The third installment of how to customise your HostPay template is now available to watch online. This video will continue on from part two and take you through the remaining steps on how to achieve a completely new-look HostPay installation.
You’ll learn how to change headings, link colours and also be given a brief overview of how to change button styles within the user control panel. This video will also demonstrate the effectiveness of Firebug and how applying this tool could shave hours off your website development time.
As usual, all the videos can be found within the video section of your customer control panel or alternatively you can check out our YouTube channel (Make sure you subscribe to be the first to know about new video releases).
Remember, you need to have HostPay installed before you can follow this tutorial, luckily we have a demonstration on that as well!- Check that out here.
Customising HostPay: Part 3
Any questions or feedback please leave them in the comments box below!
i do like these videos u done for modding the hostpay template but the question i keep asking on ur facebook page is when is the next lot of new templates due out for us resellers
This is all very good but these tutorials do not demonstrate how the statictemplate pages link up with the dynamic pages. it would be good not only to have a tutorial to show this but also a demonstration site or an example of a live site already using hostpay and the templates fully set-up, which would clearly show how the static template works with the dynamic back end and allow heart resellers the ability to get the host pay system running fully.
Showing how to do the easier configuration and basic customisation stuff is rather limiting and still does not fully demonstrate the Hostpay system.Whilst I understand you have received request for such basic configuration tutorials from usersI believe I am not the only person requesting suchtemplate tutorials/ examples and have been informed by heart in the past that they where on the way but appear to have yet to surface.when will these be available?
Alan,
To be fair there are quite a few already, but adding new templates is always on our to do list
Matt
Hi Darren,
Many thanks for your message, you’re absolutely right, this tutorial is aimed at the novice web developer/designer as it shows the basics of skinning a template.
I certainly appreciate what you’re saying, so in the next video i’ll be demonstrating how to apply your websites look/feel into a HostPay installation. – I will basically be taking the code from the Header & Footer of an existing website and adding it to the HostPay templates e.g./templates/header.rhtml& /templates/footer.rhtml.Once that’s done, you’ll find HostPay takes care of the rest (All the stuff in the middle), there MAY be some conflicts with your existing CSS, but nothing a spot of Firebug investigating won’t fix! 🙂
It’s really that simple!- This video is next on the list, so watch this space! 🙂
Ben,
I am with Darren on this one. Even though novice people require these videos on how to slightly change your templates to meet their requirements, some of us want to have our own templates and fully integrate hostpay into them.
There will be some conflicts on the CSS as you say, but this would not be much of an issue to resolve.
The problem that we have is that the configuration of how the static/dynamic pages are structured is somewhat confusing and difficult to mess around with.
To configure the static ones it’s not too difficult, simply add the header and footer from your existing bespoke designs and off you go, for the dynamic pages it’s a different story.
If we had a document outlining all the different tags for all the pages, then it would make our lives a lot easier.
Personally, I love the templates you have made, but I don’t want people to fully notice I am using a heart internet reseller program.
Even if we use your templates, simple things like the ticketing system (thanks for integrating that) look very basic, no way as nice as what you use, they are not styled or anything, even the user/client login page looks very basic, I know it can be styled but there is a lot of work to be done.
There is a lot of work required to customise hostpay and implement it, even if you use the standard templates. I have seen a lot of companies using hostpay and all the websites look the same, this can only be due to one thing, it’s very hard and time consuming to mess around with.
Don’t get me wrong, we all love your product, the reseller program is easy to use, you have a second to none support team, you now provide discount on dedicated servers and all that, it’s all awesome, we just need to get hostpay to work for us a lot easier than it is at the moment.
Thanks, Gabi.
Hi Gabi,
Thanks for your message.
In a nutshell it sounds like you’re wanting me to take the existing elements like the login/ticketing system (and a few other areas) and just spruce them up a little..make them look less “Basic” so you don’t want to have to spend x amount of time making them look more modern/fitting yourself (e.g. something more than just grey/white and a border). This is definitely something that should be incorporated in the next template, you have to understand that we have to be neutral with the design so it can fit into any style of website, but obviously we can do more with the styling of these and will certainly take this feedback into consideration for the next template design.
