Hello,
I have a client that I'm trying to convert from an old CMS to Joomla!
The problem is that I'm new to Joomla and am a Java developer and know no PHP (so far, anyway🙂)
The application needs to work like this:
(1) The user clicks a link on the left side of the screen to go to a page with clickable images of items
(2) On that page, the user could then click on one of the images that takes you to another page with specific information about that item (presumably with a database lookup to get this item info) *and* fields to enter ordering information.
(3) Once you fill in the ordering information on the item information page in (2), you can submit to add this item to your shopping cart (actually, this site uses the free Mal's e-Commerce, so you just post to this specific URL).
---------
This is a lot of form-specific stuff that, looking at the various postings on this form, looks like it would be complex.
I've not been able to find a single example of an image linking to another page or integration with shopping carts. No books or tutorials seem to cover this basic type of site interaction.
There are also no training classes, that I can find, that cover this type of thing either... sigh...
So, how difficult is what I need to do?
I left a message here a few months ago and was told to just post my questions. However, my questions are extremely basic...how do you link the forms, how do you setup a clickable image to do an intermediate database lookup before displaying information on the next page, ....
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
-- M
P.S. Do I also need to get a PHP book? Suggestions on titles?
I have a client that I'm trying to convert from an old CMS to Joomla!
The problem is that I'm new to Joomla and am a Java developer and know no PHP (so far, anyway🙂)
The application needs to work like this:
(1) The user clicks a link on the left side of the screen to go to a page with clickable images of items
(2) On that page, the user could then click on one of the images that takes you to another page with specific information about that item (presumably with a database lookup to get this item info) *and* fields to enter ordering information.
(3) Once you fill in the ordering information on the item information page in (2), you can submit to add this item to your shopping cart (actually, this site uses the free Mal's e-Commerce, so you just post to this specific URL).
---------
This is a lot of form-specific stuff that, looking at the various postings on this form, looks like it would be complex.
I've not been able to find a single example of an image linking to another page or integration with shopping carts. No books or tutorials seem to cover this basic type of site interaction.
There are also no training classes, that I can find, that cover this type of thing either... sigh...
So, how difficult is what I need to do?
I left a message here a few months ago and was told to just post my questions. However, my questions are extremely basic...how do you link the forms, how do you setup a clickable image to do an intermediate database lookup before displaying information on the next page, ....
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
-- M
P.S. Do I also need to get a PHP book? Suggestions on titles?
Hi Chronohurricane,
yes that may be considered basic idea but not very basic to do!🙂
to list images, you can either have the page as a static HTML or grab them from some DB table, if you will do the 2nd then you can use ChronoConnectivity!
to click an image then load another page with info about it, again you can use ChronoConnectivity, to show some form also, you can use Chronoforms + its mambot!
to submit to another URL you will need to Configure Chronoforms to do this!
as you can see, all is achievable through Chronoforms + ChronoConnectivity BUT you need to know what you are doing!
I suggest that you read the first chronoConectivity tutorial and get familiar with it, post at the Chronoconnectivity forums about any questions and once 1st page is done you can move to step 2 and then you will find things are easier!
Cheers
Max
yes that may be considered basic idea but not very basic to do!🙂
to list images, you can either have the page as a static HTML or grab them from some DB table, if you will do the 2nd then you can use ChronoConnectivity!
to click an image then load another page with info about it, again you can use ChronoConnectivity, to show some form also, you can use Chronoforms + its mambot!
to submit to another URL you will need to Configure Chronoforms to do this!
as you can see, all is achievable through Chronoforms + ChronoConnectivity BUT you need to know what you are doing!
I suggest that you read the first chronoConectivity tutorial and get familiar with it, post at the Chronoconnectivity forums about any questions and once 1st page is done you can move to step 2 and then you will find things are easier!
Cheers
Max
Thanks. (The learning curve) Sounds like it'll be painful.
The (non-technical) administrator also wants to be able to add/edit/remove content on her own. I'm not sure that after I scaled this seemingly difficult learning curve that she would be able to add a new form with images and set up the posting easily.
Also, in her current CMS, once she clicks on an image the submit always goes to the same "product.asp" page (I have no idea what CMS this is or if it's a CMS, but clearly there's a DB in there somewhere).
She also has some type of admin interface where she can update (add/edit/remove) content.
I'm currently wondering if this gig is doable for the currently-authorized budget.
There are 20 links on the left side, probably 100 images that would come up on the various pages (from each link on left). Each page would have to submit to an "info" page where a user could enter shipping info and then submit it to Mals' e-Commerce for later credit card processing.
So, there is a lot of content.
