Wordpress / WooCommerce Navigation Menu
Discussion
TL:DR - Go to last paragraph 
Finally bit the bullet and started to build a Wordpress eCommerce website to take over from the ageing one I have now. Never used Wordpress before so a bit of a learning curve, but not too bad so far.
I'm using the WooCommerce plugin with the Storefront Theme.
New domain / SSL purchased as I'm going to run it alongside the old one until it's proven to work well. Looks like I can get a World Pay plug in to take advantage of my current payment gateway.
24 hours in and I've got a very basic website built. Just put a few products in until I get the format right so I can then replicate them for everything else.
One thing I'm just struggling with. On the main navigation menu, I can't seem to get drop down menu's. I've categorised my products, but the navigation menu just shows the category headings, then open a page with all the products in it.
So in WP / WooCommerce - How do you get a navigation menu that has top level menu categories and sub level / products that drop down from them. I've used other website builders and it's been pretty simple (although was very tired last night, so may have missed it). Do I need a plug in or is there a simple way to achieve this?
Finally bit the bullet and started to build a Wordpress eCommerce website to take over from the ageing one I have now. Never used Wordpress before so a bit of a learning curve, but not too bad so far.
I'm using the WooCommerce plugin with the Storefront Theme.
New domain / SSL purchased as I'm going to run it alongside the old one until it's proven to work well. Looks like I can get a World Pay plug in to take advantage of my current payment gateway.
24 hours in and I've got a very basic website built. Just put a few products in until I get the format right so I can then replicate them for everything else.
One thing I'm just struggling with. On the main navigation menu, I can't seem to get drop down menu's. I've categorised my products, but the navigation menu just shows the category headings, then open a page with all the products in it.
So in WP / WooCommerce - How do you get a navigation menu that has top level menu categories and sub level / products that drop down from them. I've used other website builders and it's been pretty simple (although was very tired last night, so may have missed it). Do I need a plug in or is there a simple way to achieve this?
Edited by Ham_and_Jam on Wednesday 7th April 11:43
If you go to the Wordpress admin and go to "Appearance" and "Menus" you can add items to the menu,
On the left hand side there'll be "Product Categories" which'll let you add the categories (if not click "Screen Options" top right and select the option from there).
If you then drag these underneath another item it will indent slightly, this means it's a sub-menu and will appear as a dropdown
Hope that helps let me know if you need any further help
On the left hand side there'll be "Product Categories" which'll let you add the categories (if not click "Screen Options" top right and select the option from there).
If you then drag these underneath another item it will indent slightly, this means it's a sub-menu and will appear as a dropdown
Hope that helps let me know if you need any further help
That’s great. Thankyou.
Product categories wasn’t ticked in the screen options. As I said I was very tired last night and probably should have left ot for another night! Very easy when you know how, and that box is well hidden
Have you PM’d me recently? The name looks familiar.
I’m going to have a good go at doing as much as I can myself, but may need a little tweak along the way / at the end. Is WP / WooCommerce your thing?
Product categories wasn’t ticked in the screen options. As I said I was very tired last night and probably should have left ot for another night! Very easy when you know how, and that box is well hidden
Have you PM’d me recently? The name looks familiar.
I’m going to have a good go at doing as much as I can myself, but may need a little tweak along the way / at the end. Is WP / WooCommerce your thing?
Haha, yea Wordpress has a few little quirks like that but once you get to know it it's relatively straight forward,
Yea I think I dropped you a message on the other thread, but yea wordpress / woocommerce is good to build yourself and learn how it all works, but if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout, I'm primarily a Wordpress / Woocommerce developer and graphic designer.
Yea I think I dropped you a message on the other thread, but yea wordpress / woocommerce is good to build yourself and learn how it all works, but if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout, I'm primarily a Wordpress / Woocommerce developer and graphic designer.
Akiraprise said:
Haha, yea Wordpress has a few little quirks like that but once you get to know it it's relatively straight forward,
Yea I think I dropped you a message on the other thread, but yea wordpress / woocommerce is good to build yourself and learn how it all works, but if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout, I'm primarily a Wordpress / Woocommerce developer and graphic designer.
Well the aim is to try a do as much of the build myself, primarily as I want to be able to make make changes and maintain it myself. Always easier when you know how it works.Yea I think I dropped you a message on the other thread, but yea wordpress / woocommerce is good to build yourself and learn how it all works, but if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout, I'm primarily a Wordpress / Woocommerce developer and graphic designer.
As a novice I’m likely to stumble along the way so might ask a couple of newbie questions. Depending on the final look, I may need a little artistic enhancement, so may give you a shout.
Nice to know I’ve got an expert should I need it
What’s the best way to back up a Wordpress site?
I see I can do it with the Jetpack plugin but would rather find a good free solution.
