Site wide fields, extra questions, extra checkboxes, ad display page - confused!!
Problem:
I am administering my ad/auction display page and am having trouble with site wide optional fields, extra questions, extra checkboxes, and the templates that display them.Solution:
There are two types of fields that you as the admin have control over with regard to the questions that you will ask your ad/auction visitors who place an ad/auction. We will use only the word ad from now on but the same applies to auctions.
OPTIONAL SITE WIDE FIELDS:
These are going to be used if:
- You want them to be used across more than one category.
- You want them to appear in more than just the ad display page. Meaning these can be displayed as browsing columns when browsing the categories.
- You want more flexibility over the layout of these questions within the ad display page. These fields are independent and can be positioned indiviually on the ad display page.
- You want your users to be able to sort the browsing results with these fields.
- You want to require one or more.
- You want to limit the characters allowed for one or more.
- You want them to be numeric only
- You want to restrict the edit capability
- You want them added as a 'cost' field during the listing process for sellers to use.
Because these fields are optional they can be named anything you want and the name that appears for them is independent on each page that they appear. A common example might be if you are running an auto based classified site and want the Make, Model, Year, Mileage, etc... to be displayed in the columns of the browsing results.
If you are going to use one or more across all categories then administer/create them in the admin > ad configuration > fields to use section of the admin. If you are going to vary their use on a category basis then you want to administer them within each category in the admin.
IMPORTANT: These fields will NOT appear in the ad display page if you do not insert the tags associated with them in the ad display template. Meaning the template that contains the html that displays the information associated with the ad's details.
CATEGORY SPECIFIC EXTRA QUESTIONS:
These are going to be used if:
- You want them only to be displayed within the ad display page
- They are going to be restricted to specific categories
- You do not want them to display as columns when browsing
- You are wanting them to be displayed in list format in the ad display page
These fields are created within the category administration. Please be mindful of the template structure of the ad display if you are having trouble displaying them on the ad display page.
NOTE:
The ad display page is the most complicated page with respect to templating in the Enterprise versions of the software. This page can contain the following templates:
Page template
Ad display template
Extra questions template
Extra checkboxes template
The Page template is the overall page template which should contain the tag. This tag, on this page, will grab and display the Ad display template. The Ad display template can contain the tags listed in the admin > Pages > Browsing Listngs > Listing Display Page > [edit] (template). If you have a tag in the listing display template that is not being used the system attempts to automatically remove them from the template at display time so the client doesn't see missing tags within their display. So to sum up the Ad display page can contains two separate templates. These templates must be in the templates section of the admin. Below is where you set each template in the admin.
To set templates for the listing display page go to:
admin > Pages Management > Browsing Listings > Listing Display Page > [edit] (template)
IMPORTANT: Because this template is the most difficult page template administration we HIGHLY recommend that you become more familiar with administering templates by doing so on other page. A great place to start is the home page.
Also, please visit this tutorial for a better explanation:
Tutorial
Thanks so much and hopefully this helps.