I need help

[Mama Bear]

I need help. I really, really need help. Are there any honest Zen Cart Webmasters out there at all?

[kobra]

You need to collect what duties you require done for you and make a list of them to obtain any valid offers from any potentials

If you cannot define what it is you need - any relationship is doomed before it begins

[ALiepinieks]

a short list of requirements might be a start, along with your own expectations; we already know honesty is one of them :)
as far as honesty goes however, quite difficult if you're looking to hire through online commentaries only. my only suggestion here might be to ask for referees so you can validate the quality of their work and their ethics.

good luck

andrejs

[Mama Bear]

ok.. I will give this a try but one of my biggest sources of frustration with the old webmaster was that he never told me what he was doing for me. So, I don't know.. I only know the things that I asked him to do.

We had to block him from the hosting site as he was starting to take things off of it. I am missing some info, but more importantly I am missing admin tools from the tools area and I was not given access to everything, I don't even think that I could get anyone onto the site unless they used my name and login.

I am hoping what he took off the site can be restored by the hosting company so I am not going to go there.

I need to change the banner on the homepage and take his name off the bottom of each page.

What he was doing for me regularly, was I would add a product onto the site and then he would go back and put a green box under the product description so that it could be easily read.. the wood grain tends to get in the way of the words.. here is an example of a product with the green background added... http://mamabearssoaps.com/index.php?...roducts_id=267 and an example of one that I just added that has no green box. http://mamabearssoaps.com/index.php?...roducts_id=468

I constantly asked if there could be a way where the green boxes were automatic, but he said no.... so everytime I added an item I had to alert him and then he would go and put the green box under the description for me. I also asked him if he could just show me how to do it and he told me in no uncertain terms that this was his programming and he would not let me have access to it.. so this is probably the main thing that he has done.

I have asked him to do monthly sales for me... which consist of setting up a sale product, putting the sale info into the side box and then sending out the newsletters, but I can do all of that myself and have in the past, but I don't know how to put the sale info into the side box.

I haven't been able to recieve an International order since we had our blow up. All of my International customers are telling me that they get stuck and can't proceed with the checkout process.

I would like to know if my site should be upgraded.. I am honestly very happy with the site, but am concerned because he kept telling me it was an old site and wouldn't do a lot of the things that I really wanted to do. I have seen those things done on other sites, so I guess I need an upgrade???
OK.. this is all I can think of for now.. I will add things as I think of them... I am truly hoping I can find someone to get me thru this. I have learned a LOT over the past year with Zen Cart, but don't know any programming.. I will read the zen cart book and learn, but some things need to be fixed right away..

Thanks for your consideration.. I am at the end of my rope...

Regards, Sue
www.mamabearssoaps.com
and
www.bearlights.com

[Mama Bear]

also, I do know how to send out the newsletters, but I don't know how to embed a picture into them, he would put pictures in for me. I will try and learn to do this myself, but any help would be appreciated.

I am mostly worried about all of my international sales.. I have customers writing me at least once a day that they cannot check out...

[Mama Bear]

also, I need to get www.bearlights.com off his hosting computer and over to the same host as mamabearssoaps.com is on. Unfortunately he has indicated that he will not help me, nor will he give me cpanel info.. he did at least put the website back up, but this is the second website I have gotten from him and he has denied me access to. I paid for all of the other site and half of this one. I would love to save it if I can, it just really hurts to be paying for websites that dissapear on me whenever the webmaster feels he would like to hold them ransom.

[ALiepinieks]

...if there could be a way where the green boxes were automatic...

should be easy, but making some assumptions here. first i assume you have FTP access. if so, modifications to css should do the trick (assuming core zen-cart files haven't changed too much by your previous developer):

find the file includes\templates\YOURTEMPLATE\css\stylesheet.css

open this file in your text editor and find the id labelled productDescription. then add, or if a property already exists, adjust the following properties listed inside the curly braces:

#productDescription {
background:#8aa88e;
border:3px solid #ffffff;
padding:5px;
font-size:1.2em;
}

if you cannot find the productDescription id in your css file, simply add all of the code in the field above to the end of your css file.

