How does one implement "Miva Merchant 9.0006 Template Changes"?

[William Davis]

How does one implement "Miva Merchant 9.0006 Template Changes"?

Do I need to use some kind of compare utility? If so, can anyone recommend one?

[Gordon - Phosphor Media]

I use a text editor (TextPad) that lets me view two documents side by side (Tiling). I paste the original into one and the new into another. You can even sync the scrolling of the documents.

Way easier than editing a long template in a textarea.

[William Davis]

Can't help being frustrated with this to put it mildly. Trying to update our 9.5 page templates to MIVA Merchant 9.0006 Template Changes.

Take for example "CSSUI: Edit Page: ACLN" (Original Template) field contents its not at all similar to what we have in our current store, and we have not made any template changes since Levels Framework was added. Why is code so different?

There are other changes made prior to Levels being added (e.g.: failed attempts with other frameworks and custom paid for solutions etc...).

[lesliekirk]

Make sure you are looking at edits for your ReadyTheme. Miva tends to put out the generic edits and not template specific versions. I usually wait until the update for a specific ReadyTheme is released, then upload it to my dev store. Then, if need be, I can use Gordon's suggestion if I've customized the page. If I haven't customized the Page, then I just copy and page the entire page. Much easier than trying to find the lines to edit.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Now that your cows are laying drunk in the drainage ditch, let's talk about those barn doors...

A couple of things that will make living with updates (which are inevitable).

1) Always, ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS use an mvt:comment when adding/changing or doing ANYTHING in a template. You will thank yourself (and me :) ) later.
2) Always modify css styles as follows:
a) create a new css file called mystore.css and load it AFTER all the other styles.
b) if you need to change a style in one of the provided style sheets, copy that complete style (using Chrome Inspector or Firefox Firebug or similar, into your mystore.css file and change it there.

This way, you can always just copy overe the standard CSS files with new ones, and most likely not even have to touch your custom code.

3) For script files, comment any changes to them as well (using // before the comment and making sure the comment stays on one line (no carriage return)

[William Davis]

Great advice from both, thanks!

I have always been very good about commenting code changes.

Example:

<!-- START: [DESCRIPTION], [INITIALS] [DATE-TIME] -->
        Hello World!
<!-- END: [DESCRIPTION], [INITIALS] [DATE-TIME] -->

I use comment tokens too.

As to mystore.css suggestion, not sure if I follow. What I have always done for any time of file since I first started (MM3+) is backup the original file (e.g.: mystore.css-Bk00) and create a new backup for subsequent changes (e.g.: *-Bk01, *-Bk02, etc...).

Upon the start of a new project during testing process there will be many changes, so I start right off with adding an extension for each edit (e.g.: *-Bk03-01, *-Bk03-02, etc...*), once I am finished with said project I save it without the extension (e.g.: *-Bk03) and delete all the project work files that contained extensions.

Withing the file I append my initials along with date and time to my comments. Excessive, you bet! But I don't code often therefore I am not a great coder so I take as many precautions as I can.

But the biggest advantage I find with this concept is succession planning. God forbid I get hit with a truck and my family needs to higher either one of you folks or any one else for that matter, they will be able to quickly pickup the ball where I left off and run with it without a problem. Don't ever want to be missed/remembered for the wrong reason(s) -gee we all love our families.

[lesliekirk]

What Bruce is referring to when creating the mystore.css is to add your own custom CSS or changes that you want to make for existing CSS so not to edit the handful of CSS files that go along with a ReadyTheme.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

What Bruce is referring to when creating the mystore.css is to add your own custom CSS or changes that you want to make for existing CSS so not to edit the handful of CSS files that go along with a ReadyTheme.

Exactly. Its mostly a matter of convenience. For example, say you want to change a color that appears 20 times in a ReadyTheme file, let's call it readytheme.css, so if this is one example of that change:

In ReadyTheme file
.some-style {
margin:12px 0;
background: #454545;
max-height: 300px;}

In YOUR custom file

.some-style {
background: #c0c0c0;
}


Then, if the ReadyTheme file needs updating cause the max-height should have been min-height, all you need to do is replace the ENTIRE ReadyTheme file. Not the dozens of changes to the re-add your customizations.

[William Davis]

Good tip. thanks!

[Keitho]

Back to the original question. How does one implement "Miva Merchant 9.0006 Template Changes"?

What if my Templates (updated in July for Levels at 9.5) bare little resemblance to the "Old Template" or "New Template" on the current change log. In many of them I can't even find the section where the new lines should be added. Some of my templates date back to 2012 so I understand that they may differ from others. However, I should be able to pinpoint the places to add or delete lines.

Dumb question: What do the ... (3 periods) at the beginning and end of the template signify? I just don't do this often enough to retain this in my feeble brain.

[lesliekirk]

Back to the original question. How does one implement "Miva Merchant 9.0006 Template Changes"?

What if my Templates (updated in July for Levels at 9.5) bare little resemblance to the "Old Template" or "New Template" on the current change log. In many of them I can't even find the section where the new lines should be added. Some of my templates date back to 2012 so I understand that they may differ from others. However, I should be able to pinpoint the places to add or delete lines.

Dumb question: What do the ... (3 periods) at the beginning and end of the template signify? I just don't do this often enough to retain this in my feeble brain.

Let's answer the dot dot dot question first - consider it a starting and stopping off point in the code instead of having the entire template code to scroll through, they used the dot dot dots to say "start here" and "end here"

It sounds like you've been staying on top of the finding all the little code changes and additions so I'd say keep on doing what you've been doing unless told other wise.

[Keitho]

Thanks for the words of support Leslie. I'm not as savvy as you may think. I had so much trouble trying to update the templates for in my live store to 9.4 (finding that I didn't have the anchor points to make the changes around) that I have gave up when customers couldn't check out and rolled back to 9.3 I then took my DEV store to 9.5 and currently plan to graft that framework onto the live store or bring the live store data (sans history) into the DEV store.

My key problem with updating the 9.3 live store remains in the 9.5 DEV store. What do I do if a current template doesn't contain the portion that the new version instructs me to follow or delete. If I don't have it I don't know where to place the new portion. I even tried generating the new templates (per the instructions) and that did not work (not to mention that some templates don't have that option).

Will there be 9.6 templates for the Levels ReadyTheme (and others) any time soon?

[Keitho]

Follow-up.

BTW, the 9.5 Template Updates included each entire Template so you could copy and paste it in. 9.6 went back to the partial sections. I spent hours yesterday having to backtrack through 9.6, 9.5, 9.4, and 9.3 Template update documents just to make sense of when changes started. It became such a mess that I instructed Miva Support to roll back my DEV store to 9.5. 9.6 also has a bunch of new templates which apparently require new pages. Without knowing which items to assign to each new page how are we supposed to get this done?