Simple Template System Contrib (STS) in MS2MAX?

[glk]

I would like to use Brian Gallagher's STS Simple Template System in MS2MAX. But I don't know if I can with my MS2MAX, short of uninstalling this version and reinstalling OSC Basic again.

I lost tons of time trying to figure out OSC unsuccessfully, so when I read MS2MAX was template driven, I uninstalled Basic OSC and switched to MS2MAX. I find that the MS2MAx template system is not as WYSISWG as I thought. I know html but not php so I don't know how to intergrate the two properly...one little semicolon missing and the whole site goes into parsing spasms.

Anyway, I read herein of the STS 2.0 and would like to use that to design my catalog since I can html in FrontPage where I can see where I insert the php.

Is there a way to use STS 2 in MS2MAX?

Regards,

Lisa

[michael_s]

If you use a wysiwyg editor like dreamweaver or frontpage you can just drag and drop the php elements in the wysiwyg view. It is 100% wysiwyg. Just a simple drag and drop to move the php around, and you dont need to know jack about php...

STS will work, but it is redundant and less flexible than BTS...

[paulM]

I've created a (alfa release of) "STS-for-the-BTS" contribution today. I don't know anything about the STS so 'm not 100% positive if it works like it should, but it seems ok as far as I can see. Also I'm not sure if it's the right way to go, the STS appears to slow down the script quite a lot (while the BTS does not!).

A better aproach might be to create a somewhat simplyfied template for the BTS, then it really makes very little difference if you need to edit a STS or BTS template (what's the difference in difficulty between "$content" and "<?php include $content; ?>" ?).

On the other hand it seems now that it's possible to add the STS with a minimal change to the core code, only adding some STS configure defenitions, so by itself its no problem (maybe it would be nice/wiser to have it as an addon, i.s.o. adding it to the core).

Paul

[jpf]

It would be easier for the beginner maybe to use

HTML template for the BTS
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,3127
The HTML template for the BTS is targetted at users that have the BTS pre-installed but, for whatever reason, would rather edit an HTML template (in stead of a PHP enabled template).

[paulM]

Originally Posted by jpf

It would be easier for the beginner maybe to use

HTML template for the BTS
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,3127

I've updated that contri today to version 1.1

Now it has two separate templates for both HTML (same as in 1.0) and PHP code (new for 1.1). The new "php code template" makes it a lot easyer to modify the template code, so it should be quite easy to adapt to the current osCMAX version.