Basic shopping cart

[jaubin1]

I apologize in advance. I'm sure this has been asked before, but as a very green newbie I have no idea where to even start to find the answer I'm looking for.
My need is simple, and I already see Zen-Cart has way more than I need, at least for now. I have a website set up already that has been functioning for years, along with 3rd party shopping cart and credit card processing. Briefly stated, and as I'm sure all consumer sites do, my customer selects his options (size, quantity, etc.), the information is routed to my shopping cart provider via my <form action=...> coding, payment information is collected by the cart provider (without having a need to have a product database) and passed onto my CC processor.
Maybe I'm trying to be too simple, but I am trying to replace the shopping cart provider with Zen-Cart.

Can someone direct me at least to somewhere here where I can find what I'm looking for?

[mc12345678]

Not a 100% sure I understand the question as it could apply to ZC. If you are wanting to have ZC step in to handle the record keeping, the hand off of product/customer information to your payment collection area, etc... but *not* have ZC hold the product information from which to choose, well, it wasn't written to be such a middle handler of information/product. Doesn't mean it can't be so rewritten, but...

My thoughts are this: find a place on a server (local computer or what have you.), setup a database. Install ZC with the demo products. Look at what features and/or options are immediately available and what is missing as desired/compared to your current arrangement. Determine what the differences are or might be. Come back and ask questions. Don't even start modifying things yet, ignore the change this text here type information.

Seeing it should help identify if what you are seeing is what you want or want to be able to have.

As for where to go to get installation instruction: well the main page of this forum has information. The FAQs have information. The download of the program has documents about how to set it up, etc... after that, it's open source which means you can do with it what you want, it just takes time...

[jaubin1]

Thank you for your quick reply, and I'm sorry if I wasn't very clear. I've done my basic Zen-Cart setup on my server (GoDaddy offers setup of Zen and I've installed it using their basic installation) and gone through the basic configurations setup. More specifically maybe as to what I'm seeking, is there coding in Zen that I put into my product <form action=...> that is passed to a page for name, CC info, shipping, etc. collection, which is then (upon "Complete Checkout" or some such) passed to Authorize.net (or wherever) for processing? I'm not trying to 'store' anything such as customer info, (unless my products need to be in a database, which is fine) only collect it for passing on for CC processing.

[stevesh]

If I understand the question, yes, Zencart does all that, with the proper payment module(s) activated. You won't need any <form> elements - passage of the required information to the payment processor is done internally.

[gjh42]

Zen Cart is not built to be a middleman, as stated before; it is built to serve as your whole website, including product display and selection pages. Then it sends the information to your chosen payment processor.

There is no <form> coding to enter, because it never goes to another page (like your existing ones) to enter information. All product info needs to be put into the ZC database.

[jaubin1]

Zen Cart is not built to be a middleman, as stated before; it is built to serve as your whole website, including product display and selection pages. Then it sends the information to your chosen payment processor.

There is no <form> coding to enter, because it never goes to another page (like your existing ones) to enter information. All product info needs to be put into the ZC database.

Thank you for this answer. I've been thinking along the lines of other carts I've used that are only the middleman, and I didn't know there was another way. This helps put it into perspective. Now I'll go through things here and figure how I make my html pages word with ZC, or what I'll need to do, beside basic information addition.
Thanks!

[torvista]

I am trying to replace the shopping cart provider with Zen-Cart.

Why?

It's hard for people here to advise you if ZC is the answer, unless you detail the question.

[mc12345678]

Why?

It's hard for people here to advise you if ZC is the answer, unless you detail the question.

Yeah, I thought perhaps some of the reason to move away would get provided or come out. Until then seemed like could only address what was described as the functionality differences. Certainly curious to know what was missing or problematic about the previous arrangement.

[jaubin1]

Yeah, I thought perhaps some of the reason to move away would get provided or come out. Until then seemed like could only address what was described as the functionality differences. Certainly curious to know what was missing or problematic about the previous arrangement.

I'm sorry guys, and I do know you're trying to help.
Have you ever been introduced to something that you have only the barest idea of what it's supposed to do? At that point you don't have enough knowledge to know even what to ask. You don't know enough to know what you don't know. I've been on both sides of that issue, in terms of trying to learn about something I barely know anything about (as I certainly am now), and in terms of trying to teach those who don't know enough to ask any questions at all.
I've been under the assumption, in terms of what I know from previous carts, that you knew to what I was referring. This is a totally different world and I don't know enough to ask about things I don't know.

I'm trying to replace the "middleman," the shopping cart provider who charges me a bundle for what they provide, and who (I believe) may have something to do with my recent severe drop in sales. (N i p p l e b l i n g . c o m if you're interested.)
I'd like to use my existing site, if possible, yet use some of Z-C's functionality to collect and pass a customer's info to the processor.

I know you guys are here to help and I apologize for seemingly being of little help to you as you try to assist me, but here I am. And maybe my first step should be to find a beginner's course on php, which I am totally unfamiliar with. Some sort of template that I can dissect with my Dreamweaver might help as well? (That's how I learned html.)

[lat9]

Not so much a beginner's course, but the http://php.net/ site is where I go on a regular basis. That site documents all the PHP built-in functions and language constructs.