Dynamic Navigation Sets instead of Static

[William Davis]

Dynamic Navigation Sets instead of Static, this is a big deal especially for store with a lot of categories and multi-level subcategories.

I've never had any success with XML import when it comes to Navigation Sets, so I bight the bullet and enter 250+ categories manually.

Dynamic Navigation Set would not only simplify things, it would open the door to what I call Dynamic Navigation Set Merchandising powered by Price Groups Category Discounts and discount render token.

Example:

• Abc
• Def
• Ghi - 10% Off!
• Jkl
• Mno
• Pqr - 15% Off!
• Stu
• Vwx
• Yz - $5 Off!

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

* With Caching option. In other words, the navigation is built dynamically but stores as a single text file. Updated whenever Category/Product Notify functions are called. (These are internal function calls that Miva's backend calls to all other sub-systems in modules. So, if you update a category, the "navigation" gets rebuilt.) I'd make this an option in case someone wants to use say, price groups assigned to customers.

Main reason, running through 250 categories is going to chew some time that 95% of the time doesn't need to.

[William Davis]

* With Caching option. In other words, the navigation is built dynamically but stores as a single text file. Updated whenever Category/Product Notify functions are called. (These are internal function calls that Miva's backend calls to all other sub-systems in modules. So, if you update a category, the "navigation" gets rebuilt.) I'd make this an option in case someone wants to use say, price groups assigned to customers.

Main reason, running through 250 categories is going to chew some time that 95% of the time doesn't need to.

Makes plenty of sense. Still, it would be nice to some how let shoppers know what is on sale when they view the category menu. Some shopper would normally not consider browsing through some categories could be enticed to take a look-see if its on sale. I enjoy sitting at the mall every now and then and study the behavior of shopping, its truly amazing how the amount of similarities that exists between those that shop at a store versus online. Try it some time, you will see what I mean and how much you can learn that can be applied to ecommerce that is not on books.