Padding Around Variant Pull Down Menus

For the longest time I have been trying to figure out how to add some padding around my pull down menus to get a cleaner more organized look. I’m using a custom product details page which means I have modified the existing product details code and had different styles applied to the text on that page. I’m not sure why Americommerce doesn’t already apply a padding to variants on their default Product Details page - it would look a lot nicer, but they don’t.  Perhaps most of their customers have products with single pull downs and in that case it looks great as they have designed it.

So the trick is to make sure that the CSS style “ProductDetailsVariations” is applied to your variant merge code on that product details page. Your Variant merge code should look like $$VARIATIONS$$. Once you have verified this, in your admin panel go to: Theme Manager>Product Details (on the left hand side). Then scroll down to Colors, Fonts, Layout. Click on that and all of the font controls will show up. Find Variants and open it. Below the font style is a width and height for that section of the product details page. I changed mine to be 27 pixels high (just enter 27) which gave me just a bit of spacing between the pull downs and gave me the look I wanted. There is a padding field there, but it is in reference to the padding bewteen the text of the variant group name and the pull down. I put mine at 2 or 3. Once this spacing was acheived how I wanted it, I then had to change the text of the variant groups so that it was centered on the 27 pixel high setting I just made. To do this, there is a CSS field at the bottom of the variant section (under colors, fonts, layout). In that field I entered: [  vertical-align: middle;  ] without the brackets of course. This fixed me up just how I wanted. You can see the results here on this Emtek Arts and Crafts Lever. To truley appreciate it you would have had to have seen it before. The pull downs were stacked on top of each other with no spacing between them.

Thanks to the Americommerce guys that helped me out on this one. It was David and Eric that helped me out I think. Or was it David and Chris? I can’t remember but thanks to all of them for getting me on the right track to figuring this one out.

Products with Multiple Categories

When adding a product to the americommerce system you can add a primary category on the general info tab. There is also a categories tab where you can add additional categories. It is important to remember that if you hide the primary category, the product will be removed from all of the secondary categories that you have assigned to the product. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out why my products weren;t showing up in the categories they were assigned to.

For us, I think our best option is to make the brand category the primary because if we have a brand on a website, we will want everything by that brand (in most cases). Then if we turn off the brand, it will be removed from the other categories. I don’t see us discontinueing or hiding a category like towel bars, and keeping other bathroom accessories - but i could see us wanting to hide a brand. So this way if we’re struggling with a supplier or quit carrying a brand for a time, we can hide the primary and it will be removed from all categories and sites.

Batch Update Images in Americommerce

I’ve decided i’m going to blog here about how to use Americommerce from time to time. More for my own benefit than anyone elses. I’ve been using Americommerce for a little over a year and the software is capable of all kinds of things that i don’t even know how to use yet. And since they are growing, i sometimes can’t find answers to my questions in the help section or knowledgebase. And honestly sometimes, I just need it in laymans terms to understand it. Since i use their system for several websites I am sure I will be trying to fix something on one site that have already fixed on another - but i guaruntee there will be times that I forget what I did to fix the issue. So, I’m blogging about it so when that happens i can search my own blog and find the answer to my own question. Maybe someone else can benefit as well.

So here is the first thing I figured out after monkeying with it and finally speaking to Eric at Americommerce about it.

I’ve been wanting to update a whole category with thumbnails to see if the page loads any faster. Right now, I use one large image on the admin of Americommerce and specify the thumb size in the site template. This works very well, but I was curious if the generation of thumbs slows down the speed since as the page loads it is stretched out and then shrinks to the right size as it generates (as if it’s starting out with huge images so the page is really wide). Actually I know that is the issue because I spoke to Stefan about it and he explained that is why it starts out wide.

So i exported the products, added the file names to the thumb image field and uploaded the file. Then I uploaded the thumb images. I could not get the site to update and start using the new file names for the thumbs. So i exported again and noticed that my thumb file names had been change from [for example] k-1005sm.jpg, to smk-1005.jpg. I was baffled so I tried multiple times. Still the site was using the large images to generate the thumbs and my file names kept getting changes. I spoke with Eric and he explained the problem. Apparently as the images are processed and cached a field is created in the database called ItemImage. In that field is the file names for main image and thumb, as well as their alt tags. Since this column had already been populated it was overwriting my new file names I had imported. So, i deleted this field, imported the file again with my correct file names and now it works like a charm. Thanks Eric.

You can see the results here: Dynasty Cabinet Knobs

The end result however is that so far the pages do not seem to load any faster with thumbs rather than the auto-gen images. So I’m not going to go through 5k products and add thumbs to them all for no speed gain. But I’m glad to know that if I update a bunch of images at once, that ItemImage column in the export file could be the culprit if I’m having issues. This is not a bad thing, it’s just understanding the system.

Elsie is Exciting

Elsie is 4. She has more energy than any kid i’ve met. I just took her training wheels off her pedal bike last week and she didn’t even need any help. She rides the thing like Evel Keneivel rode his Harley. This week we have been able to go to her preschool to see her do some of the things she has learned. The pre-school she goes to teaches swimming, gymnastics, and dance along with the educational stuff like the ABC’s. Monday they were showing off the gymnastic skills and today swimming. She has learned a lot, and I have decided that our choice to put her in this particular preschool was a good one because she has various activities where she can channel her energy. Looks Like we need to line up a couple of summer sports since school is just about over. Now, if I can just tap into that energy.

