New facility to test fallback grids

NiftyGridZPro has a feature to ensure that you always have a grid displayed, even if Zazzle’s feed mechanism goes down. A number of such fallback grids are included with your installation and our sister site’s Nifty Promo Control Panel lets you make your own so you have full flexibility on what’s displayed (see the FAQ for more on this).

Of course, you need a way to make sure that they’re working ok and this post shows you how to make sure they are. It’s all spelled out in the FAQ but let’s run through it here.

  • By default, one with a filename of backup-file2-birthday6.html is used – unless you give a different filename in your shortcode options.
  • It’s easy to test that the fallback grid shows up and is as you expect. Just include this special shortcode: mimic_zazzle_down=1. Again, simply preview it to see the fallback grid in place. Don’t forget to take it out when you’re happy with the result!

Here’s the shortcode for the grid below:
[niftygridzpro store_or_collection="hightonridley" associate_id="238582202591969585" mimic_zazzle_down=1]

The only thing to watch out for with the fallback grid is to make sure that none of the products in it on Zazzle get hidden or deleted – if they do, you’ll get broken links. You can best do this by using your own products and then you’re in control.

Personalized designs by NiftyGridZPro

NiftyGridZPro can now personalize and display the updated product images with this new feature.

See and try for yourself…

To see a storefront page using the option, have a look at: Girl About Town and try your own initials or short name.

With NiftyGridZPro you’re able to give text for up to three template text items on the products shown. By ‘template text items’ we mean the ones put on the product when it was designed at Zazzle. Here’s a relevent screenshot from Zazzle:

screenshot of product design: template text item
Product design: template text item

How it works…

To change a template text item to what you want, you set a pair of options. The first in the pair is for the “Url Parameter name” (see above) and the second is for the value you want it to have.

Example:
ztmpl_url_text_parameter_0_name="text0"  ztmpl_url_text_parameter_0_value="Sally"
..will change the text displayed on your product (for template text item “text0”) to “Sally”

There are a total of three pairs of these shortcode options so you can work with up to 3 template text items:

ztmpl_url_text_parameter_0_name and ztmpl_url_text_parameter_0_value
ztmpl_url_text_parameter_1_name and ztmpl_url_text_parameter_1_value
ztmpl_url_text_parameter_2_name and ztmpl_url_text_parameter_2_value

In practice…

To let a visitor type their own requires storefront mode, which means it can’t be done in posts or widgets – only pages.

However, a good time to use it in posts is if you need to showcase your designs to a potential / interested client. You can put relevent designs into a collection and have them displayed in a grid to your client, with their names / monogram / whatever already in place (up to 3 of them, anyway).

The only thing you need to ensure is that all designs use the same “URL Parameter name” – as long as they do, you’re in business!

The really cool thing about this is that when your visitor clicks one of the products, when they get to it on Zazzle, the template text there matches what was shown on your product grid. One less step to get in the way of a purchase!

Here’s the same grid as the storefront example linked above, but this time in a post, with the text on the products set to KHW:

Other ideas

👍 Speaking about wedding invites to a client? Change the 2 or 3 most important template text items using this technique so they can see what their details look like on a whole range of stationery etc.

👍 Suggesting a range of business card designs for a big-spending client? Do the same and your bank balance will thank you.

✅ Such a personal experience will delight your clients!

Promoting from Zazzle Collections was never easier on WordPress

Here’s a curated collection of my fine art black and white photos on canvas. Not your normal snaps, these have a theme of “Line of Sight”.

Which one resonates with something in you? Click an image for more and to buy…


Made with shortcode:
[niftygridzpro title_font_size=”12px” title_alignment=”center” cell_max_width=”200px” cell_border_color=”#ffffff” cell_background_color=”#ffffff” cell_font_color=”#333333″ cell_vlink_color=”#666666″ description_font_size=”12px” description_alignment=”left” description_length=”60″ include_product_names_in_titles=1 include_by_line=0 include_tags_line=0 include_price_line=1 allow_interaction=0 fallback_filename=”backup-file2-birthday6.html” promotion_code=”” store_or_collection=”collections/119212250951084501″ sort_type=”popularity” sort_direction=”desc” page_size=”10″ page_number=”1″ product_background_color=”ffffff” tracking_code=”ngrdzwp_collections_119212250951084501″]

All options NiftyGridzPro Grid

This product grid was created using all the options available in NiftyGridzPro.

<1 of 9>
<1 of 9>
Search for:
How many to get (max 120):


Here’s the shortcode and options used for it:
[niftygridzpro title_font_size="14px" title_alignment="center" cell_max_width="280px" cell_border_color="#aaaaaa" cell_background_color="#ffffff" cell_font_color="#333333" cell_vlink_color="#666666" description_font_size="14px" description_alignment="left" description_length="120" include_product_names_in_titles=1 include_by_line=1 include_tags_line=1 include_price_line=1 allow_interaction=1 show_visitor_search_form=1 show_grid_navigation=1 fallback_filename="backup-file2-birthday6.html" grid_sort_method="pulledorder" grid_sort_direction="highlow" associate_id="238582202591969585" store_or_collection="hightonridley" search_term="motivational" sort_type="popularity" sort_direction="desc" page_size="4" page_number="1" department_id="252585008705651924" category_id="196691844710546791" product_background_color="EFEAE4" tracking_code="msnwpst_blg"]

Test post using NiftyGridzPro

My first WordPress NiftyGridz grid

All achieved with this simple shortcode entry:
[niftygridzpro store_or_collection="hightonridley" search_term="black and white"]