Building a custom site

[eaglerock]

We have just built a site by downloading and customising a templte from downloads: http://www.saulsaddlery.com it looks OK but we have been asked to build an individual site for a client who wants it not to look like its built using a template and also wants it individual and airy with good use of images as it's to sell his clothing range.

Two sites he likes and fit the bill are http://www.playulty.com and http://www.hebrewtshirts.co.il

How do we go about building a site which does not look like a traditional shopping cart but still has all the datebase fuctions behind the look.

Rob

[gjh42]

First you need a design, and possibly a usage flow scheme.
Once you have that, it is possible to discuss how to change the template to work that way.

One of your examples is a Template Monster template, and really quite traditional in layout. TM makes very sharp-looking designs that do not function well (technically speaking).

The Hebrew T-shirts site looks like straight HTML from a quick glance, and would be easy to emulate with ZC.

[gjh42]

Well! Just looked closer at Hebrew T-shirts, and it is a Zen Cart site. So, I would say that you can make ZC look like that ;)

Now make some decisions on exactly how you want your site to look, and we can give some advice.

[eaglerock]

Hi Glen,

Thanks for the reply. I've seen all the postings on Template Monster template so shall stay away from that.

The T shirt site is much the sort of thing we are after building, but we are lost in where to begin (if that makes sense), having in the past just downloaded and manipulated templates. It looks like you start with a blank page, but can't see how one links in with ZC.

Rob

[gjh42]

You start with an almost-empty custom template folder, and copy files into that as you find that you need to modify them. Afo has a good list of typically used template files, though she is missing /includes/templates/your_template/common/tpl_main_page.php, and tpl_footer.php is not really necessary for the beginning of a basic template.

Copy /template_default/css/stylesheet.css into /your_template/css/, and you will have a very brightly colored layout with basic blocks showing. These are to help locate the corresponding code in the stylesheet, and demonstrate some of the layout tweaking possibilities.

Start by turning off sideboxes and functions you don't want, as everything is active by default so you can see what is available. Move boxes around in the sidebars with Tools > Layout Boxes Controller.

A good practice is to take some time and look through every single button in admin, even if you don't think it is relevant to you. Some things are in unexpected places, and you never know what you may find later to be relevant.

When you are done with admin settings, you can begin CSS changes in the stylesheet, and possibly some code changes in tpl_ files and elsewhere.

[eaglerock]

Thanks Glen, that's really helpful.

It looks like we have our work cut out so shall start right away.

Many thanks again,

Rob

[afo]

Since Glenn mentioned it, I'll post it here.

To create a very basic custom template (you can build from there), you need:

• includes/languages/YOUR_TEMPLATE/english.php
• includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/index.php
• includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/header.php (to change the logo)
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_header.php
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_footer.php
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/images/logo.gif
• includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/css/stylesheet.css

Anywhere you see a /classic/ folder, you can create a folder for your custom template. You can copy the necessary files from either the /classic/ folder, the /template_default/ folder or the parent folder.

Edit includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php to give your template identifying information so you'll recognize it in the admin under tools->template selection.

I made the list when I did a very basic prototype ZC for a friend. Sadly, that prototype is not on the net right now due to the sudden demise of my hosting service. I have new hosting now (waves to Merlin) and will probably put it up again eventually. I checked my local copy of the template and I didn't touch /includes/templates/your_template/common/tpl_main_page.php which is why it's not on the list.

[gjh42]

Yep, there are some files you must have in order to have a personalized template, and some (like tpl_header, tpl_main_page & tpl_footer) which it is possible to do without. Different templates will require different files to be edited.

[eaglerock]

Thanks Mary and Glen,

Am on to it today.

[kaylala]

So... let's say I wanted to create a new page not related to anything in the default template or define pages editor... like, for example, a page that only lists ingredients to my products... I would need the following additional files:

includes/languages/english/custom/ingredients.php
includes/templates/custom/common/tpl_ingredients.php
includes/languages/english/html_includes/custom/define_ingredients.php

Is this correct? Any of it not necessary?

My site is live, but under construction still here: http://www.kaylala.com

So you can see how this specific example applies to me. :)