Where to begin, I have listed a few commercial help needed and no responce so I need to work on this myself but do not know where to begin, can someone maybe suggest what pages I might be able to duplicate to start the tweeking process. I get confused with the hierarchy of the directories.


in the admin:
I want to create a DIY product Catagory each product, graphic and price with its own set of available templates. The templates has the graphic and optional fields selected. and a database for each build which includes the user and the recorded information they have entered.

on the site:
when a customer chooses the combo of a background image and text template they can enter their information into fields that go along with the templates. then they click a button which will write the fields to the DIY database and to a text file sitting in a folder on my server.

(not part of zen cart) I have a second server that watches for these data files which build the graphics depending on the choices that the customer has selected and entered. Once this server is complete is exports a jpg file for previewing into a folder in my zencart folder.

back to the site:
now that the graphic is sitting back on the zen cart folder, I want the zen cart page that the customer is sitting at waiting for their proof to automatically show the graphic once is is available, then the customer can either approve and check out, add a backside (where the process starts again) or make changes.

if the customer checks out the cart will indentify if the card is one or two sided and give the appropriate prioduct info for purchase. Once purchased the user can log in anytime and repurchase just like the zencart history already handles.

The order:
shows the proof and data olong with the order info.

That is it, I think this should be all pretty basic, and the simpler and cleaner the better.


you can see what I am currently using. I would like to switch completely to zen cart so I am in the process of reprogramming all my current features. I will also need job tracking and quoteing over the next couple months.

http://www.theimagezone.com/diydefault.tpl