Need To Upgrade Webstie: Need Drop Down Boxes

[RMB Custom Leather]

I need to upgrade my website and I am having trouble finding someone who has the time to either contact me back or build me a website. At this point I really would just like to do it myself however I need a site with drop down boxes so I can give my customer options to choose from. I have found several do it yourself sites but none with a template that has drop down boxes. Can anyone recommend someone or a website that can accomplish what I need? If you can build a site like I need you can email me at the address below.

[TwinOaks]

Have you contacted Kate (CitizenKate) about this? IIRC, she does web design professionally. I believe it's called Studio Two Dogs.

[RMB Custom Leather]

Have you contacted Kate (CitizenKate) about this? IIRC, she does web design professionally. I believe it's called Studio Two Dogs.

I can't seem to get ahold of her sent a few messages PM's , email, and voice mail. The site looks down right now.

[Sylvia]

I need to upgrade my website and I am having trouble finding someone who has the time to either contact me back or build me a website. At this point I really would just like to do it myself however I need a site with drop down boxes so I can give my customer options to choose from. I have found several do it yourself sites but none with a template that has drop down boxes. Can anyone recommend someone or a website that can accomplish what I need? If you can build a site like I need you can email me at the address below.

Hi Are you planning to tie the code to a database for inventory tracking. Or do you just need something that will send the color-way and size to your order desk?

If it is the second option you might be able to use this online dropdown box code generator.

http://freecodesource.com/index.php?page=myspacegenerators/drop-down-list-generator

I used to do web design but haven't touched it since 2001.

[RMB Custom Leather]

Hi Are you planning to tie the code to a database for inventory tracking. Or do you just need something that will send the color-way and size to your order desk?

If it is the second option you might be able to use this online dropdown box code generator.

http://freecodesourc...-list-generator

I used to do web design but haven't touched it since 2001.

Thank you very much for the reply. Not really sure what you’re asking but I don't need to really track the inventory because all items will be made as they are ordered. I need the drop down boxes to give my customers options like stain color, tread color etc. to choose from. As long as the order prints out with all the options that the customer ordered then it would work for me. If I went through one of the do it yourself sites and used a template for a store where would I put that code in order for it to put drop boxes on each item? Thanks for the info.

[Sylvia]

Thank you very much for the reply. Not really sure what you're asking but I don't need to really track the inventory because all items will be made as they are ordered. I need the drop down boxes to give my customers options like stain color, tread color etc. to choose from. As long as the order prints out with all the options that the customer ordered then it would work for me. If I went through one of the do it yourself sites and used a template for a store where would I put that code in order for it to put drop boxes on each item? Thanks for the info.

Ok, if you are just offering options for a custom order then the drop down code should work for you.

You would look at the code for the template and find the spot where you want to place the drop down code. (it looks like a mess at first... but you'll start to understand where things are and how they work after reading the code a while) One of the things I used to do is add some XX in the code to see where it put them in preview mode. Then that would tell me if I was close to the position I wanted. )

Then just copy and paste from the drop down creator link I gave you. Then look at the web page and see if there is adjustments necessary.

If you have a Wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor then it would be easy I would think.

Good luck. PM me if you need an extra set of eyes. I'm as rusty as steel wool intended for vinegaroon... but I'll try to help.

Sylvia

Edited January 8, 2012 by Sylvia

[RMB Custom Leather]

Ok, if you are just offering options for a custom order then the drop down code should work for you.

You would look at the code for the template and find the spot where you want to place the drop down code. (it looks like a mess at first... but you'll start to understand where things are and how they work after reading the code a while) One of the things I used to do is add some XX in the code to see where it put them in preview mode. Then that would tell me if I was close to the position I wanted. )

Then just copy and paste from the drop down creator link I gave you. Then look at the web page and see if there is adjustments necessary.

If you have a Wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor then it would be easy I would think.

Good luck. PM me if you need an extra set of eyes. I'm as rusty as steel wool intended for vinegaroon... but I'll try to help.

Sylvia

Ok thanks!

[cem]

I can't seem to get ahold of her sent a few messages PM's , email, and voice mail. The site looks down right now.

Kate is busy at the moment, I was going to get her do my website but she wouldn't be able to do it until the end of January that was contacting her early December, I have a bit of time up my sleeve now at my day job (graphic designer) now that christmas has passed so I will probably do it myself now.

