Creating a FOUR-Tier Website using
WebMerge
Creating a Four-Tier Website is very
similar to the three-tier Website. Each tier that you add simply requires an
additional template file and an WebMerge
settings file.
A four tier website is useful when you have a large number
of products (several thousand) and when the datafeed
includes two fields that can be used to create the CATEGORY AND SUBCATEGORY levels
of the Website. These fields could be called, as in the case of the FTC feed,
CATEGORY and SUBCATEGORY. In BeFree feeds, however,
similar fields are called PRIMARY CATEGORY and SECONDARY CATEGORIES. It is also
possible to use fields like MERCHANT or BRAND NAME as a CATEGORY or SUBCATEGORY
field.
In a four-tier Website you usually want all the CATEGORIES
of the datafeed listed on the primary index page.
Clicking on a Category link should take you to a Category Index that the
various subcategories (and an illustrative image) within that category. Clicking
on a subcategory link/image then takes you to a subcategory page that displays
all of the individual products for that subcategory. Clicking on a specific
product then takes you to that page where that product is described and with
links for purchasing the item from the FTC website.
A four-tier website requires three WebMerge
setting files. Each setting file creates one
pair of hierarchical elements, i.e. two levels of a website. There must be
a linking element between each pair of settings files. Below are the specific
settings for the three WebMerge settings files used
in this tutorial. Actual screen shots
are available here.
|
WebMerge Tabbed
Features
|
WM Setting
File 1
|
WM Setting
File 2
|
WM Setting
File 3
|
|
File Name in this tutorial
|
FTC-4Tiers 1.4ww
|
FTC-4Tiers 2.4ww
|
FTC-4Tiers 3.4ww
|
|
Sources: Exported File
|
ftcdatafeed-20records.txt
|
ftcdatafeed-20records.txt
|
ftcdatafeed-20records.txt
|
|
Index Pages: Index Template
|
0-INDEX-TEMPLATE.html
|
0-CATEGORY-TEMPLATE.html
|
0-SUBCATEGORY-TEMPLATE.html
|
|
Index Pages: Generated File
Names
|
Make only one index file
|
Name based on contents of
field
CATEGORY
|
Name based on contents of
field
SUBCATEGORY
|
|
Detail Pages: Index
Template
|
0-DETAIL-PRODUCT-TEMPLATE.html
|
0-DETAIL-PRODUCT-TEMPLATE.html
|
0-DETAIL-PRODUCT-TEMPLATE.html
|
|
Detail Pages: Generated
File Names
|
Name based on contents of
field
CATEGORY
|
Name based on contents of
field
SUBCATEGORY
|
Name based on contents of
field SKU
|
|
Generation: Run other WebMerge Files after this one completes
|
FTC-4Tiers 2.4ww
FTC-4Tiers 3.4ww
|
NA
|
NA
|
The first WM settings file is used to create Index.html and the
placeholder names for the Category level files. The second WM settings file
creates Category levels files (again) and the placeholder names for the SubCategory level.
The third WM settings file create the SubCategory
files (again) and the detail product files.
To automate the running of these three settings files, you
can use the option on the Generation Tab to automatically run WM setting file “two”
and “three” after “one” is completed. Make sure you run them in the correct
order – one, two three!
NEXT:
Four-Tier Screen Shots
BACK TO THE HOME PAGE