Well, this one certainly took longer than it was supposed to. The main reason for the delay? Trying to figure out the best way to implement a search feature.

You see, I really wanted to add a mechanism for searching your store(s). Type in some keywords, and voila! Your customer instantly gets what they're looking for. But the more I thought about it, the more issues popped up.

Searching based on the keywords you enter per-store doesn't really make sense. You might as well create a custom store for those keywords.

And let's say I decided to build a more traditional search interface. Because pages aren't updated until they're loaded, I'd really have to create a variable data search, and I'd have to update pages as they became available. You, as the store owner, would have to click on every item in every store, just to make sure it was available for searching. And it would be yet another feature to maintain.

So I'm still working on ways to make it work, cleanly and efficiently. Hopefully an idea will lightbulb its way into my brain sometime in the near-future; for the moment I'm stumped.

That doesn't mean this new update is devoid of new features -- far from it. Multiple-page stores, store-specific templating, and an option to hide the new "Additional Photos" are the highlights of this newest edition of cpshop.

changes in cpshop 1.3a
(see below for a more involved explanation of these changes)

• added support for multiple page stores
• added option to hide Additional Photos on product pages
• added store-specific template filter
• improved store name handling; now supports HTML for homepage menu links
• minor bug fix (blank image rewrite on thumbnail page)

1. Be sure you upgrade to or install cpshop 1.3 before installing this update!
2. Unzip the contents of cpshop1.3a-update.zip.
3. Upload cppage.lib, cpdata.lib and cplogin.lib to the cpshop directory on your server.
4. Test your store.

multiple page stores

Too many items in a single store has been a problem for a while. This newest version of cpshop allows you to break up a store into multiple pages, by specifying the maximum number of thumbnail rows allowed on a single page.

When you set the number of thumbnails in a row, and the number of rows-per-page, you're setting the number of thumbnails-per-page. If the number of products in a store exceeds the number of products allowed on a page, the store will be split across multiple pages to accommodate it.

Of course, you can turn this feature off, by setting the maximum rows per page to 0. Then all thumbnails will appear on one page, like they do at CafePress.

The new Additional Photos at the bottom of product pages are interesting, but I imagine they're screwing up many cpshop layouts. So the admin screen now gives you three options:

• display the additional photos as they do right now (4 in a row)
• display the additional photos in a 2x2 square
• hide the additional photos completely

If you should happen to want to use a special filter for your store, you can with the new "template" filter.

cpfilter_template:[filename]
cpfilter_template:catstore.html
cpfilter_template:templates/catstore.html

• sets a customized template for a specific store and all of its products
• file must end in one of the following extensions: .htm, .html, .txt, .tmpl, .tpl, .template
• filename root is the cpshop directory
• filename can include sub-directories (i.e. templates/template1.txt)
• filename cannot include multiple dots in succession (i.e. ../filename.html)
• template filters can be combined with non-template filters
• template filters cannot be combined with other template filters

Originally the homepage menu list was supposed to be a temporary hack. cpshop owners were supposed to create their own custom homepage, and not use the built-in homepage feature.

But more and more cpshop owners have been using the default homepage, and as a result, many have tried using HTML in their store names, in an attempt to change the appearance of the homepage store link. This of course causes problems with the title and breadcrumb links, which also incorporate the store name.

The newest version of cpshop attempts to remedy this situation by removing the HTML from the store name before placing it in any place that demands text-only. It follows these rules:

1. First it removes all comment tags from the store name, but leaves the contents of those comments intact.
2. Secondly, it removes all HTML tags from the store name.

So if this were a store name:

<font face="comic sans ms" size=4><b>Caribou Store</b><font>

It would be reduced to this in the title and breadcrumb trail:

Caribou Store

To accommodate image-only store links, comment tags are removed, leaving their contents bare before removing all the HTML tags.

So this:

<img src="/images/store_link1.gif" height=40 width=300 border=0><!--Actual Store Name-->

would also be reduced to this in the title and breadcrumb trail:

Actual Store Name

the last word(s)

I've noticed a few cpshop installations don't have their Marty.net Affiliate IDs linked correctly. Your Marty.net Affiliate ID, listed at the top of every update email, can be entered at the very bottom of the admin screen. Entering this code will give you the opportunity to generate a $5 commission every time someone buys cpshop after clicking through that link on your store (or anywhere else you happen to post it). Also, when I see a store without the Affiliate ID, I get suspicious about the legality of that installation (was it paid for? by whom?). So please make sure you enter it in your store -- it's a one-time thing, really.

Once again, let me know if you have any problems with this, either via or posting on the message board.