Am I missing something?

[antieuclid]

I signed up with opensourcehosting and got Zen Cart installed because it was supposed to be so easy to use. Now I'm trying to get my shop set up, and it turns out that every time I want to do something as simple as changing the welcome message on the front page, I need to edit a php file. Have I just not found the magical do-everything-easily page? Or at least something that would let me do the edits from inside the admin portal If it's not there, can anyone recommend an alternate shopping cart system that you can set up without having to edit php?

[Ajeh]

Editing a language file is actually pretty easy ...

All text is defined in the language files, and you can use your templates and overrides to make your custom changes so that they do not get overwritten on an upgrade ...

If you have trouble figuring out where the text is located, you can use the Tools ... Developer's Tool Kit ...

In the bottom input box enter a part of the text you are looking for, and select the Catalog from the dropdown ... Click Search ...

This will locate for you the language file(s) where the define statement(s) are setup ...

Other text, is located in the Define Pages ... this is usually a block of text that also can be copied to your templates and overrides directory and customized to meet your needs ...

[jammin320]

Have I just not found the magical do-everything-easily page? Or at least something that would let me do the edits from inside the admin portal

I feel your pain, but don't give up. I have been using Zen Cart for only a couple of months so far, and when I first started I felt exactly as you expressed. As I pushed and prodded at the application however, it turns out that it is complicated but not difficult.

The do-everything page you are looking for is probably the Developer's tool kit. You can search for any string you want to change and it will feed it back to you, path, file and line number. You can't go wrong. Keep going . . . the learning curve is steep but the ability to have such a powerful cart is a great reward.