ecart display manager STEP 7 images error

Hi guys

look I have spent a couple hours trouble shooting this seemingly simple step but to my ultimate frustration it would appear that it will not work.

Anyway to the specifics.

STEP 7 of the eCart Display Manager tutorial directs you to alter the thumbnail/image placeholder. Seems straightforward enough.

It says double click on the thumbnail placeholder so I double click. I follow the steps (have done it at least 20 times over and over) and entered the info "images/thumbs/" a bunch of different ways, but not once have I been able to get the cart in FFOX or Safari to show the thumbnail.

I hope someone can explain to the me how this simple step isn't working when the snapshot I have attached shows the code is entered exactly right. (I even noticed that when you click on Thumbnail in the Datasource box it uses 'single quotes' not "double quotes" - I tried both and neither worked.)

I even tried copying the exact code from the Music page which was showing it correctly in FFOX and Safari, but even that didn't work?

Please help?

Is the image name being stored in the cart?


After adding an item to the cart in your web browser, right click the image place holder and select "View Image" This should open a browser page showing the full url to the image in the address bar. Does the address end in the image name such as gr1.jpg?

Hey Jason

Yes the image link is showing in the browser that it is pointing to the almost correct address.

It simply points to images/thumbs/

Again the code however I have put character for character as directed by the tutorial is pasted here unless I have an en-dash or something wrong like that, have a look anyways and let me know what is wrong? (this was in the last email attachment by the way)

images/thumbs/<?php echo $BlueSkyCart->DisplayInfo["ItemThumb"]; ?>

cheers Dave

That indicates that the image name is not being stored in the ItemThumb column of the cart when the add to cart button is pressed.

Double check your bindings in the Add to Cart server behavior. Is the ItemThumb cart column bound to anything?

Send a Screen shot of the add to cart bindings.

Thanks for the reply, I have attached the snapshot for the bindings and code related to music.php and cart.php.

Can I boldy ask this question in the meantime? Why in a tutorial like this are you needing to get me to check weird things like bindings which I know nothing about yet (hence me doing the tutorial to better learn)? I have follwed each step and not touched anything I shouldn't have nor stripped out code or attempted to "play around" so why would a "binding" not be right - jesus i am lost.

What I am getting at is that the tutorial up to ECart Display Manager step 7 doesn't even mention bindings. Forgive my frankness Jason, as I know you will do your best to help, but kind of shouldn't need to really. I am getting pretty frustrated by how poorly set out the tutorials are and how many poor assumptions they make when the software is sold on the basis that designers are not dynamic coders.

hope you can understand my frustration, and look forward to getting the tutorial finished.

cheers Dave

I do understand your frustration. However, there is a lot of information for the eCart getting started guide to cover, if you have idea's on how we can make the getting started guide more user friendly, please let us know by submitting your idea here:
submit-idea.php

Anyway, on to the problem at hand:

Sorry, but these are not the bindings I was referring to. I was referring to the bindings panel in the add to cart server behavior.

Refer back to the section titled "To Insert an Add to Cart button into a catalog page". This section goes from page 28 - 35.

On page 32, step 10 has you bind the Thumbnail cart column to the ItemThumb recordset column:

  10.
Bind the remaining shopping cart columns:
•
Choose Description. Click the lightning bolt and select ItemShortDesc; click OK.
•
Choose Weight. Click the lightning bolt and select ItemWeight; click OK.
•
Leave Quantity at the default settings.
•
Choose Price. Click the lightning bolt and select ItemPrice; click OK.
•
Choose Thumbnail. Click the lightning bolt and select ItemThumb; click OK.  

this is how the thumbnail name is stored in the cart so it can be displayed on cart.php page.

Thanks Jason

Firstly I do appreciate better than most that tutorials like this can be enormous, but with good reason as there is a lot to cover, I guess some more screen shots would help also as you only have screenshots of the WA tools not the pages themselves which is equally important for a newbie like me to see looks the way it should. This would definitely add pages to the tutorial but I guarantee it would mean less wasted time from the tech support point of view also.

Anyway ;^) Happy to say deleting the cart pages and going back to the start seems to have fixed the issue, as the cart page now shows everything properly when I add an item or two to test it.

I appreciate your help, and also to ask if I had a suggestion to make, I hate non-constructive criticism and don;t want to be that guy so here goes.... My only suggestion to make that part of the tutorial clearer so I wouldn't have had to bother you with it would be that it would appear that the instruction on page 31 (Point 7) says "..When you return to the Bindings Tab, click any other column to confirm your option. "
That last bit could be expanded to say like this as if you do not click on the other column to update the instruction it simply won't work which is what happened to me as thumbnail is the last in the list, if you just click OK it won't work.
"..When you return to the Bindings Tab, click any other column to confirm your option, otherwise the lightning bolt change you made will not apply. " If I understand it correctly this may be a bit clearer for newbies like me.

(P.s. Now I see what you mean by the "other" bindings area)

I will now venture forth onto page 50 and beyond and fingers crossed you never hear from me again... cheers Dave

Great, glad to hear you got it working.


I will forward your comments to our documentation team