First Question New (very) User

[CoolHandFluke]

I understand forums and will do all the searching I need to but after some time there is one basic step I think I am missing.


I have successfully installed Zen Cart through GoDaddy.
I have set up a few Categories and Items.

Now since I installed ZC through GoDaddy the files and all the work I have done is already on the server. OK no big deal.

Here is the part I just don't see.

How or what do I "link" to on my index page on my website to get to the ZC pages I have created?

In essence I think I would have to now change the link on my main page for orders to somehow take a visitor to the ZC info.

I hope I have made sense.

[stevesh]

While it can be done, trying to use Zencart as a back-end shopping cart script for an existing HTML site is not the hot setup. Better to re-create your site in Zencart, or style Zencart to look like your existing site and install it in a subdirectory, like yoursite .com/store, and link to it from your main site.

[CoolHandFluke]

For now the "hot setup" is not really a concern given the following:
a.) Relative inexperience on my part
b.) Need to get just the basics up and running to make a wife happy.


I probably foresee the whole "sub domain" as a necessity at some point in the future, once I learn more about it, but now I am just really concerned with getting something to work (or even appear to work)

So if I decide to keep it on "the back end" as you say what files should I be looking to link from my existing site?

[stevesh]

See post #11 here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84257

If you have more than a few products, though, using Zencart as your whole site makes a lot more sense.

[CoolHandFluke]

When you say using Zen cart for your whole site what does that mean.

To create the site (i.e Kompozer) which is what I use.

Or design the entire site in ZC and then just use the shopping cart functionality of ZC

Or am i missing something else.

[schoolboy]

First thing you need to understand, is that zencart is not a HTML pages system.

The pages do not exist until they are needed.

After a person has viewed a page and they click a link, the page they are on disappears (evaporates) forever, and a NEW page is compiled and takes its place.

In the process of creating that new page, the software may perform some functions along the way - such as "Add a product to the cart and work out the tax rate". This information is temporarily stored in the database (during the user's "session") and can be recalled whlile that session os active.

Kompozer is practically useless to you in this dynamic page environment.

You need to do some studying on DYNAMIC CONTENT websites. Find out more about what PHP does and how it calls stuff off a database.

HTML knowledge, while useful, is not what you need to understand how these sites work.

PS: before you get serious with eCommerce, make sure you DON'T host with GoDaddy... they are terrible...

[CoolHandFluke]

Well changing from Go Daddy might be an option in the future, not viable at this point.

And as for me having to learn more, no argument there.

Let me try it from a different angle then.

Lets say I had a site with no more than 30 different items for sale, all very local.

What would be the best way to set up a "shopping cart" where a person after reading content about our product could go to a page and pick from a list of items of what they wanted and then when their selection is complete and e-mail would be sent to our "brick and mortar shop" letting us know that somebody is interested in some product and we need to reach out to them to confirm some specifics.

I understand that e-commerce is a whole lot more complicated and more powerful than what I just explained but right now what I have explained is 99.9999% of what I need and 100% of what I want to accomplish.

If Zen Cart is not the best for what I need right now then perhaps another product might serve my extremely limited needs better at this point.

[schoolboy]

Zencart is ideal for what you need. Yiou just need to get your head round the idea of NOT working with flat HTML... don't worry, 6 years ago I had a similar journey!

When the guys say "Zencart should BE your site" they mean that you don't need to have any flat html pages anymore. All the info you want to contain about your business, yourself, your products - can all be managed within the frramework of zencart.

Start with the HOME PAGE.

This is called the "define_main_page.php" under:-

ADMIN >>> TOOLS >>> DEFINE PAGES EDITOR.

Now... when you open "define_main_page.php" you will be given an option to use a little HTML editor called HTMLArea to insert and format the content.

OnHTMLArea editor, there is a little symbol that looks like this:

<>

That is the "toggle" switch to raw html, and wysiwyg.

NOW... you could actually use Kompozer to generate the html for your main page. You could use any HTML editor.

All you need do is clip the HTML code between the opening <body> and closing </body> tags - and paste it into this HTMLArea raw code window.

How up to speed are you with raw html? Do you understand HTML?

When you are using Komposer, to you ever look at the code you are generating?

[schoolboy]

One of the main drawbacks with Kompozer is that it does not generate valid HTML.

For example, it still generates <br> instead of <br />

You need to find a better editor.

[CoolHandFluke]

That seems to make a little more sense.

I have a basic understating of HTML (and plenty of manuals to reference)

A quick Google search of top 100 Zen-cart site has also been a little helpful since now I can see things that look kinda what I want and yet look a lot like the basic template I have seen so know it's just the journey from the basic to the final overall site.