How to
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| − | + | ==Create a Foundation/Boostrap compatible template== | |
| − | === | + | |
| − | + | ||
| − | ===The new workaround method for sites running v4.9.2 === | + | Foundation and Bootstrap are the two reigning HTML frameworks for creating responsive HTML and CSS. Ultra is fully-compatible with both Foundation and Bootstrap, where as Pro is mostly compatible. There are two main steps to creating Bootstrap and Foundation-compatible Soholaunch templates. |
| + | |||
| + | 1. Create the template design via Bootstrap or Foundation (of those two, I recommend Foundation). | ||
| + | |||
| + | 2. Add the soho #variables# like you normally do. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 3. In Ultra, you're be done now. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The rest of these instructions only apply if you're using Soholaunch Pro. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 4. NAV MENU: Make a copy of the pgm-auto_menu.php file and add the Foundation or Bootstrap classes to the html that gets outputted for your navigation menu. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 5. CONTENT AREA: Pro uses an HTML table to produce the Page Editor's grid structure. This hard-width table will prevent responsive frameworks like Bootstrap/Foundation from collapsing content on mobile devices. To overcome this, you'll need to target this table with CSS change it's display structure (table, tr, and td tags) to be a normal block elements. This may affect your display and be frustrating to wrangle in. For this reason, we highly recommend using Soholaunch Ultra for Bootstrap/Foundation websites. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Use an Authorize.net reseller for your payment gateway== | ||
| + | Many payment gateways are resellers of the popular Authorize.net payment gateway. They may offer better rates and packages, but ultimately they're selling the same technology, except that they use a different URL address for accepting payments. Both Soholaunch Pro and Soholaunch Ultra include a simple, built-in way to change the gateway URL on soho's built-in Authorize.net integration so that you can use Authorize.net reseller gateways. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===How to change the Authorize=== | ||
| + | The Authorize.net gateway URL is composed of two parts... | ||
| + | # The hostname: secure.authorize.net | ||
| + | # The path: /gateway/transact.dll | ||
| + | |||
| + | These are the two variables that you need to adjust to use your reseller gateway. You can add custom URL and path to the Soholaunch smt_userdata table using special variable names, and Soholaunch will use your custom host and path instead. | ||
| + | |||
| + | # Go to the Database Tables feature | ||
| + | # Click the System Tables tab. | ||
| + | # Find the smt_userdata table | ||
| + | # Click View/Edit Records | ||
| + | # Add New Record | ||
| + | # prikey (leave blank), plugin = 'cart_authorize', fieldname = 'scHost', data = '[your custom url]' (all those values should be typed WITHOUT the single quotes) | ||
| + | # Save New Record | ||
| + | # Add New Record | ||
| + | # prikey (leave blank), plugin = 'cart_authorize', fieldname = 'scPath', data = '[your custom path]' | ||
| + | # Save New Record | ||
| + | # All done! | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Add an XML Sitemap to your website== | ||
| + | '''Part one: Generate a sitemap''' | ||
| + | # Visit [http://xml-sitemaps.com xml-sitemaps.com] | ||
| + | # Follow-the instructions to generate an XML sitemap for your site. | ||
| + | # Copy the sitemap it generates (Ctrl+c) | ||
| + | # Open MS Notepad (or Typepad on a Mac) | ||
| + | # Paste in your sitemap (Ctrl+v) | ||
| + | # Save the file as sitemap.xml | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Part two: Upload sitemap''' | ||
| + | # Log-in to your sohoadmin | ||
| + | # From the Main Menu, press the F4 key to launch the secret super-tool. | ||
| + | # This screen may look scary, but it will help you upload the sitemap to your home folder. | ||
| + | # Make sure the path at the top shows that you are in the public_html folder | ||
| + | # Click the upload button to select the sitemap.xml file from your computer and upload it | ||
| + | # All done! | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools== | ||
| + | '''Part one: Add site to your Google account''' | ||
| + | # Log-in to your Google Account | ||
| + | # Go to Google Webmaster Tools | ||
| + | # Click Add a Site | ||
| + | # Click Manage site > Verify this site | ||
| + | # Click the link to Download the HTML verification file | ||
| + | # Save that file to your computer somewhere | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Part two: Upload verification file''' | ||
| + | # Log-in to your sohoadmin | ||
| + | # From the Main Menu, press the F4 key to launch the secret super-tool. | ||
| + | # This screen may look scary, but it will help you upload Google's file to your home folder. | ||
| + | # Make sure the path at the top shows that you are in the public_html folder | ||
| + | # Click the upload button to select the Google file from your computer and upload it | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Part three: Finalize verification''' | ||
| + | # Go back to Google Webmaster Tools | ||
| + | # Click Verify | ||
| + | # Done! | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Put a text link on top of an image== | ||
| + | There are a couple ways to put a link on top of an image. Here are two methods. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===1. Overlay a normal text link on an image.=== | ||
| + | The idea here is to set your image as a background image for an element that contains your text link. | ||
| + | |||
| + | So let's say you have an image called... | ||
| + | kitten.jpg (300px width X 150px height) | ||
| + | |||
| + | ...and you want to lay a text link on it. What you're going to do is create a container element in html that has the same width and height as your image, assign your image to be the background image, and then put your text inside the container element. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Flip over to the Text Editor's HTML view (you should also do this as a custom code file) and put in some html like below. You can copy-paste this if you'd like. | ||
| + | <pre> | ||
| + | <div style="width: 300px;height: 150px;background-image: url('images/kitten.jpg');"> | ||
| + | <a href="http://example.com/Kittens.php">Click here to see kittens</a> | ||
| + | </div> | ||
| + | </pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===2. Create an image map=== | ||
| + | An image map is a combination of image and code that basically makes certain sections of the image clickable like links. You typically define the sections through a graphical image map maker. There are lots of free standalone products, and image mapping is a built in tool for most major web development software packages (e.g., Adobe Dreamweaver). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note that once you use such a program to create an image map, it will give you a bunch of code to insert on your page. Use Soholaunch's "Custom Code" drag-and-drop object to put that on your page. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===3. Use absolute positioning with CSS=== | ||
| + | This is the "advanced" method. If you don't already know what this is, it will take more than a paragraph to explain it well. Going in-depth into CSS positioning would be a little out-of-scope for this page, and lots of people on the web have already done a great job explaining it. But if you're interested and you're the tinkering type, search around for [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=css+positioning+tutorial tutorials on CSS positioning]. You may want to do a few CSS primers first if you've never looked at it before. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Install Google Analytics code on your website== | ||
| + | Google Analytics is an ultra-powerful stats package provided by Google for analyzing your website traffic. It will give you a dazzling amount of information about your site visitors. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To use Google Analytics with your website, you must add Google's special tracking code to all of your site pages. Because Soholaunch uses templates (one master file that controls the style for your whole website), you don't have to worry about adding it to all your pages. You can just add it in one place and be done with it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | There are two easy ways to add Google's code to your Soholaunch-powered website: | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===1. The Easy Way: Grab a plugin=== | ||
| + | Go try one of the [http://addons.soholaunch.com/?pr=Plugins&search_qry=analytics several Google Analytics plugins] available at [http://addons.soholaunch.com Soholaunch Addons]: | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===2. The Hard Way: Edit your template file=== | ||
| + | # [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=How_to#Find_your_template_folder First, find your template folder] through [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=How_to#Get_started_with_FTP FTP] | ||
| + | # Locate the index.html file within your template folder | ||
| + | # Follow Google's instructions for adding the code. | ||
| + | # Also note that if your template folder contains a home.html file, you will need to add the Google Code there as well. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Export shopping cart products== | ||
| + | Using the Database Tables feature it is possible to export your shopping cart products into a semicolon-delimited .csv file that you can then import into spreadsheets (e.g., Microsoft Excel) and many other systems. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Here are instructions for exporting your shopping cart products: | ||
| + | # Log-in to sohoadmin | ||
| + | # From the Main Menu, click the Database Tables icon. | ||
| + | # Click the System Tables tab | ||
| + | # Find the "cart_products" table. | ||
| + | # Click the "Download" link. | ||
| + | # Save the file to your local computer | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Prevent PayPal Order Number Conflicts== | ||
| + | If you are using one paypal account to accept orders on more than one Soholaunch website, you may run into order number conflicts. This usually manifests in an error from PayPal that says something like "Order already exists". | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===The problem=== | ||
| + | The Soholaunch Shopping Cart starts it's order numbers off at 10000 and counts up one at a time per order, so your third order will be order #10003. When you use PayPal as your payment gateway, this order number is passed to paypal as the unique identifier number for PayPal. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Normally, when you just have one website, this is all fine and dandy. But when you have two websites running through the same PayPal account, you start to get conflicts. If you've received three orders from Site A and three orders from Site B, the third order on both sites is going to pass to PayPal as #10003. When the Site B tries to run its third order through, PayPal says "Hey, no...that order number already exists" (because Site A used it earlier). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===How to fix it=== | ||
