Things every New Zenner needs to know

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Originally Posted by Outdoor Supplies

Not sure I am in the right location for this, but I am very new to programming and new to editing websites. ... could or will atleast help me get started in editing.

Looking forwards to hearing from someone

Thanks again

Mike
http://outdoorsuppliesandmore.com/in...&products_id=1

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Mike,

1. Buy the book on Zen Cart, it's advertised all round the site here, at the top, and is invaluable for any novice to learn your way through the system.

2. Read lots of posts on the key subjects that interest you.

3. Create a second copy of your shop on the same host, if they'll allow a second database, folders, etc., so you can play around with it, learn the ropes, make mistakes, without damaging your prime site.

4. Experiment, explore, test. And test, experiment, explore.

5. THEN ask a few questions about the key features.

6. DO NOT play with importing extensions until you're confident with how the core system and the template system works.

7. READ through the entire thread on a subject before you jump in with questions - often a questions is asked and answered on the more mature threads, even if you do have to read thirty pages of threads first.

8. DON'T RUSH. It takes time to understand and explore every nuance of the system.

9. Smile. And "sunscreen, trust me on the sunscreen"

:smartalec:

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa am a very big newb and don't know the slightest thing about php or anything that is more complicated than html.

am very extremely frustrated to the point of tears working on my shop

PLEASE HELP

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Originally Posted by SqueakeyCat

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa am a very big newb and don't know the slightest thing about php or anything that is more complicated than html.

am very extremely frustrated to the point of tears working on my shop

PLEASE HELP

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Little Grasshopper,

:smartalec: Mastery of Zen: Read My previous post #701

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Originally Posted by worldmaker

Little Grasshopper,

:smartalec: Mastery of Zen: Read My previous post #701

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I'm sorry, but I just don't understand php at all. I had the staff members of where I have my site at try to help me put up a different template, than what comes with zc when you first install it...problem is, they don't even know how to add a new template....

today, I had to have them totally reset the store, because while editing it per set up instructions tutorial from one of the members/admin/owners (don't remember now, but it has 6 pages to it), i somehow wiped out the whole page, including everything I had on it originally.

so please, if you can give me a "baby's tutorial" help with this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Kim

squeakeycat.net/shop (the only thing i have is the original template there now...waaaaaaaaaaaaa)

Many thanks for this thread. Learned a couple of new things buy reading this.

James

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I'm sorry, but I just don't understand php at all.

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You don't need to understand PHP to set up Zen Cart or make basic customizations... or even install a lot of the mods. You just need to be able to follow instructions. Many people have difficulty with this. It does help a lot to know your way around your computer, and if you want to change colors, fonts, alignments, etc. you need to know some CSS.

Not sure if whoever needs this answer will find it here, but i've spent HOURS frustratingly trying to solve a problem and finally found a solution:

All the tutorials say to edit the /YourTemplateName/Stylesheet.css BUT also make a backup. I made a backup, I called it StylesheetBACKUP.css

Now all you pro's might be wincing, but what does the system do? It reads EVERY .css starting with the name Stylesheet, and then StylesheetXXX, etc.

Meaning that AFTER it loads my stylesheet, it THEN loads my "backup" stylesheet replacing EVERY variable, and nothing I ever edit makes any real changes. You have to rename your backup something that does NOT begin with "stylesheet".

There's no way to know, but in searching for the "how the heck do I edit anything" I found hundreds of people asking the same question, ie "I edit the stylesheet, nothing happens, what am I doing wrong" and this could be the solution to most of them.

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Originally Posted by Johs

Not sure if whoever needs this answer will find it here, but i've spent HOURS frustratingly trying to solve a problem and finally found a solution:

All the tutorials say to edit the /YourTemplateName/Stylesheet.css BUT also make a backup. I made a backup, I called it StylesheetBACKUP.css

Now all you pro's might be wincing, but what does the system do? ...

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Yes, wincing...

A good discipline used by all programmes would be to rename: MyStylesheet.css to MyStylesheet.bak
This is the normal way of preventing any executable from reading any .css you don't want it to read.

This rule applies to any application using any component file, eg. My.dll becomes My.dll-BAK etc., etc....


:cool:

I just use zencart for 3 weeks, the version of my is 1.3.9h i do have a lot of questions,hope can resovled from here

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Originally Posted by hunteryz

I just use zencart for 3 weeks, the version of my is 1.3.9h i do have a lot of questions,hope can resovled from here

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Well this thread isn't the "ask all my Zen Cart questions here" thread.. but this forum certainly is a good place to get answer.. You can start by getting to know the forums searching features to find answers to questions you may have..


From the Posting Tips:

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• HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE FAQ AREA for answers to your question? (ie: a search for your error message or what you want to edit/change, etc)
• Have you searched the FORUM for your error message or for answers to the question you're asking?

