Plant Database Mgr: Custom Settings Editor

Easily control key variables to expedite creating and updating your plant library. 

New Plants for 201X

What's New?  It's easy for your customers to answer that question on your website by setting the current year and using that year as the 'intro' year in the appropriate plant records in the Plant Database Manager.

1) Set Site 'Current' Year

You can quickly call attention to new plants with a graphical 'new' banner as well as having a “New Introductions” section of your site. Plants with the current year can automatically be displayed on that page.  Additionally, a 'New' graphic can display on both the plant listing page as well as the plant detail page.  You can switch the “current year” manually as soon as you know know the new plants you will be offering in the subsequent year.  Typically you would switch the current year to the next calendar year at some point in the fall.

Set Plant Intro Year
On the GENERAL tab of your Plant Database Manager, you can indicate which year you first offer a plant with the 'Intro Year' option (see image 5 on this page). The plant will be considered 'new' when Plant Intro Year = Site Current Year.

2) Set Alpha Index

You can control what letter of the alpha index is the default value that will be automatically used whenever your main plant page is displayed.  If you have more than a few hundred plants, we would suggest you do NOT use 'All' as your selection as it will take a moment for the page to load.  Be sure the text you enter in the box matches the selections on your alpha index bar exactly. 

Companion and Substitution Plant Reciprocity

3) Are Companion Plants Reciprocal

In most cases, this would be yes. By selecting yes, once you select ‘B’ as a companion to ‘A’, then ‘A’ is automatically a companion to ‘B’ and will display on ‘B’s’ plant detail page.

4) Are Substitution Plants Reciprocal

Typically this is set to yes; if plant A is a good substitute for plant B, then B should be a good substitute for plant A. Substitution plants are usually used when the original plant is out of stock or no longer offered. For example, you might want to have Echinacea ‘Dixie Sun’ as the recommended substitute for Echinacea 'Daydream' when Daydream is sold out or you are no longer carrying it. By leaving this setting as 'Yes', then 'Dixie Sun' will automatically display as a substitute on the 'Daydream' plant detail page if 'Daydream' is sold out and there is inventory availability of 'Dixie Sun'.

Default Images Sizes

You can set the default pixel width and height for both the plant detail images and the plant thumbnail. As long as you upload an image larger than those dimensions, the Clarity ImageMagic™ will size them based on the values entered. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

5a) Detail Image Default Width:

Based on the approved design, we will enter the appropriate pixel width dimension. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

5b) Detail Image Default Height:

Based on the approved design, we will enter the appropriate pixel height dimension. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

6a) Thumbnail Image Default Width:

Based on the approved design, we will enter the appropriate pixel width dimension. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

6b) Thumbnail Image Default Height:

Based on the approved design, we will enter the appropriate pixel height dimension. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

7a) Current Crop Image Default Width:

Based on the approved design, we will enter the appropriate pixel width dimension. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

7b) Current Crop Image Default Height:

Based on the approved design, we will enter the appropriate pixel height dimension. Having appropriate values will provide consistency to your page layouts.

The Current Crop Editor is a great tool to help promote your 'wow' plants and easily add current crop photos to specific varieties and sizes. 

8) Friendly URL Prefix

Typically 'plants' is used, but if you offer a focused line of plants, we may want to switch it to something more specific like 'roses' or 'grasses'. If you change it in the tool, it will NOT automatically update your site. You will want to discuss this with your Clarity Connect sales/support rep as a change would affect search engine results in the near term and we would need to write a script to automatically redirect the plant URL with the old prefix to the plant URL with the new prefix.

9) Accepting Current Crop Requests

If there is a dormant period in your growing season, you can turn off the option for your customers to request current crop photos from your website.