I'm concerned that she won't be able to add new content with the complicated forms' requirements and that this will take a LOT of time to do.
Suggestions?
Maybe I should do this site in JSP+Struts+Hibernate?
Thanks.
M
The (non-technical) administrator also wants to be able to add/edit/remove content on her own. I'm not sure that after I scaled this seemingly difficult learning curve that she would be able to add a new form with images and set up the posting easily.
Also, in her current CMS, once she clicks on an image the submit always goes to the same "product.asp" page (I have no idea what CMS this is or if it's a CMS, but clearly there's a DB in there somewhere).
She also has some type of admin interface where she can update (add/edit/remove) content.
I'm currently wondering if this gig is doable for the currently-authorized budget.
There are 20 links on the left side, probably 100 images that would come up on the various pages (from each link on left). Each page would have to submit to an "info" page where a user could enter shipping info and then submit it to Mals' e-Commerce for later credit card processing.
So, there is a lot of content.
I'm concerned that she won't be able to add new content with the complicated forms' requirements and that this will take a LOT of time to do.
Suggestions?
Maybe I should do this site in JSP+Struts+Hibernate?
Thanks.
M
Hi chronohurricane ,
This is one of those exercises that's probably easier to do than to describe. I'll try to put it in Joomlaspeak for you.
The left hand column is probably a module with a series of links in it. Each of these would link to the same ChronoForms form page but passing some kind of id in the link e.g. index.php?option=com_chronocontact&formname=images&link_id=1234
In the ChronoForms form Form HTML you use a little PHP to read the id, pull up the corresponding page of images from the database and create an array of images with links. Again these links would include a unique id but would all link to a second ChronoForms form e.g. index.php?option=com_chronocontact&formname=product&image_id=1234
The second form again pulls out the id (or ids) and prepopulates the form with the product info. You don't say if you have registered users here - if you do then you can also prepopulate the user info.
When the product form is submitted it saves the sale info into the database, sends an email to whoever, builds the necessary info to send to Mal's e-commerce and shows some kind of thank you /redirect page to the client.
None of this takes very complex php. The trickiest part is working out the logic and deciding how to structure the databases and the forms.
Joola is not the friendliest for non-technical admin but your client can probably manage images through a folder in the media manager and use Max's ChronoCommunicate to manage text chunks and link ids in the databse with a little customisation.
As for learning PHP - a good place to start is the PHP Manual plus a few simple PHP scripts - take the scripts to pieces to see how they work and check up any special code in the PHP Manual. If you ahve a coding background this is probably quicker than reading books. There are some good introductory lessons that you can skim through at http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/627
Joomla coding is trickier - there were some big coding changes between Joomla 1.0.x and 1.5.x and the documentation for 1.5.x is not yet too friendly - there are full api docs at the joomla dev site and an increasing scattering of useful tutorials. You can also ask here - both Max and I are familiar with some parts of the Joomal code base.
Bob
This is one of those exercises that's probably easier to do than to describe. I'll try to put it in Joomlaspeak for you.
The left hand column is probably a module with a series of links in it. Each of these would link to the same ChronoForms form page but passing some kind of id in the link e.g. index.php?option=com_chronocontact&formname=images&link_id=1234
In the ChronoForms form Form HTML you use a little PHP to read the id, pull up the corresponding page of images from the database and create an array of images with links. Again these links would include a unique id but would all link to a second ChronoForms form e.g. index.php?option=com_chronocontact&formname=product&image_id=1234
The second form again pulls out the id (or ids) and prepopulates the form with the product info. You don't say if you have registered users here - if you do then you can also prepopulate the user info.
When the product form is submitted it saves the sale info into the database, sends an email to whoever, builds the necessary info to send to Mal's e-commerce and shows some kind of thank you /redirect page to the client.
None of this takes very complex php. The trickiest part is working out the logic and deciding how to structure the databases and the forms.
Joola is not the friendliest for non-technical admin but your client can probably manage images through a folder in the media manager and use Max's ChronoCommunicate to manage text chunks and link ids in the databse with a little customisation.
As for learning PHP - a good place to start is the PHP Manual plus a few simple PHP scripts - take the scripts to pieces to see how they work and check up any special code in the PHP Manual. If you ahve a coding background this is probably quicker than reading books. There are some good introductory lessons that you can skim through at http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/627
Joomla coding is trickier - there were some big coding changes between Joomla 1.0.x and 1.5.x and the documentation for 1.5.x is not yet too friendly - there are full api docs at the joomla dev site and an increasing scattering of useful tutorials. You can also ask here - both Max and I are familiar with some parts of the Joomal code base.
Bob
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