css layout based template ?

**vasilios** · 1 Jan 2009, 04:59 PM

I have setup a 1.3.7.1 zen cart site and have installed a commercial template from ThemeStock to check it out. In general terms it works ok except a broken colored bar/strip that is under the header of the page and two other misplaced things. I checked the page source code to find out the culprit and I noticed that the layout is actually table-based. It uses external css anyway, but mainly for formatting reasons (background colors, fonts, sizes, etc and some floated elements) but the main layout structure is not based on purely css techniques. I thought that this company provides purely css compliant templates but it seems that this specific template is not 100% css based. Does anybody have a clue what I could do? Try to find another 100% css based template, (and which company has pure 100% css layout templates?) or just fix this one and continue? (kind of hard to find the reason for the misplaced elements in the page)

**kuroi** · 1 Jan 2009, 06:26 PM

Firstly, why are you using an old version of Zen Cart? 1.3.7.1 is over 18 months old. Security is tighter in the current version 1.3.8a.

The layout table is probably not coming from the template, but from underlying Zen Cart, which currently has a single layout table. The template is probably just styling it. That layout table will disappear from Zen Cart 2.0 for those browsers that can cope adequately without it.

So my advice would be, don't worry about the layout table for now, but do upgrade to the current version of Zen Cart.

**vasilios** · 1 Jan 2009, 09:02 PM

So, you think that the 1.3.7.1 version might be the reason for the misplaced elements?
The template that I use also has a table nested layout, I can see it in the php file code. As a matter of fact I added a little bit of php to swap some images in a with navigational-links sidebox according to the set language of the site.
Anyway, I fixed some misplaced elements by adding some alignment styles in table cells.
Now for the upgrading part: I have added a greek language pack, the dual pricing module (for wholesale clients), and I want to add a wish list add-on as well as the capability to register the info when someone comies from a link from a cooperating site and buys something, so this site's owner will able to get notified and give the cooperating site some credit (does that have to do with affiliate program?). I know that the wish list module and the dual pricing module exist for 1.3.8 also but what about the last ability I described ? and also the greek language pack which exists ONLY for 1.3.7 ?

Sorry for the many questions ..........

**kuroi** · 1 Jan 2009, 11:26 PM

No. 1.3.7.1 doesn't have displaced elements. And if the tables are nested, then they must be coming from the template after all. Zen Cart only has one layout table.

Affiliate packages (such as JROX) are designed to work with multiple carts and are genrally easy to install irrespective of the version of the cart into which you install them.

Upgrading language packs is normal, and shouldn't be too onerous between 1.3.7.1 and 1.3.8a.

**vasilios** · 2 Jan 2009, 09:58 AM

Since there is no any updated greek lang pack for 1.3.6, would it be a good idea to go ahead and upgrade the site (it is a local site) to 1.3.8a and leave the greek lang pack as it is and then compare differences between the override greek lang files and the english lang files of the new version and start modifying from there, or would it be a better idea to completely remove the greek lang pack before upgrading to 1.3.8 and after finishing the upgrade, create my own lang pack the typical way that is described in the tutorials ? (this pack has translated only the front-end)

**vasilios** · 2 Jan 2009, 12:23 PM

I just upgraded to 1.3.8 and everything seems to work fine. I don't even have to bother with the greek lang pack (I just added again the mysql_query('SET NAMES "greek"', $this->link); line in the query_factory.php and I got a 2 language site. Of course I will have to re-install the dual pricing module for 1.3.8
Thank you for the help.

**kuroi** · 2 Jan 2009, 04:15 PM

You're welcome.

A note of caution, I've dug into the themestock templates a little and they're not very good. They over-ride every template file. Sometimes they even over-write template_default files (very naughty). So it's possible that the Greek language pack is working because all new features visible from the catalog have been removed.

Also, check that everything works when you try to log in as this sort of template often has a problem with 1.3.8a. If you can't login, search the forum for "security token" for advice as to how to fix the problem.

**vasilios** · 3 Jan 2009, 03:31 PM

The greek lang pack works even if I switch to classic template, I have not yet checked all the site pages, just the main cart flow.
Regarding the login issue, indeed, I noticed that generally I cannot login as a registered client (in my testing local site, that is), even if I have switched to the Classic template (I have added the dual pricing add-on if that could be the culprit). In the previous 1.3.7 version there was not such an issue. I fixed that by setting the Admin>Configuration>Sessions>Recreate Session to False (from forum post) and the classic template works ok in the login, but the themestock template outputs a "There was a security error when trying to login." error as you said. Even if I fix this problem, do you think that I will come through more problems ? Is it a good idea to change to another template, and which company sells PURE CSS compliant templates for 1.3.8 (is it templateMonster ? )

**charmedbytina2** · 3 Jan 2009, 03:58 PM

(is it templateMonster ? )

Search this forum for an answer to that!

My advice (for what it's worth) is to steer clear of them.

Tina

**kuroi** · 3 Jan 2009, 04:01 PM

That's the main problem that happens when old templates over-write newer code. Fix that and hopefully everything will be OK, though can't be certain as that will depend a bit on the template.

Template Monster do seem recently to have switched to tableless templates for Zen Cart, but a search of Template Monster on this forum will quickly reveal the general opinion of the organization.

Many of the specific views expressed are out-of-date, but unfortunately they've introduced a whole new set of problems.

Producing a range of templates is difficult - much more difficult than producing a series of individual templates. And it looks as though their current approach is to try to use one set of PHP code for every template design. The trouble is that leads to ridiculously complex markup e.g. sidebox titles contained in divs nested 17 layers deep. When something goes wrong, or even just when you want to change something - it's a nightmare. I'm guessing that they would also be real SEO killers too.