| + | The fix for the duplicate order number problem is simple enough. You just need to jump the order numbers on one of your site to another range, so that the two order number ranges don't ever overlap. | ||
| + | |||
| + | You can leave Site A alone in it's 10000 range. For Site B, do this... | ||
| + | # Main Menu | ||
| + | # Database Tables | ||
| + | # System Tables tab | ||
| + | # cart_invoices | ||
| + | # View/Edit Records | ||
| + | # Add New Record | ||
| + | # Specify a really high number like 200000 for the ORDER_NUMBER | ||
| + | # Leave all the other fields blank | ||
| + | # Save | ||
| + | # View table and delete your test record (if you want) | ||
| + | # From now on order numbers will start at whatever number you put in (e.g., 200000) | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Use special characters in your navigation menu links== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Soholaunch does not currently support using special characters (anything besides letters, numbers, and spaces) in your site's menu navigation, neither in main page links nor in sub page links. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Although we are working to improve this in future versions so that you can use whatever characters you want, there are ways to get around the current restriction in the mean time. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Method #1: Search and Replace Table=== | ||
| + | Let's assume you want to create a page called Lilo & Stitch. Normally, that ampersand will make the Soholaunch paging system | ||
| + | |||
| + | # Name your page something that works under the standard page naming restrictions, so let's say "Lilo and Stitch". | ||
| + | # Go Main Menu > Database Tables > User Tables > UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE > View/Edit Records | ||
| + | # Add a Record | ||
| + | # Search for: "Lilo and Stitch" (without the quotes) | ||
| + | # Replace with: "Lilo & Stitch" (without the quotes) | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Method #2: Hard code your menu=== | ||
| + | If you are comfortable modifying the html file for your template, you can certainly hard-code your menu navigation directly into the HTML file and use whatever special characters you want. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Copy-Paste Content from Microsoft Word== | ||
| + | Pasting from MS Word is always a problem for WYSIWYG editors like the Soholaunch Text Editor, because the content that you copy from Word carries all of this crappy Microsoft psuedo-html code with it. Some of that code works; some of it can't be interpreted by the browser. Hence the funky, half-working result you end up with a lot of times. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To combat this, we recommend two options: | ||
| + | |||
| + | 1. Instead of normal pasting (Ctrl+V or right-click, paste), use the Paste from Word button inside the Soholaunch Text Editor. Note that this button does not work in FireFox (not for lack of trying). When you hit that button, the soho editor will try to translate the odd MS Word code into to real html code, which will usually yield a bit better results than just normal pasting. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 2. Strip all the formatting before you paste. As in, copy the content from MS Word, paste it in a bare-bones text editor like MS Notepad, then copy from there in to the soho editor and format as you like. This is certainly the most reliable, quirk-free method, though it does require you to re-do your formatting. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==How to find your FTP login== | ||
| + | If you submit support tickets with us, we will usually ask you for your "FTP" login username and password. If your web hosting company offers "cPanel", then this username/password is probably the same as your "cPanel" user name and password. You usually find this log-in information in the "Welcome" email that your web hosting company sent you when you first signed up with them. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==How to fix a corrupt page== | ||
| + | Sometimes certain content on a page will break the page editor. Often you don't know this is happening until it's too late and your page is corrupted. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Symptoms of a corrupt page: | ||
| + | * Page Editor: Fails to load | ||
| + | * Page Editor: Cannot delete objects | ||
| + | * Page Editor: Not all grid squares display | ||
| + | * Page does not display correctly (or at all) | ||
| + | |||
| + | Cause of corrupt page: Code or script that you have copy-pasted from elsewhere is messing with the page editor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If this happens to you the best thing to do is create a new page, then re-place your content from the broken page one element at a time. Of special note: To be extra safe, put all suspicious content on the page using the Custom Code object (which prevents the Page Editor from trying to interpret it). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note: Again, the cause of corrupt pages is almost always broken html code that you have copy-pasted, or javascript that you have copy-pasted into the Text Editor. If you need to put javascript or other special code on the page, do it with the Custom Code object. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note2: You may have to completely delete the original page and start over. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Related: [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=How_to#Put_some_HTML_on_a_page_as_a_custom_code How to place something on a page as custom code] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==How to add anchor links== | ||
| + | Here is how you install anchors to text in Soholaunch: | ||
| + | |||
| + | # In the text editor, place your cursor at the place where you would like the anchor. Click the anchor button and create a short, single word name for the anchor. Click Insert. | ||
| + | # Now go to the text you would like linked to that anchor and select (highlight) the text. | ||
| + | # Click the insert/edit link button. in the Anchors dropdown select the correct anchor for the text and click insert. | ||
| + | |||
| + | That should help you. Keep in mind that you create the anchor first and then link text to the anchor. Also, anchors are only valid within the same text editor. If you have multiple text boxes on a page the anchors will not work between separate text boxes. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Update to the latest version== | ||
| + | From the Main Menu of /sohoadmin... | ||
| + | # Click the Webmaster buttton on the top nav | ||
| + | # Click the Software Updates button | ||
| + | # Click the big "Check for Updates Now" button | ||
| + | # Select the build you want to install | ||
| + | # Click "Install" | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Download new language translation files== | ||
| + | Translations of the Soholaunch product are now handled at http://translate.soholuaunch.com. If you speak multiple languages and want to help translate Soholaunch, you can go to that site, sign up for a free account, and start translating immediately. | ||
| + | |||
| + | At any time you can download the latest language file for a given language. Here's how... | ||
| + | # Go to http://translate.soholaunch.com | ||
| + | # Sign-up/Log-in | ||
| + | # Set language to the language you want to download (e.g., Hebrew) | ||
| + | # Click link at top-left to download latest translation files | ||
| + | |||
| + | Once you have downloaded the latest language file you can add it to your Soholaunch-powered website by logging-in via FTP, and uploading the hebrew.php (or spanish.php, or whatever.php) file you downloaded to this folder... | ||
| + | public_html/sohoadmin/language | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Make text scroll like a marquee== | ||
| + | The old Text Editor (< v4.9.3) used to include a "marquee" feature that would allow you to make any block of text scroll across the page. It was absent in the updated version of the Text Editor (v4.9.3) --- and was left out because it was buggy and was more trouble than it seemed worth. | ||
| + | |||
| + | However, you can still make text scroll like that by switching to HTML View and putting <marquee> tags around the part you want to scroll, like this... | ||
| + | |||
| + | <marquee>scroll me</marquee> | ||
| + | |||
| + | [http://www.quackit.com/html/codes/html_marquee_code.cfm Check out this website I found for more on the marquee tag and how you can configure it (e.g., speed, etc).] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Put some HTML on a page as a custom code== | ||
| + | Sometimes you try to paste some code in the Soholaunch Text Editor and you can't get it to work right. This typically happens with code that people copy-paste from other providers (like PayPal button code). In most of these cases the Text Editor in soho is trying to interpret the code so you can see what it's output looks like, but if there's javascript in there or something it can through the editor off (because it tries to execute the javascript when it gets to it...with all kinds of quirky results). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Anyhow, you can avoid all these problems by putting your special code in a custom include and dropping it on your page via the Custom Code object. Any code dropped on the page via the Custom Code object is not interpreted until the page itself is loaded by the site visitor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This fixes 99.9% of all "I put the code in the Text Editor but it doesn't work." problems. | ||
| + | |||
| + | # Go to edit the page where you would like to place the custom HTML. | ||
| + | # Drag & Drop the Custom code item onto the page from the menu. | ||
| + | # Select New file and enter a name for the embed. | ||
| + | # Click Create New File. | ||
| + | # Paste in the HTML. | ||
| + | # Click Save. | ||
| + | # Select the file from the dropdown. | ||
| + | # Click OK. | ||
| + | # Save page | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Alternate method, create your own #variables# for your custom code=== | ||
| + | Sometimes you need custom code to display nested within content that you create using the Text Editor. For example, let's say you have a table with two columns and you want to put normal text in one column and Google ads in the other column. | ||
| + | |||
| + | For this scenario, using the above method (the Custom Code drag-and-drop object) is less than ideal because you can't get precise placement using the Custom Code method (unless you include the whole table in your custom code, but that's for people who know HTML). | ||
| + | |||
| + | So with this alternate method, instead of placing the custom html directly on the page, you're going to place a custom placeholder variable where you want the custom code to appear, and then use the [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE] table to replace that placeholder with the actual code when the page loads for the site visitor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Here are the steps to follow... | ||
| + | # In the Text Editor place something the text "#mycodewillgohere#" (without the quotes) where you want the custom code to show up. This is going to be your placeholder variable. You can use whatever text you want. For example, it could be #emilyscoolvariable#...it doesn't matter, as long as it's not one of the [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=Custom_Template_Reference#Pound_Variables reserved variables]. | ||
