Things every New Zenner needs to know

Ok, jeeze..... where to begin?

This is the question. Is there no conceptual, introductory explanation of ZenCart? I've been looking and can't find anything. Sure there's a horde of information bits... but has anyone attempted to cover the basic conceptual introduction in a manner that limns out the terrain?

I see in the Faq Section the entry "What Every New Zen Cart User Needs to Know". And yet underneath this is the bewildering cavaeat "Please read 'Template Customization/Building Overrides' before starting this section". The comical nature of this ... well, it should be addressed.

One wants to know some basic facts, presented in a reasonable pedagogical format. I dunno... clearly, unless I'm missing something, nobody understands what I'm talking about here. If I figure this thing out, perhaps I can contribute.

As I spent a week going nuts trying to find what you are looking for, I would look to the replies to me.

The really good stuff is in the wiki. Which incedentally is linked to in the forum header.

And when it is said to only put files in your template that you are overriding. They really mean it. It really does work.

Cheers Spannungsbogen!

Rethink everything, get Zenned.

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Originally Posted by clydejones

Bruce,

To get you started, here are two of of the most common questions I've seen.

How do I change the "sales message goes here" text.

How do I change/turn off "Welcome Guest" message.

I also see lots of questions on modifing the tpl_product_info_display.php

Let me know if you would like some help with the project.

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As a very new Zen Cart user and going through these forums, I seem to get the impression that the only way to modify anything in the cart is by doing so in the raw code. That is fine, Dreamweaver will help with that.
What I haven't been able to find yet is an easy way to start adding items to the cart and to get an idea what it's going to take to add 3000+ items and what it will look like.
Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks
Robert

Robert:

What you are looking for is a Add-On called Easy Populate. It uses a tab delimited file you can create with your favorite spreadsheet.

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34970 <-- it is referenced here

Additionally, to run it, you will need to turn the php option "register_globals=ON" for it to work. I would not recommend leaving it on after the upload. You only need it for Easy Populate.

Aaron

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Originally Posted by Rob905

As a very new Zen Cart user and going through these forums, I seem to get the impression that the only way to modify anything in the cart is by doing so in the raw code. That is fine, Dreamweaver will help with that.
What I haven't been able to find yet is an easy way to start adding items to the cart and to get an idea what it's going to take to add 3000+ items and what it will look like.
Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks
Robert

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Robert,

Be patient with yourself... The "book" to use is 'e-Start Your Web Store with ZEN CART - Buy it - use it and use the forums... Remember please this is open source and it takes much work on your part to make things happen... but always remember, most of the folks here on the forum are gracious, compassionate, and willing to help... I have been working and playing in here for only a year, but I found that most successes occur with your own sweat and the sweat of others...

We all have opinions based upon our success here - and most opinions are based on some very diligent volunteers...

jund

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Originally Posted by jund

Robert,

Be patient with yourself... The "book" to use is 'e-Start Your Web Store with ZEN CART - Buy it - use it and use the forums... Remember please this is open source and it takes much work on your part to make things happen... but always remember, most of the folks here on the forum are gracious, compassionate, and willing to help... I have been working and playing in here for only a year, but I found that most successes occur with your own sweat and the sweat of others...

We all have opinions based upon our success here - and most opinions are based on some very diligent volunteers...

jund

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I don't doubt that this is a great cart. But having used a commercial cart for about 3 years now, which has a CP to maintain the cart and messing arround with osC a few times, also a CP interface, It is going to be hard to find time to work on a project such as this, with the number of items I have to put in the cart. I was just thinking it's time for a fresh look for my store and this one seems to fit the bill. I was looking to make the switch as quickly as possible. It was never my intent to slam or offend anyone or this project, I'm impressed with the look of the cart from what I've seen.

I appreciate the help.

Thanks
Robert

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I seem to get the impression that the only way to modify anything in the cart is by doing so in the raw code.

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Exactly what gives you this impression? Practically everything has some sort of Admin control.

ZC does provide good admin control, but there are things that needed improvements: for example: site's meta tag and keywords should be editable on admin panel. Good thing is ZC developers are very active (unlike osc), so we will get there some time in the future.

Robert,
Thank you for having the courage to get right back into the thick of it (smile). You do NOT have to apologize to anyone... you did not slam anyone. This does have a CP... it is called Admin. Mentioned by another ZENNER was one of the contributions. There are many contributions... and when you start putting the really great ones into service, they make the process a lot smoother.
jund

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Originally Posted by Kim

Exactly what gives you this impression? Practically everything has some sort of Admin control.

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I got that impression because every help that I clicked on for changing things that I wanted to change seemed to refer to a certain file and then to look for a certain part of the code that needed changing.
How do I log into the control panel for Zen?