cannot override template

**earmsby** · 16 Jul 2021, 08:03 PM

I'm working on a new template for a client's shop. The shop uses a customer version of an older template called "Gloss Black." I want to redesign the shop with the ZCA Bootstrap template. But when I made a clone of the site (to use in the redesign process), no matter what template I select in tools, I only see the customized Gloss black template.

Any idea what would be causing this? Totally scratching my head on this one

. I've done a couple of re-skins for clients' shops and never run into this.

**mc12345678** · 16 Jul 2021, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by earmsby

I'm working on a new template for a client's shop. The shop uses a customer version of an older template called "Gloss Black." I want to redesign the shop with the ZCA Bootstrap template. But when I made a clone of the site (to use in the redesign process), no matter what template I select in tools, I only see the customized Gloss black template.

Any idea what would be causing this? Totally scratching my head on this one

. I've done a couple of re-skins for clients' shops and never run into this.

Unfortunately, there are/were some templates that forced themselves to be the only template ever seen... This was coded as an "action" to always make the associated template, THE template... Either the table: TABLE_TEMPLATE_SELECT gets updated to make the template the only active template, or in processing through includes/init_includes/init_template.php (or similar), this template is identified as THE template...

It helps to understand what files have been added to the store compared to a base install for this template and/or what changes it made to existing files... The information *may* be locatable by searching the system for your template's name, though that is also likely/possible to come up with a lot of files as the template's name probably is in the header of all of the template override files for that template...

Ahh, the old days, I remember another template that did the same thing and back when I first started using ZC I did a reinstall of the software to *NOT* include that template in order to "restore". I didn't have good comparison tools then...

**earmsby** · 16 Jul 2021, 08:58 PM

Argh. I was afraid it was something like that. I will do a bit of digging to see if I can find the offending code. Otherwise, it sounds like I might be better off starting with a clean ZC copy, then re-do all mods that are not template related and then try again without the old template.

Since I'm doing all of this in a testing site, I can mess with it as much as needed without effecting the live store.

**earmsby** · 19 Jul 2021, 07:16 PM

I tried searching on the name of the template and didn't come up with anything. Also dug into the database a little and can see that the selected template in TABLE_TEMPLATE_SELECT is getting changed if I select a new template. But the stylesheet for the customized Gloss Black template still loads (and no other).

Interestingly (maybe?), if I rename the template directory without reselecting in admin, the template_default template is used no matter which other template I select.

Looks like I'll have to start over with a fresh install and then work backward to add back a number of non-template related customizations.

**mc12345678** · 20 Jul 2021, 05:12 AM

So, not sure if that is the template that is found at this link: Gloss Black Template - Zen Cart Plugins (zen-cart.com)
or if it is another.

Lot's of possible places that the "problem" could be and it depends entirely on the software package and its installation... I've seen software that added a call in the index.php file (horrible place to unnecessarily modify), I've seen where a query is run (might consider looking for instances of TABLE_TEMPLATE_SELECT or more simply template_select if the site doesn't use a DB_PREFIX and the software wasn't written to consider using it to begin with. Oh and the software that causes the change may be in yet another sub-directory outside the normal search path(s) of ZC making it even funner to play with.

I've downloaded the template from the above link and am going to at least take a quick look even though it is ancient as far as applicability and would need some serious upgrading to be compatible.

**mc12345678** · 20 Jul 2021, 05:22 AM

Originally Posted by mc12345678

So, not sure if that is the template that is found at this link: Gloss Black Template - Zen Cart Plugins (zen-cart.com)
or if it is another.

Lot's of possible places that the "problem" could be and it depends entirely on the software package and its installation... I've seen software that added a call in the index.php file (horrible place to unnecessarily modify), I've seen where a query is run (might consider looking for instances of TABLE_TEMPLATE_SELECT or more simply template_select if the site doesn't use a DB_PREFIX and the software wasn't written to consider using it to begin with. Oh and the software that causes the change may be in yet another sub-directory outside the normal search path(s) of ZC making it even funner to play with.

I've downloaded the template from the above link and am going to at least take a quick look even though it is ancient as far as applicability and would need some serious upgrading to be compatible.

Nope... Not that one... That's got to be one of the most basic versions of a template modification that I've ever seen... It's almost too bad its not that easy any more. :)

And no I'm not saying anything about the quality of the template there or anything, Now a days it takes more than putting a few files in a new template's set of folders.

If you have a file comparison utility, you should be able to spot the "odd line" out...