A product template defines the elements and layout of a product listing that appears on store pages. Like a page template, a product template contains standard HTML tags to specify the layout, and ShopSite custom template tags to specify the product information from the ShopSite database that is to appear in the product listing.
When ShopSite publishes a page that uses custom templates, it reads the product information from the product database and formats it according to the product template. ShopSite then creates the rest of the page, which probably includes more products, each of which is formatted according to the product template that is uses.
You can use the same product template for all products in your store, or choose different templates for different products. You can even specify different product templates from within page templates, so that a product uses one template on one page and another template on a different page.
The product template is divided up into 4 main sections, the DEFINE SUBPRODUCT section, the DEFINE PRODUCT section, the DEFINE PRODUCT_CROSS_SELL section and the DEFINE MORE_INFO_PAGE section. The next few pages will be talking about the DEFINE PRODUCT section only. Before you begin you will need to add the [-- DEFINE PRODUCT --] tag above the code for your simple product layout, and [-- END_DEFINE PRODUCT --] tag to the end of your product layout.
Next: Product Basics