Put A Zc Sidebox On A Page Outside Zc?

[dbrewster]

Hi,

I tried searching but could not formulate a productive set of keywords.

I'd like to put the ZC Featured box on an HTML web page that is outside of my ZC store. The rest of my website is hosted on the same server, in a directory at the same level as my store.

Anyone recall seeing a discussion about doing this, and what keywords I should try to find it?

Thanks!

---Diana

[borzoid]

Hi dbrewster,

I've done this before using an Iframe. Make a new page with just your sidebox on it and then call that page into an Iframe on the html page.

Just be aware that search engine spiders hate iframes and won't spider their content. I did this for a while when I first started out and then moved everything into Zen Cart. Made life so much easier.

Connie

[dbrewster]

Thanks very much for the tip, Connie.

(I think your website is beautifully customized,.)

[DrByte]

Here's one approach to do it from .php pages within your own website. (This was built based on a Zen Cart v1.3.0 setup):

Create a file like this (I called it single_sidebox.php) in the root of your store area (ie: same place as index.php and ipn_main_handler.php etc):

<?php
/**
 * single_sidebox.php used to display a Zen Cart sidebox on some external resource
 *
 * @package general
 * @copyright Copyright 2003-2006 Zen Cart Development Team
 * @copyright Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce
 * @license http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt GNU Public License V2.0
 * @version $Id: single_sidebox.php based on index.php 2942 2006-02-02 04:41:23Z drbyte $
 */
/**
 * Load common library stuff 
 */
  require('includes/application_top.php');


 
 /**
  *   PLEASE ENTER THE NAME OF THE SIDEBOX YOU WANT TO CALL HERE:
    */
$sidebox_name = 'featured.php';

//which sidebox template to use:
$column_box_default='tpl_box_default_left.php';
$column_width = BOX_WIDTH_LEFT;



/**
 * Load required functions and processing to generate the sidebox:
 */
  $language_page_directory = DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $_SESSION['language'] . '/';
  $box_id = zen_get_box_id($sidebox_name);

  if ( file_exists(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/' . $template_dir . '/' . $sidebox_name) ) {
    require(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/' . $template_dir . '/' . $sidebox_name);
  } else {
    require(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/' . $sidebox_name);
  }

/**
 * Load general code which runs before page closes
 */
  require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php'); 

?>

To use, on line 21 change "featured.php" to the name of the sidebox file you want displayed (see /includes/modules/sideboxes for the list).

Then do a <?php require ('single_sidebox.php'); ?> from the page you want the sidebox to appear on. (Your page will have to be a .php script or the <?php tags will simply display as-is, and not execute anything.)


UPDATE: This code has been updated and packaged for download in the contributions area:
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...products_id=79

[DrByte]

Here's another approach, which may work, and was framed prior to Zen Cart v1.3.0:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26952

[dbrewster]

Dr. Byte,

Fantastic&#33;

Why couldn&#39;t this be called as a PHP scripted region within an HTML page?

---Diana

[DrByte]

Originally posted by dbrewster@Apr 18 2006, 09:00 AM
Why couldn&#39;t this be called as a PHP scripted region within an HTML page?

You need a way to tell your server&#39;s HTML parser to execute the PHP code, rather than simply display it.

[MZ Rich]

i have done this on one of my pages, however, the links are fine they go to the correct place, but the product image is set from where the single_sidebox.php file is called from, ie a different domain.
is there a way to hard-code the beginning of the url into the product image so it loads correctly?

thanks

rich

[sae]

I tried this method but when i go to the file I get a blank page

http://www.canadianyouthworker.com/b...le_sidebox.php

[zblofu]

Thanks for the code! I have been looking for something like this for awhile.

Your code works perfectly for all the sideboxes I tested except the shopping_cart.php sidebox. I realize there maybe additional issues with this particular sidebox but i would love to get it to work. Can you think of an easy way to get the shopping cart box to work?

Thanks again I really appreciate it and let me know if you need more detail.

- zblofu