific pages in my own site... to do this I have decided to make my site non-framed, otherwise any pages I link to do not appear within the frameset - there seems to be no way to force an individual product page to appear within the frameset - unless someone can point me to a clever bit of javascript to include in all product/support pages...

The problem I have with the non-framed site layout however is that the page width is not set to 100%, e.g Framed sites stretch out to the resolution of the user - non-framed sites do not, which IMHO makes the site look not quite as polished

2. Also related to the above, when publishing to non-framed sites all my ad pages title meta tags are set to the same as the homepage... e.g. XYZ Inc Homepage. When I look at the source of framed ad pages the title tags are set to the category details for the page. It would be great if the non-framed pages could do the same - so I don't have to manually code them after publishing...

3. On the homepage with ads, or ad pages with short description it would be great if the long descriptions could be accessible, e.g. a link next to the add to bring up the more specs etc. This would mean I could fit more ads on a page without needing a huge long scroll - a lot of my products have a LOT of specs and features.... which users would want to see before buying, but probably more helpful as an option to make the initial search easier for the what looks like the right product.

4. I'd love to have another price field available to encourage users to pay direct (in New Zealand direct payment between banks via 'Virtual Cheques' are very popular to bypass payment methods like Paypal/VISA which add about 2-5% costs.

5. An import tool that can map fields to the product database listings from my suppliers would be really cool... e.g I download my suppliers latest prices in csv format, and run a process in XLecom.xls to import products I want to list... how cool would that be?

If any of these issues have a work around or can be added to a future features list - I'd be even happier with XLecom, keep up the great work!

David Scott
My site so far... http://www.freewebs.com/itexweb (free web host!)
aka http://itex.does.it/ (free url redirection!)

As you can see, everything I do is on a shoestring, XLecom helps with that! :)

RE Point 1

Hi again Sam thanks for your reply so far

regarding clarifying point 1

What I mean is that if using framed sites there is not way to provide other people (or other websites) with a link directly to a product page - and have that product page appear within the correct frameset... In other words I can email people a product page but it will not show the header frame or the left hand frame. I'm thinking there may be a javascript way to force the product page back into the frameset... but not sure

For that reason I'm using the non-framed version, but have the problem of the site not being set to fill the screen resolution width... note, 70% of my site users have resolutions greater than 800x600 according to the livestats I have on it.

RE: Linking to a Framed Page and Fixed Width Non-Framed Websites

Linking to a Framed Page

If you want to distribute a link to a body page within a framed site, then you need to add a link statement to the top of the body pages that will give your site visitors an option to view the entire framed website.

See the following example: http://xlecom.com/demos/demo-m/html/page_019.html

For more information on this topic, see the following page:

Dealing with Framed Body Pages and Search Engines

Regarding Fixed Width Non-Framed Websites:

At this time, all releases of XLEcom up to version 4.4 use a fixed width for non-framed websites. This was due to the following two reasons. (1) Setting up your website so that it could fit width-wise on 8.5 x 11.5 inch standard paper for printouts, and (2), the use of low resolution displays.

I have been working on a new version of the program which will be released as version 5.0.

With this new version, one can now create non-framed full screen (browser wrapping) websites. These sites can also include an optional right side area. Take a look at a sample 5.0 beta site here:

XLEcom Version 5.0

Notice that the Product pages also use the new main category / sub category file name convention as in main_category_sub_category.html.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

RE: Wishlist of features or workarounds

Suggestions and Possible Workarounds

1. I need to be able to create links in a few other sites to specific pages in my own site... to do this I have decided to make my site non-framed, otherwise any pages I link to do not appear within the frameset - there seems to be no way to force an individual product page to appear within the frameset - unless someone can point me to a clever bit of JavaScript to include in all product/support pages...

    You need to explain this better. Links on your site or links on another site?

The problem I have with the non-framed site layout however is that the page width is not set to 100%, e.g Framed sites stretch out to the resolution of the user - non-framed sites do not, which IMHO makes the site look not quite as polished.

    I will take a look into this issue.

2. Also related to the above, when publishing to non-framed sites all my ad pages title meta tags are set to the same as the homepage... e.g. XYZ Inc Homepage. When I look at the source of framed ad pages the title tags are set to the category details for the page. It would be great if the non-framed pages could do the same - so I don't have to manually code them after publishing...

