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...