Evaluating ZenCart for Serious Customization

[gerard119]

I am currently examining several open source candidates for my next project and ZenCart seems almost too-good-to-be-true. Not only it has impressive set of features, add-ons etc. there is also a book about it etc.

However, there are two concerns that make my leery about choosing ZenCart:

Although the concept of of the override system is well explained, there is no documentation anywhere about what each overridable .php module does. For example, all the modules in includes/templates/template_default/templates have a nice header like:

 * @package templateSystem
 * @copyright Copyright 2003-2005 Zen Cart Development Team
 * @copyright Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce
 * @license http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt GNU Public License V2.0
 * @version $Id: tpl_modules_categories_tabs.php 3395 2006-04-08 21:13:00Z ajeh $ 

But the header doesn't explain what the module does, its purpose in the system, its position in the system (who calls it) etc.

This is a problem for someone who wants to seriously customize the system.

If I want to introduce another template that is slightly different from another one (for careful introduction & beta testing of new features), I have to re-enter via admin console (i.e. manually!) all the layouts/sideboxes and define pages. This is unlike preparing a template that can be simply packaged into a ZIP file, uploaded to the site and then simply extracted.

Moreover, to control a certain item in the web site, I have to access several functions/menus in the admin console. For example, to define a product, it's not enough to go to the product's page (via Categories/Products), I also have to go several other pages and menus (attributes controller, etc.).

In short, not very well organized/architected/designed which leads to too much work.

Is this really the state of the art of open source shopping cart software? In other words, are other open source packages in much worse situation?

If you think I am mistaken, I would be more than happy to be proven wrong (and chose ZenCart over other packages).

[kobra]

But the header doesn't explain what the module does, its purpose in the system, its position in the system (who calls it) etc.

Well for the example you supplied it does in a way...
tpl_modules_categories_tabs.php
tpl is for the display of information that is generally retreived from the DB and made available by a function or a module - in this instance:
/includes/modules/categories_tabs.php is displayed by the file you have referenced - tpl_modules_categories_tabs.php

If you think I am mistaken, I would be more than happy to be proven wrong (and chose ZenCart over other packages).

I am biased, but do believe you are mistaken and instead of "proving" this to you, I recommend you find another that is better

[gjh42]

The admin has been built from its osCommerce origin in bits and pieces, and has a lot of legacy code. It is admittedly poorly organized, and is scheduled for a total overhaul in an upcoming release, after critical customer interface upgrade versions.

The code overall is stable, secure, powerful and flexible; if you can find another system that is better, go ahead and use it. Some of the complexities that people complain about are necessary to achieve things like multilingual capacity, and simpler systems may not have such abilities.
It is currently in the final stages of being totally rewritten to OOP practices, which when ironed out will make it an even better platform for development.