|
|
Rank: Enthusiast
Joined: 8/19/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Utah, USA
|
Hello,
I'm new to Umbraco but I've been developing custom apps in .NET for quite some time. I've been called on to create a customized product catalog for my company, and I really don't have much of a clue where to start. Are there any tutorials on how to do such a thing? Even if I add like a whole different section to umbraco, so there is like Content, Members, Settings, Product Catalog, and I can customize everything there. If someone can just get me off on the right foot I believe I can get everything taken care of.
Thanks,
jbrisko
|
|
Rank: Fanatic
Joined: 10/30/2007
Posts: 214
Location: Bellingham
|
There are several ways to approach this. The most straightforward being to create a document type that contains the properties you'd like to represent for each product. Also, you may consider having a look at the two eCommerce projects that exist for Umbraco. The first is the eCommerce Extension, which is a native Umbraco Extension. The other is Commerce for Umbraco which is a port of dashCommerce to Umbraco. -Paul
motusconnect.com :: level-2 certified :: MVP 2008/2009
|
|
Rank: Enthusiast
Joined: 8/19/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Utah, USA
|
Paul,
Thanks for the reply. I have looked at both of those projects, and they won't quite suffice for what I need to do. The document type way... I thought of that as well, however there are many of our proudcts that need to fall into multiple categories, and we need to do a lot of mathematical functions on our data as it is rendered to the page. The category problem itself is enough to stop that method in my opinion. Do you know of anywhere that explains the process for creating a Plugin to Umbraco. I'm quite efficient with the .NET Framework and C# and don't see any problems in creating my own. I've been a web developer for 8+ years. I just don't know the ins and outs of Umbraco. If you can help, I would appreciate it greatly.
Thanks again,
Jeremy
|
|
Rank: Fanatic
Joined: 10/30/2007
Posts: 214
Location: Bellingham
|
Jeremy - I wouldn't abandon the document type approach simply based on complexity...you can easily add a category property among other things. And with XSLT your rendering options are quite varied. At any rate, since you are a .NET type you may prefer the user control approach. There are quite a few samples around for integrating a .NET user control with Umbraco, but this one is often used as a starting point: http://skiltzonnet.blogspot.com/2008/01/creating-you-first-umbraco-user-control.htmlBest, -Paul
motusconnect.com :: level-2 certified :: MVP 2008/2009
|
|
Rank: Enthusiast
Joined: 8/19/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Utah, USA
|
Paul,
Once again please excuse me, I'm fairly new to this approach but feel it could be very powerful, I am not opposed to doing the document approach, if you could briefly explain how that would work, that would be great, I think that would probably be the most effective for what I'm trying to do, I just thought it may be beyond the scope of XSLT.
Thanks,
Jeremy
|
|
Rank: Fanatic
Joined: 10/30/2007
Posts: 214
Location: Bellingham
|
Jeremy - Head over to the Books section on Umbraco.org. Here's a good one on adding C# functions to XSLT: http://umbraco.org/documentation/books/extending-xslt-with-c-or-javascriptAlso, a web search on 'umbraco document types' and related will get you lots of great examples to get you started. Let us know how it goes for you. -Paul
motusconnect.com :: level-2 certified :: MVP 2008/2009
|
|
Rank: Enthusiast
Joined: 8/19/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Utah, USA
|
Thanks for your help Paul. I think I am picking this up.... however if you could explain one thing to me. For instance, Lets say I have:
Category 1
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Category 2
Item 4
Item 5
Item 6
Category 3
Item 1
Item 7
Item 8
With the way Umbraco lays out the sites in the hierarchical format, how can I place Item 1 in Category 1 and Category 3? Also.... Some items may need to be in 3 - 5 or more categories, what is the best method for accomplishing that? This is my only hold up.
Thanks,
Jeremy
|
|
Rank: Umbracoholic
Joined: 9/8/2006
Posts: 1,689
Location: KY, USA
|
For the "one-to-many" or even "many-to-many" relationships, I use a multiple content picker or a checkbox list datatype with prevalues. It only depends on where the list of relationships is stored. If the list won't change (or not very much) I create a new datatype based on the built-in checkbox datatype and give it the appropriate prevalues. Then add your new datatype to your docType and you're off to the races. You can simply list all your items in one portion of your content tree and each item will have the checkbox list to select which category(s) it is associated with. Nice an clean. You could also use other types, like drop-down list or listbox if you didn't like the checkboxes. But not overly flexible. If your end users will be creating items and/or categories then I'd create a section in the content tree specifically for the categories. The nodes beneath your categories section will serve the same function as the checkbox list... but your end users can create, rename, and sort the list without your help. You would then use a multiple content picker on your item docType instead of the checkbox list. The user would simply select the nodes. In this case I'd look at the picker created by CPalm and updated by Morten since it lets you limit the selection to only a specific node and its immediate children (your 'categories' section of the content tree in this case). http://www.mortenbock.dk/updated-cpalm-multiple-page-picker-for-v3-bugfix-57.htmThere are other ways to approach this as well, including making a .net control to interface with an external database (such as an ERP system) if you've already got your data there. That's the beauty of umbraco... complete control to implement the solution that is best for YOUR situation. cheers, doug.
MVP 2007-2009 - Official Umbraco Trainer for North America - Percipient Studios
|
|
Rank: Fanatic
Joined: 7/19/2006
Posts: 492
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
|
If you can live with not to manage your products from every possible category you could make a structure based on something else and manage the categories like tags for a blog post. Take a look at www.objects.dk for a nice tagging package. I can see that this might get hard to manage with thousands of items and categories, but might be an viable option for less...
" - Yeah I'd like to share your point of view, as long as it's my view too... ( http://www.d-a-d.dk/lyrics/pointofview)
|
|
Rank: Enthusiast
Joined: 8/19/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Utah, USA
|
What if the only people updating the content will be the actual Backend Users, not the members? Maybe I'm missing the point.
Thanks,
Jeremy
|
|
Rank: Umbracoholic
Joined: 9/8/2006
Posts: 1,689
Location: KY, USA
|
Both Kalle (aka, Kalpa) and I were referring to the umbraco users, not members or site visitors. My point, at least, was that not all umbraco users should have access to the Developer section, which is where datatypes and prevalues are defined. So if you're developing a site for your client to manage and they don't/shouldn't have access to the Developer section then using content nodes and a mutliple content picker can be a good solution. Kalle's idea of using tags (as would normally be used for blog posts) is also a nice idea. Perhaps you could tell us more about your project, the users, your constraints, how many items and categories, if that data already exists elsewhere, etc.... we might be able to offer specific rather than general advice, as we've done so far. cheers, doug.
MVP 2007-2009 - Official Umbraco Trainer for North America - Percipient Studios
|
|
Rank: Enthusiast
Joined: 8/19/2008
Posts: 37
Location: Utah, USA
|
Alright Guys,
I've figured out how I would like to do this. I want to program the Products Catalog in .NET and use it in Umbraco. What I would like to do, is pull the information from a SQL Database that is already designed and ready for use, and I would like to implement an Admin Section into Umbraco where the users can Add / Remove Categories, Products etc. Basically like Commerce4Umbraco is setup, but I would like to customize this to my clients needs. I feel that I understand the Macro Part of creating the pages that link to my .NET Controls, however, I need help understanding how to add that "Admin Functionality" to Umbraco. Anyone's help would be great.
Thanks Again,
Jeremy
|
|
|
Guest |