BTS Instruction Manual

[fuzzyphil]

Please could somebody post an instruction manual with examples so that us newbies could have some instructions to follow.
It might be allegedly better than STS but at least there's no shortage of documentation for the STS unlike the BTS contribution.

[greebo]

I can't believe that all those people that have viewed this forum can know so much about this BTS Templating system. I'm with Fuzzyphil on this. Some documentation would be a HUGE help.
My vote go's with a big DEFINATELY yes.
Why don't other people add to this post.
We NEED help!

[michael_s]

BTS is very easy. Here are your docs:

All template files are located in the /catalog/templates/[templatename] subdirectories. If you are using the aabox template, the files you want are in /catalog/templates/aabox and /catalog/templates/aabox/content.

To change the entire look of your site, edit main_page.tpl.php to your liking in any html or text editor (Dreamweaver is great), making sure to keep the php elements intact (but you can move them wherever you want in the page). Also edit stylesheet.css, located in the template directory you are using, to customize fonts and colors and background images.

To change the box template, edit box.tpl.php. This will allow you to change the structure/layout of boxes.

To change the center content structure of most pages, edit the content template (located in the content directory of whatever template you are using) that matches the filename of the page you want to edit (look in your browser's url bar to find the correct filename). The only difference in filenames is that the template will have the extension 'tpl.php'

index.php has 2 content pages : index_default.tpl.php and index_nested.tpl.php.

index_default.tpl.php handles the overall center structure of index.php including where the define_mainpage module is displayed, where the default_specials, new_products, and upcoming_products modules are displayed and the overall structure of the html.

index_nested.tpl.php handles the layout of the category listing pages.

That really is all there is to it. If this seems difficult, a book on HTML/CSS will help you understand what is going on in the files. It is all basic html/css.

[malcol27]

The instructiions above are very clear, but if you add a contrib and you want to make sure it also follows and uses the BTS, what do you need to add to the page and what files must be added to your template directory? If Im missing something, please clarify.

[michael_s]

Yes it is a little more complicated to convert files to BTS, but it is a basic cut and paste operation.

It is quite obvious that there is code missing from the pages in the main catalog directory compared to a standard osCommerce install. The first time you try to install a mod that adds code to any of these pages, you will be asking yourself where the heck all the code went...

Well, it has been moved to the content directory of whatever template you are using. If you are adding a mod that says to add code to /catalog/shipping.php, you most likely will add it to /templates/[templatename]/content/shipping.tpl.php.

If a contribution adds a new file to the main catalog directory, call it new_file.php, you will need to split the code in that file so that the html content gets moved to new_file.tpl.php in the templates content directory.

Most PHP files in the main catalog directory label a section of code marked by:
<!-- body_text //--> and <!-- body_text_eof //-->

Your new_file.php should also have this code comment. The code between these tags needs to be moved to your /content/new_file.tpl.php file and you need to delete it from the original code new_file.php.

Next, you will see sections of code in the /catalog/original new_file.php file marked by:
<!-- header //--> and <!-- header_eof//-->

<!-- body //--> and <!-- body_eof //-->

<!-- footer //--> and <!-- footer_eof //-->

Remove these lines all code between them. This is redundant code that is handled by main_page.tpl.php and is no longer needed.

Finally, there will be some remaining redundant html code in your /catalog /new_file.php file that needs to be removed.

Find the line:

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

and the line

</html>

and delete them and ALL the code between them.

This will remove the remaining redundant code, and you should have a file that looks very empty that looks somthing like this:

<?php
/*
  $Id: new_file.php, v1.0 2003/12/04 12:00:00 ra Exp $

  osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
  http://www.oscommerce.com

  Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce

  Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

  require('includes/application_top.php');

  require(DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language . '/' . FILENAME_NEW_FILE);

 
 require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php'); 
?>

Now you will need to add the BTS code to call the template. Open the /catalog/shipping.php file. Find this code:

  $content = CONTENT_SHIPPING;
  $content_template = TEMPLATENAME_STATIC;

  require(DIR_WS_TEMPLATES . TEMPLATENAME_MAIN_PAGE);

Paste it into your /catalog/new_file.php file just above the following:

require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php');

Then change the CONTENT_SHIPPING to new_file and remove the entire $content_template line. Save the file.

If you visit http://yourwebsite/catalog/new_file.php, you will see your new page using your template.

[malcol27]

NOW it makes a little more sense. I couldn't understand how the templating actually took place, but this makes it MUCH clearer! Thanks!

A couple of things that might be useful for newbies to know about BTS is that it is critical to print out and save the first couple of pages of OSCMax after you have done the install. The listing of which .jpg files to change to make your own template will save you alot of time and frustration.

I would also like to add that the stylesheet.css in the template directory is another key piece to customizing your site via bts. This will allow you to change the fonts and colors which build the Box "frames" of your site.

The easiest way to make your own BTS template is to take the default template and change it up a bit. As always, make backups of your entire installation! Here are the steps I followed

1) print out the pages from the default installation so that you know which bts .jpg files to copy over.
2) locate those files in the catalog/image directory and then
3) copy those .jpg files to your local drive (after you copy them, rename the original files so that you will always have them in case you need them) and modify them with Photoshop or windows paint or whatever you'd like, but maintain the file names exactly as they are and the file sizes and then
4) upload them back to the directory they came from.
5) to make changes to the stylesheet.css, use something like topstyle (or another program that is designed for editing .css files. I chose this one because it came up often on google when I did a search for ".css editor")

Just by following the steps above, you can quickly and easily customize the default templates. Im at the step where I need to add a few more pages, so Im going to give Msasek's instructions above a test drive.

[hrhstephen]

Thanks for the info, but with oscmax 2 things seem to be a little different, there is no content folder for each template, there is only one in the fallback template folder.....

Is this correct, also i get duplicates of the last box on the right, i.e articles, is there a way to fix this

[michael_s]

This tutorial is only for BTS in osCMax v1.7. The new BTS version in osCMax2 is much more streamlined.

The new version uses a fallback directory for all content files. Only those content files that you customize need to be in your individual template content dir. If you don't customize them, BTS just grabs it from the fallback directory. Removes all the redundant files...

also i get duplicates of the last box on the right, i.e articles, is there a way to fix this

Do not post osCMax2 questions in any other forums but the osCMax 2 forums. Do a search. This is already being discussed.

[gamerigs]

Now you will need to add the BTS code to call the template. Open the /catalog/shipping.php file. Find this code:

Code:
$content = CONTENT_SHIPPING;
$content_template = TEMPLATENAME_STATIC;

require(DIR_WS_TEMPLATES . TEMPLATENAME_MAIN_PAGE);


Paste it into your /catalog/new_file.php file just above the following:
Code:
require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php');


Then change the CONTENT_SHIPPING to new_file and remove the entire $content_template line. Save the file.

Dont forget to define your content in catalog/includes/filename.php

eg define('CONTENT_SHIPPING', 'shipping');

I found this was the missing instruction when following the instructions above.

[ashelleydesign]

OK...Here I am again. : )

I am installing a osCMax Template...
btw...very excited!
So, I am making every attempt not to get ahead of myself...

Problem 1: The instructions page does not have osCMax specific instructions. Can I use the osCommerce? If no, is what I see here what I am really looking for?