| + | # Press the Update button in the Text Editor to apply your changes | ||
| + | # Press the Save Page button. | ||
| + | # Go to the Main Menu | ||
| + | # Click Database Tables | ||
| + | # Under User Tables, View/Edit Records in the UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE table. | ||
| + | # Press the Add New Record button | ||
| + | # For the "Search For" field, enter your placeholder variable (e.g., #mycodewillgohere# or #emilyscoolvariable#) | ||
| + | # For the "Replace With" field, paste in your custom code. | ||
| + | # Save Record. | ||
| + | # View website. Your code should work when the is viewed, but remain as a #variable# while you're editing the page. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The bonus of this method is that you can now use that #mycodewillgohere# variable ANYWHERE on your website, as many times as you want (instead of having to frequently copy-paste your custom code everywhere, you can just type that variable name). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Get started with FTP== | ||
| + | FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is like Windows Explorer for your website's files. Often, especially when you start tinkering with your template html and css, you'll need a way to access files that the Soholaunch tool itself doesn't provide you direct access to....a way to get behind the curtain a little. This is what FTP is for. | ||
| + | |||
| + | One of the better FTP clients out there is also free. It's called FileZilla. You can download it here... | ||
| + | http://filezilla-project.org/ | ||
| + | |||
| + | In order to get at your template folder... | ||
| + | # Go download filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) | ||
| + | # Install it on your computer | ||
| + | # At the top you'll see fields for host, username, and password. For "host" just fill-in your domain name (e.g., example.com). You username and password are typically the same as your cpanel usename and password. If you can't get the right username/password, check the welcome email from your web hosting company. If you can't find that, contact your web hosting company and ask them for you ftp username/password | ||
| + | # Once you're in through ftp, [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=How_to#Find_your_template_folder locate your template folder] | ||
| + | # The two files you are probably looking for are index.html and custom.css. See: [http://wiki.soholaunch.com/index.php?title=Custom_Template_Reference#Template_folder_and_files Template Folder and Files] | ||
| + | # Download the file you want to modify to your PC, make your changes, then upload it back to your site...all though this FileZilla FTP program. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Modify your custom.css file== | ||
| + | Most templates --- including all factory templates and most templates available on the [[http://addons.soholaunch.com|Soholaunch Addons]] website --- make use of a file called custom.css. This file contains all (or mostly all) of the styles that affect how your template looks and feels. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you want to make color, style, etc changes to your template, chances are what you are looking for is located in your template's custom.css file. | ||
| + | |||
| + | You can find this file in your template folder. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Move your site to a different server== | ||
| + | # Sign-up for new hosting account | ||
| + | # Get temporary access url from your new web hosting company | ||
| + | # Use temporary url to install Soholaunch to new hosting space (via Fantastico or our installsoholaunch.php script) | ||
| + | # Back on your OLD server, log-in to sohoadmin. | ||
| + | # Go to the Webmaster menu. | ||
| + | # Click the Site Mover tool | ||
| + | # Click Move this Site | ||
| + | # Download that file it creates | ||
| + | # On your NEW server, log-in to sohoadmin. | ||
| + | # Go to Webmaster Menu. | ||
| + | # Click Site Mover tool | ||
| + | # Upload your transfer file | ||
| + | # At your domain registrar, re-point your domain name | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Add a custom redirect to a page== | ||
| + | Here is the code to do a proper (search engine-friendly) redirect. Put this php code in a file, call it "whatever.php", and drop it on the page you want to redirect via the Custom Code object in the Page Editor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Make sure to change that "redirectohere.example.com" address. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <?php | ||
| + | header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); | ||
| + | header("location: http://redirectohere.example.com"); | ||
| + | exit; | ||
| + | ?> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Maximize the admin/editing window in Internet Explorer== | ||
| + | The sohoadmin window is designed to run in a fixed size of a little smaller than 800x600 dimensions to make sure it fits on all monitor resolutions. | ||
| + | |||
| + | However, sometimes it can be handy to be able to make the admin window larger if you have enough screen real-estate to do so. If you are using a browser besides Internet Explorer, like Mozilla FireFox (our recommended browser), then you can simply drag the bottom-right corner of your browser window to resize it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | But if you're using Internet Explorer then follow these steps... | ||
| + | |||
| + | 1. Log-in to sohoadmin | ||
| + | |||
| + | 2. Close the sohoadmin window after it launches | ||
| + | |||
| + | 3. You should be looking at the "Click here to re-launch admin window" screen. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 4. In the address bar you'll see a URL like this... | ||
| + | http://example.com/sohoadmin/index.php | ||
| + | |||
| + | 5. Change it to this... | ||
| + | http://example.com/sohoadmin/version.php | ||
| + | |||
| + | 6. Hit the Enter key | ||
| + | |||
| + | 7. Admin window will re-launch and be resizeable | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Add fonts to the new Text Editor== | ||
| + | ===CIA Fonts will not work with v4.9.2+=== | ||
| + | In versions prior to v4.9.2 there was a plugin called CIA Fonts on the Soholaunch Addons website that made it easy to add fonts to the Text Editor. But as of v4.9.2 this plugin will no longer work (until it is updated...hint, hint Thomas), because v4.9.2+ builds incorporate a completely different text editor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===The new workaround method for sites running v4.9.2+=== | ||
Until an easier solution is created (which should happen before too long), you can still add fonts to the new editor, but not quite as easily as you could with the old editor and CIA Fonts. | Until an easier solution is created (which should happen before too long), you can still add fonts to the new editor, but not quite as easily as you could with the old editor and CIA Fonts. | ||
Here's how to add fonts to the new Text Editor | Here's how to add fonts to the new Text Editor | ||
| − | ;Note: You '''must be running''' at least '''v4.9.2 r7 ''' to add fonts using this method...''' | + | ;Note: You '''must be running''' at least '''v4.9.2 r7+''' to add fonts using this method...''' |
#Go to Database Table Manager | #Go to Database Table Manager | ||
#Click the "System tables" tab | #Click the "System tables" tab | ||
| Line 41: | Line 390: | ||
In the form builder... | In the form builder... | ||
| − | #Click the "( ) Add Field" button | + | #Click the "(+) Add Field" button |
#Click the "Email Address" field | #Click the "Email Address" field | ||
| Line 75: | Line 424: | ||
==Rename/Delete a page that won't delete== | ==Rename/Delete a page that won't delete== | ||
| − | Usually, if you can't delete a page it's because it has some trouble characters in its name like an ampersand ( | + | Usually, if you can't delete a page it's because it has some trouble characters in its name like an ampersand (&) or something. In order to delete the page you'll have to rename it first. And you'll have to rename it "the hard way" because that ampersand won't let you rename it "the easy way" (via Page Properties) for the same reason it won't let you delete the page. |
| + | |||
| + | So here's the step by step for manually renaming a page called "Milo & Otis" to "Milo and Otis" so it won't give you any more problems. | ||
| + | #Go to Main Menu > Database Table Manager | ||
| + | #Select the site_pages table from the drop-down menu | ||
| + | #Hit the "Enter/Edit Record Data" button | ||
| + | #When the table pulls up click the link on the top right that says "Run custom query" | ||
| + | #Put the following tn the text box that pops-up and hit the "Run Query" button... | ||
| + | update site_pages set page_name = 'Milo and Otis' where page_name = 'Milo & Otis' | ||
| + | |||
| + | Once you follow these steps you should be able to delete, rename, etc the page as normal. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Find/Edit custom table search includes== | ||
| + | Via FTP, the files are located here... | ||
| + | [public_html]/media | ||
| + | |||
| + | File naming convention... | ||
| + | udt-search_[search name].inc | ||
| + | |||
| + | Example file name... | ||
| + | udt-search_joes_cool_search.inc | ||
| + | |||
| + | You can download these files to your PC, modify them, then upload them back to that /media folder and you're good to go. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Link to specific shopping cart sku== | ||
| + | Go to your website and browse your shopping cart. Click the Buy Now/More Information link for the product you want to link to, then copy the url from your address bar. Should look something like this... | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://provx.soholaunch.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1 | ||
| + | |||
| + | Advanced Note: That id # matches the prikey value of that sku in the cart_products table. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Link to specific shopping cart category== | ||
| + | Go to your website and browse your shopping cart. In the search column you'll see a list of links to your categories (in the search column). Click on the link to the category you want, then copy the url from your address bar. Should look something like this... | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://yourdomain.com/shopping/start.php?browse=1&cat=25 | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Link to specific month/year in you event calendar== | ||
| + | In the text editor, select the text you want to link and hit the little link icon/button next to the paint bucket. Then in the link dialog that pops up, in the field that says "(or) Link / Anchor:" and has "http://" already in the field, do this... | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://yourdomain.com/About_Us.php?SEL_MONTH=04&SEL_YEAR=2007 | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note: Replace "About_Us" with the name of the page that you dropped you're calendar on, and replace the month and year numbers with whatever month/year you want to jump to. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Reset your hit counter== | ||
| + | #Log-in to your site via FTP | ||
| + | #Browse to the "sohoadmin/filebin/" folder | ||
| + | #Delete hitcounter.txt | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Move license from subdomain to primary domain== | ||