Glad you like the templates, there really isn’t”a lot” of work to get get HostPay implemented globally, as I mentioned earlier you simply put your code within the header.rhtml & footer.rhtml files and it applies globally to front-end and also the customer control panel where all the “Dynamic” stuff happens, and definitely cover this in the next video.
We have made it easy for novice website user to get HostPay implemented with their existing look-and-feel.When you talk about customising – it is simple as altering some styles within the stylesheet to get the desired effect, and to most users that’s enough (I think this could be documented better e.g.what are main controlling style properties…a good tip is if you use “Firebug” – mentioned in the tutorial video, part 2 & 3 – you can inspect elements to find out what properties to change).If you’re looking at customising further than that, then it is going down the bespoke route and naturally, would certainly take considerably more time to implement, and is really down to the skill of the developer/designer of how long this takes… (Same applies when customising any 3rd party script to make it your own)…
Taking the above into consideration….We can certainly try to help advanced customers with further customising the template, or how pages link/work together – what specifically would you like to see? e.g. When you say “Tags” & “Dynamic Pages”what specifics are you referring to (I have to check as people may refer to things that we interpret as something else)
Thanks so much for your message as you know we’re always looking at ways we can improve our products and we listen and take all feedback seriously, appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Hi Ben,
Thank you for taking your time to reply to my queries.
You’re correct, I want to make hostpay look great. I totally understand that a neutral design is required so it can fit into any website.
I guess we are all looking forward to your next release.
You’re right, in order to get hostpay up and running with your templates, it doesn’t require a huge amount of work, even with a different header and footer, which is excellent.
There are a lot of us that would not like to use one of your templates, but create a bespoke design to fully change the look of hostpay, this requires a lot of work but it’s simply sitting down and getting it done.
As far as I see it, hostpay is broken down into two main customisable sections under the customer end user control panel;
1)Theme templates which include the following (stored under /hostpay_installation_folder/templates/);
a.Footer.rhtml
b.Header.rhtml
c.User-menu-rhtml
d.……………
2)Templates which include the following(not visible in the hostpay installation folder;
a.Add-ons.rhtml
b.Basket.rhtml
**** this is hard to explain, apologies in advanced if it doesn’t make sense.*****
This is where it gets a bit confusing, in the “customer end user control panel” theme templates and in the “/hostpay_installation_folder/templates/” in theory, there should be the same files in both, but there isn’t. For instance, under hostpay_installation_folder/templates/ there is a file called login-reminder.rhtml however in the “customer end user control panel” it’s stored under the section “templates”.
Maybe I am just getting confused.
What I mean by static pages would be the files in the root of the hostpay install such as privacy.htm / terms.htm ( whilst I am here, is there anyway we can use header / footer server includes on these files so we don’t have to repeat the code? )
Dynamic pages = change-password.rhtml / basket.rhtml / invoices.rhtml
Tags = apologies, I was not very clear about this before, I meant the CSS Selectors, so we know what CSS selector is in what section and what it does, so we can style our CSS stylesheets accordingly without any conflicts.
I know all support is done through your ticketing system, but I think things like these might be worthwhile speaking to your existing clients 🙂
Anyhow, let us know your thoughts.
Thanks again for your reply and being pro-active regarding hostpay.
Best wishes,
G.
Hi Ben,
Firstly let me just thank you for all the work you have put into creating/styling the templates, some are very well put together.
I agree with some of the above, let me put my 2 cents in:
I believe that if HI Resellers are to be selling web hosting and all that comes with it, to customers then each reseller should have at minimum the knowledge which you keep referring to in the tutorials (basic styling changes). This should be basic knowledge to a reseller. Therefore less time should be focused on “re-sytling” and “facebook” marketing strategies.
To myself, and quite a few other resellers I am in contact with, HostPay is a little confusng/complicated. And by that I don’t mean that the blue or orange does not tie in with my corporate brand. I mean the eRuby comments and HostPay API, the actual code used to generate the dynamic pages, needs to be much much more fully explained. Tutorials and real world examples of the inner working of the pages and the dynamic functions they generate are what is really needed.
