Necessary to Duplicate File Structure in http *and* https?

[dsdavis]

Hi,

I'm new to Zen Cart, and to this forum.

A co-worker installed Zen Cart via Fantastico on a different server. I was then tasked with installing it our main web server and getting it all to work with her files and database.

I have a copy of her Zen Cart files, and a dump of her mysql database.

Following the instructions here:

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/i...hp?article=100

I've been able to get the software working with her database.

A couple of issues I'm having, though:

I'm not seeing any of her design changes. She had a colored background, a particular layout of the items for sale, etc. I don't know if those are controlled by CSS, and if so, where would I go to make sure her files are in the right place?

The other problem--and the subject of this post--is that after successfully installing Zen Cart, I get a link to the store, but the link is an http link, and I actually am installing the software in an https directory (note the "s" on the second http, since it's the secure portion of our server) so the page doesn't load. If I manually type in the "s" where it needs to be, the page will load from there, but all of the links are http ones.

When I installed the software, there's the screen about "Physical Path," "Virtual HTTP Path," "Virtual HTTPS Server," and "Virtual HTTPS Path." I've filled them all out correctly (I even fill out the HTTP one, even though there are no files at that location--I tried to leave it blank, but it won't let me).

Do I need to put a copy of my store files in the HTTP directory, as well?

Thanks for any help you can provide.


Doug

[dsdavis]

Anyone? Bueller?

I'm kind of stuck at this point, so I'm hoping someone can throw me a bone.

[TShooters]

To choose the custom template, you need to go to Admin/Tools/Template Selection and choose it. Then to Admin/Layout Boxes Controller, and reset
the sideboxes.

[DrByte]

It doesn't make sense why you've installed everything in an "https" folder.

[dsdavis]

DrByte, can you explain *why* it doesn't make sense? Here at my job, when we want a page to be 'secure', we store it in a section of our webserver. The files there are only accessible when we start the path to them with an https. Non "secure" files can be put in a different directory that doesn't need the https, just a standard http. Is this not how most web servers work?

I put all the files in the "secure' directory so that they'd be..well...secure.

How *should* I do it?

[DrByte]

DrByte, can you explain *why* it doesn't make sense? Here at my job, when we want a page to be 'secure', we store it in a section of our webserver. The files there are only accessible when we start the path to them with an https. Non "secure" files can be put in a different directory that doesn't need the https, just a standard http. Is this not how most web servers work?

I put all the files in the "secure' directory so that they'd be..well...secure.

How *should* I do it?

That approach works great if your site is page-based, ie: separate .html files for every page on your site.
But Zen Cart is more sophisticated than that. It is not page-based.
It runs from ONE file ... index.php
Everything from that point onwards accesses the database and other php files to dynamically build each page on-the-fly.

Zen Cart will switch into SSL mode automatically for pages that need to be secured; however, to do that it requires that your server can serve SSL content from the same folder where its main index.php file exists.
Most hosts allow the https folder to be "linked" to the http folder so that everything can run from just the one install. But, if you intend to continue using a separate https folder to serve individual SSL pages outside of Zen Cart, you're going to have to run two copies of Zen Cart, and manually keep them both in sync with each other.