Display a product outside of SquirrelCart on Main (general) web page

[PostmanPat]

I would like to feature one product outside of the squirrelcart folder on our main website.

So visible on:

http://www.example.com/page.php

as well as:

http://www.example.com/squirrelcart/store.php

It must show image and full description as well as add to cart and option choices.

Is this possible?

Would anyone care to give me some tips as how to do it!

Thanks!

[Jamie]

I know those are example URLs, but I would recommend not using "squirrelcart" in your store URL to avoid confusion between the actual "squirrelcart" installation folder. If you'd like your store in a subdirectory, I'd recommend doing something like:
http://www.example.com/store/
or
http://www.example.com/shop/

As for your question:

1. You can put Squirrelcart code on any .php page. Your index page will need to be renamed to index.php. All HTML in it now should work fine, but changing the extension to .php will allow PHP to parse it.

2. Open the page you want to add Squirrelcart code to (index.php?)

3. Add this at the very top:

<?php include 'squirrelcart/pre_storefront.php' ?>

If your squirrelcart folder is in a different directory, you'll need to change that to match it's location, like this example:

<?php include 'shop/squirrelcart/pre_storefront.php' ?>

4. If you want Squirrelcart's stylesheet on that page, add this inside the <head/> tag:

<?php stylesheet("store.css") ?>

5. If you want other Squirrelcart code on that page (QuickTotal module, other module CSS files, etc...), add this inside the <head/> tag:

<?php include $cart_isp_root.'/storefront_head.php' ?>

6. Add this directly before the closing </body> tag:

<?php
    // This line must go directly before your closing body tag
    include $SC['cart_isp_root'].'/post_storefront.php';
?>

7. You now have everything you need in that file to be able to add additional code to call Squirrelcart functions. To show a product in detail mode, add a call to show_product_detail() where you want it to appear on that page:

<?php show_product_detail(391); ?>

Set the number inside the function parenthesis to the record number of the product you want to show.

[dave01978]

wow thats great, thanks for all that info jamie, that top of the file threw me for somthing ive been working on

Dave

[Jamie]

You're welcome

[tiskilwa]

Is it possible to display a subset of the objects of the product detail? For example, say I want to show the Price, Quantity entry field, and Add to Cart button, but not the product description.

[marty177]

Jamie, that is absolutely fantastic mate!! What a great help.

[marty177]

Jamie, just a quick question mate. Is there a way to find out what possible functions there are to choose from to add to a page? For example, the show_product_detail() function. Perhaps some templates to look?

Thanks so much Jamie!

[Jamie]

Is it possible to display a subset of the objects of the product detail? For example, say I want to show the Price, Quantity entry field, and Add to Cart button, but not the product description.

If you are specifically referring to doing that after implementing this custom code, it is possible with some changes:

1. Read this, and make sure you understand how to modify template files via a custom theme folder:
http://squirrelcart.com/help/?Modify...Templates.html

2. Put a copy of the product_detail.tpl.php template file in your custom theme folder squirrelcart/themes/YOUR_THEME/

3. Rename that template file to something like product_detail_custom.tpl.php

4. The show_product_detail() function in the above code doesn't do much. It just calls show_product(), which does most of the work. You need to change the function call in the code shown above to this:

<?php
show_product(391,'squirrelcart/themes/YOUR_THEME/product_detail_custom.tpl.php');

That will tell that function to use your custom template.

5. Open that custom template file, and alter it however you like.

If you are instead looking to change the product detail page for ALL products, you would just need to modify the product_detail.tpl.php template file and remove the <?=$Description?> variable.

[Jamie]

Jamie, just a quick question mate. Is there a way to find out what possible functions there are to choose from to add to a page? For example, the show_product_detail() function. Perhaps some templates to look?

You're welcome. We don't have a function reference. You can dig around in squirrelcart/functions and open the function files to see what they do. They have comment sections at the top explaining how to call them. The majority of them wouldn't be of much use to you, though some certainly can be. I'll be writing a short developer's guide in the documentation for v3.0.0 listing some of the functions that can be used for custom coding.

[tiskilwa]

awesome. thanks jamie!

[marty177]

Thanks from me too, Jamie.

[marty177]

My main concern at this stage with having custom made 'add to cart' pages is just whether I can integrate some sort of inventory check.

For example, check the quantity if someone adds too many items and show a message, and place an 'out of stock' button there when needed.

All these things you've already done so well in the full package

Marty

[SketchWork]

Hi Jamie,

Does this still work on version 3 or does it need any specific changes.

Many thanks,

Justin

[Jamie]

Yes, if you change the function name to sc_product().