How to create a separate home page for my store

[nefranks]

Relevant Information:
- ZC v1.5.3
- No plugins or add-ons yet.
- FTP'd for install
- PHP Version: 5.3.24 (Zend: 2.3.0) (not sure if that's relevant. I'm a super noob when it comes to PHP)
- I've installed the bare bones template due to a decent amount of CSS knowledge

site link: http://nicholasfranks.com/

Okay, so I'm finishing up a degree in Web Development this semester and need to create a small ecommerce site for a customer as one of the final requirements. I've had literally no experience with ecommerce up to this point, but have quite a bit of HTML & CSS experience. I've managed to tinker around with the admin tools enough to get my store to a decent building point, but I don't want the store to be my root file. I want a home page to be the root file and then have a link to the store within my navigation. I assume that the easiest way to do this would be to change the root file from index.php to my index.html file, but due to the huge number of files that zen-carts adds to my server I'm worried that this change would cause a lot of referencing errors and cause the store to render incorrectly.

My question is whether changing my root file is the solution to my problem or if there is a simpler solution within the admin tools that I should attempt. If the best solution is changing root files can someone tell me which php files to alter in order to link everything together correctly?

I apologize if this topic has already been addressed in the forum, but I only have until Sunday at midnight to complete this assignment and I couldn't find anything helpful within the first 20 or so forum topics. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[stevesh]

Having your index file as .html will do the job on most servers and won't/can't cause any rendering problems I can think of. When the visitor clicks on the store link, he will go to index.php, and everything will work fine after that, assuming you haven't made changes in the Zencart flow.

For those reading this, in the case of an actual working ecommerce site, this sort of 'jump' page isn't recommended.

[nefranks]

Thanks Steve,

I'll mess around with it a bit, but am pretty confident I can get it working now. If this isn't a recommended practice then what do you suggest? The project is for school, but it is also for a real local business that I might possibly be selling it to when I'm done. It is a 5 page website (including the store page). Although there are only 12 products listed in the store right now there is the potential for 50+ depending on whether the real client is interested purchasing the site. In my particular situation would you consider my solution reasonable and if not what would you recommend?

[DivaVocals]

In my particular situation would you consider my solution reasonable and if not what would you recommend?

First off.. GOOD CHOICE in starting templates.. I always have said that Barebones is the BEST starting point when "growing your own" template as opposed to the stock Classic template (which I personally despise!)

You solution is what they teach you in school when you are building STATIC HTML pages.. Dynamic websites are a different beast altogether..

A professionally done ecommerce site does not require a set of static pages and a store hinged on.

There is NO NEED to build a separate site and then just hinge on a store.. The STORE is your site.. Simple as that.. As such can you create a LANDING page within Zen Cart?? Yes.. LOTS of example of sites where folks have done JUST that.. and it doesn't require hacking any code.. It requires a knowledge of Zen Cart and Zen Cart templating..

Can you create your other static "pages" like your current static pages using Zen Cart?? Yes you can..

Will you have time to learn HOW to do all this by Sunday??? Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.. unless you KNOW Zen Cart, probably not.. and YES the information you seek is indeed on the forum.. and in the FAQs, but you won't find everything you need by Sunday..

BTW this may just be semantics.. But you don't SELL a website to a potential customer. You sell the SERVICES you provide to build and maintain it..

[RodG]

If this isn't a recommended practice then what do you suggest?

There's actually several ways that your can handle this. The one I use is to create a subdomain for the eCommerce store.

EG: Our main Webpage can be found at
http://vcsweb.com/ (or http://www.vcsweb.com) and this contains a link to our store at http://shop.vcsweb.com/

This way, all of our 'main' pages can reside in /public_html/ and all of the shop/store pages reside in /public_html/shop/

The benefit of this method is that the eCommerce files are kept isolated from the main site files.

A similar thing can be done simply by placing the store files in a subdirectory (same as above) and have the main page provide a link to http://mystore.com/shop/ The end result is pretty much the same.. The only real difference is the URL needed to access the shop/store. What this latter method *doesn't* allow though is the possibility of the 'main' page(s) being hosted on one server and the eCommerce pages being hosted on a *different* server (which is something that we have, but few others will ever find a need for).

Some people will 'argue' that http://shop.vcsweb.com/ is better for SEO than http://www.vcsweb.com/shop/ but there has never been any proof or empirical evidence of this.

