Unfortunately what looks like a promising shop plugin utilizes by default post and not pages to display products. When using post, categories make up the breadcrumb or nav paths. This is a mistake, and makes the entire user experience confusing. If you hit the back button or click onto a breadcrumb, you get an empty category page. My suggestion is to default on pages and not post when publishing products. My overall rating for this plugin stands at a 2.
DukaPress
Categories and breadcrumbs (8 posts)
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moshthepitt
Posted 3 months ago #I do not understand what you mean by "Unfortunately what looks like a promising shop plugin utilizes by default post and not pages to display products."
We use NEITHER posts nor pages. We use custom post types to display products. I believe this is the industry-standard way of creating a displaying products in WordPress since WordPress 3.0
It is quite easy to make:
- a custom theme template to the custom post type and hence display your product the exact way you want it
- a custom category template that will include the custom type when the category is displayed
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Post or custom post are the same. They use categories. These categories are seen within the breadcrumb. If a category is part of the breadcrumb, that is just poor design. I would like to think I am doing something wrong.
I am in the process of reviewing several WP shop plugins and believe me, post are not the standard for product presentation.
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You say,
"It is quite easy to make:
a custom theme template to the custom post type and hence display your product the exact way you want it
a custom category template that will include the custom type when the category is displayed"---------------------------
I did not create a custom theme or custom category template, nor would I think most would know how to do this. When compared to other shop plugins, these steps are not required.
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Posted 3 months ago #I see your points and I thank you for taking your time to offer us this advice. We are thinking of how best to amend this.
Not to take away from your points in any way: some people have said that they prefer our approach because it makes it very flexible when they customise things.
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Posts and custom post types are not the same. You can choose to make a custom post type use the default categories (like we did) or not.Otto has more on this: http://ottopress.com/2010/wordpress-3-0-and-custom-post-types/
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My point again being, most non coders will not want to go through the extra effort and create these templates. For marketing purposes, I would suggest finding a friendlier way as a solution so that categories are not within the breadcrumb path. When you review WP shop online hosting services, they make things extremely easy, this is to make you a loyal client. I suggest you do the same. Out-of-the-box, your script fails to perform. Yes, flexibility has it penalties. I believe you can achieve both.
Regards,
Caps
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Posted 3 months ago #Than you, once again. :)
Cheers
Kelvin
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Posted 3 months ago #Sorry, forgot to add this in: apart from categories ad breadcrumbs might you have advice on any other thing that can be improved?
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Hi Moshthepitt,
Let me install that plugin and get you more feedback. I do have to say, the overall layout and in particular, the checkout widget is great stuff. I do like the plugin. Once I saw categories within the breadcrumb, I uninstalled it. There are extremely few WP shop plugins that make the grade. I have clients willing to pay for a WP shop plugin, but I have not found one worthy. There are either template issues or just poor technical support.
The fact that you are asking for feedback and your overall approach to my post is positive, this is indeed encouraging.
Regards,
Caps
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