3. On the homepage with ads, or ad pages with short description it would be great if the long descriptions could be accessible, e.g. a link next to the add to bring up the more specs etc. This would mean I could fit more ads on a page without needing a huge long scroll - a lot of my products have a LOT of specs and features.... which users would want to see before buying, but probably more helpful as an option to make the initial search easier for the what looks like the right product.

    If you want to publish a short description website but still have the "longer" item descriptions to be displayed when a customer needs the information then you can use the following method with XLEcom.

    Method 1:
    Place the "longer" item descriptions in a separate HTML file and use "Stock Note" Hyper link feature (Stock Note Behavior) to bring up the longer" item description/ specs in a popup window.

    If you want to have the "longer" item descriptions to be displayed on the "Home page with ads" but initially have them hidden, then use the following method with XLEcom.

    Method 2: Expandable / Collapsible Item Descriptions

    Example: Expandable / Collapsible Home Page with Ads

    Use the following Expandable / Collapsible JavaScript for just the ads that will appear on the Home page with ads.

    Step 1: Activate the Additional Code sheet and place the following four lines of JavaScript code into the cells within the "Additional HTML or Scripting Code to be added to the Support Pages" under the "Before the end tag" section.

    Expandable / Collapsible JavaScript

    <script type="text/javascript">if(document.getElementById&&!document.all){ns6=1}else{ns6=0};
    var wbrowser=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(); var operabrowser=(wbrowser.indexOf('opera')!=-1); var folder='';
    function expandit(contents){if(ns6==1||operabrowser==true){folder=contents.nextSibling.style}else{folder=document.all[contents.sourceIndex+1].style};
    if (folder.display=='none'){folder.display=''}else{folder.display='none'}}</script>


    Step 2: On the Database sheet, copy your "Long" Item Descriptions [Item Description (Optional) column] to the Stock Note column for just the ads that will appear on the Home page with ads.

    Step 3: Replace all the periods "." In the "Long" Item Descriptions with either another character or the HTML character period equivalent &#46;.

    Step 4: Add the following code as a prefix (to the beginning) to the "Long" Item Descriptions in the Stock Note column.

    <a href="#" onclick="expandit(this)">Read More</a><div style="display: none"><br>

    Add the following code as a suffix (at the end) to the "Long" Item Descriptions in the Stock Note column.

    </div>

    Step 5: Publish your website.
    Your Home Page with Ads should look similar to and function like the following example page:

    Expandable / Collapsible Home Page with Ads

4. I'd love to have another price field available to encourage users to pay direct (in New Zealand direct payment between banks via 'Virtual Cheques' are very popular to bypass payment methods like Paypal/VISA which add about 2-5% costs.

    This is something you need to custom code yourself. You can use the "Additional Code sheet" for customization.

5. An import tool that can map fields to the product database listings from my suppliers would be really cool... e.g I download my suppliers latest prices in csv format, and run a process in XLecom.xls to import products I want to list... how cool would that be?

    You could setup a custom template file for importing into the XLEcom Database.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer

Oh, just spotted something else too

I have changed my images folder to be called media, as I also have some linked audio clips etc within my site - and have noticed that the add-to-cart-01.gif on ads that have options seems to be coded to the old /images/ folder not the folder that is specified in the xlecom.xls options

RE: Oh, just spotted something else too

What you are experiencing with the image path behavior is due to the creation of static HTML code created by the built-in Multiple Price Options utility.

If you used the built-in Multiple Price Options utility to create custom add-to-cart buttons, then the HTML form code created will contain the image path to the add-to-cart image buttons. The created code is static,, meaning that if you "later" change the path to the images folder using the program's Setup utility, then all previous custom add-to cart forms will still contain the previous image path. This is why you should run the initial setup before you create your site or custom add-to-cart buttons.

However, there is and easy fix for this particular situation:

Switch to the Database sheet, select all the custom add-to-cart form code cells, and use Excel's Replace function to replace the /images text with /media text.

Another thing you should do is make sure you choose the option to "Delete the last published website" when you republish the site. This way you won't accidentally read the old pages referring to the previous images folder path.

If you do not need to use the built-in Multiple Price Options utility to create custom add-to-cart buttons, then all add-to-cart image buttons paths created by the program will be dynamic, meaning that they automatically change on the fly if you choose to change the image folder path anytime in the future.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer