Wops, I forgot to comment that this modified version of the uc_catalog.module is based on
current alpha7e.

Hi Ryan.

Thanks for taking your time to review my proposal. I know that the product grid is not for everyone but obviously the simple line by line table neither

It looks to me that the line by line model is good for long lists without picture while the grid is better for a more contained and organized look of the catalog oriented to mainly displaying the pictures, that's why I thought it could be interesting to have both systems to open to a wider range of users without hacks

>> it seems like the display may be optimized for a particular theme or set of CSS rules?

I don't understand exactly what you mean. Probably depends on many CSS rules around that catalog display table. I've added the new uc_catalog.css file replacing the previous one with some new visual adjustments, but more things could be adjusted.

>> and clicable is a typo of clickable

Wops, true, too fast coding for a non-native english speaker.

>> Not checking the box for the link display didn't seem to work to make "Catalog" not a link

I thought I had solved that. I've had a quick look at the code and I don't see the mistake. I see that the if statement for deciding if the block title is clicable or not works. It lools is not saving the variable from the admin page. Extrange because the code is so simple that I can't see what's wrong. I'll try to solve it.

>> the main catalog browsing seems to have been changed so it's only showing 2 columns at

uhmm, true line

684 > if(variable_get('uc_catalog_grid_display', false)) {

should be changed to

684 > if(variable_get('uc_catalog_grid_display_width', false)) {

since it's not looking at the proper varible. I was setting 3 on both grids and I didn't perceived the difference.

Well, thanks for you feedback. It needs more work.

I've found that the function that adds attributes to that table is uc_attribute_form_alter. Is there a way to prevent it to add that attributes list while on the products list?

I think you'll want to incorporate the following function to have an add to cart button w/o the attribute select boxes and stuff:

The latest version fixed the block title, but I'm not seeing the fix for the categories listing (see http://livetest.ubercart.org/old/catalog - it's set to have 3 columns). I've verified that this is working on the current Livetest, so some variable or default that you have changed somewhere must still be off.

Regarding the add to cart button on products w/ attributes/options... I actually like the way it is. If a store has products where it makes sense for the attribute forms to be display in the catalog, they can turn it on with your setting. Otherwise, it redirects to the product page w/ the message saying the customer needs to select some stuff. I think in the future I'd like to see a trimmed down intermediate page that is just the product details and the form, but this is a pretty good solution for now.

Hi you all. New version of my revamped uc_catalog.module with:

• based on alpha8 release uc_catalog.module version
• bug on catalog grid corrected (application of uc_catalog_category_columns was wrong on previos versions)
• new organization of settings page with more adjustments
• uc_product_nodes_per_page now considered on settings page (I'm afraid it is not even on the official release)
• new block "cheapest products" under catalog grid on top catalog level page
• new block "best sellers" under catalog grid on top catalog level page
• new block "ask on our contact form" under catalog grid on top catalog level page
• parameters on the settings page to activate or deactivate each one of this three blocks

Questions to resolve:

• add a variable to set the path to a specific form to catalog consult
• split "cheapest products" and "best sellers" on functions accesible from block_hook to have them from other places on your site
• a few other things to come...

Hope to read here your opinions and bug hunting

Jordi, progress is looking excellent. Only recommendation I have at the moment is to update the settings overview to include the settings you've added to the settings form. Forgive me if this is already done.

Uhmm, BTW Ryan, is there a way to know how many units of every product have been sold? That's the sense of having a "Best sellers" block and by now my code just displays the most expensive ones since I haven't found where are the number of units sold for every product (well, or catalog unit, considering classes and atributes). I had a look at the excellent uc_reports.module but couldn't find an easy way to select those "best sellers". Any suggestion?

Ok, thanks Ryan, it's true that's the place to have that information.

Hi jorditr,
thanks a lot for this nice contrib! It looks great!
Is there a way to get the products model number (SKU) on products grid display?

something like this:

Hi jorditr,
thank you for your good explanation, i'm really bad in php programming.

And i thank you very much for the new v051!!! You made me really happy!!

Nice job on this module, congratulations.
A few suggestions re usability features... in order of relative importance (imho)

1) I think the most important bit is an option (checkbox) on the config page to include the quantity field... would be nice if it was independant of the add to cart button for max flexability (obviously you would not want the qty field to be displayed without add to cart, but some users may like it as is now - add to cart button only)

2) perhaps another option to tighten up white space (minimize the padding on top & bottom of rows)

3) adjustment of grey border line (perhaps an invisible border option) or ability to define a hex colour of the border line... then admin can make it same colour as background to make it invisible.

4) a bit of ajax so when you hover over an image it shows a floating full size image (a check box option in config would toggle this functionality on/off)...(homedepot.ca does this.. clever use of ajax)

again great job...well done.... down right uberlicious

Thanks for your contribution, jorditr.
I really like your job.
I used to have UC alpha 7c, and used a catalog grid display module. I guess that using views as well, it was possible to have the frontpage display the product using a grid too. This was a sort of 'Featured Products' for the main site, for whichever items were promoted to frontpage. Do you know, using your module, how to display this items at the frontpage using the grid?

Thanks =)

BTW, credits have to go to david who published the first catalog grid module which code I took to create that variation of the uc_catalogue.module. I wanted to create something similar when I found his module and I took his work to create the grid which I've upgraded with more features and making it compatible with the present release. On my agenda is changing the present code from tables to css-divs code.

Hi Claire,

lines 293 and 294 for the block name inside the blocks admin page,

line 797 for the cheapest products inside the t('') function:

line 829 for the best sellers products inside the t('') function:

Hi you all.

I'm still discussing some of this upgrades with Lyle but, meanwhile new version v.6 to test and answer some requests from Claire and Sophia, which I also had. The goal has been to look for giving the store admins much more control and flexibility on customizing their visual presentation. Let's see:

• "Cheapest products" now is "Special Offers"
• both blocks titles are fully customizables, write what you prefer
• help text to explain that block at bottom is also fully customizable, also write here what you prefer
• help text may be excluded if you only want to show the grid of products, on both cases
• so many parameters required a new tab, so new tab for block where all this block settings and also the catalog block are at your view
• drupal blocks (possibility to view those catalog blocks as drupal blocks) updated
• the whole visual catalog grid top level now available as regular block
• compatibility with panels module verified, make with it the kind of presentation for your catalog that you want, independently of the regular catalog module presentation
• if you are not interested on this three regular drupal blocks and you consider that add to many things to the blocks admin page uncheck them and they will be not available as drupal blocks BUT without loosing the regular catalog tree-list block
• the cheapeast products block now changes to "Special Offers", now mark as "Sticky" whatever products you want to offer as special prices and they will appear on the block, an easy way to use regular Drupal tools to mark special offers products and highlight them on a visual block

I tested all the new check/uncheck new features on my own site on developement and they look to work properly but maybe some combination could go wrong, who knows, tell me if you find something wrong.

I've committed this version to the repository after making some changes. Mostly these were getting the code up to W3C and Drupal standards. I took out the variable "uc_independent_catalog_blocks" because they were always being displayed before it was set. And then, when I couldn't find them in the list, I couldn't turn them off. Since they are disabled by default, it's OK not to have that variable.

I've attached the catalog files for those who want to use it but don't have Bazaar.

Hi there,

I have noticed if there are no Special Offers (i.e. no stickies), then I get the following warnings: -

warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/smsimagi/public_html/sites/all/modules/ubercart/uc_product/uc_product.module on line 874.

warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/smsimagi/public_html/sites/all/modules/ubercart/uc_manufacturer/uc_manufacturer.module on line 302.

If there are some stickies, then these warnings go away and everything seems to be OK.

