Magento

I apologize in advance for asking a question that has been answered before. However, when I tried to follow instructions contained in other posts, I either received server errors or they simply did not work.

So the question is this:

I have a template called “Greyline” in a fairly basic installation of Magento.
I have multiple categories and subcategories.
I would like the menu to display the subcategories as drop downs.

Really as simple as that.

If I need to use some sort of suckerfish menu (superfish in my case), where do I install the various parts and where do I change the html and css for the template?

Thank you.

Is Greyline by the Magento team? If you try Blue, Blank or Default themes the menu should be fine. If it is then the problem is with the template and you would do well to speak to your provider.

HI, Greyline is from ecommerce-extensions.com but they sound like they are pretty tight with the Magento team.

I am not sure if the regular template works or not, because when I tried to install the greyline template in another magento installation I have it would not install. I don;t want to zap what little progress I have made in this installation with the risk I am no longer able to make it the default template. In any event, that’s where I need the drop down to show up, not the default so it would not help me that much.

One of the problems is that I have been unable to find where all the different parts of the template are (code wise). I have worked with template systems for Joomla (where I specialize) Drupal, zen cart, OScommerce (which doesn’t have one) CMSMS, Typo3 and typo light, plus a smattering of other scripts and Magento’s is by far the least friendly I have encountered and the most time consuming, save for OScommerce,.
I am a really quick study with template systems and I have developed a very good workflow for quickly edit code, css and HTML, but Magento does not lend to it very well because, I believe, of the “Block” system and other reasons. In other words, I haven’t been able to crack the code of the template system yet so it’s slow going.

I have no doubt I’ll manage t make it work eventually, but the Magento template system will never rank among my favorites.

Is tghere a place that explains in detail where all the different pieces are and how they relate to each other better than the wiki? The wiki is OK for an overview, but I get the impression some of the info is dated or they overlook some important steps for through understanding.

Thank you for your post.

Hi

You already have the default on your system, going back to it should take five minutes, clearing your cache and checking the drop-downs another two. Doing so will identify whether your problem is with the theme, if your vanilla install of greyline is not so good then you do need to go back to them, to ask them for help getting your theme working, and to help them with a theme that is easy to install in such a way it works.

The truth is that Magento is a complex piece of software, designed to be better than what has gone on before. The added complexity is not so intuitive, particularly when things are abstracted into XML. There is no easy way to take it all in, apart from the hard way, building with it.

Regarding the learning resources, agreed that some wiki articles are out of date, they are also written by people who were using the software to deliver a particular project at a given point in time. Perhaps a better place to start is with the screencasts and the design guide. These are all relevant, easy to watch and with real examples.

With all of it there is a built in assumption regarding what people are supposed to know, a really good article for the wiki would be on how to setup a design environment entirely with Open Source tools, e.g the mods for Firefox, how to get networking with ssh, using IDE’s such as Aptana or Eclipse and so on.