Cutomising look and function of Zencart

[hoarel]

Hi All,

I haven't as yet gone through testing of the Zencart, but just wondering before testing if Zencart has the capability to be customised to look and work like this website. goto www.netgrocer.com click on grocery tab.

It has a simple menu down the left which is easy to use. When you click "buy" on an item, the cart automatically and dynamically updates. Then you just need to press the up or down arrow to change the quantity. It all happens on the page in front of you without needing to refresh the page all the time.

I am prepared to put in the hard yards to do customisation myself, but if Zencart is the wrong software, I hope someone could tell me now.

Thanks in advance.

Luke...

[yellow1912]

You certainly can.
"When you click "buy" on an item, the cart automatically and dynamically updates. Then you just need to press the up or down arrow to change the quantity. It all happens on the page in front of you without needing to refresh the page all the time."

-->You will have to use Ajax for that.

[hoarel]

Thanks for the reply. I might need to clarify 1 point. I am what might be called a "script kiddy". Can follow and figure out how to make changes to existing templates and code. Not so great on creating code from scratch.

Are you saying zencart has the functions I mention built in somewhere?
Or do you mean I will have to find or ask someone to do some coding in ajax to make this work?

If ajax is the technology that allows for updates without refreshing, where to from here?

If you could clarify, it would be great.

Thanks

Luke...

[yellow1912]

Ajax is a technique that mainly uses javascript. Now let me try to explain a bit:
PHP, like most other scripts, is server-side: you call it, it returns the result, if you do not call it, nothing happens. So if you want to perform something on your site, say you want to update the cart, you have to call the script to do that.
Now if you want to update the page WITHOUT refreshing it, AJAX can help you to do it. I don't know if there is already a mod that can do it for you in ZenCart, but it's certainly can be written easily.

Be careful though, javascript is a bit tricky, it can work on one browser and does not work at all on others, so you don't want to see some of your customers unable to add products to cart at all. If you really want it, get someone really good at it do that for you, and make sure you test on as many browsers as possible(Firefox, IE6, IE7, Opera,...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29

[hoarel]

Thanks yellow1912,

I searched a couple of threads on ajax. 1 seems to point to a mod in development. I will keep my eye on it. It may not be an exact match for the netgrocer example though.

Can you recommend someone who might be able to right such a script?

Thanks

Luke...

[yellow1912]

If you really need that, and have money for that, you can post at the Commercial Help room here, or find an expert at getafreelancer.com or any other freelancers' site. Make sure that he/she has to be familiar with Zencart, and knows javascript well. If you can PM me I'll give some more specific advices.