1.5.0 Template Discussion

Post by Daniel » Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:08 am

OpenCart®
Project Owner & Developer.

Post by JAY6390 » Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:52 pm

Post by Skyhigh » Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:47 am

One question:
Will the theme for 1.5.0 have all it's CSS in external files?

Up to 1.4.9.1 some of the CSS is embedded (e.g. the icons for the module headers for Bestsellers, etc).
Having all the CSS moved to external files will make it easier to skin*.

* It's not a big job, and I'd be happy to do it, even if just for the SEO benefits**, as long as it can be committed to the trunk so it takes effect for future releases.

** Yes, I'm going on about the height-width image issues, again.

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Post by JAY6390 » Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:57 am

Post by Qphoria » Thu Sep 30, 2010 4:27 am

Post by Skyhigh » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:33 pm

JAY6390 wrote:inline styles have no effect on SEO

Unfortunately wrong, even though my point is very particular - it's still right in terms of SEO

Page load speed does have an effect on SEO - so it there's frequently used CSS placed inline that HTML is being re-loaded every time, increasing page size and hence load time* - if all CSS is in external file (cached) it won't be loaded. **
Plus it makes it much easier to re-style.

I was more referring to the fact that many of the images used in the standard theme (which is good looking), don't specify the image Height&Width, for example the icons used in the header titles - which again, Page Speed doesn't like so much.***

Yes, my point is small but so is the removal of inline CSS - and it all helps.
(as I said, I'm happy to edit the theme to remove inline css and commit it to the trunk, I've already done it a fair few times on various versions of OpenCart )

* Google likes fast sites, as of....about last April
** Yes theres a TINY amount of inline styling in OpenCart, but being a perfectionist and wanting the best, I move it.
*** Yes, although this doesn't affect the actual page load time, giving all images a height&width makes the page 'look' like it loads faster to the user, so its a better all-round experience. Just the same as loading the CSS at the top and JS at the bottom with a jQuery document load wrapper - it all helps.
**** I wanted more stars.

LoveMoissanite.com - Moissanite Rings - Proudly Powered by Opencart
[How To] Speed Up Page Content with Opencart - Opencart advocate since 2009

Post by JAY6390 » Fri Oct 01, 2010 5:36 pm

Post by Skyhigh » Fri Oct 01, 2010 8:11 pm

JAY6390 wrote:Its weighting on the overall seo will be minimal at best

Indeed, which is what I said - my main point was to make it easier to re-style the site.
(which would also include setting the height&width's on images, making the user experience better).

Even so, any effect on SEO in a positive way is a good thing, no matter how small
(you never know when this weeks 'small thing' could be Googles next 'really important ranking factor')

LoveMoissanite.com - Moissanite Rings - Proudly Powered by Opencart
[How To] Speed Up Page Content with Opencart - Opencart advocate since 2009

Post by creativa » Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:17 pm

I think, that beyond the graphic style,
would be really helpful have 4 blocks for modules.
To locate items more freely and even to repeat them in several locations.

For example


Also in advance, I am available on what can I help.
(some little time ago, I uploaded a free theme in extensions without inline styles)

Opencart Template Store
Commercial themes: Sweet Rose, Sweet Yellow, Electronic Blue, Electronic Pink and more...
Free theme: Non Inline Css

Post by OC2PS » Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:44 am

Daniel wrote:

celestial wrote:What happend if i need more categories on the principal home tab menu

you need to split them up into sub ctegories. it will be mega menu style. so there will be 3 levels of categories showing when you haover over the menu.

OC2PS
OC 3.0.3.7, vQmod 2.6.2, Journal3 theme
Arcfesték, Csillámtetoválás, Henna

Check out: All my extensions | My FREE extensions

Post by ThePath » Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:06 pm

Hi folks Ive not posted for a while, need to make more of an effort!

OK so all the themes posted so far look good.

@Daniel: Personally I would drop the tabs all together. Keep the Home link as part of the horizontal menu and stick all the others in the little accessibility menu at very top or in footer somewhere. Very nice though, Im looking forward to the cool filter/search options. It would be cool if there was an easy way to switch the categories from horizontal to module style! Unless you have a huge amount of main cats then the horizontal way with dropdown is much nicer for me.

With regards to the extra themes in the downloads I agree with Jay. Just have the one default and release any others as freebies in the extensions section. From my experience any serious shop owner will want a bespoke theme anyway.

Also it might be a good idea to seperate out the main download from the modules. So you would have the basic OC install then a pack of additional modules. You could even split them down further into their respective categories.

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Post by qahar » Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:49 pm

creativa wrote:I think, that beyond the graphic style,
would be really helpful have 4 blocks for modules.
To locate items more freely and even to repeat them in several locations.

Agree..

Post by Xsecrets » Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:27 am

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Post by Iwao » Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:17 am

Post by Qphoria » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:32 pm

Post by Xsecrets » Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:26 pm

OpenCart commercial mods and development http://spotonsolutions.net
Layered Navigation
Shipment Tracking
Vehicle Year/Make/Model Filter

Post by Qphoria » Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:52 pm

Post by jones » Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:22 am

Post by Qphoria » Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:41 am

Post by alex1 » Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:50 am