Switching templates at run time

[Lawbird123]

SOLUTION (semi):

I've seen this error message before after ftp-ing files, they would have spaces at the bottom of the them and id have to go in and remove the spaces until the errors went away. These files had no spaces on the bottom. When i was testing, i only had one product in my category. I put a second product in and the problem was solved. Anyone know what might cause this?

[gjh42]

No, but someone else recently had the same issue of some problem with *one* product in a category, that went away when a second product was added.

[rainthebat]

This would be a good one to look at again. Anyone have any success getting some code to work for switching templates at run time? I know 'eccentric' had gotten somewhere, but that solution doesn't seem to work for me.

I need a different template for some cPath's which I can not achieve at all using css, no matter what I try.

[kuroi]

Sure. You can create your own init_templates.php file to override the default template directory for some of your categories and put it in your includes/init_includes/overrides folder. This is the approach used for the template switcher on the (sorry, site offline) site.

[rainthebat]

Yes, that template switcher site is quite impressive - a great introductory for people wondering about zen cart, and wanting to try different templates. My personal favorite is future zen, which I took up for my site in April of 2007.

I will dig deep and try to figure out the code to work for the init_templates. I had tried experimenting with the coding that 'eccentric' had come up with at the beginning of this post, but to no avail. Will try again.

[rainthebat]

It seems that this needs a slight code change to work correctly
(at least with my store).
I wanted the functionality to change templates for just one category,
so I could refine the template for category and product display.

So after copying 'eccentric's code from the beginning of this post,
I made a revision that is working correctly for me now.

On line 37 of: includes/init_includes/overrides/init_templates.php make necessary adjustments...

  
if($_GET['cPath']) {
  switch($_GET['cPath']) {
   case $template_dir = "29"; // directory of your custom cPath template (includes/templates/29)
      break;
   case $template_dir = "29_30"; // directory your custom cPath template (includes/templates/29)
      break;
   case $template_dir = "29_31"; // directory your custom cPath template (includes/templates/29)
      break;
   case $template_dir = "29_32"; // directory your custom cPath template (includes/templates/29)
      break;
   case $template_dir = "29_33"; // directory your custom cPath template (includes/templates/29)
   
  default: // If none of the above 
  $template_dir = "future_zen"; // directory name of custom template (includes/templates/custom_template)
      break;
    }
  }

So when a user goes to cPath 29, the program automatically loads the folder in the directory I created under includes/templates/29

This directory should include all the files in my custom template (which is 'future_zen' in my case.
I only copied the important template files that would be used, and didn't bother with the rest i.e. everything in the 'common' folder, everything in the 'images' folder etc.

Next I ran into some error where the templates would be looking for a file in my custom folder on other parts of the site. The only thing is it doesn't automatically
look in you custom folder, so you need to take these and copy them over
to the regular directories. For example I use a drop down menu
and it had a file in
includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/CUSTOM_TEMPLATE/ ,
so I copied it to
includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/
and that got it working.

[soundworker]

Is it able to change template for certain specific pages?

like shippinginfo. home page. page-2. page-3 and so on.

How to change the code to achieve that?

[kuroi]

Yes. You can create your own includes/init_includes/overrides/init_templates.php to override your normal template for any page by adding conditions or switch statements based on $_GET['page']. Though often using Zen Cart's ability to load different stylesheets for different pages is sufficient, and avoids the need for programming.

[soundworker]

I know,
The most I want to know how to code to make home page to use its own template.
I mean how to modify the $_GET['page'] code.

I just don't want to show sidebox on home page.

[kuroi]

Turning sideboxes off doesn't require a separate template. It can be done by adapting this FAQ Entry.