Customizing SOLO Server HTML Files
Customizing HTML files
In addition to the configurable Virtual Storefront for every Author and Distributor, the six areas of SOLO Server (Affiliates, Authors, Customers, Postings, Products, and Unlock) can also be customized in the file system in several different ways. Use of the file system customizations is outlined below:
Overview
Each of the six areas of SOLO Server have their own customizable HTML "Top" and "Bottom" files (CustomersTop.htm, CustomersBottom.htm, etc). The default files (located in the root of the SWKey\SOLO\DLLs\CustomHTML directory) use the SoftwareKey.com graphics. These files can be used as a baseline for any customizations, so make sure to back them up to a safe location. The files are used by SOLO Server as follows:
- The "Top" HTM file is output to the browser.
- The page-specific information is rendered and output to the browser.
- The "Bottom" HTM file is output to the browser.
- Note that there are multiple files for the authors and products directories (ProductsTopNET.htm, ProductsBottomNET.htm, etc.). Due to the differing default markup output by ASP.NET, these additional files are required for certain pages which use .NET rather than ASP.
Through tables, you can fully customize the look and feel of the page - top, left, bottom, and right.
Do NOT edit these files in an HTML editor other than Notepad as intelligent editors tend to add HTML when it sees missing tags. Through this mechanism, you or your webmaster can control the entire look and feel of all of the pages. Some of the files have variable fields and javascript that should not be altered. The variable fields all start with [var. Be sure to backup the files before modifying them in case you make a mistake. Also note that it is required to have both a "Top" and "Bottom" custom file available for a given area, or the system will assume there are no files. Note that any links in your custom html that link into a SOLO Server subdirectory, such as a link to view the cart or to the Customer License Portal pages must access the SOLO Server subdirectories with the subdirectory name in all lower case (for example http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/customers and not http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/Customers). If mixed case subdirectory names are used, you will experience problems with cookies being set in the browser.
File Locations
The DLLs use App.Path to determine the directory where the top and bottom HTM files are located unless the Application variable SOLOCustomHTMLDir is defined in the global.asa file. These files are NOT in the normal directory structure of the web site. HOWEVER, the graphic files that are referenced by these top and bottom HTM files must be in the directory structure of the web site. If you use relative paths for the image files, the path will be relative to the current area of SOLO Server that the customer is in. For example, if you modify CustomersTop.htm to include an image as <img src="images/graphic1.gif"> and the Customer License Portal page is at www.company.com/customers/, the browser will look for the image directory below the customers directory. If you were to specify <img src="/images/graphic1.gif">, the browser will look for the graphic in the www.company.com/images/ directory.
Default Files
The default "Top" and "Bottom" files located in the CustomHTML root directory will be used when custom html cannot be found in either the database or the file system by any other method. These are useful for setting the look and feel of each directory on a server wide basis.
Host Name Based Files
If several domains are running against an installation of SOLO Server, it is also possible to set up custom html files on a domain name basis. To do so, create a subdirectory in the custom html directory with a name matching the applicable host name (for example, secure.softwarekey.com) and create custom files there. The files in this folder will be used for any pages run on that host name.
Cookie/Querystring Based Files
Custom HTML can also be determined by passing a ch=XXXX querystring parameter on links into SOLO Server. This will cause a cookie to be set on the users browser storing the ch=XXXX parameter. Create a subdirectory from the CustomHTML root named after the XXXX parameter. When the cookie or querystring parameter is present, the files from this directory will be used.
Note that SOLO Server first tries to use the cookie/querystring method, and if no cookie or querystring parameter is found or no matching directory is found, it next tries to use the domain name method. If no domain directory is found, the root level custom HTM files are used. Also note that if custom ordering HTML is set up for the storefront in SOLO Server, the ordering pages will not use either of these methods, and will instead output the custom html that is entered in SOLO Server.
Changing Search Type for the Cart Ordering Pages
To maximize efficiency, it is possible to run the custom html search code on the cart ordering process in three different ways. This is controlled by the ProductCustomHTMLSearchType application variable, which can take the following values:
- DatabaseFirst (default): The database search for author/distributor/product virtual storefront code is performed first. If nothing is found, the filesystem is then checked, falling back to default files if nothing is found there.
- FileSystemFirst: The file system search is performed first, and if nothing is found, the database search is performed, falling back to the default filesystem files if nothing is found. This offers increased performance as the database query will not need to run as often, but sacrifices flexibility.
- FileSystemOnly: Only the file system is checked. Use this for maximum performance as the database will never be queried. Offers relatively little flexibility.
Upgrading SOLO Server
Be sure that when any new version of SOLO Server is installed that you backup any of the customized HTML files and restore after the new version is installed. The installer should not update these files, but in the event it does, you will have a backup.