Z-Blocks 2.3

The Z-Blocks extension meets Magento programming practices for most versions and customizations and is packed with features:

• Z-Blocks widget
  Now you can place your promotional, advertising or any other block only on the X product page, in any tab of My Account page, on any stage of the checkout process, on the Contact Us page, and many other pages.
• Ability to specify z-blocks displaying for different customer groups
  The Z-Blocks extension now can be used as a powerful target marketing tool – build your marketing strategy more purposefully by showing different blocks for different groups of customers.
• The addition of a new GUI
  Z-Blocks module has its own GUI available from CMS!
• Ten (10) predefined block positions on each page
  Z-Blocks offers 8 main blocks with three visibility levels (general, catalog, product) and 2 additional blocks.
  See below for specific block information.
• The ability to place any block in any position by easily changing the CMS page layout
  Any blocks can be placed anywhere by changing the template of the corresponding CMS page. This means you can invent as many custom positions as you’d like for any number of blocks.
• An unlimited number of blocks inside each position
• An unlimited number of content items inside each block
• A powerful block view scheduler
  This is one of the most exciting new and powerful features of Z-Blocks! You can set blocks to appear from, to or between specific dates or times. In addition, you can schedule blocks to appear on a wide variety of dates (e.g., odd days, on Tuesdays, on the 25th of each month, etc.) And the most exciting aspect of this feature is that the conditions can be combined for ultra flexibility!
  See the use cases we’ve prepared to find out how flexible Z-Blocks’ scheduler really is!
• Per-category and per-store views
  Set different blocks for different stores/languages with Z-Blocks. Make blocks appear for custom categories or only on product pages. (The visibility of each block is determined by the “show only category selected and all of its children” rule. This is especially useful when making a promo of specific products that are relatively specialized)
• Block and item enabling/disabling
  Place your blocks in any predefined or custom places. You can then disable blocks (or single items inside the blocks) as needed by setting their status option to “disabled”, thus preventing them from being shown (or vice versa).
• Customizable block and item sorting
  The order of your block’s appearance is determined by the “sort order” attribute.
• Rotation of independent items inside each block
  Users of this Magento extension can set the rotation of content items inside each specific block.
  Note: This is a more convenient, user-friendly implementation of the Ad Rotator functionality found in previous versions
  
  The three rotation modes are:
  
  • show all (shows all items in the block, which makes it great for debugging and/or designing an ad campaign)*
  • rotate one-by-one (shows blocks one-by-one starting with the first one)
  • show random (shows items randomly)
    
    “show all” is the default mode
• Block item inclusion of any content that Magento CMS supports
  Block items can include content that involves HTML, Images/Flash, JavaScript and Code (specifically for fetching other blocks, such as those with featured products).
• Easy and fast block content editing:
  • WYSIWYG editor
    Create rich HTML content without extra efforts and extensive knowledge.
  • The ability to specify classes for any HTML element of the block
    You can define the name of a class for Z-Blocks’ HTML element and specify its attributes.
  • Native Magento widgets and variables support
    Now you can use a large list of variables and get certain data inserted automatically within your z-blocks. With widgets support every non-technical administrator of your website can add new, recently compared, recently viewed product lists to the z-block content and insert links to categories or CMS pages.

Predefined Block Position Information

General Blocks

• Menu-Top (block displayed above the main menu)
• Menu-Bottom (block displayed under the main menu)
• Sidebar-Left-Top (block displayed at top of left sidebar)
• Sidebar-Left-Bottom (block displayed at bottom of left sidebar)
• Content-Top (block displayed above content part)
• Sidebar-Right-Top (block displayed at top of right sidebar)
• Sidebar-Right-Bottom (block displayed at bottom of right sidebar)
• Page-Bottom (block displayed at end of page)

Catalog & Product Page Blocks

• Catalog-Menu-Top
• Catalog-Menu-Bottom
• Catalog-Sidebar-Left-Top
• Catalog-Sidebar-Left-Bottom
• Catalog-Content-Top
• Catalog-Sidebar-Right-Top
• Catalog-Sidebar-Right-Bottom
• Catalog-Page-Bottom

Product Page Only Blocks

• Product-Menu-Top
• Product-Menu-Bottom
• Product-Sidebar-Left-Top
• Product-Sidebar-Left-Bottom
• Product-Content-Top
• Product-Sidebar-Right-Top
• Product-Sidebar-Right-Bottom
• Product-Page-Bottom

Special Blocks:

• Customer-Content-Top
  In the customer’s area, this special block is located above the content. This means you can place content in this block that is intended for store users only (e.g., news, announcements, advertisements).

  Note that in the customers’ area, the sidebar-left-top block is located lower than the user’s menu

• Cart-Content-Top
  This special block is on the cart’s and check-out’s pages instead of the main block.

Use Cases

The following Z-Blocks features are demonstrated in the Use Cases:

• Authority/security seal at the best place
  * static HTML content displaying on all pages
• Support service phone number is shown in working hours only
  * date and time scheduling
• Curious facts
  * displaying predefined content items randomly
• Congratulate your customers with national holidays
  * per-store block displaying
  * HTML content
  * specified displaying interval
• Info about upcoming events
  * exact day scheduling
  * displaying at the selected category