local XP system for testing, HOW, what do I need?

[dw08gm]

Totally agree with Glenn and Torvista. Using xampp 1.8.2.x (with recent heartbleed fix) on xp sp3 (limited to 3.2Gb ram) without a problem (although the only thing that annoys me is the 1440s timeout in phpmyadmin). Hardrive was partitioned early as C:, D: and E: with xampp installed on D:, just in case C: got corrupted. Have had to reload xp twice since running xampp.

On localhost, your store folder can be named anything you like, not necessarily corresponding with that of your website. It is a good idea to name your db and store folder exactly the same, and also to include the zc version number and other memonics in the name, because you will probably want to test various templates and mods separate to your development site, and because dropping an entire db and deleting the corresponding store folder to start afresh is often quicker than undoing botched changes. After a bit of practice you will find it only takes about 10 minutes to create an entire new store and db. So for example, I use shop151 to denote a standard zc 1.5.1 version, and then shop151rx to denote the use of a responsive template "X", and then shop151rxy to denote the inclusion also of a particular mod "Y" (eg superOrders). After thorough testing, it is a simple matter to copy whole file changes to your development site. Note zc152 is not that far away.

Also download (open-source) Notepad++, Winmerge, Windows Grep and Irfanview, and get into the habit of keeping track of your changes (spreadsheet and wordpad).

Hope this helps.

[Bikerstuff]

Thanks folks!
It all helps!

I just scraped up the money and bought the E-book yesterday also.
Found a couple things in there just scanning through it quick last night that I did not even know ZenCart could do!
Wow, quantity discounts! Customer uploads!
So I can put a coffee mug out as $10 each, upload your ready to print image.
5-20 $9, 20-36 $8 etc...
Numbers just random, but I did not even know Zencart could do that, and the book makes it sound simple to set up. I'm sure I can get it confused though! LOL

So far so good here now.
Wamp is working, if I have problems I'll switch to Xamp.

I had other work I had to get done on a deadline so had to take a bit of a break from the store, will be back at it tonight or tomorrow.
I told wife I was going to cut/mow/weedwhack the yard, but I am lucking out on that and we are supposed to have 3-4 days of rain/storms! Yippie, more time to work on store stuff! LOL

[Bikerstuff]

Also download (open-source) Notepad++, Winmerge, Windows Grep and Irfanview, and get into the habit of keeping track of your changes (spreadsheet and wordpad).

Hope this helps.

I downloaded Notepad++ already, but had not heard of the others. What are they, what do they do?

I got OpenOffice now and been using that for the spreedsheets so far.

[gjh42]

Winmerge is a utility for comparing files and folders. You can quickly and reliably see what is different between two filesets or individual files, and selectively update one or the other to match. I haven't used the other two. OpenOffice is good for spreadsheets and probably for text composition (I just write HTML directly, so don't know the pros and cons of editors).

[dw08gm]

WinGrep mostly for in-file search and bulk replace, eg awkward language -> improved language.

Irfanview mostly for image manipulations and batch resizing/renaming. My all-time favourite image viewer. Also download the plugins.

wrt files edited with Notepad++, ensure Menu > Encoding > Encode in utf8 without BOM is ticked. Also set under Menu > Settings > Preferences > New Document/Default directory.

Open Office Spreadsheet is excellent for working with csv files (eg Easy Populate mod).