UK Template

[freshstart]

Hello all,

Have just read that the UK Zen Template will not work with the 1.3.8 upgrade and that a 'paid variant' will be available soon, from the coder working on the UK template.

Does anyone use the UK Template and have you experienced any problems with this specific issue?

[freshstart]

Update. I have just tried a fresh install with 1.3.8 plus the UK template and it has not worked for me. Anyone else tried it yet?

[schoolboy]

I upgraded UK Template to 1.3.8 myself.

All I did was COMPARE all the files in UK Template with their corresponding files in 1.3.8, using WINMERGE, and then made necessary changes in the UK Template by copying "new/modified" code into the UK Template files.

Use Winmerge to do the changes yourself.

I did not make any changes to the UK Template SQL patch.

(I made these changes before installing 1.3.8 and then installed both of them together as per instructions on UK Template).

I can't let anyone else use my upgrade because it is highly customised.

[freshstart]

Hello Schoolboy,

Will read more of your threads and try to pick up some of your knowledge. I am not a coder (as said many times before, here and other places), so I find it very very difficult to work the zen magic / any magic.

I previously destroyed my website approximately 15 times, installing 1.3.7 (many many hours of work over several months), but eventually, I destroyed it less and less until it seemed to work (UK template and Cherry Zen along with the standard Zen template), however, have still not opened for business, due to other issues.

Now that 1.3.8 is released, I considered that I would try it, but failed. I am wondering if I should stick with 1.3.7 - I do not want to start making huge mistakes all over again - my ranting is just the frustration coming out, which I see is quite common in the world of Zen / OSC etc...

[schoolboy]

Okay... don't attempt an "upgrade" of UK Template unless you have some competence with code. (I have very little, but am fortunate in having some common sense, so I seem to have managed the upgrade myself)

UK Template is not essential if you run a UK store - it is designed to quickly effect changes that make standard zencart more compatible with UK terminology, taxes, zones and date formatting.

These can all be done manually, but add a few hours to customising your store.

You should not allow the frustration of installing UK Template inhibit your desire to get up-and-running with an online store. My advice would be to get a standard install of 1.3.8 going ASAP (with demo products loaded), then spend a couple of weeks working through key settings (including configuring UK-specific settings).

If you have the book (see top right of your screen), then learning the ropes is much more manageable.

[freshstart]

Schoolboy,

Many thanks for your advice. I shall begin the journey again in a couple of days time. In the meantime, without using the UK template would you suggest that I search out items such as the Post Office contrib and associated UK associated software contributions, add those, then see how things turn out?

Best wishes

[schoolboy]

I would be cautious about adding modules relating to UK-specific behaviour until you have gotten your basic UK set-up in order. This is chiefly your setting up of zones and UK Vat. Language file changes are less important (so, for example, having the word "check" appear instead of "cheque" may irritate some customers a bit, but it's not critical). Anyway, simple DEFINES like this are easy to change in your english.php file.

Talking of english.php, there is some advantage in having your date formatting set to UK protocols. In the USA, they like the date to be MONTH/DAY/YEAR. This can confuse UK customers, who like DAY/MONTH/YEAR.

To make this change, ftp the following file to your hard drive: -
includes/languages/english.php

Then, using an editor (such as CRIMSON EDITOR), open up the file and find the following code:-

  @setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
  define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%m/%d/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
  define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
  define('DATE_FORMAT', 'm/d/Y'); // this is used for date()
  define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');

////
// Return date in raw format
// $date should be in format mm/dd/yyyy
// raw date is in format YYYYMMDD, or DDMMYYYY
  if (!function_exists('zen_date_raw')) {
    function zen_date_raw($date, $reverse = false) {
      if ($reverse) {
        return substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4);
      } else {
        return substr($date, 6, 4) . substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2);
      }
    }
  } 

