when I switching templates, everything except header disappears

[Hetero]

Hi,
I was wondering if someone could help me. I am new to Zen Cart, I uploaded my products and everything is there when I look at the template Alien Stemware. But if i change templates for example if i switch to the custom template, at first i see everything but if i click on a link or refresh the page the only left on the page is the header, everything else disappears.
Any help is very appreciated.
Here is the link, it is currently on the alien stemware template which works - http://heteromorphic.com/zencart/
Thanks,
Justin

[stevesh]

I'm seeing everything but the sidebox columns. When you select a new template in admin, you then have to go to the Layout Boxes Controller page and click Reset.

[Hetero]

Thanks so much stevesh for the reply. I tried that and it didn't work. I put up the custom template so you can see, when I click on a link, everything below the header disappears. Thoughts?
Thanks so much!

[RodG]

I uploaded my products and everything is there when I look at the template Alien Stemware. But if i change templates for example if i switch to the custom template, at first i see everything but if i click on a link or refresh the page the only left on the page is the header, everything else disappears.

Firstly a short lesson in zencart templates. If you are using a template called "Alien Stemware" then this *is* your 'custom template'. If you install any modules, etc and they refer to a folder called 'CUSTOM' it isn't meant to be taken literally, you are supposed to substitute 'CUSTOM' with the name of the template that you are actually using.

Zencart itself doesn't have a 'CUSTOM' folder. Its default template is called simply 'classic', and although it is quite possible to keep this default template as your 'custom' template it isn't a good idea because changes you make will get overwritten with any zencart updates.

This leads to the cause of your current problem, because somewhere along the line you have created a template folder that is literally named 'CUSTOM' and we can't even guess what is, or isn't contained in that folder, so faultfinding using this non functional poorly named template will be futile.

What you *should* be doing to sort out template issues (which is what you appear to have) is to revert back to the 'classic' template which should not have been modified or changed in any way whatsover. This gives you a 'clean slate' for testing/debugging purposes.

If you do wish to use an modify the 'classic' template it, and its folders should be copied and renamed to something of your choosing.

I hope you find this useful.

Cheers
Rod

[lat9]

When you change templates, have you looked in your store's /cache folder for any Debug*.log files?