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BISI Guru
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Through trial and error I have come up with a custom store design and layout, which was a real feat since I have limited HTML knowledge and I really do not understand the BISI markup system. The layout of my store design is a 3 column layout with a header and a footer. With the help of Microsoft FrontPage, I have created several pages such as a "Home" page; "About Us" page; "Contact Us" Page; and some other pages, including a couple of custom pages. Although each page is different, the left column, the right column, the header and footer is exactly the same on each page. The only thing that changes from page to page is the middle sections.
Now I want to move the pages from FrontPage to BISI and I thought that all that I needed to do was click the "Appearance" link of BISI, ---->"Custom Template" and simply cut and paste the HTML code for the various pages into the corresponding tabs. For example the HTML code that I did for the "About Us" page would be pasted in BISI "About Us" tab. However, things have not proven to be that easy.
When I pasted the HTML code that I did for the "Home Page" into the tabbed "Home" section of the Custom Template page of BISI, the page shows up fine when i go to my site; and
when I pasted the code that I have for "About Us" in the BISI "AboutUs" tab, this page also shows up fine when I click the "About Us" link on the Home Page.
However, when I click the "Terms" link, the "Home Page pops up, instead of the "Terms" page that I pasted popping up! So I must be doing something wrong.
Near the top of the "Custom Template" page under "Appearance" it states: "View the custom template wiki for detailed instructions and variables." I saw the variables in the wiki, however; there are no detail instructions on how to use the "BISI Custom Template" page (at least I did not see any). Consequently, I am coming to the forum for detail instructions, which will not only help me, but also help others who are creating a custom template or plan to create one in the future.
1. After clicking the "Appearance" link of BISI, ---->"Custom Template", what do I put in each tabbed section.?
Since pasting the HTML code for the various pages that I created in FrontPage into the corresponding tabs did not work (at least not for me.), do I paste somewhere the HTML code for the the left column, the right column, the header and footer, the parts of the template that does not change from page to page OR
do I only paste in the tabbed sections the middle section that does change from page to page? For example, the middle section, that contains the "About Us" info would go in the "About Us" tab??
2. Is the link for each of the tabbed section, "http://store-name.mybisi.com/$Store.name-of-tabLink" ?
For example:
Home Page: "http://store-name.mybisi.com/$Store.HomeLink";
About Us: "http://store-name.mybisi.com/$Store.AboutUsLink";
Contact Us: "http://store-name.mybisi.com/$Store.ContactUsLink;
Terms: "http://store-name.mybisi.com/$Store.TermsLink";etc., etc.
3. What do I paste in the "Custom Pages" tab that appears on the "Custom Template" page under "Appearances"
vs.
the "Custom Pages" that appears directly under "Appearances" ?, (This is also a question that I also asked in another thread, but I still do not understand.
Thanks in advance for any help. Also for those who have created a BISI custom template, any tips would be helpful and appreciated.
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BISI Guru
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Last Login: Today @ 10:47:55 PM
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Maybe the best place to start would be to download the bisi sample templates and open those in your editor. You can see examples of the code needed for your store to work.
Remember that a template will not contain much content. It will contain the code that will pull the content from your bisi store database. You really have to understand the bisi markup well to create a template from scratch.
Both of the stores I have that are linked in my signature are what I call "semi-custom". I took the bisi sample templates and changed the css to meet my needs. Thus changing the appearance of the store, but not changing the html, the bisi code or the layout css. This is the safest way to start. I've tweaked the layout some since then but I don't mess with the bisi code or html.
~Gayla
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BISI Guru
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 5:16:09 PM
Posts: 122,
Visits: 945
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Thank you Jubilee for your reply. You always seem to be there to help others. You stated in your reply above that maybe the best place to start would be to download the bisi sample templates and open those in my editor; and I can see examples of the code needed for your store to work".
I did just that weeks ago. I downloaded the bisi sample templates and then opened each page of the sample template in my editor, Microsoft FrontPage. I really did not mess with the BISI code but I did change the HTML code and now have a 3 column design and layout, which you did see in the other thread.
My question above is where do I go from here? In essence, now that I have opened the sample template in the editor (FrontPage), tweaked things to my liking, where do I put what I have done back into BISI. I am assume that everything will go on the BISI Custom Template page ["Appearance"--->"Custom Template"].
My big question is exactly what do I put on the page and exactly where do I put it?
Can you or anybody else answer this question for me?
Thanks in advance for any answers or help.
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BISI Guru
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 10:47:55 PM
Posts: 975,
Visits: 2,202
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Well, each template that you "tweak" would go into the corresponding tab on the Appearance> custom templates page. Product Details to the product details tab, Product List to the product list tab, etc. Copy and paste the entire page html into the right template box.
However, I think your problems are going to require more expertise than I have. (I'm just learning this stuff too!) I assume that you are hosting your domain name here at bisi, right? But when I look at the source for the two addresses for your home page:
www.adornelements.com
www.adornelements.mybisi.com
(both are appropriate)
the first one shows no html, just a "frameset". On my sites, the source html is the same for either address option so I'm guessing that might have something to do with your problems. I'm showing my ignorance here, but I have no idea what a frameset is. Maybe it's not a problem? I've read that bisi doesn't accommodate frames but again, I'm not sure what that means. 
I've also heard that Frontpage has some compatibility issues with their html output so that could possibly be an issue also. I do my pages/templates in Dreamweaver which is nice, but expensive. I've read here in the forums that some people like an inexpensive html editor called Coffee Cup.
Anyway, this seems over my head. Hope someone smarter is reading and posting!!! 
~Gayla
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BISI Guru
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 5:16:09 PM
Posts: 122,
Visits: 945
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Thank you Jubilee for your response.
Pursuant to what you discovered, I submitted a support ticket to Tomas to see if this was a problem since my site was showing.
While waiting for a reply from Tomas, a friend suggested that it might be a problem and that the problem might be with my domain name and not BISI. Consequently, I telephoned the company where I purchased my domain name (yes I can call them on the phone ) and I explained the problem. They stated the "Name Servers" had not been directed to to my domain.mybisi.com, and that my domain had only been forwarded to BISI and had been done so in "stealth" mode.
They walked me through changing the "Name Servers" and also changed the forwarding to "non-stealth" mode. Although changes have now been made in the system; they said that it can take up to 72 hours for the changes to be implemented on the web.
I am thinking that the fact the "Name Servers" was not set up correctly is what caused the problems that I was having with my links not working and that when a link did work, the wrong page popped up. I am keeping my fingers crossed that within the next 72 hours everything will then be working o.k.
Although you stated that my problem was over your head, because you pointed out that the source code for my website address was not showing any HTML just a "frameset" did cause me to investigate this as a possible problem; and it turned out to definitely be a problem.
Thanks again Jubilee.
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