Ecommerce Templates > General Help > Recently viewed items set up
Recently Viewed Items Overview
The Recently Viewed feature was introduced in Version 5.8. It will show customers the items they have viewed on your store with a link to that product and a note of the category it belongs to. Items should remain in the list for three days, making it a powerful tool for return visitors.

Recently Viewed screenshot
ASP Version
Follow the steps below for the recently viewed box to appear on your pages.
- Add the following to vsadmin/includes.asp
recentlyviewed=TRUE
NOTE: If you are using two vsadmin folders for security or ssl reasons, add the line to both includes.asp files. - Place this line in HTML / code view where you want the recently
viewed box to appear, do make sure there is space below the
box as it will
expand as more items are viewed.
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/increcentview.asp"--> - If you are placing the box on one of the store pages
ie affiliate.asp, cart.asp, categories.asp, clientlogin.asp,
orderstatus.asp prodetail.asp, products.asp, search.asp, sorry.asp
and thanks.asp make sure that the line above comes somewhere
in the code after the other include lines, which
are:
<!--#include file="vsadmin/db_conn_open.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/languagefile.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/includes.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.asp"-->
If you are placing it on a non-store page like about.asp then you will need to add those above 4 lines and the recently viewed include line where it has to appear, like this:
<!--#include file="vsadmin/db_conn_open.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/languagefile.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/includes.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/increcentview.asp"-->
- Double check your code to make sure you have only one instance of these lines
<!--#include file="vsadmin/db_conn_open.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/languagefile.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/includes.asp"-->
<!--#include file="vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.asp"-->
on the page.
- Open your CSS file, typically called style.css and add these lines if not already present
TD.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
}P.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
} - Upload the page(s) to your server and check that it shows correctly. Do note that the box won't appear until you have actually viewed more than one product detail page. If you receive any kind of error message then please check the troubleshooting guide.
PHP Version
- Add the following to vsadmin/includes.php
$recentlyviewed=TRUE;
NOTE: If you are using two vsadmin folders for security or ssl reasons, add the line to both includes.php files.
- Place this line in HTML / code view where you want the recently
viewed box to appear, do make sure there is space below the
box as it will expand as more items are viewed.
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/increcentview.php" ?>
- If you are placing the box on one of the store pages
ie affiliate.php, cart.php, categories.php, clientlogin.php,
orderstatus.php prodetail.php, products.php, search.php, sorry.php
and thanks.php make sure that the line above comes somewhere
in the code after the other include lines, which
are:
<?php include "vsadmin/db_conn_open.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/languagefile.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/includes.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.php" ?>
If you are placing it on a non-store page like about.php then you will need to add those above 4 lines and the recently viewed include line where it has to appear, like this:
<?php include "vsadmin/db_conn_open.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/languagefile.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/includes.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/increcentview.php" ?>
Make sure that at the top of the page you have this code with absolutely no spaces before it
<?php
session_cache_limiter('none');
session_start();
ob_start(); ?><html>
- Double check your code to make sure you have only one instance
of these lines
<?php include "vsadmin/db_conn_open.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/languagefile.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/includes.php" ?>
<?php include "vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.php" ?>
on the page.
- Open your CSS file, typically called style.css and add these lines if not already present
TD.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
}P.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
} - Upload the page(s) to your server and check that it shows correctly. Do note that the box won't appear until you have actually viewed more than one product detail page. If you receive any kind of error message then please check the troubleshooting guide.
CSS Classes
The formatting of the text for the recently viewed box is the same as the mini cart and is achieved through two classes that will need to be added to style.css:
TD.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
}
P.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
}
This will give you a ten pixel Verdana font for all the text within the recently viewed box.
If you would like to change the background color of the box, add a line like this:
TD.mincart {
font-size: 10px;
font-family : Verdana;
background-color: #CC0000;
}
Troubleshooting
The most common errors regarding the set up of the recently viewed box are the following:
- The box must go on a page with a .asp or .php extension
depending on the version you are working from eg example.asp
/ example.php and not example.html or example.htm
- The recently viewed include line must come after the
other 4 ASP or PHP include lines. If placing the box is
a problem then
the other 4 include lines can be moved up the code.
- The ASP or PHP include lines should not be duplicated on the
page, if you receive an error then do check that there is only
one instance of each.
- The path to the increcentreview include is not correct. For
example if you have the added the include line to a Dreamweaver
library
file (.lbi) or Template file (.dwt) then the path for the ASP
version will probably be
<!--#include file="../vsadmin/inc/increcentview.asp"-->