Then, edit it to look like this:-

@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_UK.ISO_8859-1');
 define('DATE_FORMAT_SHORT', '%d/%m/%Y');  // this is used for strftime()
 define('DATE_FORMAT_LONG', '%A %d %B, %Y'); // this is used for strftime()
 define('DATE_FORMAT', 'd/m/Y'); // this is used for date()
 define('DATE_TIME_FORMAT', DATE_FORMAT_SHORT . ' %H:%M:%S');

////
// Return date in raw format
// $date should be in format dd/mm/yyyy
// raw date is in format YYYYMMDD, or DDMMYYYY
  if (!function_exists('zen_date_raw')) {
function zen_date_raw($date, $reverse = false) {
if ($reverse) {
          return substr($date, 0, 2) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 6, 4);
} else {
  return substr($date, 6, 4) . substr($date, 3, 2) . substr($date, 0, 2);
      }
    }
  } 

NB: make sure you get the numerical changes right in these sequences too!

return substr($date, X, Y)

Then, using Crimson's "FIND" function (drop-down menu), search for "date", and for "mm/dd/yyyy" in the rest of english.php

This will help you find locations for references to mm/dd that now need to be changed to dd/mm

(You don't want to have your date format set to UK, only to have text appearing in your webshop saying to customers that the date is formatted mm/dd/yyyy !!!)

While you're busy editing english.php, you may as well look for words like "check" as well, and any other phrases that would look better when viewed by UK customers.

Scroll carefully through the file, making DEFINE element changes as you see fit.

Save the file on your hard drive.

FTP the file to includes/languages/classic

(This assumes you're using a standard upload of zencart and it's "Classic" template).

If it fouls things up, you can revert to the ORIGINAL core english.php by either DELETING the copy in the classic folder, or "disabling" it by re-naming it to something like english_old.txt .

You can then try the edit again, looking for where you made errors.

(NB: If you do have other modules installed that rely on date parameters being set, you will have to also set these parameters to be DD/MM/YYY - I know that easypopulate is one such module, and the settings here are "easy" the date settings can be found in ADMIN>>>CONFIGURATION>>>EASY POPULATE)

[freshstart]

Schoolboy,

Hello again,

Yes, I think this is what I was trying to get at...additional information will need to be added to the standard upload, including Zones and VAT, which are not included. Therefore, I imagine such additions will be found in the Download section of this forum? I shall check later.

Thanks for your latest information regarding use of language, which I shall put into practice, again later on. This is a starting point and hopefully, things will begin to develop positively again.

I shall let you know how I progress

[freshstart]

Hello all,

Thought I may as well stay in this thread, rather than start another. I am experimenting with a fresh install of 1.3.8 - have already destroyed one website since the last time I posted here

I have managed to set up a very basis working site. Added contribution just to see if they worked - Cherry / Easy Pop / Image Handler - no problems.

I have just managed to import the sql db from a site I wish to become live at some point in the future (1.3.7) - I dare not touch this site for fear of another mistake being made.

The sql db imported correctly, but now I am being told the following;

'your database appears to need patching to a higher lever' See Tools - Server information to review patch levels.

I have no clue what I am supposed to do next

[Scrat]

freshstart - I think you are getting a little confused with what you have done, you say a fresh install of 1.3.8 but then you are saying

The sql db imported correctly, but now I am being told the following;

'your database appears to need patching to a higher lever' See Tools - Server information to review patch levels.

What SQL DB have you imported (1.3.7 to 1.3.8)? Are you working with a old database or new? Is this a test site ? or Live ?

The best advice I could give 1. don't panic, 2. build test site first play around with that, if you mess up dump it and start again, when you are happy with it, then upgrade your live site to 1.3.8 using Zencarts Upgrade option in the install without changing anything design wise and then upload your test files to the new live one.

Think of it this way you have a test site with a fresh install and a Live site with a pre-version, you need to upgrade the live site first before you customize it.

The most important thing is not to get too bogged down with upgrades, go step by step and its pretty straight forward.