OpenCart Community

JAY6390 wrote:Well I was just pointing out that it's not 100% separated as an MVC architecture To get the menu output requires recursion if it has sub cats, which means you'll always be mixing the C with the V

not with 1.5.0. with only 3 category levels max showing there are only 3 loops required.

Ah, why the reduction in category levels?

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.

Skyhigh wrote:* 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.

inline styles have no effect on SEO

I believe Daniel said he was aiming to use external css for 1.5.0

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.

There's far more that could be done to reduce code size of a page than removing the small amount of css that's inline. If you have compression set you should notice that the page load speed is practically identical between the inline and non-inline versions. Yes google takes into account page speed, but it's not base on a per microsecond difference. Its weighting on the overall seo will be minimal at best

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')

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)

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.

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.

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..

qahar wrote:

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..

Q had discussed doing this for 1.4.9 not sure what happened with that.

Hello,
When you will have a good template i recomend you to use this website : http://www.conceptfeedback.com/
they have a lot of skilled people that give very good advise.

And for the template system i am learning css and php and i still have no clue on how template a cms or OC, if you have a good tutorial maybe i can make some good template.

Xsecrets wrote:

qahar wrote:

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..

Q had discussed doing this for 1.4.9 not sure what happened with that.

I don't understand the idea

Qphoria wrote:I don't understand the idea

basically it's the header and footer module spots you had discussed a bit a while back. so that you can put modules horizontally at the top and bottom of the site.

That is in 1.5.0 already. I believe daniel has done it using CSS so that depending on position, it automagically uses the correct css to make it look right. Haven't looked at the code for that yet. But I guess it works like
If "left or right" use the .box css stuff
if "home" use the .home css stuff
if "footer" use the .footer css stuff

That is at least how the grid/list stuff works and it works quite well. It is a single TPL.. the tpl code doesn't change.. only the css for .grid or .list

I suggest OC 1.5.0 still use one template default as existing. because you can find thousands free OC templates out there then this is also will giving more opportunity for oc commercial theme developers

do you agree with me?

Yes.. it will be one theme. And if done correctly, it should work as a good base theme for other themes. And really good custom themes should be theme-able with simple CSS and images assuming the html code is good and semantic.

I think this template: http://www.opencart.com/opencart/image/ ... sign_4.png absolutely knocks it out of the ball park. Best looking template for any opensource ecommerce website hands down.

Go with it! I'll eagerly be waiting for 1.5!

Thanks for your hard work!

Alex