David

Well, to correct Duds and Sophia error here you have a new corrected version. In fact this version has some additions:

• theme_uc_catalog_products() funtions in charge of listing the products verifies if there are products to list, in case there was no products instead of an error message it created a box displaying a "No products are available on that category." message
• rebuilt settings area with three different pages and subtabs navigation for catalog, grid and blocks as is usual on other ubercart settings page for other modules
• rebuilt overview page with all the settings of the previous three pages listed as is usual on other ubercart settings page for other modules
• description under Special Offers block check box explaining which data is listed it lists and what happens if there is no data available
• description under Best Sellers block check box explaining which data is listed and what happens if there is no data available
• new style div.no-products on the css file to adjust how this not available data is displayed

It is based on the last Lyle upload here and on bazaar. Thanks for support and feedback.

Ah, ok, sorry for this mistakes. Thanks Lyle.

the repository is the latest code kept in a version control system specifically using software called bazaar. see instructions here
http://www.ubercart.org/docs/developer/629/bazzar

happy ubergrids

Hi Alaska. Anything forces the columns to be the same width. If the they are not of the same width is because individual titles for every product (we could say in fact every cell) are taking in account by the browser to decide final widths. Even if we force widths to be equal many browsers will accomodate column widths to be different. In an extrem case is easy to understand if in one column the longest of the titles is 10 characters longs and on another columns the longest title (product name) is 40 characters long. If we force the columns to be the same width then on that extrem case some product names would force a new line and then images wouldn't be misaligned. It's a question of compromises. I'll have a look at the code

Hi Alaska, beautiful products at very interesting prices!!

You're product titles are very long It's difficult to balance everything, not if titles are so long, but if sometimes are long and sometimes are short. All in all I think that in your case are too long, since they are not product names but almost product descriptions. I feel you have some possible solutions:

• give a name to every product and move the present titles to a new field, either a new CCK or use teaser field to save that short description (there are some modules that let you edit the teaser field on node edit independently of the body content)
• leave your titles as they are and create a new css rule (probably ".category-grid-products span.catalog_grid_title") with fixed height, on your case a big amount that would prevent whatever of the longest titles fit, the sorter ones would leave som white room but images would be aligned
• ask to us to crop the title to n characters, a function that whatever characters could have a title only display the fisrt "n" ones, that way you always will have the same title length, although you'll never see the title complete

I've adopted the last solution for a uc_product modification I've proposed at http://www.ubercart.org/forum/ideas_and_suggestions/1920/uc_products_mod...
You'll see there a pic where all the products have been forced to have exactly the same wdth and height on every cell, just cropping the title. BTW, maybe you would like that modification that adds a list of other products on the same category to the node (product) view throu a drupal block.

Say your wife my wife would be amazed with your designs

Regarding titles. It's not a questions that your titles should be shorter, the point is that I think that they are not titles but descriptions, or say, short descriptions (in fact, teasers). From a marketing point of view you could add suggestive titles to your wife's works, as such beautiful products deserve like "crystal wind", "swans song", "moon colors", uhmm, whatever. Accept that both as a technical comments and a personal comment.

Regarding Amazon listing, they sell books, not beautiful pieces of art that should catch buyers eye instantly. In that sense, table list is likely to be a good solution for amazon, in fact the cover it's what should inspire you to buy the book but the content and size, and pages, and so on, and on your site is the other way around, it's the pic and not the explanations what will lead people to buy your products. Every shop has different marketing goals and techniques and that's what both kind of listing are necessary on a shopping software. On that sense I would even increase the size of the thumbnail presented on the grid (imagecache settings) and reduce the number to items shown at once to maybe 8 or even 6, and only two columns at a time. All that IMHO

Regarding your amazon pic, it's true, more and more e-shops use the "other buyers also bought" box as a way to move buyers to keep buying other interesting items on the shop. That's what I'm trying to get with the uc_product upgrade suggestion

Hi Alaska. The v.034 relates to the uc_product module not to uc_catalog, does nothing on the grid, the new additions allow for a new block for related products. We're discussing with Ryan to split all the blocks with "marketing interest" to a different module.

Is this module compatible with Ubercart Beta?

Ok, thanks. I'll try Ubercart beta 2

is your suggestion solving the issue http://www.ubercart.org/forum/support/2878/seperate_catalog_display_bloc... ?