...but I don't know how to put the sale info into the side box...

sales are made using varioius techniques in zen-cart. the one i use the most is the through the feature called Product price manager (located under the products menu in your administrative "back-end"). If you cannot figure this part out yourself, let us know and we should be able to help.

...All of my International customers are telling me that they get stuck...

will need a little more info here, specifically where they get stuck, any messages they receive and what freight/payment modules you're using.

...I do know how to send out the newsletters, but I don't know how to embed a picture into them...

personally i haven't had any experience with newsletters, but don't imagine it is that difficult. will look into it and advise later unless someone else here gives you the help you need beforehand.

...I would love to save it if I can...

Without access to cpanel or phpmyadmin it will certainly be more difficult. as stated earlier, i assume by now you have ftp access to the files and folder structure? if so, we could write a script that dumps database tables to file (outside of cpanel), and then simply backup your directory structure to restire on another server (after changing a few configuration items). i'm not exactly sure just yet how one would do this but can't imagine it would be that difficult, just a little time consuming.

will look into this for you and get back.

cheers
andrejs

[DarkAngel]

it is people like that which give the rest of us that help a bad name.

if you can get into the admin section of your store there you can add a background color to your products...after you turn on html in the configuration of your store.

you need to have the database from the other store to move it and the files would be great otherwise you will need to start all over.

what i tell all the people I help out...I do this myself....once you get things done and can take a breath

1. access your server via an ftp program
2. download all your store directories [[folders]] from the server to a section on your computer or external harddrive.

this way you have the documents should one get corrupted...for editing via a duplicate and have the original handy to fix things if you goofed. I do this twice a month if I do a lot of editing, just to keep them current and after installing add-ons.

going to c-panel or myphpadmin to get a backup of your database is also something that should be done daily, may appear overkill to do it daily but when my first host went bellyup taking everything with him...mine and all entities he hosted. I started the daily thing and have had them for the horrible event should it happen again.

when you were not given login info to c-panel and site admin ro anything else you are a part of that should have given you warning of mistrust. he having the ability to hold your stuff hostage is what you can expect should you aggravate him more.

since you are able to add products you should have admin access, take a look at your payment module to see if all is right with whatever payment mod you have activated.

I fear also that if he has access to the server files, myphpadmin that even though you block him, remove him from the admin section he will still be able to play havoc with your site...unless you change your c-panel password at the other host. If it is like my host when you change your c-panel password it will also change the ftp password so your files should be free of his tampering with them.

I would offer for you to make me an admin at the store for a bit -- I can see what is what and set the html up for you but I know not about international sales.

hopefully if you use paypal he does not have access to it or you will need to change your password there too. CHANGE your password to anything he has access to.

[Mama Bear]

OMG.. I am crying.. I am going to bed and am going to go thru this step by step tomorrow.. I am not real computer literate but have a lot of common sense.. usually... and can figure it out. I just am so not used to getting any help and I am a mess, I have been crying for days. Thank you both for at least letting me get to sleep knowing there is help out there.

My host blocked him for me.. this is the second time he went nutso on me.. he kept emailing me and telling me all the things he was taking off the site and I was having a nervous breakdown.. I don't know what Jack at Pima Host did, but I heard that the webmaster couldn't even see my site any longer. This is the second time that Jack has stayed up til the wee hours of the morning saving my website for me and if you don't know him, you should.. he is a good man. So I am pretty sure he is blocked from the soaps site (this is my old site, he denied me access to the new one) but I am pretty sure I am blocked from bearlights.. I was never given admin priviledges to bearlights, much less cpanel access to either.. and I don't have ftp unfortunately. I just thank God that Jack at Pima kept a back up of the old site for me. Maybe the thing to do is to restore it to a couple weeks ago and then redo the work I have done since then? Should this work??

Blessings to all of you.. I am going to bed.. tomorrow will be a better day. Thanks!!! Sue

[DarkAngel]

there are a lot of free ftp client programs out there , the popular ones are cuteftp and filezillla

if this other man--Jack-- if from your stores host then he can help you get c-panel access to your server...thank goodness he is there for you.

right now you get rest and YES there are those of us out here that help out when needed, sometimes we get paid sometimes not but we are honestly trying to help and not pilfer.