How far does costumization go?

[Philippe]

Hi,

I'm starting to work with zen-cart for the webshop I want to create, would be very nice if I could get some help with my first steps.

It will be a webshop for a wholesale business, where costumers first need to sign up, get permission and then are able to see the prices. I think I already have this set, been looking around in the admin panel already.

Anyway, the thing is I would like to create a proffesional looking website, and am wondering if this is possible with zen-cart, not many websites in the "showcase" have impressed me, they all look pretty much the same.

Please have a look here: http://www.desiredesign.org/naviparts/
Below the giant flash header you see links, here is where i want to place all the linking, no side bars at all. Perhaps a roll-over menu will be needed tho.

However, I don't know where to start, perhaps there is a template around where i ould easily implement this kind of style?

I really hope someone will be able to help me out.

Thanks in advance,

Philippe Roosen

[kobra]

Anyway, the thing is I would like to create a proffesional looking website, and am wondering if this is possible with zen-cart

This is the wonderful thing about OpenSource, you have the ability to change, customize any and all parts.

There are not any single column templates that I am aware of.

In the default distribution you can turn off both the left and right columns and have only a single column. The background imagery can be created to be what you envision easily and applied in the stylesheet to the mainWrapper as a background-image. And you can create your navigation in tpl_header.php.

Hope this assists you in getting started

[Philippe]

I have no experience with Zen-Cart, neither do I have much experience with PHP, however a client of me would like his website done within a month.

http://www.desiredesign.org/voorbeeld.jpg

that is the design i would like to implement, on top you see a flash header.

Is this a reasonable goal or would it be too complicated?

If not I would like to know where to start, or what to do.

I have just set up the shop with the standard template.

Hope you will be able to help me,

Philippe Roosen.

[jettrue]

The flash header may give you trouble (and man that's a HUGE GINORMOUS header, LOL) but you may want to check out my apple zen template (link below in my signature). It has a drop down menu for the header which you could customize via css to get closer to your look. As far as the sideboxes, this template only has right sideboxes, but you can just turn them off yourself, and remove the background image that causes the grey portion that is behind the right sideboxes.

I think that your image is totally doable, just a matter of knowing whether or not it is something you are capable of doing. If you know css and html and how to work with images, you'll be fine.

You really don't need knowledge of php to work with zen cart. I know very little; what I do know comes from playing with zen cart, but mostly you just need to know how to copy and paste if you want to re-order sections of php to your liking, but you don't need to know how to code php.

[Philippe]

Thanks for your help!

Is there a guide anywhere on how to start off?

For example I have no idea in what file it says "show logo.gif" if I did, I can change it to a flash file.

I've been messing around a little as you can see at www.naviparts.nl but I will definatly need allot of help.

[Kim]

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=4

Start with the tutorials/FAQs above.

...and consider ordering the manual for yourself and your client.

[seeker]

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[godspeed27]

It all depends on what you know. There are some crazy zen-carts that don't look like zen carts at all, and there is the normal. Its just what you know. do you know css and php? try lynda.com to get some good learning vids there

[godspeed27]

Look at this site, even though they have the normal setup, http://www.buysoul.com/store/
it just goes to show you that things can be changed a lot, and to have flash in your site isn't that hard. now that I look at this post its kind of old, any update on what you have come up w/ or did you move on?

[Philippe]

I see my message has been deleted, I wonder why?

Because I see no reason why it is removed I assume it is a mistake.

I was asking for someone who would like to help me with building my design into a template, I have about 2 weeks to finnish this. For those who are experienced with Zen-Cart, implementing a layout in 2 weeks should be very easy.

I really hope someone will be able to help me with this, ofcourse I would like to pay for it once it is done.