Want to make an html/css homepage that client can edit

[Kris]

Can someone tell me if I can do this on shop site. As stated, I want to create a customized html/css document for a homepage (not from a pre made shopsite template). But I want the client to be able to access the homepage and the shopping cart and be able to edit them both. Do I need to set the home page up in a separate cms like Joomla and give the client a user and password to both programs? I appreciate the help.

[Jim]

You could create a home page out side of ShopSite and allow the client to make changes to that file. But why complicate the issue. It would be easier for the your client to learn one interface instead of two and to have one login to remember instead of two.

Some merchants create all of their page content outside of ShopSite and use the Order Anywhere feature of ShopSite to put the order buttons for there product on the pages they create. That works fine if you have a few products but it you have hundreds of products it is easier to maintain it all in one place.

The ShopSite shopping cart screens (order, checkout, thankyou) are all contained in a template file and are generated as they are displayed. The merchant can modify the template (Pro and Manager level stores but not Starter) but they can't directly modify the screens themselves. There are also text fields in the ShopSite merchant interface where they can change things like the header, footer and text that appears on the shopping cart screens without having to access the template itself.

[Kris]

I appreciate your reply. However, from a designer's point of view (mine) I don't want the entire site to look like a shopsite template. I told my client I will be creating for them a custom website. I don't want the entire website to be a shopping cart template. I want to add my own personal touch to his landing page and I want it to be a truly customized website. The shopping cart can be a generic template. That is okay with me. It doesn't have to be customized IMO. I don't consider altering an existing templates colors and fonts to be a custom website.

Do you mean to say then that I can not do what I am asking through shopsite? Because what I am wanting to do is create a true custom website, then add a shopping cart to it, then give my customer one username and password to edit both in a wysiwig editor.

Unfortunately, my client will not be happy with the OrderAnywhere buttons. He wants a shopping cart.

Thank you for the support.

[Jim]

What do you mean by "He wants a shopping cart."

There are basically 2 parts to having an online store,
1. the pages of the store with the products that you want shoppers to buy
2. the checkout process where the shopper gives billing and shipping information and pays for the items they are buying.

Are you calling both of those together the "shopping cart"?

There are several of ways to use ShopSite for the pages of the store
1. You can create all the html for the pages outside of ShopSite using something like Dreamweaver, Then you can add the add to cart buttons for the stores products using the Order Anywhere feature.
2. You can use the built in themes to select a look that fits the site.
3. You can take a custom design and make that design into a template by adding ShopSite template tags to replace the various parts of the design with text, colors, images etc that the merchant configures in the ShopSite's merchant interface.

The checkout part of the process would be the same for all three of the above methods. The checkout screen can also be highly customized by using built in templates or by creating a custom template.

I don't know if you have tried one of the ShopSite demo stores but if you haven't you might go to http://shopsite.com/demo.html and get one of the demo stores and experiment a bit.

http://www.shopsite.com/featuredstores/ shows a number of stores that are using ShopSite. Some are using the built in ShopSite templates, other are using custom templates that they or a designer created for them. I don't know if any of them are using the Order Anywhere feature but it is entirely possible that they could be.

There is great flexibility in designing a store when using ShopSite, probably more than any other Shopping cart. See some of the comments that merchants have made about ShopSite at http://www.shopsite.com/quotes.html#merchant

[Kris]

Okay, thank you for the help. I hope I can find an e-commerce solution with a cms (like shopsite) for managing the entire site because I think implementing the entire website through one CMS that is on an e-commerce that has security in mind would be most desirable, rather than using a general open source widely used CMS and then using an online store plug-in. I think this more than doubles the likelihood of hacks and stolen credit card information. What do you think about that?

In answering your questions: What do you mean by "He wants a shopping cart." and
Are you calling both of those together the "shopping cart"?

I was referring- crudely apparently- to the whole store as a shopping cart. I understand technically that the shopping cart is where the selected items are (within the online store). I think sometimes people refer to the whole thing as a shopping cart, but I will refrain from that here.

You gave me 3 choices, but actually I think none of them are what I want to do.

Please allow me to explain. It is actually I think much simpler than that. I want to make a landing page and perhaps some other pages for my client's website. I simply want to then attach to his website your shopping cart with one of your templates. I don't need to make my own template for the online store. I don't even need to adjust the look and feel of one of your templates that much. I just want to make him a a custom website that has nothing to do with an online store- just a website. Then I want to link his online store to the website from the navbar. Simple as that. But then I just want him to be able to edit both
1) my designed website
2)and your shopping cart
in one CMS with one username and password, so he only has to learn one editor interface, just like you said.

So,

1. I don't want to use your template for the entire website
2. I don't want to use the Order Anywhere feature as I am sure he will have too many products.
3. I don't want to design my own online store template.

So I guess I still don't really know whether I can do what I want to do with shopsite or not. Sorry if my question seems complicated, and thank you again for the support and patience.

Kris

[Jim]

I think implementing the entire website through one CMS that is on an e-commerce that has security in mind would be most desirable, rather than using a general open source widely used CMS and then using an online store plug-in.

Yes I believe that is true.

You can create as many pages you want outside of ShopSite and link them to the store using <a href...> links. Examples of such pages would be a main page, a contact us page, an About us page etc. So that is not a problem.

I don't understand where you are going to put the products that the client is trying to sell. If you don't want to use Order Anywhere links or use ShopSite templates or create a custom template for the pages the products are on, how will they be displayed so people can purchase them?

[Kris]

There is a miscommunication here. I said,

"I want to make a landing page and perhaps some other pages for my client's website. I simply want to then attach to his website your shopping cart with one of your templates. "

I want to make a website for him on your content management system so the owner of the site can edit it when I'm done.
I also want the website to have an online store -made with one of your templates- attached to it via a hyperlink (navbar link).

That's it. I just want my own personal landing page that I made from html and css, and I want the owner of the site to be able to edit it afterwards on your content management system, so he can edit both the site and the online store on your content management system.

I just don't want the entire website that I sell to my client to look like it is a shopsite generic template. I want part of it (particularly the landing page) to be a custom design by me. Yet I want him to be able to edit everything- the landing page and online store- in one place (that is your CMS).

[Jim]

Most of that is possible to do. Create the home page and any other pages you need however you would like. Then include links on them to take the shopper to the ShopSite store pages.

The hard part is "Yet I want him to be able to edit everything- the landing page and online store- in one place (that is your CMS)." You can't edit pages that were created outside of ShopSite within ShopSite. They would need to make any changes to pages created with some other tool using that other tool.

[Kris]

Okay, thank you for the help. I think I will just use a different online store because I know of one that I am testing out right now that allows me to use their html editor, and there I think I can make my own splash page. I am trying it out now. I hope it can be edited using their editor.