How to use Fast Catalog:

Copy the file:
Fast Catalog.html to your 

configuration/commands/

folder.

Copy the files:
cataloglib.js
catalogTemplate.html

to the Site you want to use this catalog in.
These files _MUST_ be at the root level of your site, and both be in the same location.

 

After restarting DW, go to the site you want to use this catalog in:the
same place you placed the two files above. (you might also want to store these files somewhere
else, and only use copies of them, so they dont get lost or broken).

Now if it's not already up, start a new blank page (or just open a page from the site).
Now choose Fast Catalog.
Since it's the first time, it will alert you that you need to initialize Fast Catalog.
To do this click OK, then click INITIALIZE.
This creates a file called catalogdata.txt - which is acually an XML file.
Now click ok when it says "building" And click OK to load it. (this will happen automatically
after this later on when you come back to this Command).

Now you will see a window with some fields and a select box.
The select box shows you all your "items" or things you want to sell.

The one selected in the checkbox is the same always as the one who's elements you see in the
input fields.

To change the current one, just make changes in the various property boxes and click "UPDATE ITEM"
when you want those changes to "stick".

To make a new item, just click ADD
To delete one, choose it and click DEL.

Now you need to fill in the email address - this is the address where orders will go to.
Currently this tool can only email orders.

Now choose BROWSE to pick a template file. What's  a template file?
It's a file you can edit to format the item entries in your catalog, the way you want them.
It contains XML tags that _MUST_ stay in there. You currently cannot leave _ANY_ of them out.
What happens is that this command will take the XML data created by your adding items to the select list
and create a new file where it uses the template to "stamp" entries into the catalog.

Here's how it works:

User Input --> catalogdata.txt (XML) --> catalogTemplate.html (Template) --> catalog1.html (final)

When you are ready to "build" the catalog page, hit BUILDHTML.

This creates two files:
catalog1.html
catalogbase.js

It will say "DONE"

catalog1.html is the main catalog page - you can change it after it's rendered, but if you 
re-render (hitting buildHTML again) all your changes to that page will be lost.  I'd advise you 
instead to create another "real" template page and use my command INHERIT PAGE PROPERTIES on the
catalog1.html page (Caution ! I havent tried this out).


So what has happened is you have these files:

catalogdata.txt - the file that the command uses to "remember" your items.

cookielib.js - the file that catalog1.html uses to manage the shopping cart info.
catalogbase.js - the file that catalog1.html uses to put item info in the shopping cart results.
				this file will be use much more in later versions. It's re-created each time you click 
				"buildHTML"
				
catalog1.html - the generated catalog. ReWritten each time you click "buildHTML".			
	
	
The catalog works like this - you can pick items to add to a shopping cart, and view the cart.
You can then email the "cart" information back to the interested party (you).

This is just a pre-alpha but by golly it works! So if you are having problems email me
at andreww@netscape.com



- Andrew Wooldridge
http://alaji.home.mindspring.com/dreamweaver/