Edit top menu bar to always highlight one of the links

**coreyalderin** · 21 Jul 2012, 12:58 AM

Site: http://www.toolsforchrist.com/shop

I am trying to make the top menu bar always highlight the "Shop" link when in the shopping section of the website, by having a white background. I could not get this to work in the CSS so I just created an image. But now the it makes the text messed up. I probably went about this the wrong way, with my limited programming language. Does anyone know the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks for the help
Corey

**gjh42** · 21 Jul 2012, 03:32 AM

Ezpages Improved Menus in Plugins will allow you to make the current active page link highlighted. If this link points to the front of an entire section like the products, only the front page can be highlighted. It would take a relatively minor bit of custom code to extend this to the whole products section.

**coreyalderin** · 19 Aug 2012, 07:33 PM

I finally got around to adding this plugin but it is still not highlighting the "shop" link. Where do I go to make this happen? Thanks for the help

**dbltoe** · 19 Aug 2012, 08:26 PM

IMHO, you're going about this the wrong way. There's no need for a SHOP link if the cart is moved from /shop to the root of the site.
Having the customer move in and out of a separate cart just tends to increase the frustration factor thus, they leave.
Also, once in shop, clicking on shop does nothing which gives the impression the cart is not working. You can hear the footsteps as they leave.
You're trying to build the car and hope the engine will fit.
Lastly, with the entire site in the root, there's no need for shop.
Philippians 1:23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
In Zen Cart terms -- Why depart from the far better way to do a cart?

**coreyalderin** · 19 Aug 2012, 09:07 PM

Thanks for the reply. Can you help me understand this better, because someone else replied to a different thread of mine with a somewhat similar opinion. I am new to this but from how I see it, it works just fine to have it this way, and no one would ever know they are going into or out of the shopping cart portion of the website.

I wanted the "Shop" link to be highlighted so that it fixes the issue you reference, where someone clicks on it, not knowing its where they are are and then thinks its broken.

I wanted to build it this way because I wanted to use the nice drag and drop (much easier for me) feature that my host has, for the rest of my pages.

Again, I am not saying you are wrong in what you are saying, but I am new to this and from my perspective it seems easier to do it this way.

Thanks

**keneso** · 19 Aug 2012, 09:43 PM

I believe dbltoe is suggesting to move your zen cart from the "shop" directory to your root directory.
Your shop directory being www toolsforchrist com/shop/
and your root being www toolsforchrist com
This way your visitors will always be in the shop, and yet have access to the other pages, pages that you can create with ez-pages feature of zen cart; you wouldn't need the "shop" button anymore, and your "home" will return all to the homepage.

**dbltoe** · 20 Aug 2012, 02:51 AM

Actually, a little more than that. Some would call what Corey is doing a "landing site" versus a "landing page". It's not uncommon for a newbie to try and remain in their comfort zone and just use Zen Cart "when needed."
Here's some problems:

Zen Cart is a powerful engine for your site. Using it "only when needed" is like trying to drive the freeway and only start the car when going up hill. AND, you'll have to get out and open the hood to start it.
Imagine shopping at Wal Mart and having to go out a side door and then back in the front to finish shopping. Your home link in /shop is really "parking lot."
Search engines will not correctly list contents of the site.
You will probably publish "mysite.com" and frustrate customers who are looking to shop. They do NOT like extra clicks.
Clicking Home in the shop takes them to a different system with different session variables. In some cases, it will cause their shopping cart to empty.

Keeping everything in the root allows you to provide the customer with a smooth-flowing experience. No confusion and no trying to figure out why I'm not in the area I want to be.
Using the existing admin switches and the stylesheets, you can get a Zen Cart site to look like anything BUT an ecommerce site when the customer arrives. But, that engine is already running in the background, warmed up and ready to go.

**coreyalderin** · 20 Aug 2012, 06:04 PM

Thanks for the information. This is very helpful. It has taken me months to get the current shopping cart the way I want it, but was able to do the other pages (using my hosts website builder) done in a week. That is why I wanted to do it this way.

BUT

I really do not want it to affect how search engines view the site and I had no idea this would do that. So I am going to take this on, the way you recommend (hopefully it doesnt take another 2-3 months to do). I have a few additional questions about this then:

How would I move my site to the root, without affecting anything I have done so far?

Could I still keep my /shop page and just create the new homepage with zencart? Basically what I want the site to look like is to have a homepage and then homepage/shop would have all the categoires of products, homepage/shop/category1/ would then have all the different products I have within category1. Although I am launching the site with only 1 category (shirts) so to start I would actually want the homepage/shop to go to all the shirts. (Hopefully I am being clear here)

Thanks again

**keneso** · 20 Aug 2012, 06:44 PM

There will be a little more work, but nothing really that hard to discourage you.

Here are the instructions to move your cart:
http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?160

I would add: make a full back-up of files and database.
For files if you already haven't a copy of them copy (download) them from the server using ftp, or cpanel file manager.
For database use phpmyadmin in your cpanel, see here
http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...ith-phpmyadmin

Could I still keep my /shop page and just create the new homepage with zencart?

Yes, of course you need some customization.

You may try do it now, before moving, so if you see it's too discouraging you can just leave it as is.

**dbltoe** · 20 Aug 2012, 10:19 PM

Could I still keep my /shop page and just create the new homepage with zencart? Basically what I want the site to look like is to have a homepage and then homepage/shop would have all the categoires of products, homepage/shop/category1/ would then have all the different products I have within category1.

Nope.
That's what you have now. Zen Cart should be your root and, since you are a one category, it should be simple to set up. You keep wanting the engine outside the car.