Example:
– This needs to be explained further as to what this does, why it does it and the tags of things like :
product.name.html
product.description
product.free_products_list
free_product[“free_name”]
product.base_renewal_period
billing.price(product.unit_price)
and so on…….
Need to be listed and explained so we developers know what we have to work with in order to achieve the outcome when customising pages.
With regards to what Gabi is saying about templates always looking the same with HI Resellers. Unfortunately this is one of the downfalls of using a template system. All resellers will be of the same view: “Oh god, it just takes too long to customise it, so I’ll just play about with the colours and style a bit” – wrong!
If you want to be fully custom and unidentifiable from all other HI Resellers, you simply must put the time in YOURSELF and create your own custom pages (obviously after Ben creates tutorials on how to utilise the dynamic code and API first). Having Ben create more templates, making login look less plain, etc. achieves nothing. Why? Because those templates will simply be used by the same HI Resellers you are trying to distance yourself from. You will simply end up using the same ‘new’ non-blank template as everyone else.
Put short – if you want to look custom and unidentifiable from Heart Internet, put the time in and customise the templates you have. Fully! By adding/removing specific functionality from certain pages, and again this will be much simpler to do when the API / dynamic code used in the templates (eRuby I believe) is explained further. Then by adding your own custom styles to tie in with your corporate branding.
Now just a side note:- this is really just for any other fellow reseller
The templates include alot more files than you think. I have my template fairly well customised (so far). The .htm files CAN include SSI by changing the files to .shtml . For example in my template I have the following static pages (with server side included header and footer)
=Static pages with SSI=
about_us.shtml
contact.shtml
cvv2.shtml
features.shtml
hosting.shtml
latest_news.shtml
more_info_addons.shtml
more_info_domains.shtml
more_info_hosting.shtml
order_now.shtml
privacy.shtml
service_popup.shtml
system_status.php
terms.shtml
testimonials.shtml
=Style sheets=
default.css
theme.css
=Dynamic pages=
basket.rhtml
footer.rhtml
front-page.rhtml
header.rhtml
index.rhtml
package-chooser.rhtml
user-menu.rhtml
This is actually quite a nice way the templates have been setup. Except in the explaination of the code used in the dynamic pages.
Ideally what I would like to see is something along the lines of:
– tutorial files or ‘snippets’ of code used to return specific functions
– a detailed description of what each code snippet does
– image included to show what the code returns (unstyled)
– also a list of all tags available (as described above)
(ie)
is a code snippet that will create a table 300 pixels wide, with the details of each hosting product listing per cell, displayed 2 cells wide.
[insert image of resulting table here]
Sorry about the long ramble lol. I just keep seeing the same questions everywhere I see HI Resellers. Always raising questions/concerns over the template system, all of which could be aleviated if we had easy to read and understand complete breakdown of the system and code used within it.
🙂
Keith,
Thanks for that, I see what you are saying.
I guess in short, I just want things documented clearly and snippets with examples as you say.
I wonder what your site looks like!!…..
Thanks for your input too,
G.
Apologies again, it seems that some of the code entered previously has been stripped out at points:
Example:
[CODE MISSING HERE]
– This needs to be explained further as to what this does, why it does it and the tags of things like :
(ie)
[CODE MISSING HERE]
is a code snippet that will create a table 300 pixels wide, with the details of each hosting product listing per cell, displayed 2 cells wide.
Unfortunately my site is still getting set up and I work full-time 9-5, so it’s quite a way away from benig finished.
I’ll let ya know when it’s completed. Maybe add some descriptions of how I achieved some bits.
Keith,
We are in the same predicament.
It would be excellent if Heart had a reseller forum, so we could all share ideas and help each other, hosted on VBbulletin or PHPBB.
Please let us know, that be excellent.
Thank you,
Gabi
Thanks for the suggestions so far, the feedback on this post has been great. We have definately noted yout points about HostPay and the next video will reflect this.
A well run forum with a lot of users requires at least a full time moderator or two to manage it. That would mean there are either less people working on the customer support tickets which in turn slows down response times (and we know customers love the fast the replies they get from our support guys) or we hire new people, which would mean a major investment on our part. Based on previous requests, a forum has been considered before, and I’m sure it will be discussed again in the the future. However, right now, its not something we are going to create.
