It’s been 2 months of learning how to code with Magento, and I still have a more tweaking of the CSS and templates and I need to write a Subscription and Pre-order module (fun times). I am happy that I was able to get the current functionality on main page: Pull content based on multiple categories, by release date and randomize items based on a featured product (though they haven’t marked many featured as of yet).
I can only tell you this, you are good! So different from the Magento Themes, and still Magento. Nice phpBB integration as well.
The site could be faster though. Hopefully Magento 1.1 will do the job.
Thanks norbolig.
The speed seems variable, also I’m not utilizing caching. But yeah, I’m looking forward to 1.1 ... This site will be moving to another server in a couple days, right now it’s running off my little sandbox.
Very comic-book’ish. One suggestion, put some :hover style on the primary navigation. Also, some active navigation would be a big usability plus to let users know where they are.
Might want to check the site in Opera as well, nothing major, but see the following:
Very comic-book’ish. One suggestion, put some :hover style on the primary navigation. Also, some active navigation would be a big usability plus to let users know where they are.
Might want to check the site in Opera as well, nothing major, but see the following:
I’ve discussed the navigation with the site owners, and yes I agree with you.
There was a nice mouse over on the main navigation, but the company owner didn’t like it. And I’ve suggested using bread crumbs. Those are low priority to the powers that be. Lots of sub pages that still need to be addressed.
Thanks for the screen shot. I’ll install opera and check it out. I’m having problems with that area cross browser. The main browser of choice for the company is Safari, which beefs up the font, renders it heavier than IE and Firefox on the PC. So I bumped down the size and now it looks to small in Opera, and it’s still too big on FireFox for the Mac.
I’m leaning towards making it graphical instead of textual. Are there hacks for other browsers than IE?
I think it would be great if you could guide us on the pre-order module? I’m actually looking for a pre-ordere module (as well as others), but don’t see it used on the site though.
On a easier note, maybe you could share with us how to change the word on the item to “Sold Out” ? I could do in a simple way, with a sentence call pre order for that.
Hope you can help.
I think it would be great if you could guide us on the pre-order module? I’m actually looking for a pre-ordere module (as well as others), but don’t see it used on the site though.
On a easier note, maybe you could share with us how to change the word on the item to “Sold Out” ? I could do in a simple way, with a sentence call pre order for that.
Hope you can help.
Thanks in advance.
Victor
Victor,
Thanks for the complements. I really appreciate it.
As for the pre-order element for the site, I haven’t gotten there yet. I’ve a running list of programming and design element that I’ve been given to follow. Subscription and Pre-Orders are last on the list. I’ll probably be digging into that in a week. This is a side job so I’ve only got a handful of hours to work on it a week.
As for changing the product status message, because everything in this store is date related and they want to list between various date ranges from 7 week to 30 days to 90 days I added the date attribute Release. Based on this value and whether there are any quantity available, I change the status message. It’s all on the list.phtml and price.phtml templates.
I’m not sure what pre-orders requires yet for this particular client, but I know that with comics it’s possible to solicit a product and unfortunately it never get produced. So I’m thinking pre-order for me will require storing CC data for processing when product is actually released. If it turns out that the product is paid for at time of check out, that’ll be a lot simplier. It’s just a matter of changing the template to allow the add to cart function.
The subscription module will be more complex I think as it WILL require storing CC data as well as build another association either within or external of Mage to keep track of items released and billing cycles.
Fun times.
When I’ve got any kind of usable module, I’ll definitely post my efforts.
Sound like you are really good with Magento! I will follow your advice on the product status message and work on it.
Thanks for sharing! Hope you’ll solve the pre-order module soon.
Btw: Just for info, Amazon actually takes in CC information for items not in stock yet (could think of it as pre-order) and ONLY charges your CC when it actually ships, one could cancel the order before it is delivered. I think most ecommerce sites should be following the flow as well.
Definitely one of the best looking customization done! Great job!
One question I have...you are able to list recent blog entries in a side box on the home age...can you advise on how this was done? i would assume those blog posts are being dynamically populated from the actual blog.
@medic: Well I can only guess to recoup costs and extend revenue. It’s not my site, I’m just the programmer.
@jmlee: I’m importing the RSS feed from the blog using simplexml_load_file() So yes, it updates as soon as an entry is made. Thank you for the comment.