| + | #Log-in to the partner area | ||
| + | #Click on "Lifetime Licenses" | ||
| + | #Delete the license listed for your subdomain | ||
| + | #Click "Add Domain" | ||
| + | #Fill-in the name of your primary domain and click "Generate License" | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Download page content files== | ||
| + | Via FTP, the files are located here... | ||
| + | [public_html]/sohoadmin/tmp_content | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===What's the difference between CON and REGEN files?=== | ||
| + | In short, CON files are for the website-side, REGEN files are for the admin-side. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ;CON files: When a visitor views a page on your website, script files read the CON file for that page and use it to build the final HTML for the page. CON files tell the website-side scripts that you've got a cart item, a login box, and this text on this page. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ;REGEN files: These are used by Soholaunch's Page Editor. When you open a page in Soholaunch to edit it, the REGEN file for that page is read and it tells the product what objects are on the page and which dropzones to display them in. | ||
| + | |||
| + | When you save a page in the Page Editor, it saves a REGEN file for that page so it knows what edit options to show you in the Page Editor the next time you edit that page, and then it builds a CON file for the page so that the website-side scripts know what to display to site visitors. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Upload video files via FTP== | ||
| + | Via FTP, the files are located here... | ||
| + | [public_html]/media | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Find/Edit the default contact forms== | ||
| + | '''Contact forms'''<br> | ||
| + | Via FTP, the files are located here... | ||
| + | [public_html]/sohoadmin/program/modules/page_editor/formlib/forms | ||
| + | |||
| + | The files are: | ||
| + | *Contact_Form_(Basic).form | ||
| + | *General_Email_Form.form | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Newsletter quick signup form'''<br> | ||
| + | The file for this is located here... | ||
| + | [public_html]/sohoadmin/program/modules/page_editor/formlib/newsletter/Quick-N-Easy_Signup.form | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Points to remember:''' | ||
| + | *Though they're technicaly just html files, make sure to preserve the .form extension when you upload them back to your site so the system can recognize them (which is the whole idea behind the .form extension --- so know it's a form). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Find your template folder== | ||
| + | '''1. Log-in via FTP to your website and navigate to this folder...''' | ||
| + | public_html/sohoadmin/program/modules/site_templates/pages/ | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''2. Find the folder for your specific template.''' | ||
| + | This is the naming convention for template folders.. | ||
| + | CATEGORY-Template_Name-Color | ||
| + | |||
| + | So if you're using CORPORATE > A_Curvacious_Mark (Blue), your template folder would be... | ||
| + | CORPORATE-A_Curvacious_Mark-Blue | ||
| + | |||
| + | ...and the full path from your home directory would be: | ||
| + | public_html/sohoadmin/program/modules/site_templates/pages/CORPORATE-A_Curvacious_Mark-Blue | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Swap out your template header text for a logo image== | ||
| + | 1. Download the '''index.html''' file from your [[#Find your template folder|template folder]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | 2. Find (ctrl+f) '''"#LOGO#"''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | 3. Replace it with '''"#LOGOIMG#"''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | 4. Save the file and upload it back to your template folder | ||
| + | |||
| + | You can now add and change the logo image in your template via Template Manager (where it says choose logo image). | ||
| + | |||
| + | The same logic applies if you want to change your logo text to something else or add other information right around it. For example, if your template allows for header text via #LOGO# and you want slogan text too, you could find that #LOGO# in your template's .html file but instead of replacing it with #LOGOIMG# you could change it to something like... | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Example: Apply same logic to add slogan text''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | ''Original line in template's index.html file...'' | ||
| + | #LOGO# | ||
| + | |||
| + | ''Add a line break and the pound-variable for slogan text...'' | ||
| + | #LOGO#<br>#SLOGAN# | ||
| + | |||
| + | Complete list of available pound variables like #LOGO#, #LOGOIMG#, and #SLOGAN#, see [[Custom_Template_Reference|custom template reference]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Set background image== | ||
| + | 1. '''Log-in via FTP and find your template's folder...''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | 2. '''Upload the image you want to use''' as your background to that folder | ||
| + | |||
| + | 3. '''Download the custom.css file''' that's in there and open it up in your code editor of choice (or notepad will work if nothing else) | ||
| + | |||
| + | 4. '''Add in this code...''' | ||
| + | body { background-image: url(mybackgroundimage.gif); } | ||
| + | |||
| + | 5. '''Save the file (custom.css)''' and upload it back to your template's folder | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Make a button that links to another website, but opens that link in a new window== | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Solution:''' Pull up the Text Editor where you put in the button, click on the "HTML" button at the bottom left. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The HTML for your button should look something like this... | ||
| + | <pre><input type="button" style="width: 163px; color: | ||
| + | rgb(29, 0, 237); height: 24px; background-color: rgb(249, 186, 0);" | ||
| + | size="217" value="Click here to go to example.com"></pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | To make this button link to "www.example.com", insert the following "onclick" attribute... | ||
| + | <pre>onclick="window.open('http://www.example.com','', | ||
| + | 'width=800px,height=600px,resizable');"</pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | So the full code for the button should look something like... | ||
| + | <pre><input type="button" onclick="window.open('http://www.example.com','', | ||
| + | 'width=800px, height=600px,resizable');" | ||
| + | style="width: 163px; color: rgb(29, 0, 237); | ||
| + | height: 24px; background-color: rgb(249, 186, 0);" | ||
| + | size="217" value="My Button"></pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Just replace "www.example.com" with the site you want to link to, and you're good to go. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Install Soholaunch on a subdomain manually via cPanel== | ||
| + | How to install manually on subdomain.... | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://soholaunch.com | ||
| + | # Download installer | ||
| + | |||
| + | cPanel | ||
| + | # Create database | ||
| + | # Create user | ||
| + | # Add user to database | ||
| + | |||
| + | Local PC | ||
| + | # Extract installsoholaunch.zip somewhere | ||
| + | |||
| + | FTP Client | ||
| + | # Upload installsoholaunch.php to root of subfolder for subdomain (e.g., "public_html/fr" for "fr.domain.com") | ||
| + | |||
| + | Browser | ||
| + | # Go to yourdomain.com/installsoholaunch.php | ||
| + | # Click install button | ||
| + | # Fill-out setup form with database info (db name, username, password you just created in cPanel) | ||
| + | # Done installing! | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Import a large number of shopping cart items at once== | ||
| + | # Log-in to sohoadmin (yourdomain.com/sohoadmin) | ||
| + | # Main Menu > Database Tables > System Tables tab | ||
| + | # Scroll until you see the "cart_products" table. If it does not exist, return to the Main Menu and click the Shopping Cart icon once, wait for the Shopping Cart menu to load (the one with buttons that say things like Shipping Options, Find/Edit Products, Tax Options, etc), and then go back to Database Tables > System Tables (so basically start over at step #2 above). | ||
| + | # Next to the "cart_products" name you'll see a Download link. Click that to download the table in CSV format. | ||
| + | # Open Microsoft Excel, create a new spreadsheet | ||
| + | # In Excel, do this: Data > Import External Data > (select the file you downloaded) > Semicolon delimited > Finish | ||
| + | # Now you have all the right column names set up in your spreadsheet, you can start filling it out with all your product info. | ||
| + | # When you've got it filled out, Save As > CSV file (semicolon delimited) > Yes on the warning prompt about losing funcitonality | ||
| + | # Back in sohoadmin, go to Main Menu > File Manager > Upload Files | ||
| + | # Upload the .csv file you just saved your spreadsheet to. | ||
| + | # Go back to sohoadmin > Main Menu > Database Tables > System tables tab | ||
| + | # Next to cart_products, click the Import link. | ||
| + | # Select the CSV file you uploaded, then follow the prompts to make sure that your column names match up. | ||
| + | # Once you finish the Import action, you're all done! | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Note1:''' If you already have a spreadsheet full of shopping cart items, skip to step 8 | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Note2:''' The PROD_CATEGORY fields use the keyfield numbers from the cart_category table, which you can also view via Database Tables > System Tables tab > View/Edit Records | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Note3:''' You can also use this import feature to ''update'' many cart items at one time. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Note4:''' Always use the Backup/Restore to make a backup first! | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Transfer shopping cart items from one site to another== | ||
| + | |||
| + | sohoadmin for Main site (e.g, yourdomain.com) | ||
| + | # Database Tables feature | ||
| + | # System Tables | ||
| + | # cart_products | ||
| + | # Click the download link | ||
| + | # Save that somewhere on your PC | ||
| + | |||
| + | sohoadmin for subdomain (e.g., fr.yourdomain.com) | ||
| + | # File Manager | ||
| + | # Upload Files | ||
| + | # Upload csv file that you downloaded | ||
| + | # Database Tables | ||
| + | # System Tables | ||
| + | # cart_products | ||
| + | # Import | ||
| + | # Follow instructions | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Make blog sort by earliest-to-latest, instead of latest-to-earliest.== | ||
| + | 1. Log-in via FTP, browse to your public_html folder | ||
| + | |||
| + | 2. Download pgm-blog_display.php | ||
| + | |||
| + | 3. Modify sort order by finding this line... | ||
| + | $blog_qry = "ORDER BY timestamp DESC, PRIKEY DESC LIMIT 15"; // Limit by 15 | ||
| + | |||
| + | to this... | ||
| + | $blog_qry = "ORDER BY timestamp DESC, PRIKEY ASC LIMIT 15"; // Limit by 15 | ||
| + | |||
| + | 4. To be safe, find all other instances of "DESC" and replace them with "ASC". | ||
| + | |||
| + | 5. Save. Upload your modified pgm-blog_display.php TO YOUR TEMPLATE FOLDER. If Soholaunch finds a pgm-blog_display.php in your template folder, it will use it instead of the standard file. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Enable pre-release testing builds== | ||
