category page

[jagguy]

Hi,

I want the categories that appear in the catgory sidebox to appear on the main content page. So there is no need for the category sidebox and I will have a link to that page on another sidebox.

See the categories appear here on content page as well as sidebox?

http://www.fastlec.co.uk/

[gjh42]

You can turn off the categories box in admin > Tools > Layout Boxes Controller.
I believe you already have set in Configuration > Layout Settings for categories to always show on main page; I don't think that will stop when the sidebox is turned off. Try it and see.

[gjh42]

OK, I have just tested it and the above settings will do what you want.

[jagguy]

hi,

q1)The 2 other big sections in the content page as well (new products and featured products), I don't want them to appear unless I click a link. How do i get rid of those sections.

q2) What about getting the categories to appear in a html table . I know the code but you would need to link to a mysql DB. I believe you can't ad php/mysql toa page.

q3) The main page is already set, but what i want is the catgories to appear in the main content section instead of the sidebox which i turned off. I still can't do this with the instructions given.

[gjh42]

1: Configuration > Index Listing will let you do a lot of things with what shows.

2:You already have the categories appearing on the main page content area, and they work from the DB. The appearance can be altered using the stylesheet and possibly some tweaking in tpl_ and module files, depending on what you want. If you make your own HTML to do this, it will not be dynamic and you will have to adjust it any time you change a category.

3: Are you wanting the big categories spread to appear on all pages? That seems unwise, as they take up a lot of prime real estate. Or what is it that you do want?

PS - If you want the categories not in a sidebar on all pages, use the categories-tabs menu in the header. It will appear below the logo, and can be customized in appearance and even function.

[jagguy]

q2) when i 1st load the site I want the categories to appear on content area and not sidebar ( which i can turn off). How do i set this or do i need to tweak certain files/
When you said create own html and not dynamic? Does that mean you can't pull data from mysql with php on a new page?


q4)Also when doing a new ezpage and add php

eg<?php echo "hello" ?>
MEEE
test
<?php echo "hhe" ?>

it ignores the php lines. Can I make this happen.

[gjh42]

"set in Configuration > Layout Settings for categories to always show on main page" means go there in your admin and set that if you haven't already. I misunderstood at first that the link you gave was not your site and you just wanted yours to work like that.

You certainly can access the DB with code you write in files; however the ezpages are themselves just data in the DB and I don't believe PHP works from there. I believe define_main_page.php will actually edit that file.

[jagguy]

"set in Configuration > Layout Settings for categories to always show on main page" means go there in your admin and set that if you haven't already. I misunderstood at first that the link you gave was not your site and you just wanted yours to work like that.

You certainly can access the DB with code you write in files; however the ezpages are themselves just data in the DB and I don't believe PHP works from there. I believe define_main_page.php will actually edit that file.

Ok you said something I want to know.
If I want to add a new page with php/mysql can I do this in ZC. I am told no you can't elsewhere here or why would you?

[gjh42]

I've gotten to the limits of my knowledge on this facet of Zen Cart. I plan to have an entry page which I want to build inside ZC, and hope and think the above will work; however, I haven't really gotten into it yet.

I know you can add PHP and mySQL interfacing to files - many people here have done it. To make a new page, your best bet is probably the "About Us" mod in Downloads, which is really more of a tutorial on how to make your own custom ZC page from scratch.

[jagguy]

I couldn't add php code to a ezpage as it fails.

If you know how to ad php content to new webapges then let me know. I think from responses I have got that ZenCart is a basic ecommerce package, no frills and no dynamic content to be added. A beginners package.
It seems a good initial test for ecommerce though.