Existing Site Integration

[MoreMana]

Hello All,

This is my first post. I will start with apologizing if this topic has been addressed before. I thoroughly searched the forums and did not find something similar.

I have an existing website (not live yet) that I have designed and have the main page layout for. My question is how do I integrate that site to make it dynamic and work with Zen Cart.

It's pretty much a three column site, all powered by CSS. The left column holds the categories and will remain static. I need the middle column to be dynamic and hold a list of all the products that changes based on what the user selects for a category on the left column. The right column will also be dynamic and hold extras like shopping cart, top 10, etc.

The site is for a collectible card business I'm starting. I need the middle column to show all cards in a specific category in a list format. I am pretty fluent with HTML, CSS and have a little experience with PHP.

I would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction as to which files to edit, etc.

Thank you in advance,
Brad

[afo]

Zen Cart isn't a back-end process, so it's difficult to integrate into an existing site. It would be far easier to duplicate the look of the site in Zen Cart and have Zen Cart run the whole thing.

[MoreMana]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I should log into Zen Cart and see if I can customize it enough to meet my needs.

If I can not do that. What other shopping cart applications should I be looking at to meet my situation?

Thanks,
Brad

[Merlinpa1969]

with ZC you are only limited by your skill and imagination

[schoolboy]

What other shopping cart applications should I be looking at to meet my situation?

All will present you with the same challenge (and opportunities). They will all use a template system, and you will have to (as Merlin says) use your skill and imagination to get the look and feel you want.

Zencart is popular because of its extensive range of capabilities, design options and the level of support through this forum.

Other cart software is less capable and offers limited scope for design variations.

Whatever cart software you choose, you will face the same issue. I have tried several carts, and ZC is by far the best, in my opinion.

[MoreMana]

Thanks for the response guys. I've decided to use Zen Cart after multiple days of research. Now it comes down to how to edit the dang thing to make it look my main site. I've attached a screen shot of my original layout. Is that same look attainable through Zen Cart?

Just want to know if my expectations are too high.

[schoolboy]

The screenshots are very small, but I believe this design is well within the capabilities of ZC.

What you may like to do is look at some existing templates, and if you see some that come close to what you are trying to do, then consider starting out with such a template, as it may be easier to modify it.

Kuroi has set up a site where you can see a wide range of free templates:

http://(sorry, site offline)/