Things every New Zenner needs to know

[dazza]

New Zen Cart users get easily frustrated. They often do not know how to find answers to their questions and if they stumble onto the right answer they don't realize it's the right answer. The recent 'reboot' for the forum so closely on the heels of the upgrade to 1.3 seems to have made things worse.

I am considering writing a "Getting Started" style document that focuses on templates, overrides, colors, text, images and the like. Perhaps a reasonable title will be "Top 10 Questions asked by New Zenners" or "10 things every New Zenner should know but doesn't know where to find."

I would like to hear from New Zenners about this project. What did you have the most trouble with? What documents did you feel were lacking? What were the top problems and questions you had? -- Things like that.

Part of the rationale for this project is that as users can perform more tasks without having to post a thread like "I am such a newb and have no idea what I am doing" it will free the Devs for more time in core upgrades. Hopefully, users that are more successful at the beginning will press on and have a viable online business and donate back to Zen Cart.

I will be away from the forum for a few days (niece's wedding) this weekend. Further, I don't plan to reply to every post. This is a place to collect feedback from new users.

If more experienced users post, perhaps you could list the mistakes you most often see.

The final location for the project is uncertain. In many ways, it will be a duplicate of material in the FAQ and Wiki. However, much of that material needs to be updated and New Zenners seem to not read it or not understand it. I will continue to try to coordinate this with the Devs so that it benefits the most in the community.

Please presume a successful install of ZenCart 1.3+. I would like to focus on customizations issues that every new users is likely to experience.

Feel free to PM with info you would rather not be in the forum.

This looks like a fantastic idea. Is it still in progress? Has it lead to helpful documentation other than the FAQ and Wiki? If so I'd love to get that info. I think that while there may be 'common areas' where many new ZC users experience difficulty with the learning curve, it's probably fair to say that the background of the new ZC user will affect what they struggle with or find easier. E.G. I have an intermediate level knowledge of XHTML/CSS so presentation edits were'nt that difficult. The overide system on the other hand took a little getting used to - and finding the correct files. A agree with a post on this where the person pointed to the bewildering structure and array of folders, files, etc. Stunning piece of work though Zen Cart is...the developers are really really really clever folks. I wish I could get more store finished more quickly and starting kicking back to them. Good topic :-)

[clydejones]

Most of this material can be found here:
www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=16

[cmcgaugh]

Most of this material can be found here:
www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=16

Clyde,

I've checked the link above and it's very helpful info. I'm still trying to
get my head around it all. You can do those things piece-meal, but I
think it would be very helpful to new users to have an overview of the
relationships between the files....eg, I didn't realize the php loaded every
css in the folder regardless of the name.....I thought they were linked as
in an html page to a certain css.

Also a "Yellow Brick Road" , "step-by-step, what to do first, where do we go from here now that it's installed" is what I thought the "Things every New Zenner needs to know" project was about....there have been a lot of suggestions and questions since it was first started 7/06, but haven't heard
how it's coming.....maybe an update would be helpful.

In the meantime, I'm printing out the pdf, faqs, Wiki info, etc so I can better
understand the overall structure. I'm hoping it will suddenly gel, the clouds
will part, and bright sunshine will beam down, and I'll hear the Halleleujah Chorus like when I finally understood the file system on my PC.

"Never give up, never give up...." Winston Churchill

[clydejones]

The project began with the release of version 1.3 and we're now at 1.3.7 in just a little over 6 months so keeping the documentation equal to the changes becomes a challenge.

The basics of creating your ZC "shop" remain the same though.

install the distribution both on your server and PC.
come up with an idea of how you want your site to look like.
create a template to get that look.
add and activate that template to your "shop"
create the override directories matching the name of your template.
edit the stylesheet and other files to meet the goal of your envisioned site.

The more you get into the customizing process the easier it gets and, yes, the light bulb will go on.

[cmcgaugh]

The project began with the release of version 1.3 and we're now at 1.3.7 in just a little over 6 months so keeping the documentation equal to the changes becomes a challenge.

The basics of creating your ZC "shop" remain the same though.

install the distribution both on your server and PC.
come up with an idea of how you want your site to look like.
create a template to get that look.
add and activate that template to your "shop"
create the override directories matching the name of your template.
edit the stylesheet and other files to meet the goal of your envisioned site.

The more you get into the customizing process the easier it gets and, yes, the light bulb will go on.

Thanks for the basics.........hope the details will follow soon.
I know it's time consuming (the project) and time is probably what I have least of (you, too, I bet).....but I appreciate the info and your time.

