Re: [mv] Really Dumb Newbie Question

[Phil.Welch@bidsystems.com]

******    message to minivend-users from Phil.Welch@bidsystems.com     ******

John,

If you're just getting into MiniVend, perhaps you might like to start 
with the alpha version so that you don't have to learn it twice.  The 
alpha version is at http://www.minivend.com/alpha both as a demo 
and with associated links for downloading the current version.

Insofar as where to start, conceptually Mike has developed a 
template called simple which is populated with the makecat 
command.  The alpha version doesn't run it with the install (which 
is nice), but you can immediately run makecat simple after your 
MiniVend install.  

If you make changes to html under ~/catalogs/simple/ you may be 
mystified by their not immediately taking affect.  In order to reset 
them you need to restart "bin/minivend -r" or use MiniMate and pop 
the reconfigure option.

Keep in mind that the simple templates are oftentimes parts of a 
whole page, but Mike has labeled them reasonably well.  If you 
want to change the artstore.gif file, you can just edit your 
~/catalogs/simple/catalog.cfg file and change it to whatever.  Keep 
in mind that you'll have to put your gif in the directory in which 
MiniVend is looking; i.e., which is <your html document 
root>/simple/images/<your gif replacement> as I recall.  Of course 
it still won't work until you do a reconfiguration of your catalog as 
noted earlier.

Insofar as "reinstalling the whole minivend program from scratch"; I 
shouldn't think that will be necessary unless you mess with the 
code.  Making changes to the html, etc., which is generated from 
the ~/mvend/simple/* files into your ~/catalogs/simple/* files will 
either work or not work, but if worse comes to worse you can 
merely trash the ~/catalogs/simple directory and do another 
/bin/makecat simple to recreate your initial catalog from which you 
can retry.

Incidentally, the reverse in true as well.  When updating to the later 
versions of MiniVend, you can usually just install the later version 
and do a reconfigure.  Mike puts out blubs to indicate when he 
changes something that will/may hurt something that has been 
supported in previous versions, but even then it's usually only the 
Perl / MiniVend heavies that have re-engineered a substantial 
amount of MiniVend code that have to do any significant changes.

I keep wondering when or if anyone is going to come up with 
additional sets of templates.  They never seem to surface, so I 
guess those that have made them have made to many other 
changes to be able to be used with stock MiniVend.

Good luck....

Phil Welch
http://www.bidsystems.com/cgi/simple 
http://www.bidsystems.com/pwPage - instant mySQL Data Base 
Forms

On 4 Feb 00, at 13:55, John Carroll wrote:

> ******    message to minivend-users from John Carroll
> <jjc@groveton.com>     ******
> 
> 
> Last weekend I downloaded and installed MiniVend 3.14-4 on my old 486,
> with the idea of modifying assorted pages to fit the needs of a
> catalog I plan to put together.  The "simple" catalog worked perfectly
> (and slowly) on the first try.  I read all the docs I could find,
> subscribed to this mailing list, and roamed over every directory and
> file in the minivend-3.14-4 and mvend directories trying to figure out
> how to go about making changes.  This is embarrassing, but I'm lost. 
> The only way I can figure out to modify the "simple" catalog is to
> start with the /minivend-3.14-4/dist/simple directory, make changes
> there, then reinstall the whole minivend program from scratch.  Not
> good for fine-tuning. :( There's gotta be an easier way.  I'm sure
> it's obvious, but I don't see it, and could definitely use a hint at
> this point.  I realize there are a million things to learn before I
> can field a catalog, but getting a starting point would help.  What
> file, directory, or other thing does one start with, say, to change
> the image "artstore.gif" to "crmlogo.jpg" on the splash page?
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> 
> 
> John Carroll
> jjc@groveton.com  
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from the list, DO NOT REPLY to this message.  Instead,
> send email with 'UNSUBSCRIBE minivend-users' in the body to
> Majordomo@minivend.com. Archive of past messages:
> http://www.minivend.com/minivend/minivend-list



Phil Welch
->> Phil.Welch@bidsystems.com
Over 1,000 Stores to Serve You!
->> http://www.bidsystems.com
SQL Data Base HTML Forms Instantly
->> http://www.bidsystems.com/pwPage
-
To unsubscribe from the list, DO NOT REPLY to this message.  Instead, send
email with 'UNSUBSCRIBE minivend-users' in the body to Majordomo@minivend.com.
Archive of past messages: http://www.minivend.com/minivend/minivend-list