Attn: savvy1 (akopia / interchange related)

[ekko]

Savvy1,

We've moved to Red Hat's Akopia/Interchange at your suggestion and I must say it is quite the upgrade. It has everything and anything we want,... the only problem is most of everything and some of anything is over my head.

We are just going to build on top of this generic 'hardware store' template and change everything to meet our needs - nothing too in depth. I have an understanding of how the DB pulls everything from your product.txt files, however how do you modify the way it sorts this info? It looks to me like when you click on a Category it actually does a search to pull up your products, but the results are constantly the same (but not how I want them sorted).

For it to be effective I really need to be able to sort the products in a list by Product Name (not sku or anything like that). I have searched and searched for documentation on this, but it all makes no sense or is over my head.

Also, is there a way to create beyond two levels of Categories?

For example right now it is:

Engine
Intake
Products

I would like it to be:

Engine
Intake
Company
Products
Company 2
Products

etc...

If you could help or point me somewhere else that could help I would really appreciate it.

Thank You

[ekko]

...by the way I see you are right down I55 from me... I'm in Bloomington/Normal.

[WebSavvy]

Oh my gosh, really? I am moving to Bloomington this summer. :)

I have the 4.6 version of the cart on my server. I never had to configure it beyond 2 products. They used to have a help manual on their server but I see with their new design it's no longer there.

However, you can contact akopia at:

consulting@akopia.com

Explain to them exactly what you are trying to accomplish and they will instruct you every step of the way. They have outstanding customer service.

It really is an awesome cart as it is capable of so many configurations and customizations.

Let me know how things progress. I will be interested to hear.

Best Wishes,

-Deb

[WebSavvy]

I did a quick search and found the help manual after all. Here is the URL:

http://help.akopia.com/4.6.0/


:)

[ekko]

Bloomington is a nice city - I hope you enjoy it here.

On another note I sent an email to the address you gave me and they aren't answering support questions there anymore.

Intead you have the option of purchasing 10 hour support blcoks at $1800.00 each. Ouch!

I've thrown my questions at the Akopia Interchange User List and hopefully they'll be able to respond. I really really like this shopping cart, but I'm afraid the learning curve is going to be so high that by the time I learn it I'll be out of business anyway!
:D

[WebSavvy]

Geez that's an awful lot of money for support.

<insert gasps for air> :rolleyes:


I think I may still have a few names around here in my office of folks who've developed their own "how-to's" for the akopia shopping cart. Let me see if I can locate them and I'll give you the info.

Yes, it is a great shopping cart. With each new version they seem to raise the learning curve even more. They've just redesigned their site. The old site was much better and more user-friendly. There was tons of FAQs and help sections for the cart and support was free.

I guess $1800 for ten hours, is "progress" ???? :rolleyes:

[ekko]

Thanks - anything you could find will probably help.

I'm understanding the basic idea,... just going to take some time to master it. The Wizard I have with this version is nice, and the rep I spoke with this afternoon said they are working to develop the wizard so a general user can come in and setup everything with little or no knowledge. The problem is that it is going to take a lot of work to get it there.

Until then, I'm going to just have to learn because there is no way I'm paying $1800 for 10 hours of support!