Integrate Zen into Joomla

[RtX]

Is there a project already established to do this, or is someone leading this? I ask because I'd like to help but I am unclear of what the reality of this actually happening is.
RtX

[redmonds]

I am gonna stick my neck on the line here and announce that I have commissioned a reputable coding company to complete this task for me.

We are investing a considerable amount of money in this as, no offense to anyone, we don't have faith that it is going to be delivered by anyone else soon.

My basic project guide was:
"A for a fully installable, distributable Zencart component. This should be fully Joomla compliant but should also have mechanisms to install additional Zencart modules and functions and provide for installing updates and patches.

Installation files should be distributable and easy to incorporate. "

The project is currently scheduled to be complete approximately 15/10/08. We have not decided yet whether this will be a commercial product or not. However if anyone is interested in making donations then we are certainly happy to accept. Also if anyone has any additional ideas that should be incorporate please feel free to let us know.

I will certainly be keeping the ZC community informed through this thread and may be looking for people to test run. In the future.

Only other thing left to say is wish us luck.

redmonds

[DivaVocals]

Will you PLEASE keep us posted when this project is completed. I'd just like to know either way whether or not you will be offering this as a commercial offering or keeping it all to yourself

[redmonds]

It is definitely our intention to make this package available. We are just not sure if it will be Free or Commercial. It is costing us a considerable amount of money to have the project completed with the primary goal of make a replicatable, dsitributable package.

We would obviously like to recoup some of the investment whether this is purely by donation or by a licence fee is yet to be decided.

Anyway we will certainly keep you all informed.

Redmonds

[Meshach]

Originally Posted by redmonds

It is definitely our intention to make this package available. We are just not sure if it will be Free or Commercial. It is costing us a considerable amount of money to have the project completed with the primary goal of make a replicatable, dsitributable package.

We would obviously like to recoup some of the investment whether this is purely by donation or by a licence fee is yet to be decided.

Anyway we will certainly keep you all informed.

Redmonds

I love the idea. I can't wait!

Meshach

P.S. Remember, Open-Source matters!

[DivaVocals]

I assumed that with the financial investment you are making into this component that it would be a commercial offering.. That is good news..

I am more than willing to pay for this particular component.. I would be immensely jealous if you built it and kept it all to yourself!

[Meshach]

Keep us posted and tell us if there is anything we can do to help.


Kind Regards,
Meshach

[jgkiefer]

Any news on when this is going to be released?

[xt0rt]

I am curious as well. I am going to be developing a large apparel site soon, and have been hoping for something like this. I took a swipe at it myself, but I am just not that familiar with the Joomla! structure.

Joomla! looks better out of the box, is easier to customize, and there are templates galore. Zen Cart blows away all e-commerce addons for Joomla!, but is more difficult to customize and requires a large amount of code editing.

A little background on what I do:

I have a stripped down custom version of the Cherry Zen template that I use for most of my sites. I have all the addons I need/use installed into the file structure, which is in an archive that is extracted onto whatever server I'm deploying on. Permissions are preserved, so no worrying about that. I use a database that has no product information in it, but still holds all variables & attributes that are needed. I connect this to the Zen install, make a few changes in the admin panel, edit language files and a few template files, css, all through a SSH shell (nano ftw ). Upload images, upload EZpopulate product info, done.

As long as I have my content from the client, deploying a functional Zen Cart site that is ready to make sales takes me roughly 5 hours. Now imagine being able to do something similar with Joomla!. An open-source Zen module for Joomla would blow all other shopping carts in the water, even commercial ones that have been gaining popularity.

My suggestion is to take that product you get from the developer, and make it your own e-commerce solution. Release it as open-source, but charge for development/support.

Aside from making hundreds of us absolutely thrilled overnight, I can only imagine what kind of income this could bring for you.

[benmckechnie]

Hi
I'm keen to have a look at this when you've got it working, and happy to consider contributing to cost or purchasing it.
I look forward to hearing more.