Gunga Zen
(aka Cal)

[rastaker]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Clyde,[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]I feel that what you have done, what you are doing and how you are consisting redirecting us back to FAQ and the tutorials for answers… is terrific!!!!![/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Those do seem to answer the most the questions about setting up a site and programming changes.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]What about once a site is up? Is there documentation available to help understand how ZEN-Cart works and how one actually operates a Shopping Cart? Is there any Step by Step operating procedures? Again, any help on using a Zen-Cart shopping cart.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Some questions I have are:[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]a. What e-mails will I get that are generated by the program (when a customer registers or places an order)? What activates them. What they mean. What do I do with them. etc.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman]b. Handling New Customers… What tells me someone is registered. How do I look at the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman]Customer data. Can the Customer data be transferred to a stand-alone data base or is there now a way to print off this data? etc. [/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman]c. Processing Orders…. How do I know I got an order? What do I do next? How and what do I change in my ZC program as I process an order? [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman]etc.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]d. What about creating a Newsletter? How to generate a newsletter. How to send. etc. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Clyde, you are helping the programming and setting up a shopping cart and that is very good!!! But, what about us trying to operate our sight once it is set up?[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Since I'm new to this.... If all this somewhere already? Please tell me where. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]THANK YOU VERY MUCH![/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Russssssssssssssssssss[/FONT]

[clydejones]

First go to admin -> configuration -> e-mail options and make sure you enable the options to receive copies of e-mails.

E-mails are generated/activated automatically by Zen Cart.

a. What e-mails will I get that are generated by the program (when a customer registers or places an order)? What activates them. What they mean. What do I do with them. etc.

b. Handling New Customers… What tells me someone is registered. How do I look at the Customer data. Can the Customer data be transferred to a stand-alone data base or is there now a way to print off this data? etc.

If you have configured your e-mail options correctly, you will receive a confirmation e-mail of new registrations.
Depending on what the customer was doing at the time the e-mail was generated, they mean someone created an account or placed an order.

After reading the e-mail you can do whatever you want with them.

Go to admin -> customer -> customers you will be presented with a list of customers which you can edit, delete, or send an e-mail.

You can use phpmyadmin to generate the customer data and then put it into a standalone database.

At present you cannot print the customer data but that may change when the admin portion of Zen Cart is re-written.

c. Processing Orders…. How do I know I got an order? What do I do next? How and what do I change in my ZC program as I process an order? etc.

If you have configured your e-mail options correctly, you will receive an order confirmation e-mail.
Fill the order and send it to the customer.
go to admin -> customers -> orders you will be presented with a list of orders which you can edit as necessary.

d. What about creating a Newsletter? How to generate a newsletter. How to send. etc.

Go to admin -> tools -> newsletter and product notification manager
click the new newsletter button
create your content
click the save button and follow the instructions from there.
The newsletter is generated and e-mailed automatically.

[fymbscu]

Hi Clyde,

This thread and the forums in general have been extremely beneficial in helping me customize the cart for our purpose and I am greatful for that.

My great concern now that we are on the cusp of going live to the public is that I have no idea of how to determine which countries can do business with me and/or how to control this. This hardly seems intuitive and yet remains largely undocumented.

For instance, does eliminating a country from the country drop down menu mean you can't do business with them or does leaving the country in the list mean you can?

Or, are all users able to create accounts but only users from established tax and/or shipping zones able to make purchases? Seems to be a lot of nuance here and not much clarity.

How is the glossary coming along? Seems that my search terms are not bringing me answers to questions like the above.

As an example of what answers I need (although this could be generalized for others), I have a store based in Orange County, California in the US. I want to do business only in the US and Great Britain. I need seperate tax rates for Orange County and the rest of California, no tax for the rest of the US, and VAT tax for GB. Having not removed any countries from that pulldown at this time, what prevents a Canadian customer, a German customer or even someone from, say, an Asian country from buying from me when I am not attempting to sell to them?

A How-To for a scenario like this would go a long way in expediting this aspect of configuring Zen Cart. I believe it would move many of us from haphazard "Trial and Error" to real understanding.

Regards,

Mark Harrison

[clydejones]

You can create shipping zones for the countries you will do business with. Then when someone places an order but the shipping address in not within one of the shipping zones you create, you can create a message (I believe there is a default) to the effect that you don't ship to that country.

I think you can also set restrictions in the payment modules.

You can get more information shipping and payment options here:

www.zen-cart.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18


Try here for the California sales tax:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46091

I'm not sure why, if you are in the US, you would add VAT to your orders.

There is a glossary in the Tutorials/FAQ section.

[rastaker]

Clyde,

I owe you a big thank you… and an apology. Thank you for taking the time to give answers to my questions on operating a shopping cart after one is established. It is helpful and I’m sure others needed this help, too!

My apology is for indicating that I wanted you to take the time to answer those questions on this thread! I thought this tread was for gathering items for writing a New Zenners Help Guide.

My putting the questioning forth was to make sure that this area was covered in the part of the documentation that covers “How it works”, in addition to “How it looks”.

Russsssssssssss