top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

[Mark Hood]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Here's one I came up with on the way to the Miva Conference last week. Use the Emporium Plus Tool Kit to display the Power Search results from more than one store. So if you have two stores which sell similar products, customers searching on one of the stores can see a link (and even a few products) that match the search query from the other store. The "how to" do this info is actually in the Power Search install/usage doc, but it is using the Emporium Plus Tool Kit to actually do the insert. http://tinyurl.com/yesenvu

It was really great meeting you and hearing your stories from Italy and abroad. You made the comment about this idea and to see it just a couple days later is awesome. I will be putting it to use soon :) Thank you for all you do to make my life and others easier

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

WAITLIST Function in toolkit:

Has a nice built in javascript popup window and works with the built in Merchant 5.5 Attribute Inventory introduced in the wombat release. Replaces the previous separate Wait List module.

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

That popup is a free 3rd party javascript. It can be used for many things, not just the new waitlist function in toolkit. I use it for displaying images and descriptions on product list type pages where the time loading or amount of space would not be conducive to show them in the list. Search for something at this page and you can expand the description or popup the image http://mm55.emporiumplus.com/SRCH.html

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

That is a nice example, Bill.

I am assuming that the popup detail has to be a new page template? (looks like it is called EXPANDEDDESC) And that it would have to have tokens to call the product description and / or images, right?

In your expanded examples on the search results page, is it reading from a flat file? Or is it making a database query? Looks like a flat file...

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

This token <mvt:item name="product_display" /> is on that page template. So it passes the product_code and the regular product display layout is called. The only field used is the description. The tool kit is used to highlight stuff.

[rescuepet]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

You asked, so here's another one. This is a SEO usage of the export function. As you probably know, my Power Search module has a feature that exports the search terms to a file that you can analyze. That allows you to identify search terms people are using. You can use that info to improve your keyword and metatag usage in your store and potential adword purchases.

Well, not everybody has the Power Search module. So if you have the Tool Kit, you can do something very similar. In the SRCH page template code locate the section where it checks to see if any Search terms were found. You'll see a message of none found. Just after that you will see an <mvt:else>, then the product_list item/token. So you can use this section of code and put the following:

<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="export|search_none.dat^|^g.Search" />

<mvt:else>

<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="export|search_found.dat^|^g.Search" />

This example is only tracking the words searched. You could add the IP address or other bits of data if you want. Then periodically go to the data directory Merchant5/s01/export/ and FTP the two dat files for analysis. Delete the two dat files from the server and they will start over.

Is this top ten search term collector still working for you? We did a redesign on our store and upgraded to PR7 and now the output files show size, but no accessible/viewable content. Anyone having a similar problem?

[samirk]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Seems like several of you (post #23 and #26) are using Toolkit to show how much the customer still needs to buy to qualify for free shipping. Can someone share the code for this?

[kayakbabe]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

The store itself has a minimum basket value in it's settings. In the admin link for the store itself, look for the order minimums tab.
That is what I use. It alerts the customer when they visit the cart screen.

Others may have another method especially if they're using toolkit's mini basket and want it to display in there.

[wcw]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Here is an example with $50 as the amount.

<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="basket|itemcount" />
<mvt:if expr="g.itemcount GT 0">
Items in Basket: &mvte:toolkit:basketcount;
<br>Subtotal: &mvte:toolkit:baskettotalF;

<mvt:if expr="l.settings:toolkit:baskettotal LT 50">
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="sassign|trigger|50" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="math_subtract|result|trigger|l.all_settings:toolkit:baskettotal" />
<mvt:item name="toolkit" param="currencyformat|formatted_result|result" />
<br>Order &mvt:global:formatted_result; more products and get good karma today.  
$50.00 is all it takes.
<mvt:else>
<br>Congratulations! Your basket contains over $50.00, therefore you qualify
for good karma today if you complete your purchase.
</mvt:if>
</mvt:if>

[samirk]

Re: top ten uses for Emporium Plus Tool Kit v5 ?

Just what I needed - thanks, Bill!