I have built simple websites before in Dreamweaver but I'm looking at using Wordpress now for ease of use. If you want to look into that a good set of beginner tutorials can be found for wordpress here http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/wp101-training/. I believe Kate uses something similiar in Concrete 5 I went with wordpress as it was a simple install from my webhost. Although wordpress is most associated with blogs it can be used for sites and the drop down boxes can be done fairly easy, one of the videos on the wptutsplus site shows you how to do it. If thats not quite what you are after wordpress can be set up with plugins to do almost anything you want

If your wanting to maintain your own site fairly easily Wordpress or Concrete 5 would probably be a good choice for wordpress as you have already got website hosting get the software version from worpress.org if your hosting company doesn't offer it as a one click install, the plugins are available from here as well.

Clair

[TOM123]

have you talked to JOHANNA? she keeps this sight going. give her a PM.

[RMB Custom Leather]

have you talked to JOHANNA? she keeps this sight going. give her a PM.

Sent her a message also she must be busy as well, I think I need to learn to build websites instead.

[dickf]

I'm in a giving mood!

The html for your page

<form action="make-order.php" method="post" id="order-frm" name="order-frm">
Your name <input type="text" name="user-name" id="user-name" /><br />
Your email address <input type="text" name="email" id="email" /><br />
Thread color: <select name="thread-color">
	  			<option value="white">White</option>
                <option value="brown">Brown</option>
   	  			<option value="black">Black</option>
	  		</select><br />              
Leather color: <select name="leather-color">
	  			<option value="natural">Natural</option>
                <option value="brown">Brown</option>
   	  			<option value="black">Black</option>
	  		</select><br />              
Left/Right hand <select name="hand">
				<option value="right">Right</option>
	  			<option value="left">Left</option>
	  		</select><br />              
<input type="submit" name="sub-bttn" id="sub-bttn" value="Send order" />
</form>

The php to process the data and send an email (save this code as make-order.php).

<?php 
// Script to accept form values and mail to yourself.
// By US GUNLEATHER - 01.09.2012

// Site vars (edit these to suit your needs)
$site_url = "Your site url"; // no www's or http's (ex. mycoolsite.com)

// Where should this order be sent to?
$recipient = "youremail@soemthing.com";

// Subject for the mail
$mailsubject = "An order has been placed!";

// This is the page you'll send users to after the form is submitted
$success = "thankyou.htm";

// Form vars
$user_name = $_POST['user-name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$thread = $_POST['thread-color'];
$leather = $_POST['leather-color'];
$hand = $_POST['hand'];
$today = date('l dS \of F Y h:i:s A');
// Mail headers
$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers. = "From: ".$email." \r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: " . $email . "\r\n";
$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();

// Build mail message
$mail_body = "Order from: " . $user_name . " (". $email .") \r\n".
	  		"Leather: " . $leather . "<br />" . 
	  		"Thread: " . $thread . "<br />" .
	  		"Hand: " . $hand . "<br /> \r\n" .
	  		"********************************* \r\n" . 
	  		"Order placed on " . $today;

// fire mail function and redirect on success
if(mail($recipient, $mailsubject, $mail_body, $headers) or die("Couldn't mail it out")){
	header("location: ". $success);	
}

?>

I can't test this at the moment, but I think it should work. Let me know if it needs tweaking.

Edited January 9, 2012 by dickf

[particle]

I used to do a lot of website development, but over time I've done less and less of it because I didn't care to learn all the standards for website coding. Then, CMS hit the scene.....

If you haven't tried it yet, I'd suggest you give Concrete5 a look. It's a free website development program (you still have to pay for hosting service) that is very easy to use. There are lots of templates available (some free, but you'll pay a small fee for the better templates that look much better), and you can even have someone build a custom template if you desire. There is lots of add-ons you can implement - many of them free, and the rest are (in my opinion) very fairly priced (usually around $15). Concrete5 comes with a standard form component (the drop-down boxes you're referring to are actually part of a "<form>" HTML (website code) element). If the standard form component in Concrete5 isn't powerful enough, you can pay for one that is a little more powerful.

I've not used Word Press very much, but I hear it has a lot of add-ons as well (I'm sure it has even more than Concrete5).

