Changing Categories Sidebox Header Text

[stevesh]

You're not putting the edited file in the right folder.

As Frank mentioned, your edited english.php file belongs in includes/languages/blue_strip

There's never a reason to have an english.php file in the templates area.

[hrsteel]

OK. I moved the english.php file from:

includes/templates/blue_strip/languages/english.php to
includes/languages/blue_strip/english.php

but it hasn't made any difference. There must be still something wrong. The single word 'Model' still exists in my categories sidebox. I've searched for the word 'Model' in the Developers Toolkit and it doesn't show up next to any 'BOX_HEADING_CATEGORIES' text like I thought it should.

[schoolboy]

2-MINUTE TUTORIAL ON OVER-RIDES / CUSTOM TEMPLATE

Let's take a simple example in the templates directory...

Let's say you want to (on your remote server) edit:

/includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_products_info_display.php

You will (in your FTP program) navigate to that file, and then you will FTP it BACK to your local drive, to THIS location:

/includes/templates/YOUR-TEMPLATE/templates/tpl_products_info_display.php

(if, in templates/YOUR-TEMPLATE/ you do not have a sub-folder called templates... create one before you ftp the file)

THAT is the over-ride location (which is mirrored on your server), and THAT is the copy of the file that you edit.

When you have edited it, you will ftp it to the MIRRORED location on your remote server.

So, now you have TWO copies of that file...

One is in CORE (and is un-edited) - /includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_products_info_display.php

The other is CUSTOM (edited) - /includes/templates/YOUR-TEMPLATE/templates/tpl_products_info_display.php

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What happens now, in the inner workings of zencart, the override programming works like this...

Zencart says: "OK... I must display the PRODUCT INFORMATION PAGE, so I go FIRST to the over-ride folder and I look to see if Joe-Bloggs has made a custom file for that page. AH.. YES... Joe-bloggs HAS made an override file, so I use that one, and NOT the core file."

Basically, that is the override system... Zc looks FIRST in an override folder for a file, and will use THAT file if there is one.

If there is NO override file, it will go look for the file it needs in the CORE folder(s).

[hrsteel]

Thanks but you're confusing me even more. I don't know what an FTP program is. Unless you mean my cPanel, from which I edit the few files I do edit. All I want to do is change the text in my categories sidebox header. Now you're talking about /includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_products_info_display.php I know you said "Let's say you want to edit: /includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_products_info_display.php" but that's not the file I actually need to edit is it?? stevesh said "There's never a reason to have an english.php file in the templates area". So when you start talking about templates you lose me. Please consider me a real dummie? I need step by step and file by file instructions. I was able to edit my manufacturers sidebox header from 'Manufacturers' to 'Shop By Brand'. How can this be so hard?

[stevesh]

I'm confused now, too.

You would change that (Categories) in the same file where you changed the Manufacturers wording (english.php).

You say that when you do that, the whole page disappears. One thing that will do that is special characters (like an apostrophe or quotation mark) in a define, so if you tried to change 'Categories' to 'Bob's Categories' you'd get a blank page. It doesn't sound like you're doing that, but using the CPanel editor may be causing the problem.

This would be a good time to learn about FTP - it'll save you a lot of trouble and make styling your site a lot less stressful.

Get an FTP program - many here use Filezilla, I use the FireFTP plugin for the Firefox browser. Then enter your server login details, and you'll end up with a screen with two Windows Explorer-type panes - one showing your local computer's files, and one the server files.

Find the english.php file, drag it to somewhere on your local computer, open it in a text editor (like Notepad), make your changes, save it, upload back to the server.

Once you get the idea of it, it's second nature.