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leeflang View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leeflang Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-January-2009 at 2:35pm
1) My previous question related indeed to a local product search in a ProductCart store.
 
2) The question was more specifically towfold:
 
a) Can a buyer search for a long product description keyword 'per tab' and have only results for that specific tab displayed?
 
b) Can a buyer search for a long product decsription keyword 'over multiple tabs (maybe check off selection for each desired tab) and would the results list be able to display for each instance of such keyword, in what tabe it was found?
 
Example: If I have defined two 'long description' tabs, one called 'stories' and one called 'poems' and each have the name of an author, for example 'Charles Dickens' in them. will buyer be able to choose between 'search' inside only 'stories' for 'Charles Dickens' or search inside both 'stories' and 'poems' tabs?
 
 


Edited by leeflang - 29-January-2009 at 2:36pm
Peter http://208.112.123.87/LeeFlang/Default.aspx (site under development)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote intour Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-January-2009 at 8:30am
I use tabs and panels in a few of the websites I create for clients. Part of their appeal is that they are visible to the search engines in exactly the same way as if you typed in one long content page.
 
I think Peters question relates to a local product search though.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ProductCart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-January-2009 at 5:49am
Not sure if we correctly understand the question. Here is just a comment on how information in tabs is treated by the search feature in ProductCart: since tabs (as described in our post above) are simply DIVs (layers) in the same field (long product description), all content of all tabs is by definition searched when you conduct a keyword search in the ProductCart storefront.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote leeflang Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-January-2009 at 12:08pm
The tabbed description content display for large descriptions is wonderful to make navigation faster and more 'hierarchical'. It will increase 'stickiness' of a store site and loyalty, since buyers appreciate store sites that offer faster navigation.
 
We would love to have this tabbed content for our growing catalog of over 32,000 items with on average 10,000-12,000 characters per item description.
 
However, what I miss in this discussion is, beyond displaying the content, how to make the content accessible, in other words 'how to make it searchable'.
 
A buyer will not be able to always exactly say in what 'tab area' he will want to search. He may want to search in 'all tab areas' or in 'soem tab areas'.
 
An example of such tabbed content that requires that kind of search can be found in our 'dummy non -released web site' at http://208.112.123.87/LeeFlang/store_search_detail.aspx?id=2
 
Typically one will find this type of 'multi tab content search' in media related descriptions, where the content of the media for sale is split over multiple tabs. In magazines' it could be for example two tab areas like 'articles' and 'authors' In 'CDs' it could be 'actors' and 'producers'.
What happens here is that a buyer, without knowing the exact field the content would be entered in' wants to find 'everything for sale about his more general "search subject". Same happens with products like books, movies, posters, photos, videos, DVDs, etc.
 
Peter  


Edited by leeflang - 26-January-2009 at 12:12pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ym Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2009 at 9:39pm
I'd really appreciate your advise, Greg, Hamish, caughlan and EI.
The EI article was wonderful and I'm very happy to hear that the V.4 will include the tabbed function.
In fact, I have many short video clips(user guide), and hopefully I can add them in one of the tabs. 
I also agree with Greg that the html editor needs to be improved. For now, I create whole description content with Dreamweaver and paste the code to the editor.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Greg Dinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2009 at 10:22am

Yep, the potential of what Massimo describes is awesome.  Just hope the implementation of such marvelous functionality, and whatever else is to come, doesn't make the process of altering the product page exceedingly difficult.  :)

Speaking of the HTML editor, anyone with significant experience with a new HTML editor that works well should send it to EI and the makers of this forum.  I'd like to see a new editor in both the admin as well as this board.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote intour Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2009 at 10:12am
Good point Greg. Some of my cients have enough trouble with the html editor never mind tabs.
 
I do like the feature though. It's great for products that have different levels of specification - like a computer for example.
 
If it can be included in version 4 in the way Massimo describes that would be fabulous.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ProductCart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2009 at 9:49am
Greg is correct and this was only intended to provide a temporary workaround for users that feel comfortable with the technicalities of this implementation.

As mentioned above, we will try to introduce a way to easily handle a tabbed layout for the product description in ProductCart v4. Moreover, we will try to allow you to indicate whether you would like dynamic content to go into a tab. For instance, you might want cross selling items or product reviews in a tab.

So we are envisioning a Control Panel interface that will allow you to pick a tab, name it, and then choose from a few options, which could be:
  • Show related categories (other categories that the product has been assigned to)
  • Show related products (cross selling)
  • Show accessories (cross selling items that can be purchased together with the main item)
  • Show product reviews
  • Show custom content (which would be defined in a separate text area)
We'll try to make this happen for ProductCart v4. In the meantime, all of the suggestions listed in this thread can help. Different ProductCart users with different needs, skills, and budgets can address this feature as they see fit (or just wait around until it becomes officially part of ProductCart).

Cheers,

massimo



Edited by earlyimp - 25-January-2009 at 9:51am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Greg Dinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2009 at 9:39am
It is a superb article.  Brilliant. But I would be loathe to deploy that for the typical client.  It simply leaves too many chances for error. 
 
Cauglan and others may have the experience and patience for such an arrangement, but for the few hours of coding that it would take to allocate extra (product table) fields for the tabbed content, and to build the logic to display those fields into their respective tabs on viewPrd.asp (and related includes), I think such an alteration of PC would be easily justified and honestly not that difficult.
 
The example shows very brief examples of content, and Massimo even hesitated to use the actual coding needed for the unordered list in the sample product he used for the example. But the strongest reason for using a tabbed format is when you have multiple sections of potentially lengthy content.  And the chance of erroneous entry of the specified coding, plus all the content, becomes significant.  Add to that the way the HTML editor for the long description has the habit of introducing multiple redundant SPAN tags, and you now just might have a mess on your hands.
 
If a client asked me to deploy this, or I saw them doing it themselves, I would lobby hard for the few hours budget that would simplify the process and allow them to avoid this on each an every product.
 
Just to highlight this - imagine if www.target.com or www.starmarinedepot.com had every product in such an arrangement?  Well, it took less time to work out the tabbed coding for Star then it would take for most merchants to screw around with the above proposed example while creating several complex products, not to mention for me to come back later and show them why pages were falling apart due to incorrect HTML coding.
 
If one is a self-builder and wants to endure this, so be it.  But as a developer I would be very hesitant to ask my clients to accept such a solution.  2 cents...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote intour Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-January-2009 at 7:34am
Superb feature ! The wiki article was easy to follow.
 
Thanks
 
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