Also read the "Before You Post" and "Forum Do's and Don'ts" to be sure you provide at least the basics of information in your post. The more detail you supply, the more likely you'll get a usable answer. If you don't give enough information then you'll likely just get a reply asking for more info, or worse: no reply at all. We'd rather give excellent answers than have to ask you more questions!

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Is there anyone know how to add "ALT text" to every products?
Or the address?

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Originally Posted by hunteryz

Is there anyone know how to add "ALT text" to every products?
Or the address?

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Zen cart automatically ads alt text to all product images.

Thanks,

Anne

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Originally Posted by picaflor-azul

Zen cart automatically ads alt text to all product images.

Thanks,

Anne

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Thank you,
Zen Cart is Amazing

Hello.

Sorry if this post is a bit ridiculous. I am a total newbie in Zencart.
I have this website: www.cps-anti-nuisibles.fr

Is there a way to make it a zencart website and sell products on it (Those are products to kill rats and bed bugs)

Thanks a lot

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Originally Posted by trentdosto

Hello.

Sorry if this post is a bit ridiculous. I am a total newbie in Zencart.
I have this website: www.cps-anti-nuisibles.fr

Is there a way to make it a zencart website and sell products on it (Those are products to kill rats and bed bugs)

Thanks a lot

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You question is not exactly "on topic" for this thread.. You should re-post it in a new post if you hope to get some meaningful responses..

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Originally Posted by trentdosto

Hello.

Sorry if this post is a bit ridiculous. I am a total newbie in Zencart.
I have this website: www.cps-anti-nuisibles.fr

Is there a way to make it a zencart website and sell products on it (Those are products to kill rats and bed bugs)

Thanks a lot

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Yes, i did it to my website ringhhub.net. Please contact me, i will show you.

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Originally Posted by worldmaker

Yes, wincing...

A good discipline used by all programmes would be to rename: MyStylesheet.css to MyStylesheet.bak
This is the normal way of preventing any executable from reading any .css you don't want it to read.

This rule applies to any application using any component file, eg. My.dll becomes My.dll-BAK etc., etc....


:cool:

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I realize this is somewhat of a dated post that I am commenting on. The suggestion above wasto rename the extension of a replaced file with bak as the only extension or to add a hypen and the bak. While I do not work in the SEO business or for any of the search engine groups, etc. Reports have recently been that the final extension should not be simply bak. Ie, in the above example MyStylesheet.bak would be considered a potential pci scan issue. The practice of renaming the extension of a file to be disabled is a good practice. There are some directories though that will read all files regardless of the extension. The disabled files should be removed from the system however once identified unnecessary and no longer needed there. A backup copy should be kept though, just in case.

Upon further review, consideration, and feedback, I am modifying my previous statement in this subsequent post.

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Originally Posted by mc12345678

I realize this is somewhat of a dated post that I am commenting on. The suggestion above was to rename the extension of a replaced file with bak as the only extension or to add a hyphen and the bak. While I do not work in the SEO business nor for any of the search engine groups, etc. Reports have recently been that the final extension should not be simply bak. Ie, in the above example MyStylesheet.bak would be considered a potential pci scan issue. The practice of renaming the extension of a file to be disabled is a good practice. There are some directories though that will read all files that for example end in .php and future development may expand the extension(s) that are autoread . The disabled files should be removed from the system however, once identified unnecessary and no longer needed there. A backup copy should be kept though, just in case.

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While the impact of my incorrect statement would be to significantly minimize extraneous files on the server, it would have a negative impact on understanding of how ZC works, the expectations when making modifications, and ways to use that functionality when developing (and troubleshooting) new programs and plugins.

So when "disabling" a file, modifying the filename say from filename.php to filename.phpold14-09-23 would be sufficient (if not overly so) to prevent the file from being loaded by the default ZC code. As shown above, this filename also would indicate to reviewers that it was renamed on the 23rd day of the 9th month of the "14th" year. (Sequence chosen to facilitate sorting of files by name as this sequence, YY-MM-DD, will sort keeping the year and month in sequence and any day adjacent to the next/previous.)

Happy Zenning!

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Originally Posted by mc12345678

Upon further review, consideration, and feedback, I am modifying my previous statement in this subsequent post.



While the impact of my incorrect statement would be to significantly minimize extraneous files on the server, it would have a negative impact on understanding of how ZC works, the expectations when making modifications, and ways to use that functionality when developing (and troubleshooting) new programs and plugins.

So when "disabling" a file, modifying the filename say from filename.php to filename.phpold14-09-23 would be sufficient (if not overly so) to prevent the file from being loaded by the default ZC code. As shown above, this filename also would indicate to reviewers that it was renamed on the 23rd day of the 9th month of the "14th" year. (Sequence chosen to facilitate sorting of files by name as this sequence, YY-MM-DD, will sort keeping the year and month in sequence and any day adjacent to the next/previous.)

