Must be doing something stupid

[ladysaat]

Okay for some reason when I click on the links in the Wiki document about Customisation (I'm not spelling wrong by accident that's what is there)- Templates I just go to an index page and the thread isn't what shows up. These are the threads linked there:

http://www.zen-cart.com/modules/xoop...hp?cat_id=3#85

http://www.zen-cart.com/modules/xoop...hp?cat_id=3#56


I bought (don't laugh, it is too hard right now for me to figure out my cart and get it working, to stop and get lost in creating cool templates) a template and have ended up tweaking it a bit and want to put it in a /custom_template dir kinda thing. So I am trying to figure out how to do this whole override thingy and am totally lost in tech speak and whatnot.

What was the topic of those threads for those of you who can pull them up? That way I can search and read them. TIA

[Sermonzone]

Take a look at this thread for some help - http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36567. The links to the FAQ and Wiki article are good and shoulod answer most questions about overrides.

The links in the Wiki are to the pre-sql-hacking-snot-nosed-programmer-wannabes attack and are not updated yet.

Best wishes.

[ladysaat]

Okay I bookmarked that and dug around a bit more. I have PLENTY of reading ahead of me. To be quite honest with you, the more I read the less I understand. I guess I am an auditory/kinestheic learner rather than visual in this case. I did go out and buy a book on CSS today, just because I realized I literally don't understand it's structure, what the heck PHP is and what it does, and/or how to use either. (make that MySQL and programming in gen. too) I didn't find a PHP book that wasn't larger than my head so I passed. I don't really get how the "override" files work, like how zencart knows to use what's in them, with out changing a gazillion little bits of code throughout every .php file in the directory. Plus I don't really get where to put em all. The "look for a classic dir" is a good start off though... So yeah, off to bury my nose in a book for a bit and ponder. I don't want to add a bunch of products to my cart and then realize the foundation and design suck and then

[kobra]

I really doubt that you will learn much about the ZenCart overrides in the css book.

A good purchase though... as long as the book that you purchased does not dwell on things that were popular in the past and are becoming passe today. Don't spend a lot of time on tables, frames, inline frames etc, many more items. Try to glean as much as you can about the tags like div, li, ul, definitions and other generic things.

Back to the overrides: You really don't have to know the code that allows this to work, at least at this time. You are like me probably, too anal and analytical and conclude that to understand that you must know how this is happening, Yes at least my first 2 months trying to work with this cart. Just grasp the concepts that are the underpinnings of this cart and work within them at first anyway. Probably, a good 80% of the functional files in the catalog section are overrideable, meaning that if they define an section that you do not want or want to add you can make your custom edits to them.

Now one can edit the actual file and things will be ducky right up until there is an upgrade or patch. then try to remember all the files that you have altered...
Ergo the override system. Your edited files reside in folders that you have created to house only your edited files and a patch or upgrade does not overwrite these directories. That is basically all that the override system exists for. Not a complicated plot to drive you crazy.

With 1.3.x and the template_default as a base, there are very few files that you must even touch to have a fully functional cart that can have your "special" look attached to it.

there is a combination of stylesheet, the admin and specific php files that control all of the representation (placement & styling) of the elements rendered. Most all can be cotrolled by the stlye sheet and in the admin. Only when this can not produce the result should one even look to the .php files.

Take two steps back, a deep breath, and just try to use what is provided first before embarking on a quest for the 'holy grail'.

"Customisation" by the way, there are Brits here and there.

[ladysaat]

I really doubt that you will learn much about the ZenCart overrides in the css book.


"Customisation" by the way, there are Brits here and there.

I didn't realize it was spelled differently over there.

Yeah that book got RETURNED. Honestly, the reason I was hoping to really get to know CSS and stuff was because I am totally lost. Most of the suggestions and post don't make a whit of sense. I thought maybe if I started with the bare bones of it I could figure out what everything meant. I want to be sure of myself with this and what I'm doing you know. But I have a host of other issues to deal with as well so onward and upwards eh?

[kobra]

Try setting up a custom template for yourself...

In the /includes/templates directory make a folder named 'custom'. Place inside this folder a copy of the /includes/templates/template_default/css folder. And create an image folder in the custom folder also.

