Making 'MyStore' ... 'YourStore'

Finally we get to the guts, the product database files. This is where you get to enter detail information about your products. Now you can worry ... just kidding. As long as you follow the directions carefully, you should have no problems. If you do make mistakes, your store will not function properly; however, since none of the saved files go back to the Templates folder, you can always get a fresh document from Templates to work on. It is suggested that you create a sample version of your product database (just a few entries) to try out first before spending a lot of time doing it wrong. All templates are in the Templates folder. Do not make the mistake of saving the document you're about to edit, back to this folder!

Again, we recommend that you use the Database Wizard to generate your entries.

Make those folders now
Before starting to fill in a product database file, it's a good idea to make the folders for each of the categories you named in the category_db file. These folders reside in the main database folder. (MyStore/Database/category folders) Make sure each folder name is exactly as entered in the category_db as these names are used to navigate the site.

Now lets make some detail entries
Open the product database file. The template is:

product_db.me

This file is principally a JavaScript document. It is where you provide the detail information about your products. This document includes two lists:

  1. The first list has only two lines, format[0] and format[1]. As the name implies, these lines are used to format the look of the category and the item detail pages.
  2. The second list has as many lines, line[0] through line[n], as you have items in the category. Remember, each file you create with the category_db document is for one category only. Within that category, can be as many items, "lines[n]", as you want.

First lets work on the 'format' lines:
format[0] is used to set the background and font colors for the category, item select page. The syntax used here may seem a little strange. This is because we used a shortcut to reduce the file size. That not withstanding, after 'Type=', you see the word, 'category', replace it with the name of your category beginning with a capital letter. This is the same name you used in the category_db.htm file.(Caps and spaces must remain the same.) After 'bgcolor=', you'll see something like '#44facc'. This is the hex code for the color. You can replace it with your own code or the name of a color. Do the same again following where you see 'fgcolor='. This is the font color for the page. In all cases, be very careful to retain the single quote marks enclosing your entry.

format[1] is used to set the background and font colors for the category, item detail page. Make your entries here the same way you did for format[0]. The word, 'category' will again be replaced by your category name; the same as above.

A word about selecting colors: For a successful store, you want to keep everything as readable as possible and maintain a consistent look. To help in doing this, we have provided you with a color utility as part of the database viewer. With this you can experiment with page and text colors. And even though we describe the formatting process first, we think it should be the last thing you do.

We suggest you enter the category name and accept the default colors for now. You can come back to the document latter. It will be saved as:

yourproductcategoryname_db.htm

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