In Connected Business 13, you can change the website skin from simple to advanced modifications to suit the needs of your business.
The default skin used on your website is primarily set up from the eCommerce module’s application configuration, the DefaultSkinID. Skin IDs, which can range from 1 to 99, are found from the skins folder usually located in this path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Connected Business 13\ISE\Web\skins\Skin_99.
Template.ascx file found in the default skin folder is used for the default.aspx page in your website. This defines the look of your site as a brand. However, if you want a broader and specific look for your website, you can create and add more template files to be used for entity pages, language used or other pages in your website. You may need to modify and edit some of those .ascx files.
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Below are the pages in your site which you can specifically apply changes on the skin.
Homepage
The skin of the opening page of your site is pre-configured on the application configuration named – HomeTemplate. The assigned value will be ones used by the system e.g. hometemplate.ascx in the default.aspx page. Otherwise, if no value entered, the system will automatically use the default template from the default skin folder.
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Web Entities
The skin design for eCommerce entities such as Categories, Manufacturers and Departments can now be customized in Connected Business 13.
For example, if you want to change the skin design of a particular selling department, go to eCommerce module > Department > Find Department then select the Department. On the Selling Departmentform, go to Web Option tab > Settings tab. On the Skin Template field, enter template name of the skin e.g. template_basketball. Make sure that this template is within the folder of the default skin.
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Click on Save and Close, and then go to the selling department in which you have applied the skin template.
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Selected Web Pages
Aside from the entities, you can also switch templates for most of the major pages on your website provided that the TemplateSwitching.Enabled is set to True in the eCommerce application configuration.
These web pages are: Account page, Checkout page, Checkoutpayment, Checkoutreview, Checkoutshipping, Orderconfirmation, Search, Shoppingcart, Showprodict, Signin and the Topic pages.
To assign a template for these web pages, you have to set it up on the application configuration. Type in “template” in the search bar and all of these web pages will be loaded. The screenshot below is a sample checkout page with a customized skin.
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Specific Locale or Language
You can customize skin templates for a specific language.
Suppose you want to have a different skin used when the selling language is set to United Kingdom. You can do so by renaming the template to template.locale.aspx in the default skin folder.
An example renamed template for United Kingdom would look like this: template.en-gb (Add .en-gb at end of every template name).
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Testing the modifications on the Default Skin
If you have modifications on the skin template and you don’t want to apply it on your live website yet, what you need to do is test or invoke first your site to take a sneak peek of the new design. With this flexibility, you can still design the look of your website without the need to change it in the application configuration.
To test any skin modifications on your site, type in ?skinid=1 at the end of your live website. This will work, provided that your website uses the default skin template.
See example below:
http://nameofyourwebsite/default.aspx?skinid=1
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For more information on the topic, please refer to the online documentation about how to Customize the Website.