Tutorial: Custom Yahoo Store: 3/6

There is a wonderful RTML attribute you will need later on called SWITCH, which allows you assign a template based on something’s type. So consider the various types of pages you’ll have on your site, and create a custom type for each one. You might first think of the home page. But that type is “main.” — which is always used for the index page (a.k.a, the home page). So, unfortunately, the assigned type for your home page cannot be reassigned. Everything else is fair game…

Step 3. Create custom types for your store.

Aside from the home page, what other types of pages will you have? Will information pages like “privacy,” “returns” and “about us” follow the same layout? Then create a custom type with the name my-info. To do so, just select New Type, and enter the name my-info.

Once created, define 3 new fields for my-info by selecting the Define New button. The first field to define is the text field “Name” (to supply the page title or content headline when needed). The second text field to create is “Link-label” (to label any of any navigation links pointing to these pages). The third is a big-text field for “Content,” which is a repository for any large chunk of content or code.

Every new piece of content now created with type=my-info will have three variables to which you can assign values. If you want, you can create additional fields for images, numbers, select lists, yes|no and more. But keep I suggest you keep it simple to start, and add wherever needed.

Need a few more types for Category pages? Contact pages? Search pages? Sitemap pages? Just open my-info and create copies, naming them my-categories, my-contact, my-search and my-sitemap. You don’t HAVE to create new types for these pages, if your going to use the same template as type=my-info. But each new type you create gives you freedom to assign a unique template (i.e., DIV id), if you choose.

There is one special category called “item.” that is unlike any other. This type is reserved for catalog items. If you copy type=”item.” — it not only replicates itself – but also creates a new table in your catalog using the same name. This table allow you to manage items of that unique type with database uploads. Go ahead and create a copy of “item.” with the name my-products. Peek in your Catalog Manager and you’ll see that you now have a table for my-products.

Alright, by now you’ve configured digital assets, global variables and page types. Time for Step 4: Upload your store data.

Step 2: Global Variables < Step 3 > Step 4: Store Data