The IndieCommerce sessions held at BEA last week were well attended. Thanks to all those booksellers who took time to visit the ABA Indie Bookseller Lounge to learn about the upgrade.
As promised, for those unable to join us, all the documents that were presented at the sessions have been uploaded to the IndieCommerce section of Designs and Downloads on BookWeb.org. The sessions included the following:
State of the Upgrade
The FAQ section of d7.indiecommerce.com covers many of the points touched upon in this discussion. Additionally, Neil Strandberg, ABA Director of Technology, has resumed his twice-weekly State of the Upgrade conference calls. Please sign up here to participate in a call.
Preparing Your Site for the Upgrade
While there is no rush to upgrade your site, and cleaning up your site is helpful, it is not required. This session details best practices on content review, including what to remove, and what not to remove.
To read a PDF of the full presentation, click here.
Drupal 7: A Sneak Peek!
To aid transition into the Drupal 7 environment, our team has provided a list of commonly accessed pages and where to find them in the new admin toolbar. The handout also outlines features of the new WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) module, CKEditor.
For a live demo of CKEditor, click here (Note: The demo widget on the CKSource website will differ slightly from the widget in the actual IndieCommerce installation).
Choosing a Theme and Redesign 101
While most stores have the option to keep their current theme, others will select a new theme, either by choice or necessity. This session covers themes plus general best practices and menu organization. We recommend reviewing the full presentation first to provide greater context for some of the handouts.
Click here for the complete presentation in PDF format.
Theme Selection Resources
-
D7 Theme Introduction: Includes informational chart of each theme.
-
Overview of Block Regions: Provides screenshots of the block regions available in each theme. This will assist users in selecting a layout with their desired structure.
-
Blank Layout Templates: Blank layout worksheets to help plan the look and feel of your website. These formats are just examples; feel free to grab a pen and paper to create a custom layout.
Conceptual Resources
-
Menu Structure Worksheets: These worksheets provide areas to help get your menu organized. Choose what you would like in your main menu navigation, what may be better suited in the sidebar, or even down at the bottom of the page.
-
Best Practices Questionnaire: The migration to the Drupal 7 interface is the perfect opportunity to enhance your site, both visually and conceptually. Our team has compiled a self-assessment questionnaire to help brainstorm ideas, and to define the strengths and weaknesses of your current website.
If you attended any of the upgrade sessions at BEA, or participated in a one-on-one, please click here to take a short survey on your experience.