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Info on Article Manager & Listings Manager required

 
 


annie
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Jul 28, 2006, 4:13 AM

Post #1 of 4 (1593 views)
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Info on Article Manager & Listings Manager required Can't Post
I am familiar with Page Publisher and News Manager but I haven't attempted to implement Listing Manager or Article Manager. I am happy with the way PP and NM work and I am trying to ascertain the limitations that there might be with LM and AM. Am I right in thinking that AM is mainly suitable for a news type of site ie. the home page purely consists of a series of links to sub categories or articles?

I tend to build brochure/information type sites for clients and PP fits nicely into this because the layout is totally flexible but with the exception of not being able to add extra pages. Pages usually consist of a bulk of text with the odd image (including the home page) and navigation to other pages down the side. The sites are usually small (4-10 pages) and the layout very clean and uncluttered. What seems to come across when viewing AM sites is that there are links to be had all over the place until you reach the article pages themselves. Does AM allow the user to amend sections of the home page which isn't a link to an article or would this text become static? From trying out the demo, I can't see how the home page is amended. Also, I'm finding that the cost of AM is hard to justify for my projects.

What I like about PP is that I can place PML tags exactly where I want them on the web page thus giving very precise control over what the user can and can't amend. This way, they usually can't go very far wrong. Sometimes, a single WYSIWYG box doesn't suffice. Therefore AM wouldn't probably help with this task. I guess what I'm after is the flexibility of PP but with the ability to add extra pages.

With regard to Listings Manager, am I right in thinking that pages outside of the actual listings such as additional information pages, contact pages, home page introduction text, etc. are not able to be amended through LM? Also, for a products site, I'm curious to learn how one inserts html to add Buy Buttons for example?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm in no hurry for answers but I love the interactivetools products that I already use and am always on the lookout for the best solutions for my clients.


MikeB
Staff / Moderator


Jul 29, 2006, 2:45 PM

Post #2 of 4 (1572 views)
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Re: [annie] Info on Article Manager & Listings Manager required [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Annie,

Thanks for the post and the kind words about our products! Smile

I'll go over your questions for you one at a time:

> Am I right in thinking that AM is mainly suitable for a news type of site ie. the home page purely consists of a series of links to sub categories or articles?

I've seen Article Manager used on a wide variety of websites and generally the best way to use Article Manager is for a site where you'll be adding a lot of content and would like this content to be separated on a category basis. If you're familiar with Page Publisher and News Manager I would say the best way to compare the products is to think of Article Manager as a more robust version of News Manager.

>Does AM allow the user to amend sections of the home page which isn't a link to an article or would this text become static?

Article Manager publishes it's homepage based on the latest articles that have been created. The layout of Article Manager's content is based on some templates that come with the software. These templates are written in HTML and are completely customizable. This means you can set up these templates to match a design that you're using on your site. As I mentioned, other than the extra features Article Manager is more similar to News Manager than it is Page Publisher.

> With regard to Listings Manager, am I right in thinking that pages outside of the actual listings such as additional information pages, contact pages, home page introduction text, etc. are not able to be amended through LM?

Listings Manager should work great for the part of your site that will list all of your products but you would want to have some static pages on the server that are external to Listings Manager for your index page, contact page, etc.

>Also, for a products site, I'm curious to learn how one inserts html to add Buy Buttons for example?

If you'd like to add "Buy Now" buttons you'd actually just add the code for this to Listings Manager's template files. This way, any listing that is added will already have the code on it's static HTML page. To get an idea of how this works you may actually want to have a look at this tutorial that outlines how you can add a PayPal shopping cart to your Listings Manager site:

http://www.interactivetools.com/products/listingsmanager/tutorials/tutorial_add_paypal.html

I hope this answers your questions and if you have any others, just let me know! Smile

Cheers,
Mike Briggs - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

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annie
User

Jul 30, 2006, 2:42 AM

Post #3 of 4 (1562 views)
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Re: [MikeB] Info on Article Manager & Listings Manager required [In reply to] Can't Post
Thank you for the reply, Mike.

I follow most of what you say. However, I am still a little confused about the Buy Button code. I think I'm right in saying that, whether using PayPal's Buy Buttons, rather than shopping cart, or Mals E-com buy button code (see example below) which is what I tend to use, the code is different each time, according to the product details. At least this is the case when I create static html pages without a CMS.

<form action="http://ww5.aitsafe.com/cf/add.cfm" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="userid" value="xxxxxxxx">
<input type="hidden" name="product" value="Product Name">
<input type="hidden" name="price" value="14.99">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="www.mysite.com">
<input type="Submit" value="Buy Now">
</form>

In the above example, would I just alter the values of "product" and "price" to something like "$lfield1$" and $lfield2$ and then Listings Manager will dynamically produce a button based on those values input through the backend of the program?

Sorry for the basic questions but I haven't experimented with either LM or AM before. Thanks very much.


ross
Staff / Moderator


Jul 30, 2006, 2:21 PM

Post #4 of 4 (1556 views)
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Re: [annie] Info on Article Manager & Listings Manager required [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi Annie.

Thanks for getting back in touch Smile.

You are definitely on the right track here! All you need to do is plug in the appropriate $lfield$ placeholder and Listings Manager will pass your form the appropriate values.

One thing to remember is that each time you update your templates, you’ll need to log into Listings Manager and republish the listings from within Setup Options.

Keep us up to date with how you are making out Smile.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cheers,
Ross Fairbairn - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com

Hire me!  Save time by getting our experts to help with your project.
Template changes, advanced features, full integration, whatever you
need. Whether you need one hour or fifty, get it done fast with
Priority Consulting: http://www.interactivetools.com/consulting/