The framework and look of the site is pretty much done now. Card payments configured and working. So want to get it backed up before I start putting in the hours of uploading all the products.
I see I can do it with the Jetpack plugin but would rather find a good free solution.
The framework and look of the site is pretty much done now. Card payments configured and working. So want to get it backed up before I start putting in the hours of uploading all the products.
I’m using the storefront theme, simply because I’m going for low set up costs. Also were a B2B setup, so don’t need a glitzy website. However I’m pretty impressed so far with the WP / WooCommerce integration.
After 3 days of work (lazy 8pm to 2am’s), I’ve got something that I’m happy to publish and get Google to index. I think if you’re happy to put in a little work and start from a blank page Storefront is the way to go.
So far as tech support, other than WP or 3rd party forums I’m not sure what is out there. So far I’ve gone solo with a little guidance from @akiraprise.
Keep us updated if you go for a WP website, might be able to help.
After 3 days of work (lazy 8pm to 2am’s), I’ve got something that I’m happy to publish and get Google to index. I think if you’re happy to put in a little work and start from a blank page Storefront is the way to go.
So far as tech support, other than WP or 3rd party forums I’m not sure what is out there. So far I’ve gone solo with a little guidance from @akiraprise.
Keep us updated if you go for a WP website, might be able to help.
Redarress said:
HandJ Thats exactly what I am currently working with. But only really started yesterday in anger. Still need to get my SSL sorted but talking to Krystal Hostings its not a problem as I progress with the site.
Would be interested to hear how you get on, no doubt we’ll go by through a similar learning curve.I’ve just added the Yoast SEO plugin, as I’ve just indexed tge site with Google and need to add a sitemap and other search tools. Seems too have good reviews and feedback, and plenty of online info for it.
Ok so my Woocommerce site is progressing well. I am suprised at how very good it is and with a little work (many hours!) how modern the site looks.
Now the real reason for this post is to correrct my statement about my recent experiences with Shopwired support being no where near as good as it has been in the past.......Yesterday morning I logged on to my Shopwired account and contacted Tech Support and just mentioned I was frustrated with them not being able to link a domain that is hosted elsewhere to my Shopwired site and asked for a phone chat with someone so I could verbally explain the frustration.
Within five minutes I was speaking to one of their Managers who agreed they had not offered the best support to me and asked if he could try to recover the situation. Al l fixed and working within a couple of hours with little effort from me.
I think what I am trying to say is sometimes picking up the phone and talking gets things done. It has in this case and I am now a happy chappy..Thanks Shopwired support
Now the real reason for this post is to correrct my statement about my recent experiences with Shopwired support being no where near as good as it has been in the past.......Yesterday morning I logged on to my Shopwired account and contacted Tech Support and just mentioned I was frustrated with them not being able to link a domain that is hosted elsewhere to my Shopwired site and asked for a phone chat with someone so I could verbally explain the frustration.
Within five minutes I was speaking to one of their Managers who agreed they had not offered the best support to me and asked if he could try to recover the situation. Al l fixed and working within a couple of hours with little effort from me.
I think what I am trying to say is sometimes picking up the phone and talking gets things done. It has in this case and I am now a happy chappy..Thanks Shopwired support
TL:DR Help needed with WP back up - go to last paragraph.
That's great news, and agree sometimes people forget the simplest and best method is to pick up the phone!
Are you still going to continue with the WP site now you've got your Shopwired website sorted?
I'm having good results too with the WP site, but stopped loading products temporarily to put in a couple of essential plugins - SEO and Site Back ups.
For SEO I went with Yoast. Seems very effective and fairly simple to use once you get into it. Lots of stuff in their that I wasn't initially aware of in the WP / WC setup. So work in progress.
For Back Up not so successful. This one I thought would be straight forward, but for some reason has become more problematic. Initially used Updraft Plus. Seemed to back up OK but after restoring the site it wouldn’t delete all the old files 'for some reason'. The restoration worked but I couldn't find an easy way to delete the old files.
So, removed Updraft Plus and installed WPvivid. Again back up seemed OK, but on restoring it broke the publishing of the website and the WP-Admin control panel! No access at all. Fortunately a quick live chat at 2am to my website host provider and they managed to clear the cache and get me back on track within 5 mins. Very impressed with their service.
So back to square one. Have you looked at Backing up yet? I.
I would really appreciate any suggestion on a good WP back up plugin or advice on where I'm going wrong. Is there a simple method that I'm missing.
That's great news, and agree sometimes people forget the simplest and best method is to pick up the phone!
Are you still going to continue with the WP site now you've got your Shopwired website sorted?
I'm having good results too with the WP site, but stopped loading products temporarily to put in a couple of essential plugins - SEO and Site Back ups.
For SEO I went with Yoast. Seems very effective and fairly simple to use once you get into it. Lots of stuff in their that I wasn't initially aware of in the WP / WC setup. So work in progress.