Happy Zenning!

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I'm of the mindset that keeping backup versions of older files ON THE SITE is BAD LAZY PRACTICE and leads to a messy hosting space.. Keep backups sure.. store them someplace else..

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Originally Posted by DivaVocals

I'm of the mindset that keeping backup versions of older files ON THE SITE is BAD LAZY PRACTICE and leads to a messy hosting space.. Keep backups sure.. store them someplace else..

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I whole heartedly agree. Backups should be kept offsite and in redundant locations. If they include sensitive information they should also be encrypted (and the encryption key stored in a different secure location).

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Originally Posted by DivaVocals

I'm of the mindset that keeping backup versions of older files ON THE SITE is BAD LAZY PRACTICE and leads to a messy hosting space.. Keep backups sure.. store them someplace else..

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+1 here

I want to do something that probably seems simple to most of you, but how do I change from a Background color to a BG image on my store? I am very new to all of this
Thank you kindly

zak

Welcome.

You should have opened a new thread, anyhow, find out the css of the element you want to change, and change it in stylsheet.css.
You could use firefox with the firebug extension to inspect and find what class/id you need to change.

Please do this project. I am so frustrated with this stuff. I am not a computer expert and don't understand how to do any of the things offered as solutions to my issue

Magie Pie, go back to where you originally asked your question about upgrading. I answered and gave you a link to the upgrade instructions and an idea that helped me when I was just learning. As someone else has said, you don't have to be a computer expert, just be willing to read and follow instructions.
Best of luck to you
Dorothy

Well I'm looking for the most basic of tutorials subjects, which is how to take a design I have and put the elements of it into template. This may sound like a very simplistic question, yet if one is new to the cart like I am (I've taken over maintenance of the cart for one of my clients) and have no coding experience in php, yet lots of experience in html and css, it's daunting.

I purchased a manual on how to use the cart and there's oodles of information on the working of the cart, users, products, etc. yet next to nothing on how to actually insert into the header or footer files specific images or any other of what I would consider basic design implementation. For example, how to I get some social media icons into the right hand side of the top of the header? Sounds straight forward and simple enough doesn't it, yet trying to find that information is like searching for a pin in the pacific ocean, you can spend hours doing searches and not find anything even closely related to the subject.

In one case the only way I was able to change a link that was associated to an image in the header was by download the entire site and doing a character string search for the old link, this was after hours of frustration searching for any reference to how to accomplish it.

This makes it extremely frustrating to want to continue to offer services to my client as if anything goes wrong they expect me to fix it and when the information is so difficult to find, if at all, how does one stay in business when one's time is wasted on non-billable hours spent searching for a solution.

So as it turns out a free cart isn't really free when you're new to working with it considering the number of hours one will have to invest just to get a handle on how to work the cart's design. Working with products, orders, users, all of that is fairly straight forward.

So my questions is, Is there a straight forward, step 1, 2, 3, tutorial on how to implement components into the cart, i.e. images for a background, header, footer, etc. etc. That would be a life saver to me at this point as I'm almost ready to throw in the towel and walk away and pass the maintenance on to someone who has some more experience. It is an issue as the client wants to move to a responsive template, which at this point I'm clueless as to how to implement it.

Thank you so much for listening to me ramble and rant just a tiny bit. :-)

Sincerely,

David

Also simple things like how and where to add code for a slide show of images and links.:cool:

picaflor-azul has a collection of tutorials that might help: https://www.picaflor-azul.com/easy-h...ideo-tutorials

If you are just getting started as a designer, you might consider showing your clients a few demo responsive templates and have them choose from that selection. There is usually quite a bit of information and learning that can be had by following the README files associated with the templates. You could use that information to help make your customizations.

Many of the responsive templates already have the code built for the slide show and links.

That might be a bit easier than inventing a new wheel from scratch and help with the non-billable learning curve that you mention.

Thank you lat9 and RixStix, I was planning on doing just that with the responsive portion, finding a template that the client likes and also has either good documentation or at least a simpler interface to work with. :cool:

You might also look at this link. https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1724

From the description of issues including downloading files to do a character/word search, might suggest taking a look at this FAQ on the developers tool kit to better understand the power of ZC especially with customization and finding where things are.

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Originally Posted by dmaria

Thank you lat9 and RixStix, I was planning on doing just that with the responsive portion, finding a template that the client likes and also has either good documentation or at least a simpler interface to work with. :cool:

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Well this is a great way to get your feet wet.. Need to add this.. DO NOT make the mistake of using Theme Forrest or Template Monstrosity templates.. They look good but if you REALLY want to learn how to construct a Zen Cart template, these templates are poorly constructed and will not teach you the RIGHT way to do it for yourself.. Picaflor-Azul templates are a good start..

I thought I would have problems with the installation, but everything went well :)