| + | Sometimes we will release small version updates to address specific problems on client websites (or to test new features). You can think of these builds as "nightly" or "beta" builds. They come with no guarantees about reliability, and you should not update to them unless you are installing on a development site, or unless a member of the Soholaunch support staff tells you to update to it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | By default, you cannot see these beta builds in the Software Updates feature. You need to enable them. Here's how to do that... | ||
| + | # From your sohoadmin control panel, go here: Main Menu > Webmaster > Software Updates | ||
| + | # Click the link that looks like this: "[?] Technical diagnostic info (for geeks)" | ||
| + | # This will open a popup layer. Look at the bottom of the popup. | ||
| + | # Set this option to "Yes/Enabled": "Enable pre-release testing builds" | ||
| + | # Close popup and click the Check For Updates button again | ||
| + | # You should see the beta build listed as available to install (note a beta build is not always available). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Create a database with cPanel== | ||
| + | All Soholaunch installations require a database, along with an associated database user/pass. Here's how to create a MySQL database and assign a user to it using cPanel. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Step 1: Create the Database=== | ||
| + | # Log-in to cPanel (yourdomain.com/cpanel) | ||
| + | # Find the icon for MySQL Databases. Click it. | ||
| + | # Under the Create New Database heading, fill in a name in the text field (note that usually every database is prefixed with your cPanel username, which is shown before the text field). Usually, I just type in "soho" for the database name, making the full database name "[username]_soho" | ||
| + | # Click the Create New Database button. | ||
| + | # Now your database is created. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Step 2: Create a User=== | ||
| + | Now you need to create a user/pass for the database. | ||
| + | # Still on the MySQL Databases page, scroll down under Add New User. | ||
| + | # Fill in a name. This is like the database name. You're only going to use it once and you won't need to remember it for more than the next 5 minutes. Keep it short and use letters only. | ||
| + | # Note: Like the database name, the username is prefixed is by your cPanel username. | ||
| + | # For the password, just use the password generator and copy it down somewhere temporary. Again, you will only need this password for the next 5 minutes of your life. | ||
| + | # Click the Create User button. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Assign the user to the database=== | ||
| + | *Why this is necessary:* In case you're curious as to why we have to do this: All you've done so far is create a user for the database. Right now, this user has no authority. He's just an empty shell of a user, lonely and without a database to work on. You need to associate this new user with the database. | ||
| + | |||
| + | # Scroll down to the Add User to Database section (underneath where you created the user). | ||
| + | # Select the name of the user you just created from the first dropdown. | ||
| + | # Select the name of the database you created in Step 1 from the second dropdown. | ||
| + | # Click the Add button | ||
| + | # Check the box for All Privileges | ||
| + | # Click the Add button | ||
| + | # All done! | ||
Latest revision as of 12:43, 27 December 2013
Create a Foundation/Boostrap compatible template
Foundation and Bootstrap are the two reigning HTML frameworks for creating responsive HTML and CSS. Ultra is fully-compatible with both Foundation and Bootstrap, where as Pro is mostly compatible. There are two main steps to creating Bootstrap and Foundation-compatible Soholaunch templates.
1. Create the template design via Bootstrap or Foundation (of those two, I recommend Foundation).
2. Add the soho #variables# like you normally do.
3. In Ultra, you're be done now.
The rest of these instructions only apply if you're using Soholaunch Pro.
4. NAV MENU: Make a copy of the pgm-auto_menu.php file and add the Foundation or Bootstrap classes to the html that gets outputted for your navigation menu.
5. CONTENT AREA: Pro uses an HTML table to produce the Page Editor's grid structure. This hard-width table will prevent responsive frameworks like Bootstrap/Foundation from collapsing content on mobile devices. To overcome this, you'll need to target this table with CSS change it's display structure (table, tr, and td tags) to be a normal block elements. This may affect your display and be frustrating to wrangle in. For this reason, we highly recommend using Soholaunch Ultra for Bootstrap/Foundation websites.
Use an Authorize.net reseller for your payment gateway
Many payment gateways are resellers of the popular Authorize.net payment gateway. They may offer better rates and packages, but ultimately they're selling the same technology, except that they use a different URL address for accepting payments. Both Soholaunch Pro and Soholaunch Ultra include a simple, built-in way to change the gateway URL on soho's built-in Authorize.net integration so that you can use Authorize.net reseller gateways.
How to change the Authorize
The Authorize.net gateway URL is composed of two parts...
- The hostname: secure.authorize.net
- The path: /gateway/transact.dll
These are the two variables that you need to adjust to use your reseller gateway. You can add custom URL and path to the Soholaunch smt_userdata table using special variable names, and Soholaunch will use your custom host and path instead.
- Go to the Database Tables feature
- Click the System Tables tab.
- Find the smt_userdata table
- Click View/Edit Records
- Add New Record
- prikey (leave blank), plugin = 'cart_authorize', fieldname = 'scHost', data = '[your custom url]' (all those values should be typed WITHOUT the single quotes)
- Save New Record
- Add New Record
- prikey (leave blank), plugin = 'cart_authorize', fieldname = 'scPath', data = '[your custom path]'
- Save New Record
- All done!
Add an XML Sitemap to your website
Part one: Generate a sitemap
- Visit xml-sitemaps.com
- Follow-the instructions to generate an XML sitemap for your site.
- Copy the sitemap it generates (Ctrl+c)
- Open MS Notepad (or Typepad on a Mac)
- Paste in your sitemap (Ctrl+v)
- Save the file as sitemap.xml
Part two: Upload sitemap
- Log-in to your sohoadmin
- From the Main Menu, press the F4 key to launch the secret super-tool.
- This screen may look scary, but it will help you upload the sitemap to your home folder.
- Make sure the path at the top shows that you are in the public_html folder
- Click the upload button to select the sitemap.xml file from your computer and upload it
- All done!
Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools
Part one: Add site to your Google account
- Log-in to your Google Account
- Go to Google Webmaster Tools
- Click Add a Site
- Click Manage site > Verify this site
- Click the link to Download the HTML verification file
- Save that file to your computer somewhere
Part two: Upload verification file
- Log-in to your sohoadmin
- From the Main Menu, press the F4 key to launch the secret super-tool.
- This screen may look scary, but it will help you upload Google's file to your home folder.
- Make sure the path at the top shows that you are in the public_html folder
- Click the upload button to select the Google file from your computer and upload it
Part three: Finalize verification
- Go back to Google Webmaster Tools
- Click Verify
- Done!
Put a text link on top of an image
There are a couple ways to put a link on top of an image. Here are two methods.
1. Overlay a normal text link on an image.
The idea here is to set your image as a background image for an element that contains your text link.
So let's say you have an image called...
kitten.jpg (300px width X 150px height)
...and you want to lay a text link on it. What you're going to do is create a container element in html that has the same width and height as your image, assign your image to be the background image, and then put your text inside the container element.
Flip over to the Text Editor's HTML view (you should also do this as a custom code file) and put in some html like below. You can copy-paste this if you'd like.
<div style="width: 300px;height: 150px;background-image: url('images/kitten.jpg');">
<a href="http://example.com/Kittens.php">Click here to see kittens</a>
</div>
2. Create an image map
An image map is a combination of image and code that basically makes certain sections of the image clickable like links. You typically define the sections through a graphical image map maker. There are lots of free standalone products, and image mapping is a built in tool for most major web development software packages (e.g., Adobe Dreamweaver).
Note that once you use such a program to create an image map, it will give you a bunch of code to insert on your page. Use Soholaunch's "Custom Code" drag-and-drop object to put that on your page.
3. Use absolute positioning with CSS
This is the "advanced" method. If you don't already know what this is, it will take more than a paragraph to explain it well. Going in-depth into CSS positioning would be a little out-of-scope for this page, and lots of people on the web have already done a great job explaining it. But if you're interested and you're the tinkering type, search around for tutorials on CSS positioning. You may want to do a few CSS primers first if you've never looked at it before.
Install Google Analytics code on your website
Google Analytics is an ultra-powerful stats package provided by Google for analyzing your website traffic. It will give you a dazzling amount of information about your site visitors.
To use Google Analytics with your website, you must add Google's special tracking code to all of your site pages. Because Soholaunch uses templates (one master file that controls the style for your whole website), you don't have to worry about adding it to all your pages. You can just add it in one place and be done with it.
There are two easy ways to add Google's code to your Soholaunch-powered website:
1. The Easy Way: Grab a plugin
Go try one of the several Google Analytics plugins available at Soholaunch Addons:
2. The Hard Way: Edit your template file
- First, find your template folder through FTP
- Locate the index.html file within your template folder
- Follow Google's instructions for adding the code.
- Also note that if your template folder contains a home.html file, you will need to add the Google Code there as well.
Export shopping cart products
Using the Database Tables feature it is possible to export your shopping cart products into a semicolon-delimited .csv file that you can then import into spreadsheets (e.g., Microsoft Excel) and many other systems.
Here are instructions for exporting your shopping cart products:
- Log-in to sohoadmin
- From the Main Menu, click the Database Tables icon.
- Click the System Tables tab
- Find the "cart_products" table.
- Click the "Download" link.
- Save the file to your local computer
Prevent PayPal Order Number Conflicts
If you are using one paypal account to accept orders on more than one Soholaunch website, you may run into order number conflicts. This usually manifests in an error from PayPal that says something like "Order already exists".
