Tabless Center Column Content

[chasery]

Currently I am building a shopping cart system for a customer and have ran into some issues regarding tabled output on the majority of the center column content.

I do understand there are uses for table content (and they are not as evil as every one thinks they are.) I am still looking for a efficient way to change the majority of this to a tabless design as I find it easier for me to style and manipulate in the exact layout I am looking for.

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I seem to be having issues with the over ride system and don't seem to be grasping it, or I am adjusting the wrong files in the wrong place.

From the reading that I have done just specifically on the product page, I was under the impression that product_listing.php would be the file to adjust how the table content is implemented specifically for the product content. Upon diving in, it appears to be going much deeper than just one page. I mean I couldn't even over ride the fact that the product image column has an inline alignment of center.

I just find it funny that this product claims to be a standards compliant product when it is still using inline styles and a bunch of random and odd layout techniques. ie. using <br /> instead of just putting content in to a <ul> because I am pretty sure it took more time to ghetto rig that menu than to just do it correctly. But I do see its value and once I have a "template" I can go back and never have to deal with it again.

Really my questions are:

What files are creating this table layout(I guess specifically for the products page, unless there is more of a global file dedicated to table creation)?

Is there a way to change and or control this from the admin panel?

Is there a plugin that can convert this over for me to a more say... flexible layout?

How does the over ride system work? I have read the coument that explains it as any folder with a classic folder needs a custom folder. I have tried creating "custom" folder and I have tried creating a folder of the theme tittle and have had little success.



Currently I am running 1.3.8a on the site.

Here is a specific link to reference:
http://www.raoptics.com/shop/index.p...&products_id=2

Also I am aware of the sidebox migration down below the products review, its a plugin I am currently working on and it warned of that issue.

Thanks for your help.

[schoolboy]

I know of no instances of inline styles in ZC... Please provide examples...

Secondly, tables are used very sparingly in 1.3.8 - and largely because of limitiations within CSS.

Thirdly, the <br /> tag is perfectly permissible, and is often used in conjunction with a clear:both css declaration to force intended section breaks.

Fourthly, there are SEVERAL product display functions within zencart, and tpl_product_listing.php governs just one of them.

The one you are probably after is tpl_product_info_display.php and in that file you won't see any <table> tags... It's all css driven.

The OVER-RIDES (or custom template) system is just a logical way of ensuring that CORE files remain intact when people make customizations to their shop.

This "Ghetto Rig" called Zencart is actually very advanced and sophisticated in this regard.... You just need to spend time in the tutorials.faq section to figure out how it all works.

You start by creating a custom template (you can even call it ghetto_rig if you want), and if you bothered to look in the Tutorials Faq you would have seen a link to it plain as daylight...

But to make your life easier:

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=4

[stevesh]

I can't address the tables thing, except to say that Zencart contains some legacy code from its osCommerce origin.

The page you linked to is the product info page, not the product listing.

In your case, you would create an 'raoptics' folder anywhere you see a 'classic' folder and at the same level.

Overriding, for example, the template for the page you linked to would involve downloading includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php, making your edits and uploading the file to includes/templates/tempraoptics/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php

[gjh42]

There is actually some inline and pseudo-inline (.back, .forward) styling currently left in Zen Cart from its ancestor. The product listing and similar pages are prime examples of this, although the table in the stock product listing page really is appropriate (if sometimes annoying because tables refuse to accept some common CSS styling).

[schoolboy]

In the templates/common folder you will see:

tpl_tabular_display.php

which is used a a "common" template file in certain instances where tables are evident in centre-column content.

[chasery]

Thank you for the responses. I will have to look into this later on tonight.

Once again, I am impressed with Zen Cart as a majority. But it has some stuff in here that is not semantic and seems to slow down the process of developing especially for a first time developer using it. As stated in some of the responses above, there is legacy code coming from older versions and understand that. I just want to see if there are some more practical ways of adjusting it instead of spending a few hours trying to "fix it."

[schoolboy]

The devs are working hard on ZC version 2.0.

It is assumed that all the legacy from OsC will disappear.