Check out my website for an example of a Concrete5 website. I'm using the basic template that's included with the program - I just created a custom header graphic.

http://www.adamsleatherworks.com/

Here is my order form that I created using the Concrete5 default Form component.

http://www.adamsleat...ing/order-form/

To give you an idea what you can do with a different template, here is the website I'm currently building for the architecture firm I work for. The website is built with Concrete5, but the actual content (the individual articles) is actually being delivered via WordPress using a WordPress plugin for Concrete5. I wanted our department's team to be able to login to the website and easily update the articles and add new articles easily. If I'd coded the site with Dreamweaver or built a Flash website, I'd be the only one that could edit it and it would have taken a lot more time since I'm not fluent with developing websites any more. Concrete5 is extremely easy to use.

http://ghadesignlab.com/

Edited January 9, 2012 by particle

[RMB Custom Leather]

Great information thank you!

I opened a worpress up and trying to figure out how to get a retail store out of it, just lost with the code thing where do you put them etc. I know little about this and want to learn to handle my own site but can't seem to connect the dots from the concrete 5 and wordpress thing to a site like I need. I guess I will keep trying stuff until it looks like a retail site.

[CitizenKate]

Hi Rob and others, sorry for the slow reply. I guess I'll make it official, since I've gotten numerous inquiries in the past couple of months. Thanks for your interest in having me do your site, but I've got enough work for the time being, and it's no fun for me or my clients when I get overbooked, so I'm not looking to add new clients at this time.

I also recommend using Concrete5 for most sites. I prefer it over all the other major open source content management systems. Once you've got it tricked-out with a nice theme and add-ons, it's extremely easy for just about anyone to maintain the content.

Kate

[cem]

Here is my order form that I created using the Concrete5 default Form component.

http://www.adamsleat...ing/order-form/

To give you an idea what you can do with a different template, here is the website I'm currently building for the architecture firm I work for. The website is built with Concrete5, but the actual content (the individual articles) is actually being delivered via WordPress using a WordPress plugin for Concrete5. I wanted our department's team to be able to login to the website and easily update the articles and add new articles easily. If I'd coded the site with Dreamweaver or built a Flash website, I'd be the only one that could edit it and it would have taken a lot more time since I'm not fluent with developing websites any more. Concrete5 is extremely easy to use.

http://ghadesignlab.com/

Thank you for the info particle as that is similar to what I want to do, I wasn't aware you could get wordpess plugins for Concrete 5, I might have to take another look at it.

Cheers,

Clair

[Sylvia]

Bravo for your generosity, USGun.

I'm in a giving mood!

The html for your page

<form action="make-order.php" method="post" id="order-frm" name="order-frm">
Your name <input type="text" name="user-name" id="user-name" /><br />
Your email address <input type="text" name="email" id="email" /><br />
Thread color: <select name="thread-color">
  				<option value="white">White</option>
                <option value="brown">Brown</option>
     				<option value="black">Black</option>
  			</select><br />              
Leather color: <select name="leather-color">
  				<option value="natural">Natural</option>
                <option value="brown">Brown</option>
     				<option value="black">Black</option>
  			</select><br />              
Left/Right hand <select name="hand">
				<option value="right">Right</option>
  				<option value="left">Left</option>
  			</select><br />              
<input type="submit" name="sub-bttn" id="sub-bttn" value="Send order" />
</form>

The php to process the data and send an email (save this code as make-order.php).

<?php 
// Script to accept form values and mail to yourself.
// By US GUNLEATHER - 01.09.2012

// Site vars (edit these to suit your needs)
$site_url = "Your site url"; // no www's or http's (ex. mycoolsite.com)

// Where should this order be sent to?
$recipient = "youremail@soemthing.com";

// Subject for the mail
$mailsubject = "An order has been placed!";

// This is the page you'll send users to after the form is submitted
$success = "thankyou.htm";

// Form vars
$user_name = $_POST['user-name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$thread = $_POST['thread-color'];
$leather = $_POST['leather-color'];
$hand = $_POST['hand'];
$today = date('l dS \of F Y h:i:s A');
// Mail headers
$headers  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
$headers. = "From: ".$email." \r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: " . $email . "\r\n";
$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();

// Build mail message
$mail_body = "Order from: " . $user_name . " (". $email .") \r\n".
  			"Leather: " . $leather . "<br />" . 
  			"Thread: " . $thread . "<br />" .
  			"Hand: " . $hand . "<br /> \r\n" .
  			"********************************* \r\n" . 
  			"Order placed on " . $today;

// fire mail function and redirect on success
if(mail($recipient, $mailsubject, $mail_body, $headers) or die("Couldn't mail it out")){
	header("location: ". $success);	
}

?>

I can't test this at the moment, but I think it should work. Let me know if it needs tweaking.