The problem
The Soholaunch Shopping Cart starts it's order numbers off at 10000 and counts up one at a time per order, so your third order will be order #10003. When you use PayPal as your payment gateway, this order number is passed to paypal as the unique identifier number for PayPal.
Normally, when you just have one website, this is all fine and dandy. But when you have two websites running through the same PayPal account, you start to get conflicts. If you've received three orders from Site A and three orders from Site B, the third order on both sites is going to pass to PayPal as #10003. When the Site B tries to run its third order through, PayPal says "Hey, no...that order number already exists" (because Site A used it earlier).
How to fix it
The fix for the duplicate order number problem is simple enough. You just need to jump the order numbers on one of your site to another range, so that the two order number ranges don't ever overlap.
You can leave Site A alone in it's 10000 range. For Site B, do this...
- Main Menu
- Database Tables
- System Tables tab
- cart_invoices
- View/Edit Records
- Add New Record
- Specify a really high number like 200000 for the ORDER_NUMBER
- Leave all the other fields blank
- Save
- View table and delete your test record (if you want)
- From now on order numbers will start at whatever number you put in (e.g., 200000)
Soholaunch does not currently support using special characters (anything besides letters, numbers, and spaces) in your site's menu navigation, neither in main page links nor in sub page links.
Although we are working to improve this in future versions so that you can use whatever characters you want, there are ways to get around the current restriction in the mean time.
Method #1: Search and Replace Table
Let's assume you want to create a page called Lilo & Stitch. Normally, that ampersand will make the Soholaunch paging system
- Name your page something that works under the standard page naming restrictions, so let's say "Lilo and Stitch".
- Go Main Menu > Database Tables > User Tables > UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE > View/Edit Records
- Add a Record
- Search for: "Lilo and Stitch" (without the quotes)
- Replace with: "Lilo & Stitch" (without the quotes)
If you are comfortable modifying the html file for your template, you can certainly hard-code your menu navigation directly into the HTML file and use whatever special characters you want.
Copy-Paste Content from Microsoft Word
Pasting from MS Word is always a problem for WYSIWYG editors like the Soholaunch Text Editor, because the content that you copy from Word carries all of this crappy Microsoft psuedo-html code with it. Some of that code works; some of it can't be interpreted by the browser. Hence the funky, half-working result you end up with a lot of times.
To combat this, we recommend two options:
1. Instead of normal pasting (Ctrl+V or right-click, paste), use the Paste from Word button inside the Soholaunch Text Editor. Note that this button does not work in FireFox (not for lack of trying). When you hit that button, the soho editor will try to translate the odd MS Word code into to real html code, which will usually yield a bit better results than just normal pasting.
2. Strip all the formatting before you paste. As in, copy the content from MS Word, paste it in a bare-bones text editor like MS Notepad, then copy from there in to the soho editor and format as you like. This is certainly the most reliable, quirk-free method, though it does require you to re-do your formatting.
How to find your FTP login
If you submit support tickets with us, we will usually ask you for your "FTP" login username and password. If your web hosting company offers "cPanel", then this username/password is probably the same as your "cPanel" user name and password. You usually find this log-in information in the "Welcome" email that your web hosting company sent you when you first signed up with them.
How to fix a corrupt page
Sometimes certain content on a page will break the page editor. Often you don't know this is happening until it's too late and your page is corrupted.
Symptoms of a corrupt page:
- Page Editor: Fails to load
- Page Editor: Cannot delete objects
- Page Editor: Not all grid squares display
- Page does not display correctly (or at all)
Cause of corrupt page: Code or script that you have copy-pasted from elsewhere is messing with the page editor.
If this happens to you the best thing to do is create a new page, then re-place your content from the broken page one element at a time. Of special note: To be extra safe, put all suspicious content on the page using the Custom Code object (which prevents the Page Editor from trying to interpret it).
Note: Again, the cause of corrupt pages is almost always broken html code that you have copy-pasted, or javascript that you have copy-pasted into the Text Editor. If you need to put javascript or other special code on the page, do it with the Custom Code object.
Note2: You may have to completely delete the original page and start over.
Related: How to place something on a page as custom code
How to add anchor links
Here is how you install anchors to text in Soholaunch:
- In the text editor, place your cursor at the place where you would like the anchor. Click the anchor button and create a short, single word name for the anchor. Click Insert.
- Now go to the text you would like linked to that anchor and select (highlight) the text.
- Click the insert/edit link button. in the Anchors dropdown select the correct anchor for the text and click insert.
That should help you. Keep in mind that you create the anchor first and then link text to the anchor. Also, anchors are only valid within the same text editor. If you have multiple text boxes on a page the anchors will not work between separate text boxes.
Update to the latest version
From the Main Menu of /sohoadmin...
- Click the Webmaster buttton on the top nav
- Click the Software Updates button
- Click the big "Check for Updates Now" button
- Select the build you want to install
- Click "Install"
Download new language translation files
Translations of the Soholaunch product are now handled at http://translate.soholuaunch.com. If you speak multiple languages and want to help translate Soholaunch, you can go to that site, sign up for a free account, and start translating immediately.
At any time you can download the latest language file for a given language. Here's how...
- Go to http://translate.soholaunch.com
- Sign-up/Log-in
- Set language to the language you want to download (e.g., Hebrew)
- Click link at top-left to download latest translation files
Once you have downloaded the latest language file you can add it to your Soholaunch-powered website by logging-in via FTP, and uploading the hebrew.php (or spanish.php, or whatever.php) file you downloaded to this folder...
public_html/sohoadmin/language
Make text scroll like a marquee
The old Text Editor (< v4.9.3) used to include a "marquee" feature that would allow you to make any block of text scroll across the page. It was absent in the updated version of the Text Editor (v4.9.3) --- and was left out because it was buggy and was more trouble than it seemed worth.
However, you can still make text scroll like that by switching to HTML View and putting <marquee> tags around the part you want to scroll, like this...
<marquee>scroll me</marquee>
Put some HTML on a page as a custom code
Sometimes you try to paste some code in the Soholaunch Text Editor and you can't get it to work right. This typically happens with code that people copy-paste from other providers (like PayPal button code). In most of these cases the Text Editor in soho is trying to interpret the code so you can see what it's output looks like, but if there's javascript in there or something it can through the editor off (because it tries to execute the javascript when it gets to it...with all kinds of quirky results).
Anyhow, you can avoid all these problems by putting your special code in a custom include and dropping it on your page via the Custom Code object. Any code dropped on the page via the Custom Code object is not interpreted until the page itself is loaded by the site visitor.
This fixes 99.9% of all "I put the code in the Text Editor but it doesn't work." problems.
- Go to edit the page where you would like to place the custom HTML.
- Drag & Drop the Custom code item onto the page from the menu.
- Select New file and enter a name for the embed.
- Click Create New File.
- Paste in the HTML.
- Click Save.
- Select the file from the dropdown.
- Click OK.
- Save page
Alternate method, create your own #variables# for your custom code
Sometimes you need custom code to display nested within content that you create using the Text Editor. For example, let's say you have a table with two columns and you want to put normal text in one column and Google ads in the other column.
For this scenario, using the above method (the Custom Code drag-and-drop object) is less than ideal because you can't get precise placement using the Custom Code method (unless you include the whole table in your custom code, but that's for people who know HTML).
So with this alternate method, instead of placing the custom html directly on the page, you're going to place a custom placeholder variable where you want the custom code to appear, and then use the UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE table to replace that placeholder with the actual code when the page loads for the site visitor.
Here are the steps to follow...
- In the Text Editor place something the text "#mycodewillgohere#" (without the quotes) where you want the custom code to show up. This is going to be your placeholder variable. You can use whatever text you want. For example, it could be #emilyscoolvariable#...it doesn't matter, as long as it's not one of the reserved variables.
- Press the Update button in the Text Editor to apply your changes
- Press the Save Page button.
- Go to the Main Menu
- Click Database Tables
- Under User Tables, View/Edit Records in the UDT_CONTENT_SEARCH_REPLACE table.
- Press the Add New Record button
- For the "Search For" field, enter your placeholder variable (e.g., #mycodewillgohere# or #emilyscoolvariable#)
- For the "Replace With" field, paste in your custom code.
- Save Record.
- View website. Your code should work when the is viewed, but remain as a #variable# while you're editing the page.
The bonus of this method is that you can now use that #mycodewillgohere# variable ANYWHERE on your website, as many times as you want (instead of having to frequently copy-paste your custom code everywhere, you can just type that variable name).
Get started with FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is like Windows Explorer for your website's files. Often, especially when you start tinkering with your template html and css, you'll need a way to access files that the Soholaunch tool itself doesn't provide you direct access to....a way to get behind the curtain a little. This is what FTP is for.
One of the better FTP clients out there is also free. It's called FileZilla. You can download it here... http://filezilla-project.org/
In order to get at your template folder...
- Go download filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/)
- Install it on your computer
- At the top you'll see fields for host, username, and password. For "host" just fill-in your domain name (e.g., example.com). You username and password are typically the same as your cpanel usename and password. If you can't get the right username/password, check the welcome email from your web hosting company. If you can't find that, contact your web hosting company and ask them for you ftp username/password
- Once you're in through ftp, locate your template folder
- The two files you are probably looking for are index.html and custom.css. See: Template Folder and Files
- Download the file you want to modify to your PC, make your changes, then upload it back to your site...all though this FileZilla FTP program.
