Making the change from osC to Zen without losing the look?

[LilleyPadGifts]

I have spent days now trying to make my osC book store to work just the way I want it to. I then changed domains and with the move of files, things got all messed up AGAIN and a portion of it was even hacked.... the hosting site said its because of old files. I'm weighing my options... spend more time trying to update and risk ruining it completely because it was created years ago with the help of a friend who apparently hard-coded some things into it... OR start over in Zencart because it is SOOOOO much easier and user friendly then osC. Of course, the latter would be my BEST option, but I'm concerned about losing the "look" of my old store. Here are my questions/concerns...

1. Is there a contribution/add-on for a book store to make the basic setup go quickly as not to lose too much more time?

2. My template and look of my old site .... can it be mirrored in Zen and if so is there instructions somewhere that will help me ?

3. One feature that was added to my old site was that I had a additional box that worked like Manufactuers (in my case Authors) that I used for Series. I didn't make that addition to my old site, but could I easily do it with a Zen one?

Here is my old site ...
http://www.lilleypadcove.com/nothingbutromance

I'm actually making a total of about 6 stores for my village of shops, so this is why I'm looking for things to go as smoothly as possible. I'm lost way too many hours in the past week trying to "fix" what was old in the hopes of making it new again. When all I really and truly want ...is this store, my only osC store ... to be a Zencart store as well .

Thanks!

[gjh42]

I'm getting "unable to connect to database server"...


There is a "product book by moku" mod with a long support thread. Moku is long gone, but hareslade has been supporting the mod. It apparently works but may be tricky to set up correctly. If it does work for you, it has a full set of bookstore features.

Your template can surely be recreated in Zen Cart. How difficult will require seeing your old site.

You could modify one of the blank sidebox mods, possibly with manufacturers sidebox code.

[LilleyPadGifts]

In trying to create a database for the new zen site, I think I might have messed up the log in info for the db on the old site
Now I just need to figure out how to fix it back...oh its gonna be one of those days

[gjh42]

Sorry to hear that... Good luck with it! :)

[LilleyPadGifts]

Okey dokey... I fixed that easier then expected!
Site should work now.
Please let me know what you think.

I did see the Moku thread but it really didn't offer much along the lines of how my site worked... the fields and all that it sets up aren't really worth the headache of installing it from what I can tell. I can probably just add the fields manually like I did on the other site.
My main concern at the moment are the 3 boxes and how they work.

For example...
The Manuf. box on my old site is the Author box, so no problem there, just use the alpha droplist and choose the letter of the author's last name.

but the Series box... that worked a bit different and I believe my friend hardcoded some of it.
When entering a book, in the added fields, there is the Series field. I would just type in the series (for example, The Coltons was a series of romance novels that were written by different authors and released over a period of time, but they all pertain to the same family, The Coltons ).
All I had to do in that field was type in that Series name and it would automatically go into the T (Coltons, The is how I would type it into the field). Did that make sense?
Now, I don't mind choosing that from a drop list either if it means getting this done quicker and easier and having ALL of my sites Zen. If I can make a duplicate Manuf box so that I have to choose from the drop list AND have a series field so that the entire series title shows up in the product info.... that would be fine too.
I've just wasted so much time installing contributions and uninstalling and then reinstalling again (3 times I did that with some) only to find that my files are too out of date anyway to stop from a hacking attack .
Please try the link again and let me know what you think ...
Thanks!

[gjh42]

The template will be extremely easy to replicate. It will require nothing but admin and stylesheet changes, plus a few header images, as far as I can see.

There are others here who know more about the workings of search/select code, so I will defer to them to give you really helpful advice.

[LilleyPadGifts]

Great! I like to hear the word EASY in regards to something I'm going to be doing....

Although at the moment I can't even seem to get my db set up for the new zen site. Its telling me the localhost is wrong...but not sure what is supposed to go there since I am looking at files from other zen sites that I have working.
Any ideas?

[LilleyPadGifts]

Got the db to work

[LilleyPadGifts]

Can't I use the Music Genres box as my Series Box?
Am I understanding how it works correctly?


If so.. I'm half way there already

[gjh42]

You would probably have to create your products as "product type music" in order for that box to be effective, but it might work ok. Redefine all the text outputs (in one of the language definition files) to make sense for your products.