[RMB Custom Leather]

Well it turns out that what had opened was just a wordpress free blog from wordpress.com were I needed to go was wordpress.org I think anyway. After researching the pros / cons of Concrete 5 and wordpress I think I am going with the Concrete5.

Has any used Bluehost? for hosting before they look like a good deal and responded to their live chat pretty well. I may repost a poll on this just to see who most are using, Concrete5 recommends some but wonder who has the best deal for the money.

Edited January 10, 2012 by RMB Custom Leather

[particle]

I've used bluehost for years and have been happy with them.

[dickf]

Bravo for your generosity, USGun.

Thanks, I didn't think anyone noticed.

RMB, is this your site? http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com

If so, add a domain to your hosting package that's already set up.

FWIW, I've used 1and1.com for years with no issues or surprises.

[Sylvia]

Thanks, I didn't think anyone noticed.

RMB, is this your site? http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com

If so, add a domain to your hosting package that's already set up.

FWIW, I've used 1and1.com for years with no issues or surprises.

I always try to acknowledge good people and random acts of kindness when ever I see it in action..... especially when it occurs online.

RMB's site is in his signature line. www.rmbcustomleather.com

I think that is the one he wants to fix up. Though, it sounds as if he's looking at other options at the moment.

Sylvia

[dickf]

His domain points here: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_store/index.php?store_id=799&display_home_page=y

I understand wanting to go with a cms - most of the popular ones are mature enough to handle most people's needs, anyway. They're also dead-easy to set up. The only real conflict with them is when you want to start incorporating truly custom content/code, and have to start altering system templates. Even then, it's still not a big deal.

Enjoy!

[CitizenKate]

I understand wanting to go with a cms - most of the popular ones are mature enough to handle most people's needs, anyway. They're also dead-easy to set up. The only real conflict with them is when you want to start incorporating truly custom content/code, and have to start altering system templates.

I understand what you're saying, but that is not the case with Concrete5. It employs a very well thought-out architecture, which provides for overriding the core with your own custom code without actually touching any of the core source. I've done an assortment of customizations for it, and have yet to have one trashed by system upgrades. Same also with the theme system.

I use it to build a lot of sites because most of my clients prefer to maintain their own content, and a cms makes it easy for them to work with the content without having to mess with the page layouts. For people not accustomed to working with html, css, scripting languages, or ftp, that can become very messy. There are also advantages for guys like you who are highly expert at all that stuff - you can spend less of your time doing content maintenance on your clients' sites and more time doing the really cool stuff. You should check it out. :-)

Kate

[RMB Custom Leather]

Thanks for everyone’s help! I have 3 domain names that point to that page US posted the link to. I like the looks of the site but want more control over it than I have now. I am trying to decide between Concrete 5 and WordPress now since talking to another web designer I know from one of my gun forums.

Ian Smith 317-489-0072 is who I talked to and he swears by WordPress because of the amount of free plug-ins, themes, and other stuff I don't understand that are available. He said it was ok to share his contact information if anyone would like a site since Kate’s covered up right now.

[Randy Cornelius]

I had the same problem, finding someone who was reliable, would return phone calls or I could afford. I finally went to my local high school who has classes on web design and who look for work for the students. I have been with them for over a year now and are very pleased. Quick service, affordable and I own the rights to everything. So I would suggest contacting you local high school IT teacher.

Randy

[RMB Custom Leather]

I had the same problem, finding someone who was reliable, would return phone calls or I could afford. I finally went to my local high school who has classes on web design and who look for work for the students. I have been with them for over a year now and are very pleased. Quick service, affordable and I own the rights to everything. So I would suggest contacting you local high school IT teacher.

Randy

That is a good idea or even a local community college would work around here.