Best methods to create product catalogue

On my category blog view pages (listing many items) I would like there to be 2 columns (or maybe 3) where the products are listed. Now I havent really tried the templating process, but will do soon. However just wanted some pointers on where to start. I'd say I'm advanced HTML CSS and intermediate PHP. So if someone could tell me the files which I need edit or where to start this would really help me!

Also, on the individual item view, I would also like to create a template where several images are shown for the item (I noticed the minigallery plugin??? will this help).

ANy pointers about this stuff would really help me out. I suppose what I'm really after is an e-commerce shopping cart layout of products. But I used flexicontent because I dont need payments etc. just a product catalogue So far it has been great for me. But now I'm worried about the templating process !! Thanks.

Hi,

First, duplicate the blog template by the template manager of Flexicontent. Edit your category and assign the new template to the category.

All templates are in the folder
components/com_flexicontent/templates.

In each template folder, you will find :

css/category.css
css/items.css

The css of your template

category.php
The main file of your category view.

In this file, you will find code like: to load the file category_category.php
or to load the file category_items.php

category.png
Category view thumbnail
category.xml
List of the parameters of the category template
You can load params in the php file using :
category_alpha.php
The alpha_index of your template

category_category.php
The way to display the introduction of the template (category image, description,...)

category_items.php
This file display the items of the category.
Here you can set how you want the items will be displayed and define the positions where you can display item fields

category_subcategories.php
The way to display the subcategories list.

item.php
Template for the item view
item.png
Thumbnail of the item view
item.xml
Parameters of the item view

--
To display several images, the minigallery plugin is great.
But you can edit the item.php and add postion to display images to.

You can find some information in French here :
blog.netassopro.com/tutoriel-tem ... e-contenu/

And here :
www.gnomeontherun.com/index.php ? ... l&Itemid=7


I hope my english is understandable.

Regards

Thanks for the detailed reply. I'll have a play and see what happens

P.S. your written english is great, just as good as mine (and I'm english )