Thinking out loud about an Addon

[burt]

One more admin module needed and this is to create a link to the new admin page, in the horizontal menu;

pointer.jpg

This is not really needed, but makes it a lot easier for shopowner to get to the new admin page.

[burt]

The admin side seems complete, obviously more testing might throw up issues and problems that need to be solved. The jigsaw puzzle picture is starting to make sense.

Next to think about is;

3. A way (in shop) to see those searches

As searches are generic (ie they are not linked to any particular product), how this is displayed needs to be "shop wide" rather than "product based". Options could be;

In the Header

I don't like this idea as the Header needs to be for "more important" things.

In the Footer

Certainly a possibility.

A Box

This is, I think, the most useful option. I'll make a box.

[burt]

Another option could be a dedicated page, of course.

But let's go with a box. Making a box is super simple, just take one of the other boxes (I like to use the information box as it doesn't contain much code), make a copy and rename some bits of code appropriately. Then go into Admin and Install.

It'll end up as an empty box somewhat like this;

box.jpg

The next piece of the puzzle is to display all of the searches that have status = on. This is pretty simplistic;

Code: Select all

$string_query = $GLOBALS['db']->query(sprintf(<<<'EOSQL'
SELECT * FROM search_strings WHERE status = 1 AND language_id = %d
ORDER BY counter
EOSQL
          , (int)$_SESSION['languages_id']));

and

Code: Select all

while ($string = $string_query->fetch_assoc()) {
    $link = $GLOBALS['Linker']->build('advanced_search_result.php')->retain_query_except()->set_parameter('keywords', htmlspecialchars($string['string']));
    
    echo '<a class="font-weight-lighter" href="' . $link . '">' . $string['string'] . '</a><br>';
  }

Which outputs this;

eee.jpg

It's close, it might be that a simple list of searches (probably laid out nicer than this) would suit some shopowners. But that's not what I want, so next up is to make the text sizes bigger based on number of searches. I need to think about an easy way to do this. It's more difficult than it seems. If anyone has an idea don't hesitate to let me know.

My initial thoughts, based on (eg);

aaaaa.jpg

1 search = 1em font-size
154 searches = 1.54em
267 searches = 2.67em
and so on

I'm not sure how to treat 68 searches.
It needs to be bigger than 1 search but obviously a lot smaller than 154 searches.

So I can't treat it as 0.68em and I can't treat it as 1.68em. I'm stuck...it needs thinking about.

[burt]

With some weird-ass mathematics, I think I've gotten it outputting in a way that makes sense;

qwerty66.jpg

IE; more searches makes a bigger font. Next up is to randomise the order, and remove the line breaks. We go back to the previous post and simply change the module file SQL to;

Code: Select all

ORDER BY RAND()

and the template file to remove the <br>

So the box display ends up like this;

qwerty667.jpg

Which is more or less what I was looking for.

[burt]

Now it's time to think about any minor changes to make things more useful.

I can certainly think of one that I do want to add which is a link to from each search (in the admin page) to the advanced_search_result.php results page - this will allow shopowner to more easily see what products are shown when the search is made. I think that would be a nice little extra.

Can anyone think of any other extras ?

[burt]

a link from each search (in the admin page) to the advanced_search_result.php results page

That was super simple;

ad-link.jpg

Obviously clicking on the eye loads the advanced_search_results.php?keywords={whatever} page, which increases the counter (of the {whatever} search) by 1. I don't suppose that increase in count matters.

[burt]

I know the shop side box won't suit all shopowners, for sure. I think the benefit (to shopowners) is that record of what {keywords} are being searched for.

Put simply if you (shopowner) know what your customers (and potential customers) are searching for, it surely makes it a lot easier to tailor your offerings to customers needs, which could be as simple as;

- change product_description, product_name or seo_keywords to return better results for a search
- coming up with new products

and so on.

I think that list of searches is where the main value is in this addon.

[Dan Cole]

Gary...it might be nice to have this on it's own page rather than in a box, especially when there are lots of searches, where you can display more searches and link to the advanced search page directly from the results. Just a thought. Maybe colour it up a bit too.

Dan

[burt]

it might be nice to have this on it's own page

That would just be a case of manually making a page and copying the same SQL/HTML from the box/template into the page. I quite like the idea of a standalone page, with a link to it in the footer or somewhere, maybe that can be done in the future.

Maybe colour it up a bit too.

colored.jpg

Not difficult, but equally not completely straightforward.

[lecarlb]

@burt I'm thinking container boxes for product_info, index, index_nested, or if a shopowner wants to live on the edge a little maybe they would want it in a pi module.

I see 3 benefits implementing this:

(1) As you mentioned it allows the shopowner to tailor offerings in plain view

(2) It gives an SEO benefit to interlink popular searches with offerings and it's content

(3) It may help visitors find something that they might can't quite gather the search terms for or it'll be there to easily follow

And for more beverage money, maybe allow the shopowner to manually match a search to a product in admin by product ID byway of the product_info container.

All of this, I think, will give some UX benefit also.

NOTE: And allowing the shopowner to insert terms of their own, will enable them to insert queries from Google Search Console. So that's a huge plus. Kudos to you.