How AShop HTML Page Templates Work
If you have not already seen the tour of AShop Deluxe, go back and look at the section about page templates. It describes how page templates are included by the program. The AShop page templates are simply HTML pages with the AShop start and stop tags inserted where the AShop content is to appear or where to start and stop using content that is in the template. They are similar to include (.inc) files. They can include HTML, images, links, CSS, and JavaScript just like any other web page. If you are using a WYSIWYG HTML editor such as Dreamweaver, you can add the AShop script folders to your website and create the AShop templates just as you would any other page within your website. You can even use the "Create New Page From Template" feature and update the AShop template pages along with other pages that are attached to the Dreamweaver Templates.
AShop page templates are simply HTML web pages with comment tags
<!-- AShopstart --> <!-- AShopend -->
inserted into the HTML code. For the page templates, AShop's dynamically generated content appears between the two tags.
Note: If a template is not present, AShop will generate a catalog page anyway and the default logo.gif image, which can be uploaded through the Layout menu, will appear at the top of the page above the dynamically generated content. When a page template is present, it's body tags, such as background, text, and link colors override default page settings made in Layout. Colors, fonts, and borders within the dynamically generated content are still controlled through the administration panel, regardless of whether a template is present unless there is a style sheet that overrides it.
There are five templates used for the retail shopping cart and affiliate pages. If the wholesale shopping cart is activated, it has an additional 4 templates. The page templates can have the same or different content, depending on your needs.
Example templates are included in the distribution package for new installations. The template examples are not included in distribution of updates.
Retail Shopping Cart & Affiliate Page Templates
The following templates are located in the root directory of AShop.
The <!-- AShopstart --> <!-- AShopend --> tags indicate where the shopping cart content is rendered on the page.
catalogue.html – used only in the catalog pages.
cart.html – used only by the basket and checkout pages
delivery.html – used only in the product delivery pages
thankyou.html – used only in the payment confirmation pages
IMPORTANT! Many payment gateways will host your payment confirmation page through their SSL connection. When they do this, they take a snap shot of your page and nest it within their page at their URL. If this is the case, the hyperlinks within the thankyou.html template must use absolute URL's for links to work and for images to appear. In addition, image links should be https links so that browser secure/non-secure content warning messages won't appear for customers when the payment processor redirects to the thankyou (payment confirmation) page.
There is one template in the affiliate subdirectory.
affiliate/template.html – This template is only used with the affiliate sign up, login, and support pages.
Note: Other comments that you can use in your page templates are <!-- AShopname --> which will display your Shop Name and <!-- AShoplogo --> which will display your Logo Image.
Wholesale Shopping Cart & Sign up Page Templates
These templates are located within the wholesale directory and are only used for the wholesale catalog pages.
wholesale/catalogue.html - used only in the wholesale catalog pages.
wholesale/cart.html - used only in the wholesale basket and checkout pages.
wholesale/signup.html - used only for the pages where wholesale customers sign up for an account.
wholesale/delivery.html - used only in the wholesale order confirmation and product delivery pages.
Digital Mall Page Templates (only used if Digital Mall is installed.)
mall.html - used by mall.php for member signup and member shop directory.
members/signup.html - used by members/index.php for new member signup form page.