Installing Templates

[b14speedfreak]

Quick and simple question I have for someone.

So I have a Zencart 1.5 install under ubuntu working fine. I found some templates on http://(sorry, site offline) that I want to customize and try out. I read through the install.txt file, but well, I carn't get them to be included in the drop down box on template settings drop down box. They don't appear on my local install.

Essentially I just download the zip ball, and extracted to /includes/templates, is that all I need in order to be able to use a newly downloaded template? Or do they have to put in the actual zencart base file system? - that part of the install file is not perfectly clear to me.

I have tried logging off and back in again to admin interface, different templates, and even tried restarting apache. Anyone got any ideas?

Do the older versions of the templates work with 1.5 or do they only work with old version? I have no idea how much has changed exactly in that time frame.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any answers,

Mark.

[stevesh]

You should extract the zip file on your local computer and upload the includes folder from the template to the root directory of your store, not the /templates folder.

Zencart builds that dropdown in admin by looking for a template_info.php file in includes/templates/WHATEVER_TEMPLATE_NAME.

All the templates on that site should work with 1.5.0, which is more than can be said about templates from Template Monster or Algozone.

[DrByte]

You've asked a bunch of different questions there.

I'll answer this one:

A template's files primarily exist under /includes/templates/

So, if I install a new template whose name is fred, the folder structure will look like this:

/includes/templates/fred/buttons
/includes/templates/fred/css
/includes/templates/fred/images
/includes/templates/fred/sideboxes
/includes/templates/fred/templates
/includes/templates/fred/template_info.php

There may be more or fewer folders included, depending on what that custom template customized.

A custom template may come in a zip that also has more folders, or may contain the /includes/templates/ folder in the zip ... so if you upload that zip and unpack it directly inside the /includes/templates/ folder, you'll end up with /includes/templates/includes/templates/fred/ ... which of course isn't what you're after.
The zip may also contain other module code or other language file customizations, so may be more files in the zip under its embedded /includes/ folder.

Best to treat any zip for a template or any addon as assuming it's based on the root of the store first. Not from a subdirectory of it. The readme would usually specify if the author were expecting you to treat it any other way.

[b14speedfreak]

You've asked a bunch of different questions there.

I'll answer this one:

A template's files primarily exist under /includes/templates/

So, if I install a new template whose name is fred, the folder structure will look like this:

/includes/templates/fred/buttons
/includes/templates/fred/css
/includes/templates/fred/images
/includes/templates/fred/sideboxes
/includes/templates/fred/templates
/includes/templates/fred/template_info.php

There may be more or fewer folders included, depending on what that custom template customized.

A custom template may come in a zip that also has more folders, or may contain the /includes/templates/ folder in the zip ... so if you upload that zip and unpack it directly inside the /includes/templates/ folder, you'll end up with /includes/templates/includes/templates/fred/ ... which of course isn't what you're after.
The zip may also contain other module code or other language file customizations, so may be more files in the zip under its embedded /includes/ folder.

Best to treat any zip for a template or any addon as assuming it's based on the root of the store first. Not from a subdirectory of it. The readme would usually specify if the author were expecting you to treat it any other way.

Ok that makes sense. Although to be really honest with you guys, its not exactly the most straightforward thing in the world. I have got it working thats no problem at all. The problem as I see it, was down to my newness. But I did find the install.txt file a bit misleading:

2. Unpack the Bask Black package to the directory where your Zen Cart is installed

Now I mean its a simple thing to miss I guess, and pretty obvious I guess for people who are used to zen cart and have used it before maybe.

I think I have it setup and working now. Essentially I copied the bask_black template to my local test machine. That has both a includes folder under it and an images folder. I assume that I have to copy the contents of both of into the root - or well merge them?

So I would copy the contents of bask_black/includes to zencart_root/includes and the same for the images directory?

I am really sorry to be struggling over such a basic question. I did really spend a bit of time trying to research it to see if I could work it out anywhere, but I couldn't see an obvious newbie guide or any forum posts, maybe I wasn't trying hard enough?

Anyhow thank your for your help, I appreciate it,

Mark.

[DrByte]

I think I have it setup and working now. Essentially I copied the bask_black template to my local test machine. That has both a includes folder under it and an images folder. I assume that I have to copy the contents of both of into the root - or well merge them?

So I would copy the contents of bask_black/includes to zencart_root/includes and the same for the images directory?

Yes.

Most "packages" that are zipped for sharing with the community will base themselves on the "zencart_root" as you call it. Thus it's very clear which folders one needs to merge the supplied files into.
Is there some other convention that you think would make a lot more sense? Writing it all out in a readme, saying "put abc.jpg in the images folder. Then put def.php in that other folder, and now put blah.php over in another folder, etc" is rather hard to follow, and requires a lot of reading and checklists. Simply merging the contents of two folders makes things a lot more intuitive, or at least that's how it has worked well so far.

If you're used to using other systems where you upload a zip file and tell the system to unpack itself, well, those are architected entirely differently ... and usually don't lend themselves well to multilingual use either. And it's rare that any of those do more than a basic CMS, devoid of ecommerce and other related functionality.

That said, it's actually very simple and quite intuitive. Once you take a few minutes to learn the basics of the Zen Cart architecture, its folder structure and overrides-based-on-template-name, you'll find that everything works quite easily and is quite powerful.

[b14speedfreak]

Well, yes as you say, I am used to other CMS such as Drupal. But well, the thing about Drupal, before V7 was that you still had to do the manual stuff. In v6 and v5 you had to upload the theme (as its known in drupal) to a dirctory theme, you didn't need to about merging in several directories at the correct level. It is very good at seperating things out.

As you say its a convention thing, and something that I am not very used to, which I am sure is perfectly obvious to the seasoned Zencart designer. Alls I am saying is that listing a line in the install.txt that reads:

2. Unpack the Bask Black package to the directory where your Zen Cart is installed

It was just a little misleading to me. In my mind I did exactly that, unpacked the zip folder to where I had installed zencart in the apache root and it didn't work - since I had not merged in the 2 directories and just had a folder in the zencart root of bask black (I mean I issued

unzip bask_black.zip

). I see where you are coming from about making the install.txt file a bit complex to read and overkill for the vast majority of people. But I would have thought that there would be a middle ground in the wording. Maybe its just me being dumb. I guess the learing process of Zencart is a little steeper than other things that I have played with in the past.

Have you guys got any good recomendations of what to read in order to gain a little more informtion about Zen architecture? I found the guide on making a custom theming, but I was thinking more along the lines of a complete newbies guide. I guess the hard thing about learning a new framework these days, is that not only do you have to learn the underlying technologies, and the architecture and conventions of that framework, but also where to look for things.

Anyhow, thanks again guys in advance for all the help, and solving my problem, I really do appreciate it, and will try and stop being so rubbish and will try to refrine from posting in the future unless I get really stuck and carn't see the solution for the wood.

Thanks again!

[stevesh]

Have you guys got any good recomendations of what to read in order to gain a little more informtion about Zen architecture?

There is The Book (banner ad at the bottom of this page).

[b14speedfreak]

Oh ok, I had sorta seen that in my default install, but well, didn't pay much attention to that. Thanks for that.

Again, thanks one and all for the help. I think that you guys who sit on the forums make the difference between a framework that is going to be successful and one that it isn't, I would almost go as far to say that you are almost more important than the developers. I mean its fine having a bit of software that works...but well its no good if you get stuck and no one will help you out.

Thanks again guys,

Mark.