Working a project trying to revive this mod but the original support thread is closed. Of the three possible solutions, all have closed support threads and confusing cross links. The link above and the one below are to the Plugins listing for each mod. I am not including the mod that limits its use to regisetered users as I want all to see.

The idea was to use it to take a non-modded, 1.5.7c (with demo products) and add all the compatible free templates to the admin.

Old timers will remember the demo.zen-cartDOTat that allowed you to see the different layouts by selecting the template in a sidebox.

The Multi-Function For Users is the only one of two I found available that worked any at all. The template switch mod has obvious code problems and opens the site with the Classic template.

The problems I have with the Multi-Template For Users mod is that it does not grab all the overrides and does not allow me to restrict which templates can be selected. There's no reason for anyone to see what 1.5.7c looks like in Classic or template_default in a template demo site.

Scenario--

  1. Set default template of a 1.5.7c/demo basic install to responsive_classic and do not change it.
  2. Create specific includes/languages/english/html_includes/responsive_classic/define_main_page.php describing the responsive_classic template.
  3. Add latest ZCA Bootstrap template
  4. Create specific includes/languages/english/html_includes/bootstrap/define_main_page.php describing the bootstrap template.
  5. Add files from the Multi-Template For Users mod (NOTE: includes/classes/template_func.php now needs to be merged as the file exists in 1.5.7c See Below)
  6. Go to YOUR_ADMIN >> Tools >> Layout Boxes Controller and edit the user_template sidebox
  7. Set it to ON -- Right -- and a Sort Order of -5 to make sure it's at the top



Merging includes/classes/template_func.php:
  1. It appears that the differencess in line 36 of the supplied file and existing is an update when we started using PHP5 just as the changes of ereg_replace to preg_replace later in the file.
  2. The actual code needed for operation of the mod is on lines 58-63 of the provided file. That's all that needs to be added as far a I can see.


Problems:
  1. The list of Templates includes Classic and Template_Default. The template switch mod was supposed to allow you to specify what templates were available. Multi-Template does not.
  2. When switching from responsive_classic to bootstrap, the define_main_page.php of responsive_classic is still used for the main page. The same happens if includes/languages/english/respsonsive_classic/index.php and includes/languages/english/bootstrap/index.php are used.


What I am looking to get:
  1. The ability to restrict what templates can be selected.
  2. When the template changes, it should adopt all the overrides associated with that template's folders.


Doing this can allow template creators to showcase free templates. It can also be used commercially but, I would expect those using it that way to throw some coffee at the whoever takes on the project.

Hoping someone is willing to take this on for the ZC family.
THANX