You now have a folder "custom" and inside of it a css & image folder. The css folder has copies of the template_default/css files in it.

FTP a copy of the template_info.php file to your PC and open it in a editor (notepad or?). where you find

'$template_name = 'Default Template';

change to:

$template_name = 'custom';

Save it. Now FTP this copy of the template_info.php file to the /custom folder.

If you have a logo that is about 200x100px and it is a gif file, rename it to 'logo.gif and ftp this to the /custom/image folder.

Now in admin > tools > template selection > you should see the custom as a template selection. Select 'new language' and use the dropdown for the template name and select custom then insert.

Then tools > layout boxes cotroller > and scroll to the bottom and select reset

Now load your site in your browser and you should see your logo displayed. You have just successfully used the override system and changed the displayed logo and only had to edit one zen file(template_info,php).

Pat yourself on the back and admire the small step you have made.

You have just progressed from 'lost' to 'Zenned"!!

[LloydDobbler]

Yeah that book got RETURNED. Honestly, the reason I was hoping to really get to know CSS and stuff was because I am totally lost. Most of the suggestions and post don't make a whit of sense. I thought maybe if I started with the bare bones of it I could figure out what everything meant. I want to be sure of myself with this and what I'm doing you know.

As someone who finds myself in the same place as you (more or less), I totally feel your pain. :-) Especially since most books on CSS, HTML, PHP and MySQL seem to start out with about 200 pages of expressions, entities, rules & other rote memorization that they somehow expect you to READ through (much less LEARN) before they get to any application of said rote memorization...

It's made me realize what a learn-by-doing person I am. (Which is tough when you're staring at the Zen Cart index.php file, trying to figure out how the template relates to the whole thing and if you can get it to display x & y but not z). Ugh.

Anyway, if you're still wanting to get down the basics of CSS, check out 'Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML' - it's a book that seems like it's written more for the right-brain thinker than for the programming-types. I found it SO useful in getting to know my way around CSS. (I can read it and code in it fairly well now...the book taught me the difference between a 'div' and a 'span' when I picked it up earlier this year).

At the very least, it makes it much easier to understand what's being said when you're reading the forums, looking for answers.

Speaking of which...I'm about to go back to scouring the forums, seeing what sort of info I can glean...hopefully one day I'll know enough to write the manual dealing with the "behind the scenes" aspects of customizing Zen Cart to look the way you want it to.

:-)

Good luck!

[Sermonzone]

Lloyd,

I suggest you start your 'scouring' in the FAQ and Wiki rather than the forums. You will get farther, faster.

Ideally, the forum will get questions not covered in the FAQ/Wiki or cover issues that an individual user has had difficulty implementing. It is very hard to see the big picture from threads in the forum. There will be some 'sticky' threads in the forums that closely resemble tutorials and they are worth reviewing. They are on topics that impact most every user though.

In the Wiki be aware that the links to the forum are still mostly broken. In case you did not know, we had a hacker problem that forced an emergency reboot of the forum and things are still not 100%. (Though I am amazed at how quickly the Devs put the most important stuff back together.)

hopefully one day I'll know enough to write the manual dealing with the "behind the scenes" aspects of customizing Zen Cart to look the way you want it to.

I, and others, are working on producing this. I look forward to your help.

Best wishes.

[kits1]

I know this post was done a year and a half ago, but I'll try anyway. I did what kobra mentioned, but my template went from only classic to show classic and default template. It did not give me the option for CUSTOM or the name I chose. Is the default the one I copied or no? In the includes/template directory I have classic, custom_template and template_default, but when I go to the site and template selection I only see the two and when I click on the preview of default, it says page not found. What am I doing wrong?
Thank you.

[afo]

Do you have a includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php file?

To create a very basic custom template (you can build from there), you need:

• includes/languages/YOUR_TEMPLATE/english.php
• includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/index.php
• includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/header.php (to change the logo)
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_header.php
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_footer.php
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/images/logo.gif
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/css/stylesheet.css

Anywhere you see a /classic/ folder, you can create a folder for your custom template. You can copy the necessary files from either the /classic/ folder, the /template_default/ folder or the parent folder.

Edit includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php to give your template identifying information so you'll recognize it in the admin under tools->template selection.