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Link to products or groups in the Link field type of ItemTypes

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Adrian Ursu Dynamicweb Employee
Adrian Ursu
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Posted on 13/11/2017 21:08:04

Hi guys,

the title of the post might not be that obvious fro what I am looking /missing.

I am using ItemTypes extensiveley. I think in most cases it give a good option to create a customised UI for a specif purpose and it makes the Admin's life easier.

On the same note, I think it might be useful to have a way to add a link to a product or group when using the Link field type.

We have the possiblity to add links to paragraphs, pages or files but we cannot give the admin an easy way tro add a link to a Product group or to a Product.

I know it is complicated because such a link includes a PageID, a GroupID and a ProductID. Maybe a sort of "Link wizard" can do the trick.

I would do it myself as a combination of 3 parameters but I don't think I have a way to open a Group selector or a Product Selector. the Product field type is good but I have not found a way to limit it to just one product.

Do you think a functionality like this have a chance to make it in a future release?

Can this be accomplished by using CodeFirst ItemTypes instead of the ones defined using the backend UI? 

Thank you,

Adrian


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Nuno Aguiar Dynamicweb Employee
Nuno Aguiar
Posted on 13/11/2017 21:14:45
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Hi Adrian,

 

You have a product selector. With it you can get the product's Primary of First group, which holds the page ID. Wouldn't that work? I know you have to code a little to get it, but should not be complex to do it.

That would also ensure the a user does not point to PageID=2 but the group is pointing to PageID=1, ensuring consistency.

 

I think what would work is on the Product  field type have the option to:

  • Allow products
  • Allow variants
  • Allow groups
  • Max number of selections

 

I took a quick look to the product selector and you can actually set the paragraph to open the product in, which means you don't even need to set the logic I described above.

 

Best Regards,

Nuno Aguiar

 
Adrian Ursu Dynamicweb Employee
Adrian Ursu
Posted on 13/11/2017 22:17:45
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Hi Nuno,

For one thing, the Product Selector is very good for selecting the products. 

One of the cons is that you cannot prevent the user from selecting multiple products or just a master product and not a variant.

Is good at what it does but it's not perfect.

What I am looking for is a way to easily select a Group Link. Like you get from an EcomNavigation.

For example, if you have a paragraph on the homepage and you want to promote a specific category from the shop, the admin has to copy/paste the link from the Ecom.

And if you are not using EcomNavigation anywhere on the website (I know it sounds absurd but I already have my second case in 3 months) they don;t have any easy way to get that link.

Right now I am working on an ItemType that can help building of MegaMenus. The one wehre you can actually control how many columns you have and what advertisign you want in. But that is relying on the ability to create links to EcomGroups as well.

I have been able to mimic the functionality by using a couple of SQL based Dropdown lists where I select the EcomGroups and the Pages that contain ecom_Catalog and are neither deactivated nor Hidden. This serves the purpose for now but I think an All-In-One solution that claims to have an integrated way of working with content and products should be able to privide an easy way for an admin to add a link to an ecommerce group.

Don't you think so?

Thanks,
Adrian

 
Nuno Aguiar Dynamicweb Employee
Nuno Aguiar
Posted on 13/11/2017 22:29:26
Reply

Hi Adrian,

 

I see now why a single "Link item field" would make sense. Because in the end you don't know if the user is linking to a page, a paragraph, a file, or an ecommerce group (or even an external link).

 

Did you though of having the user select the type of link first (Page/Paragraph/Files VS Ecom) and show a different field afterwards?

 

And for what's it worth: +1

 

Best Regards,

Nuno Aguiar

 
Adrian Ursu Dynamicweb Employee
Adrian Ursu
Posted on 13/11/2017 22:40:14
Reply

Thank you Nuno,

Actually that's what I ended up doing. It seems that we think very much alike :)

I have created first a Link type selector (Regular link or Group link) then I show/hide the options according to the selection.

But this is just a momentary workaround.

I hope that DW will find this request worthwile.

Thank you for your support.

Adrian