External links for product pages

[HeleneWallis]

I'm going to create a product detail page for each item, and want to use the existing wrapper (sideboxes, etc.) to enclose the production information in the middle column (classic template). This should be obvious, but my brain is friend. Anyone want to suggest the most straightforward way to do it? I've looked at the various header.php files, but nothing is jumping out at me and I'm running out of time.

[DrByte]

Why exactly are you doing this? Who said you needed to do it that way? What business problem are you trying to "solve" with that approach?

Zen Cart is designed around you using its product catalog for presenting product data. Or ez-pages for presenting non-product data.

[HeleneWallis]

I'm hardly trying to sidestep ZenCart. There is a field at the bottom of each product page where you can put a link to the product's website. I realize that may often be used to link to the product manufacturer's website, but it's also a good way to link to additional information about the product itself. My current website has a product listing that shows all the products in a particular category, and each product itself also has a link to 'Product Details,' where I present much additional information. Those pages have a very high visitor count, telling me that they are useful and popular. I intend to do the same thing here. I could simply link to the existing pages that are already on line, but I'd prefer to do it within the ZenCart context.

I considered the EZPages, but they don't seem to fit well with what I need to do.

[DrByte]

Okay. So you want to leverage data you've got on other static pages elsewhere on your site.

How exactly do you want to present the product data? I suspect you're not envisioning the page containing only "product name", "link to product page", and "buy now". And likewise I doubt that you want to completely "suck in" all the data on those other pages, since they probably contain a lot of "extra" stuff that wouldn't suit being dumped "inside" the ZC product page content area.

So, what exactly are you envisioning?

I suspect your best approach, since you seem to want to completely keep all your separate existing pages, is to create abbreviated (like 40%-70% of) product descriptions for each of your store's products, with optional links to the full-detail pages elsewhere on your site, in case they want to dig into more details.

(Zen Cart is built around "being" your site and the authoritative source of data about your products. It's not been designed to merely "add a buy button to existing product pages".)

[HeleneWallis]

I agree about it not being just a "buy button" site. But the mass of information that I have on some products simply doesn't work well in the space you'd want to give the ordinary product description. I already decided on what you basically suggested--a link to another static page for each product. I didn't really want to keep the existing pages, but it looks like that is the best choice.

[mc12345678]

Thinking about it a little, wouldn't tabbed product pro that offers a "separate" area to show additional content. Still somewhat have the issue of "pulling in" the content or the individual bounces away on their merry way