Modify your custom.css file
Most templates --- including all factory templates and most templates available on the [Addons] website --- make use of a file called custom.css. This file contains all (or mostly all) of the styles that affect how your template looks and feels.
If you want to make color, style, etc changes to your template, chances are what you are looking for is located in your template's custom.css file.
You can find this file in your template folder.
Move your site to a different server
- Sign-up for new hosting account
- Get temporary access url from your new web hosting company
- Use temporary url to install Soholaunch to new hosting space (via Fantastico or our installsoholaunch.php script)
- Back on your OLD server, log-in to sohoadmin.
- Go to the Webmaster menu.
- Click the Site Mover tool
- Click Move this Site
- Download that file it creates
- On your NEW server, log-in to sohoadmin.
- Go to Webmaster Menu.
- Click Site Mover tool
- Upload your transfer file
- At your domain registrar, re-point your domain name
Add a custom redirect to a page
Here is the code to do a proper (search engine-friendly) redirect. Put this php code in a file, call it "whatever.php", and drop it on the page you want to redirect via the Custom Code object in the Page Editor.
Make sure to change that "redirectohere.example.com" address.
<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("location: http://redirectohere.example.com");
exit;
?>
Maximize the admin/editing window in Internet Explorer
The sohoadmin window is designed to run in a fixed size of a little smaller than 800x600 dimensions to make sure it fits on all monitor resolutions.
However, sometimes it can be handy to be able to make the admin window larger if you have enough screen real-estate to do so. If you are using a browser besides Internet Explorer, like Mozilla FireFox (our recommended browser), then you can simply drag the bottom-right corner of your browser window to resize it.
But if you're using Internet Explorer then follow these steps...
1. Log-in to sohoadmin
2. Close the sohoadmin window after it launches
3. You should be looking at the "Click here to re-launch admin window" screen.
4. In the address bar you'll see a URL like this...
http://example.com/sohoadmin/index.php
5. Change it to this...
http://example.com/sohoadmin/version.php
6. Hit the Enter key
7. Admin window will re-launch and be resizeable
Add fonts to the new Text Editor
CIA Fonts will not work with v4.9.2+
In versions prior to v4.9.2 there was a plugin called CIA Fonts on the Soholaunch Addons website that made it easy to add fonts to the Text Editor. But as of v4.9.2 this plugin will no longer work (until it is updated...hint, hint Thomas), because v4.9.2+ builds incorporate a completely different text editor.
The new workaround method for sites running v4.9.2+
Until an easier solution is created (which should happen before too long), you can still add fonts to the new editor, but not quite as easily as you could with the old editor and CIA Fonts.
Here's how to add fonts to the new Text Editor
- Note
- You must be running at least v4.9.2 r7+ to add fonts using this method...
- Go to Database Table Manager
- Click the "System tables" tab
- Find the smt_userdata table
- Click View/Edit Records
- Using the search box at the top left run a search on "customfonts" (without the qoutes). Only one record should be returned.
- Edit that record
- Add fonts to that "data" field (details below) and hit the Save Changed Data button
Format of fonts list
The "data" field contains a list of all the fonts available in the Text Editor. You may want to copy-paste the content of the data field into a text/code editor like Dreamweaver or MS Notepad so you can see them all on one line instead of wrapped into multiple lines. Then when you're done editing the list just copy-paste it back into the text field you took it out of and save the record.
Example content of "data" field in "customfonts" record...
Andale Mono=andale mono,times;Arial=arial,helvetica,sans-serif
The font choices are separated by semicolon ";". Each font choice has two parts, separated by an equals sign (=). The first part (e.g., Arial) is the font name as it will display in the Text Editor and doesn't matter (i.e., you could call it "Billyfont". The second part is what actually affects what font will show on the website --- the proper font-family syntax for the html/css code. Some fonts in the second part specify multiple comma-separated fonts --- these are alternates to use if the preceding font isn't available.
Adding "Trebuchet" to the font list...
Andale Mono=andale mono,times;Arial=arial,helvetica,sans-serif;Trebuchet=Trebuchet MS,verdana,arial,sans-serif
Again, the display name doesn't really matter, and the multiple comma-separated alternative fonts are note required either, so could just have...
Andale Mono=andale mono,times;Arial=arial,helvetica,sans-serif;MyFavoriteFont=Trebuchet MS
When you're done editing the font list in the data field just hit the Save Changed Data to update the record and you're done! Your new font will be available in the Text Editor now.
Find out what version of Soholaunch you're running
The installed version number is located in the bottom-right of the admin tool window, in the footer.
Create an auto-reply email address field in the Web Form builder
In the form builder...
- Click the "(+) Add Field" button
- Click the "Email Address" field
Uninstall Soholaunch manually
Note: This will kill the entire website. Do not do this unless you're positive this is what you want to do. This is meant for people who installed Soholaunch manually (i.e. via installsoholaunch.php) on a website they don't want it on and now want to uninstall it.
Using your preferred code editor (MS Notepad will work if you don't have a code editor of choice), create a new file (save it as deleteitall.php or something) containing this code....
<?
shell_exec("rm -rf media");
shell_exec("rm -rf images");
shell_exec("rm -rf import");
shell_exec("rm -rf tCustom");
shell_exec("rm -rf template");
shell_exec("rm -rf shopping");
shell_exec("rm -rf sohoadmin");
echo "Done! It's all gone!";
?>
...now save that file as something like "deleteitall.php", upload it to your document root folder (i.e. public_html, htdocs, etc.) via FTP and point your browser to websiteyouwantokill.com/deleteitall.php.
Offer your customers your own template collection
To make your custom templates available to every user on your server, wrap them all up in a zip file and upload them somewhere...it can be anywhere, as long as it's accessible from the internet.
For example, let's say you upload your .zip file full of templates to...
ourmaincompanywebsite.com/soho/our_templates.zip
Then log-in to the Partner Area and go to "Branding Controls". Under "Templates" check the "My own templates" box, for the "URL path to template library .zip..." field fill-in
http://ourmaincompanywebsite.com/soho/our_templates.zip
Then scroll down and hit the "Save Options" button. Done! From now on whenever a new Soholaunch-powered website is set up on your server(s), your template library will be downloaded and installed automatically.
Rename/Delete a page that won't delete
Usually, if you can't delete a page it's because it has some trouble characters in its name like an ampersand (&) or something. In order to delete the page you'll have to rename it first. And you'll have to rename it "the hard way" because that ampersand won't let you rename it "the easy way" (via Page Properties) for the same reason it won't let you delete the page.
So here's the step by step for manually renaming a page called "Milo & Otis" to "Milo and Otis" so it won't give you any more problems.
- Go to Main Menu > Database Table Manager
- Select the site_pages table from the drop-down menu
- Hit the "Enter/Edit Record Data" button
- When the table pulls up click the link on the top right that says "Run custom query"
- Put the following tn the text box that pops-up and hit the "Run Query" button...
update site_pages set page_name = 'Milo and Otis' where page_name = 'Milo & Otis'
Once you follow these steps you should be able to delete, rename, etc the page as normal.
Find/Edit custom table search includes
Via FTP, the files are located here...
[public_html]/media
File naming convention...
udt-search_[search name].inc
Example file name...
udt-search_joes_cool_search.inc
You can download these files to your PC, modify them, then upload them back to that /media folder and you're good to go.
Link to specific shopping cart sku
Go to your website and browse your shopping cart. Click the Buy Now/More Information link for the product you want to link to, then copy the url from your address bar. Should look something like this...
http://provx.soholaunch.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1
Advanced Note: That id # matches the prikey value of that sku in the cart_products table.
Link to specific shopping cart category
Go to your website and browse your shopping cart. In the search column you'll see a list of links to your categories (in the search column). Click on the link to the category you want, then copy the url from your address bar. Should look something like this...
http://yourdomain.com/shopping/start.php?browse=1&cat=25
Link to specific month/year in you event calendar
In the text editor, select the text you want to link and hit the little link icon/button next to the paint bucket. Then in the link dialog that pops up, in the field that says "(or) Link / Anchor:" and has "http://" already in the field, do this...
http://yourdomain.com/About_Us.php?SEL_MONTH=04&SEL_YEAR=2007
Note: Replace "About_Us" with the name of the page that you dropped you're calendar on, and replace the month and year numbers with whatever month/year you want to jump to.
Reset your hit counter
- Log-in to your site via FTP
- Browse to the "sohoadmin/filebin/" folder
- Delete hitcounter.txt
Move license from subdomain to primary domain
- Log-in to the partner area
- Click on "Lifetime Licenses"
- Delete the license listed for your subdomain
- Click "Add Domain"
- Fill-in the name of your primary domain and click "Generate License"
Download page content files
Via FTP, the files are located here...
[public_html]/sohoadmin/tmp_content
What's the difference between CON and REGEN files?
In short, CON files are for the website-side, REGEN files are for the admin-side.
- CON files
- When a visitor views a page on your website, script files read the CON file for that page and use it to build the final HTML for the page. CON files tell the website-side scripts that you've got a cart item, a login box, and this text on this page.