More blog posts aimed at advanced resellers/ HostPay users was a regular theme in the reseller survey so thats on the list for this half of the year. Hopefully you’ll find them useful.
Matt
Thanks for the feedback.
Moderating is time consuming but not extensively as you say, I help moderate several large forums and it works. I think by having a forum it would resolve a lot of your issues as we would be helping each other out to achieve what we are looking to do.
It’s an investment with great reward and will actually reduce the amount of work you have to do.
I do see where you are coming from and it’s appreciated.
Like I said before, if you had a conversation with some of your hostpay clients, instead of through blogs, would help a lot as both parties would learn a great deal and we might come up with a solution/product/idea that could beat all your competition.
Gosh, I sound like a sales person!! Not my intention.
Thanks,
G.
I have just looked skimmed this video, and I kind of think that it’s still dealing with the basics a little too much. Most people surely know how to change link colours and borders and all that, what I think would be most useful is a good explanation of the dynamic files.
For example, I’m currently trying to get the addons dynamic file to display things in css’d bordered boxes, and I’ve pretty much done it, except that the prices are flying about all over the place. My issue is keeping them in the right position within each box.
I hope to have it done within the next half hour, but it’d be handy for future users to have this information included in the videos or a written tutorial.
I totally understand that it’s not HI’s business to do ours, and I appreciate all the great service they offer, their awesome support team and these video blogs, I just think that the time could be better spent on tackling some of the more complex stuff.
By the way, my site is nearly finished, and whilst I wouldn’t intrude by posting a link here, is it possible that somebody would test it for me and provide feedback? It’d be nice to hear people’s thoughts.
James,
This video might help a bit with the graphical customisation of HostPay https://www.youtube.com/heartinternet#p/a/u/0/lADkuQ3xmMc
We are working on a meaty blog post covering the dynamic files in HostPay and that should be ready for next week. Hopefully it cover all the areas you want. With regards to posting a link, feel free in the future. If you send it over to us at marketing[at]heartinternet.uk we could ask for feedback for you via our Facebook page?
Matt
Thanks.
That particular video wasn’t much use to me, I’ve dealt with the headers and footers, but I’m sure it’ll help many others out.
I’ll look forward to the blog regarding the dynamic pages though.
I have to agree with Gabi though, I think a forum would be a huge help, and it’d give us an opportunity to discuss the different aspects of Hostpay.
When you consider that most of the users of Hostpay are probably web developers or designers themselves, it’d be well worth giving them the opportunity to improve it for their own use and help each other out. I don’t think any of your resellers consider as ‘the competition’, as most of us are primarily designers and developers probably anyway.
I’d certainly appreciate and use a forum if it was set up. It’d also help to provide each other with feedback on their own sites, prices, etc. I can’t see how it could possibly be a bad thing anyway.
Perhaps something for Heart Internet to consider?
Also, I will post a link here of my site once it’s completed, and pass the details on to your marketing email too.
Thanks alot.
James,
how did you get on? I’d be happy to look at your site.
Thanks for agreeing on the forum.
I have also asked them to add “notify me” tick box so we can be updated when someone else has written a comment on the specific blog you have commented on. This will be very helpful because sometimes I forget to check back.
Thanks,
G.
Hi Gabi,
No problem, and thanks for the offer, once I’ve got it finished, I’ll let you know.
Everytime I think I’m getting close to finishing I find something else to do, or open an entirely new can of worms!
In terms of formatting, it’s pretty much there, but I’m racing against time because I want it ready for the 1st April. Here’s hoping, eh?!
If you’ve got an email address you don’t mind putting up, I’ll email you when it’s done.
Thanks again!
Gabi,
I’ve got your feedback form asking for this feature adding to our blog, it ‘s now been added. Let me know if you’d like to see anything else.
Matt
Based on this feedback we have created in depth HostPay documentation detailing what all the files and variables do https://www.heartinternet.uk/pdf/hostpay-file-documentation.pdf