CareerSafe - The New and Improved 10 Hour OSHA Training

I was just reading up on this new 10Hour OSHA training course offered by CareerSafe. CareerSafe is a product developed by K2Share as an online OSHA training course for youth. High schools and colleges should have OSHA training as part of their vocational programs to train their students to be ready for the workforce when they graduate. The highest priority of the program is to reduce the number of job related injuries or fatalities by educating youth entering the job market. This training also makes our youth more marketable as they can show potential employers their wallet card demonstrating their completion of basic OSHA safety training. This type of training has been available for around $100 per student which makes it difficult for schools to implement in their cirriculum. CareerSafe has improved the training course which is OSHA approved and made it available as an online course where students can complete it at their own pace. The great thing is… with CareerSafe it’s under $20.

Read more about CareerSafe, or start your training here.

break throughs.

I love them and hate them at the same time. I’m not talking about breakthroughs in science or technology that change the world - love all of those. Especially if they had one in Cancer research. I mean break throughs in the office. The kind where you’ve been struggling with figuring out some software and you just can’t get it and support articles don’t help. Then you finally figure it out, or someone clues you in. Suddenly a wieght is lifted off your shoulders because you know a new trick that will save you lots of time. That part I love. The part I hate - If I had only known that trick months ago I could have gotten a lot more done. Too bad you just can’t know everything there is to know all at once! I guess then life would be too easy.

Google Sandbox. A Myth?

I don’t think it’s a myth. We have a couple of websites that i beleive are in the sandbox right now. One is an older Home and Garden site that we recently have done a lot of optimization and expansion on. The other, an ATV Accessories website is just a few months old. Both are struggling with google rankings. The new website especially ranks well for obscure items but for the most popular terms we are optimizing for we cannot be found. After analysis of competitors that are ranking for those terms… we beleive we are doing a much better job of playing by the rules and optimizing better. The only explanation I have is that we are in some sort of sandbox. I’ve been involved with SEO on my websites for years and we are doing everything the right way as far as I can tell - at least what we have done has helped other websites of ours to rank well. So I guess we sit back and wait for them to let us out of the sandbox. The odd thing is, and I’m not sure if this is related at all - we can’t get dmoz to list either of these websites. We have tried listing in multiple categories. Our older website was listed, but suddenly dropped year or so ago. SEO can be really frustrating sometimes. Any thoughts on how to get out of the sandbox or get listed in Dmoz are appreciated. For right now we’re just optimizing more, adding more product and trying to get more external links so that when we are released we’ll be a bit more seasoned.

Close Call

Just heard from my bro today who lives down in Texas. Out of the blue a car came crashing through their back fence and rolled across their back yard. The car was going pretty fast but luckily the driver was not injured and we’re so thankful my little niece who is not in school yet wasn’t playing in the yard just then. Life could have changed drastically in a flash.

Quick Fix. Happy Camper.

Funny this happened today after my last post about patience. One of my websites has used a shopping cart called Mals-e for years. The cart is real simple, but it’s very dependable and works. I have looked at many, many carts because I would like something fancier. I even found a great cart called Americommerce and have a few sites hosted there. The guys over there have helped me customize it so that i can make the switch pretty easy. I just haven’t convinced myself to try and fix something that isn’t broken.. even though it is lacking a lot of cool features that Americommerce has. So for now I’m trying to get my Americommerce websites working well enough that they can be a significant source of income before I risk making the change. Mals has worked great but we have kind of outgrown it as it’s lacking a lot of features that would make our day to day a lot easier - Americommerce has it.

Anyway, after more than 5 years, I had my first issue with Mals-e today. Suddenly if you added a product to the shopping cart, continued shopping and then added another item to the cart, the second item would overwrite the first. Not a great situation. Without thinking about it I picked up the phone and called the number on Mals-e’s website.  You’d think I would have thought about the time difference as I dialed the overseas number, but I didn’t. Daytime is the busiest so I was just real concerned about getting the issue fixed for our customers. Just as my call was answered I realized it was about 9:30 at night for them. As luck would have it Mal himself answered the phone and had the issue fixed within minutes. Thanks Mal. The planets were aligned to make all of that happen so quickly, I’m sure.

Patience is a virtue

I think i have a lot of patience until I get really impatient about something. I have serveral little issues I am trying to resolve with websites, some of which I am relying on the service provider to help me fix. One of these service providers is Paypal. I know Paypal is a big company and so resolving some issues can take some time. However, when I set up our account with them we went through extra paper work to get it set up correctly under our business name. Now they have placed limitations without warning and their reasoning is the exactly why they made me fill out the extra paper work when I set up my account. So now I have a sizable amount of money in my paypal account, but they will not allow me to withdraw it. I realize I am one of thousands of customers but I think certain circumstances require a little more attention than others.

This reminds me of an experience I had with one of my suppliers a couple of years ago. This particular brand has a niche in the market place and they are apparenlty quite proud of that. As a result, they figure they can act however they want and all of their customers will keep buying from them because the demand is there and you can’t find the product from anyone else - which is actually true unfortunately. Anyway, I had a large order and they completely dropped the ball on it. I called to speak to a sales rep about it and of course they have their rules they have to abide by and would not help me resolve the issue. I tried different representatives hoping someone would realize the error and take responsibility. Finally I worked my way up to the top and got the sales manager for the entire US.

I explained the issue and this was his response in a very rude tone,  ”You are one of thousands of customers. You think I can give you personal attention on your orders?” Of course I said, “Yes, if you want my business I think it is approriate when they have messed up a large order and ruined my chances of doing business with that customer again.” I can’t remember his exact words but it was pretty much to the effect that it really doesn’t matter to him if I buy from them or not. The problem I have is that customers ask for their products all the time so of course I want to sell it. I’ve been patient though, and now that we are selling much, much more. They kind of value us as a customer now - they are still the most difficult supplier we have to work with.