For Back Up not so successful. This one I thought would be straight forward, but for some reason has become more problematic. Initially used Updraft Plus. Seemed to back up OK but after restoring the site it wouldn’t delete all the old files 'for some reason'. The restoration worked but I couldn't find an easy way to delete the old files.
So, removed Updraft Plus and installed WPvivid. Again back up seemed OK, but on restoring it broke the publishing of the website and the WP-Admin control panel! No access at all. Fortunately a quick live chat at 2am to my website host provider and they managed to clear the cache and get me back on track within 5 mins. Very impressed with their service.
So back to square one. Have you looked at Backing up yet? I.
I would really appreciate any suggestion on a good WP back up plugin or advice on where I'm going wrong. Is there a simple method that I'm missing.
Ham_and_Jam said:
Thanks for the tip. I’ve only just installed Yoast, so could easily swap. What’s the main benefit?
Any suggestions on Back up plugins?
Yoast caused me a load of issues with an update a couple of years ago. RankMath has more features in both the free and paid versions which, whilst they won’t benefit you now, they will be useful in the future as your knowledge grows/you bring in someone to deal with seo. It’s worth mentioning that RankMath doesn’t play nicely with some themes/page builders. Of the 6 websites I have, 4 are using Yoast, 2 are using RM, though I haven’t tried RM on the 4 for at least a year.Any suggestions on Back up plugins?
My backups are handled by either Krystal or through cPanel. Is it a backup service you’re after or a way to migrate your site? Have you got WordFence installed? For the future I’d recommend NameCheap for SSL certificates, they were the cheapest I found 👍
Si1295 said:
Yoast caused me a load of issues with an update a couple of years ago. RankMath has more features in both the free and paid versions which, whilst they won’t benefit you now, they will be useful in the future as your knowledge grows/you bring in someone to deal with seo. It’s worth mentioning that RankMath doesn’t play nicely with some themes/page builders. Of the 6 websites I have, 4 are using Yoast, 2 are using RM, though I haven’t tried RM on the 4 for at least a year.
My backups are handled by either Krystal or through cPanel. Is it a backup service you’re after or a way to migrate your site? Have you got WordFence installed? For the future I’d recommend NameCheap for SSL certificates, they were the cheapest I found ??
Thanks for that.My backups are handled by either Krystal or through cPanel. Is it a backup service you’re after or a way to migrate your site? Have you got WordFence installed? For the future I’d recommend NameCheap for SSL certificates, they were the cheapest I found ??
I’m looking purely for back up of the site / plug-ins etc. It’s a new build so wanting to put something in place before I put in all the man hours.
Not looked at security yet, but again on my list so will look at that.
I’m already with Namecheap for hosting and SSL already, as you (& the name suggests) they are cheap! I would also add they have been really easy to deal with to set up the domain and hosting. 30 mins from purchase and my site was up. Customer support is 24/7 and they sorted my problem last night at 2am in 5 mins. Thoroughly recommend.
@HJ Yes continuing with Woo but on another product. I also am hosted with Krystal and the backup is with them.
Not looked at SEO yet its a bit early days for me as I am only getting a feel of the backend and what visual results I can get from the site design. It does give me the chance to create some fine looking sites for little financial outlay to see if I can build traffic and thus revenue.
Not looked at SEO yet its a bit early days for me as I am only getting a feel of the backend and what visual results I can get from the site design. It does give me the chance to create some fine looking sites for little financial outlay to see if I can build traffic and thus revenue.
So still having issues with backing up my WP site.
This must be a real newbie issue as I can’t find the issue on any WP forums, so i think I’m really missing a fundamental.
I’m using the ‘Back up Migration’ plug-in. The UI is great (simple and intuitive) and it creates a back up zip file as expected.
To test it I’ve created a backup, made a change to the website and then restored the backup site.
The bit I’m just not understanding is that the back up files restore the published website, but not the /wp-admin, so I don’t have access to to restored version at the admin site. How do I get both the published and admin files restored fron the backup?
This must be a real newbie issue as I can’t find the issue on any WP forums, so i think I’m really missing a fundamental.
I’m using the ‘Back up Migration’ plug-in. The UI is great (simple and intuitive) and it creates a back up zip file as expected.
To test it I’ve created a backup, made a change to the website and then restored the backup site.
The bit I’m just not understanding is that the back up files restore the published website, but not the /wp-admin, so I don’t have access to to restored version at the admin site. How do I get both the published and admin files restored fron the backup?
Bit late here, but if you're still looking for Backup plugins, I always use UpdraftPlus - https://updraftplus.com/ - I've had to use it to restore a few times, and it works! The free version is fine for most things. You can schedule file and / or database backups as often as you like (down to hourly if required), and it will store them on the server, where you can download or automatically transfer to Dropbox, Google, AWS etc.
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