- REGEN files
- These are used by Soholaunch's Page Editor. When you open a page in Soholaunch to edit it, the REGEN file for that page is read and it tells the product what objects are on the page and which dropzones to display them in.
When you save a page in the Page Editor, it saves a REGEN file for that page so it knows what edit options to show you in the Page Editor the next time you edit that page, and then it builds a CON file for the page so that the website-side scripts know what to display to site visitors.
Upload video files via FTP
Via FTP, the files are located here...
[public_html]/media
Find/Edit the default contact forms
Contact forms
Via FTP, the files are located here...
[public_html]/sohoadmin/program/modules/page_editor/formlib/forms
The files are:
- Contact_Form_(Basic).form
- General_Email_Form.form
Newsletter quick signup form
The file for this is located here...
[public_html]/sohoadmin/program/modules/page_editor/formlib/newsletter/Quick-N-Easy_Signup.form
Points to remember:
- Though they're technicaly just html files, make sure to preserve the .form extension when you upload them back to your site so the system can recognize them (which is the whole idea behind the .form extension --- so know it's a form).
Find your template folder
1. Log-in via FTP to your website and navigate to this folder...
public_html/sohoadmin/program/modules/site_templates/pages/
2. Find the folder for your specific template. This is the naming convention for template folders..
CATEGORY-Template_Name-Color
So if you're using CORPORATE > A_Curvacious_Mark (Blue), your template folder would be...
CORPORATE-A_Curvacious_Mark-Blue
...and the full path from your home directory would be:
public_html/sohoadmin/program/modules/site_templates/pages/CORPORATE-A_Curvacious_Mark-Blue
Swap out your template header text for a logo image
1. Download the index.html file from your template folder
2. Find (ctrl+f) "#LOGO#"
3. Replace it with "#LOGOIMG#"
4. Save the file and upload it back to your template folder
You can now add and change the logo image in your template via Template Manager (where it says choose logo image).
The same logic applies if you want to change your logo text to something else or add other information right around it. For example, if your template allows for header text via #LOGO# and you want slogan text too, you could find that #LOGO# in your template's .html file but instead of replacing it with #LOGOIMG# you could change it to something like...
Example: Apply same logic to add slogan text
Original line in template's index.html file...
#LOGO#
Add a line break and the pound-variable for slogan text...
#LOGO#
#SLOGAN#
Complete list of available pound variables like #LOGO#, #LOGOIMG#, and #SLOGAN#, see custom template reference.
Set background image
1. Log-in via FTP and find your template's folder...
2. Upload the image you want to use as your background to that folder
3. Download the custom.css file that's in there and open it up in your code editor of choice (or notepad will work if nothing else)
4. Add in this code...
body { background-image: url(mybackgroundimage.gif); }
5. Save the file (custom.css) and upload it back to your template's folder
Make a button that links to another website, but opens that link in a new window
Solution: Pull up the Text Editor where you put in the button, click on the "HTML" button at the bottom left.
The HTML for your button should look something like this...
<input type="button" style="width: 163px; color: rgb(29, 0, 237); height: 24px; background-color: rgb(249, 186, 0);" size="217" value="Click here to go to example.com">
To make this button link to "www.example.com", insert the following "onclick" attribute...
onclick="window.open('http://www.example.com','',
'width=800px,height=600px,resizable');"
So the full code for the button should look something like...
<input type="button" onclick="window.open('http://www.example.com','',
'width=800px, height=600px,resizable');"
style="width: 163px; color: rgb(29, 0, 237);
height: 24px; background-color: rgb(249, 186, 0);"
size="217" value="My Button">
Just replace "www.example.com" with the site you want to link to, and you're good to go.
Install Soholaunch on a subdomain manually via cPanel
How to install manually on subdomain....
- Download installer
cPanel
- Create database
- Create user
- Add user to database
Local PC
- Extract installsoholaunch.zip somewhere
FTP Client
- Upload installsoholaunch.php to root of subfolder for subdomain (e.g., "public_html/fr" for "fr.domain.com")
Browser
- Go to yourdomain.com/installsoholaunch.php
- Click install button
- Fill-out setup form with database info (db name, username, password you just created in cPanel)
- Done installing!
Import a large number of shopping cart items at once
- Log-in to sohoadmin (yourdomain.com/sohoadmin)
- Main Menu > Database Tables > System Tables tab
- Scroll until you see the "cart_products" table. If it does not exist, return to the Main Menu and click the Shopping Cart icon once, wait for the Shopping Cart menu to load (the one with buttons that say things like Shipping Options, Find/Edit Products, Tax Options, etc), and then go back to Database Tables > System Tables (so basically start over at step #2 above).
- Next to the "cart_products" name you'll see a Download link. Click that to download the table in CSV format.
- Open Microsoft Excel, create a new spreadsheet
- In Excel, do this: Data > Import External Data > (select the file you downloaded) > Semicolon delimited > Finish
- Now you have all the right column names set up in your spreadsheet, you can start filling it out with all your product info.
- When you've got it filled out, Save As > CSV file (semicolon delimited) > Yes on the warning prompt about losing funcitonality
- Back in sohoadmin, go to Main Menu > File Manager > Upload Files
- Upload the .csv file you just saved your spreadsheet to.
- Go back to sohoadmin > Main Menu > Database Tables > System tables tab
- Next to cart_products, click the Import link.
- Select the CSV file you uploaded, then follow the prompts to make sure that your column names match up.
- Once you finish the Import action, you're all done!
Note1: If you already have a spreadsheet full of shopping cart items, skip to step 8
Note2: The PROD_CATEGORY fields use the keyfield numbers from the cart_category table, which you can also view via Database Tables > System Tables tab > View/Edit Records
Note3: You can also use this import feature to update many cart items at one time.
Note4: Always use the Backup/Restore to make a backup first!
Transfer shopping cart items from one site to another
sohoadmin for Main site (e.g, yourdomain.com)
- Database Tables feature
- System Tables
- cart_products
- Click the download link
- Save that somewhere on your PC
sohoadmin for subdomain (e.g., fr.yourdomain.com)
- File Manager
- Upload Files
- Upload csv file that you downloaded
- Database Tables
- System Tables
- cart_products
- Import
- Follow instructions
Make blog sort by earliest-to-latest, instead of latest-to-earliest.
1. Log-in via FTP, browse to your public_html folder
2. Download pgm-blog_display.php
3. Modify sort order by finding this line...
$blog_qry = "ORDER BY timestamp DESC, PRIKEY DESC LIMIT 15"; // Limit by 15
to this...
$blog_qry = "ORDER BY timestamp DESC, PRIKEY ASC LIMIT 15"; // Limit by 15
4. To be safe, find all other instances of "DESC" and replace them with "ASC".
5. Save. Upload your modified pgm-blog_display.php TO YOUR TEMPLATE FOLDER. If Soholaunch finds a pgm-blog_display.php in your template folder, it will use it instead of the standard file.
Enable pre-release testing builds
Sometimes we will release small version updates to address specific problems on client websites (or to test new features). You can think of these builds as "nightly" or "beta" builds. They come with no guarantees about reliability, and you should not update to them unless you are installing on a development site, or unless a member of the Soholaunch support staff tells you to update to it.
By default, you cannot see these beta builds in the Software Updates feature. You need to enable them. Here's how to do that...
- From your sohoadmin control panel, go here: Main Menu > Webmaster > Software Updates
- Click the link that looks like this: "[?] Technical diagnostic info (for geeks)"
- This will open a popup layer. Look at the bottom of the popup.
- Set this option to "Yes/Enabled": "Enable pre-release testing builds"
- Close popup and click the Check For Updates button again
- You should see the beta build listed as available to install (note a beta build is not always available).
Create a database with cPanel
All Soholaunch installations require a database, along with an associated database user/pass. Here's how to create a MySQL database and assign a user to it using cPanel.
Step 1: Create the Database
- Log-in to cPanel (yourdomain.com/cpanel)
- Find the icon for MySQL Databases. Click it.
- Under the Create New Database heading, fill in a name in the text field (note that usually every database is prefixed with your cPanel username, which is shown before the text field). Usually, I just type in "soho" for the database name, making the full database name "[username]_soho"
- Click the Create New Database button.
- Now your database is created.
Step 2: Create a User
Now you need to create a user/pass for the database.
- Still on the MySQL Databases page, scroll down under Add New User.
- Fill in a name. This is like the database name. You're only going to use it once and you won't need to remember it for more than the next 5 minutes. Keep it short and use letters only.
- Note: Like the database name, the username is prefixed is by your cPanel username.
- For the password, just use the password generator and copy it down somewhere temporary. Again, you will only need this password for the next 5 minutes of your life.
- Click the Create User button.
Assign the user to the database
- Why this is necessary:* In case you're curious as to why we have to do this: All you've done so far is create a user for the database. Right now, this user has no authority. He's just an empty shell of a user, lonely and without a database to work on. You need to associate this new user with the database.
- Scroll down to the Add User to Database section (underneath where you created the user).
- Select the name of the user you just created from the first dropdown.
- Select the name of the database you created in Step 1 from the second dropdown.
- Click the Add button
- Check the box for All Privileges
- Click the Add button
- All done!