Cheers
RodG

[DivaVocals]

A couple of other observations on your static pages..

FIRST EVERYTHING you've done on your static pages can EASILY be done with Zen Cart probably using a combination of EZ Pages and/or defined pages.. There's even an "About Us" module to create the About Us page.

That said here's what I also noticed:

• Your top navigation menu on all of the "inside pages" does not match the home page.
• "Coming soon pages" are inherently a BAD idea.. They make your site look unfinished. It is UNLIKELY that people will come back later to see the finished page (despite what your instructors might have told you).. They will move on to a site that IS finished. If a page isn't ready, just DON'T include it.
• The "Contact Us" page could EASILY be linked to the Zen Cart "Contact Us" page
• Not sure what the difference would be between the "Products" and "Ordering" pages.. You have a sidebar with product categories, and if it is an e-commerce site, the ORDERING happens on the site.. So no REAL need for a separate page.. It feels like a "fluff" content page with no REAL purpose.. You could include a link to the shopping cart, but IMHO, this should be a dynamic link which shows the total items in the cart, and the current cart total (something Zen Cart ALSO supports out the box)

[RodG]

• "Coming soon pages" are inherently a BAD idea.. They make your site look unfinished. It is UNLIKELY that people will come back later to see the finished page (despite what your instructors might have told you).. They will move on to a site that IS finished. If a page isn't ready, just DON'T include it.

I have to agree with all of your comments so far (scary huh?), but this is one that I think needs special emphasis. It is quite a common practice to instruct students to include 'place holders' (stubs) for unfinished/incomplete code because it indicates that the student has planned ahead to take the site requirements into account, but in practice (on a live site) it really is a very bad idea for the reasons you mention.

As a qualified Trainer & Assessor I like to see this forward planning and students get 'marked down' if they don't include them, but as a developer it makes the site look unfinished and unprofessional.

I'd give bonus points to a student that includes the 'coming soon pages' as long as the pages contain a note that they are only visible for development purposes and will either be completed or removed if the site was to be made live.

Having said that, this is the kind of thing that it is worth asking the trainer/teacher about *before* submitting the work for assessment.

Cheers
RodG

[DivaVocals]

I have to agree with all of your comments so far (scary huh?), but this is one that I think needs special emphasis.

It really is.. and it's happening a LOT more lately!!!

It is quite a common practice to instruct students to include 'place holders' (stubs) for unfinished/incomplete code because it indicates that the student has planned ahead to take the site requirements into account, but in practice (on a live site) it really is a very bad idea for the reasons you mention.

As a qualified Trainer & Assessor I like to see this forward planning and students get 'marked down' if they don't include them, but as a developer it makes the site look unfinished and unprofessional.

I'd give bonus points to a student that includes the 'coming soon pages' as long as the pages contain a note that they are only visible for development purposes and will either be completed or removed if the site was to be made live.

Yep.. I understand WHY it was done.. I remember my own "Web Design" certification classes MANY years ago. The issue is that instructors don't typically tell students that "holding pages" are a poor practice in the REAL world.. So they go out taking their new found "skills" into the world, and have to "unlearn" some of what has been taught..

Having said that, this is the kind of thing that it is worth asking the trainer/teacher about *before* submitting the work for assessment.

Cheers
RodG

Agreed... Crap.. this agreeing thing is happening too much.. We need to pick a fight with each other just to set things back to the "norm"..

[RodG]

Agreed... Crap.. this agreeing thing is happening too much.. We need to pick a fight with each other just to set things back to the "norm"..

LOL. That wouldn't be too much of a problem. The only thing is, when I start to play Devils Advocate I seem to run afoul of the moderators (and few people seem to be able to tell the difference between when I'm being 'serious' and when I'm just stringing someone along for the sake of argument/discussion).

Sooner or later though you will say something 'silly' (we all do at times) and I'll have no option than to put you in your place. LOL.

Cheers
RodG

[DivaVocals]

LOL. That wouldn't be too much of a problem. The only thing is, when I start to play Devils Advocate I seem to run afoul of the moderators (and few people seem to be able to tell the difference between when I'm being 'serious' and when I'm just stringing someone along for the sake of argument/discussion).

Ahhh that's cause they don't know how to interpret your "growls"..

Sooner or later though you will say something 'silly' (we all do at times) and I'll have no option than to put you in your place. LOL.

Cheers
RodG

I will expect NO LESS sir!!!!