using side boxes in mainpage

[oathamm]

Hi I have a site www.ovendenpapers.co.uk and I want to import it into zen cart - my current shop layout would mean i'd have to use manufacturers and categories side boxes in the main page - can i do this what files would i include on my main page?

thank

matt

[kobra]

If you seek making ZenCart look similar to your current site...you need no files from it with the excption of the images and logo..

This is termed porting(to some) your current site to Zen Cart. You just make adjustments to ZenCart to get it to look like what ever your old site looks like.

[oathamm]

ok what i mean is that i want to move the side boxes manufacturers and categories form the left into the center - there is no option in admin to do this you can only have them on the left or the right - I want them in the main page content - therefore I guess I would have to include some files in the mainpage, but which ones?

thanks

[kuroi]

The sideboxes themselves can't be directly moved to the centre column as their structure and the way in which they are generated is slightly different. However the key parts of code behind them can be.

It would need some programming skills, but not at an advanced level, as the code is laready written, just not where you want it. I would recommend creating new pages using EZ-Pages. There is a thread in the forum about inserting PHP into these pages.

You can see how catgories are extracted from the database in includes/modules/sideboxes/categories.php and displayed in includes/templates/template_default/tpl_categories.php and in similarly named files for manufacturers.

However, I would also challenge the premise of your question. Zen Cart is a very powerful system with a lot of facilities to help customers find and purchase products. The site that you are porting is very rudimentary e.g. if I click on Order Now > Browse by Product Type > Watermarked Business Papers, I am presented with 16 pages of very similarly named products. I'd have to know pecisely what I want and be pretty sure that you have it to invest the time trying to find it. Simply replicating this rather than exploring taking the site to a new level feels rather like a missed opportunity.