Making Custom Template

[designsbytrina]

Hi :)

I've been reading through several topics, went to the wiki, and can't find (or don't recognize) the solution to my need. I just want to add a creditcard.gif to one of the sideboxes, or in something that shows on every page. Doesn't need to link to anything, I only want to inform my customers that I accept certain credit cards.

I know a little html, but I'm lost in php. If anyone has an answer, please talk to me like I'm in kindergarten.

[TinaS]

Have you tried the contribution for creating a new side box? I haven't used it yet so I don't know if it would help or how hard it is to do. But, since it is available in the downloads area it must work good and I am sure that it wouldn't be hard to figure it out.

[Ziggy]

mommydesigns, Surrond your anchor with <center> and </center>.

[seethrou]

@ designsbytrina

Take one or modify to fit. Find in the downloads area and Sideboxes section.
Credit Card Sidebox
Paypal Verified Logo
Comodo Trust Logo Contribution.

.

[linkedla]

Don't get lost in the forest of "code". You don't have to write code and in any case if you need help changing something in one of your template files you can always ask for help here in for forum.

In the meantime maybe these hints and tips will help a little bit.

Thanks Clyde for sure it help me to make a very nice custom template since i can now find what to change and where, i hope this still the samne in the new 1.3.5 i am sure it will be this way, also a small question her, you think i can have a flash movie for the repalcement of the greting message, a client of mine want a page with some flash in this place, and i just wondering if some one try this before.
Thanks for your help.

[andysim]

Thanks for all answer. They made me to understand much easier.
I have one more question to costomize.

How could I change the position to center.
I set width 850px and would like to align center rather than left.

I am trying with v1.3.0.2

Thanks again.
Andy Sim

[clydejones]

Thanks Clyde for sure it help me to make a very nice custom template since i can now find what to change and where, i hope this still the samne in the new 1.3.5 i am sure it will be this way, also a small question her, you think i can have a flash movie for the repalcement of the greting message, a client of mine want a page with some flash in this place, and i just wondering if some one try this before.
Thanks for your help.

I've seen a few sites that use Flash, but I'm not familiar enough with it to give you a good answer on how to implement it.

You might do a search for Flash and see what turns up.

[pleitch]

I had one heck of a time trying to figure out the templating system when I first started working with ZenCart. I was taking an existing site design and wanted to recreate it with ZenCart to provide a seamless experience for users from the existing site to the store.

Eventually it worked best to create a new folder in templates with my theme name.

includes/templates/MY_THEME_NAME

from there i started one file at a time using the override system but first I took my existing CSS file from the current site and added that using the Zen Cart naming convention. So I made a new folder and added my file.

/includes/templates/MY_THEME_NAME/css/stylesheet_MY_THEME_NAME.css

I DID NOT copy the Zen Cart css from default_template as many of the people suggest. All of the Zen Cart features will merely display with no style at all, which in most cases is going to be better for you.

Along the way you can either use the Zen Cart ID and class names to add to your css or do like I did and in many cases remove them. They throw a lot of extra css in there that you really don't need (though you might in some cases). Most of the time I am deleting the Zen Cart ID/classes and using my own cleaner markup. Do what you're comfortable with.

So, now I have a folder with my theme name and a css folder within that with my css from an existing design. If you're starting with a new design I'd suggest building it in static HTML first (don't worry about Zen Cart yet, just get your design made) and then use that css file to begin.

Now I took took a look at my store, viewed the source and started figuring out which template files I needed to copy to my theme folder.

Likely you'll create your own copies of the following files from template_default/common:

• tpl_main_page.php
  tpl_header.php
  html_header.php
  tpl_columnar_display.php
  tpl_tabular_display.php

Those are the ones I've used at least as well as about 10-15 from /sideboxes and /templates. Each site will be different based on your design and needs.

I would only copy one file at a time by opening it from /includes/template/template_defulat and saving into the same structure within my new theme folder I had made.

To override tpl_main_page.php I saved my version to /includes/themes/MY_THEME_NAME/common/tpl_main_page.php

Essentially, any file Zen Cart finds in your theme folder will end up being ignored from the template_defaults. So any that you don't copy, Zen Cart will use the one in template_defaults.

It isn't as hard as the horrible documentation or some of the examples people post make it seem.

Just step back and look at it in simple, smaller chunks and you will figure it out. I did after much frustration trying to use the wiki or these forums (though the forums have been very helpful in other regards). Once I forgot what I had read and tried to figure it out by myself it worked much better.

If you don't need to change something in a template, DON'T COPY IT to your theme folder. Simple as that.

I'm planning to put something a bit more organized together once I finish the store I'm working on. I really like Zen Cart but have to admit it has been horribly frustrating and I've been building sites for over 10 years. I can imagine how miserable somebody with little to no experience would feel trying to work with it.

[TinaS]

I've seen a few sites that use Flash, but I'm not familiar enough with it to give you a good answer on how to implement it.

If you want flash on the main page such as this site

You will want to use the tutorial for embedding flash that doesn't get caught by the IE problems of click to play : http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...ght=java+flash

What I did for the Patterson Photo's site was put my flash and my javascript in the root and then simply referenced those two files as /patterson.js and /patterson.swf


Hope that helps !

[confusedIam]

....

CUSTOM_NAME

• common (folder)
  css (folder)
  images (folder)
  templates (folder)
  template_info.php

Hope this helps

Hi, I have done this but when in the Amin section and I go to choose the new template it is not there to be chosen. Other than that not being handy, I think I must be missing a step. Any ideas on what I am missing and not doing?

One thing that maybe is messing it up, when I uploaded all the files and did an install I got the store page saying it was sucessfully installed but lower on the page were warnings about files not there. Upon looking I found file names had been chopped off. I thought I went through all folders and corrected that, completing the file names but maybe I missed one or more and that might be the problem??? If so, could I just now upload the files all anew to 'catch' any I might have overlooked? I unstuffed the installer files and have them with complete file names on a local computer that I could upload just the files. (not sure running the installer does something extra to them and this would not work)

Thanks,
Rand