Really confused...need COMPLETE recustomization

[gourmets]

I have been playing around with Zencart trying to get it setup on my site. I have the backend part down, however after reading through the customization tutorials, Im still confused and not finding exactly what I'm looking for.

It seems as if most of the tutorials and templates show you how to just change text and images in the pre-defined areas, while just being allowed to turn off and on the sideboxes. I am looking for a complete recustomization for a complete re-design look where I can make up an html page and design a template around that. In other words, I dont want my site to look ANYTHING like the templates already do. I have a site design down and I'm just trying to integrate a shopping cart into it.

So, is there anyway to design the entire look myself? I was also informed by others that Zencart would work better for me than oscommerce since I'm not fluent in php and could use html, but yet I'm not seeing this opportunity in any of the files.
Is there a way to go in and pretty much completely re-do the look of the pages while just having "placeholders" for the things I want to add in like the view cart info, category listing, featured items, etc? And if so, what do I need to modify to do that? Thanks

[barco57]

Do you have an example? Like a mockup to look at and see what needs to be done to accomplish it.

[cherylthe]

Zen Cart is a major, major step forward from osCommerce but nonetheless, is a PHP - MySQL application and as such you cannot use HTML in the simple way you might have been hoping for.

Rather, your HTML needs to be encoded inside of the relevant PHP code. For example - this comes from one of our custom sideboxes:

<!-- signup box -->
<div class="signup">
<div id="searchtext">Receive special offers & our Indian Art Update newsletter</div>

<img src="images/signup.gif" alt="Sign Up" width="74" height="29" />
<form action=""><div class="button"><a href="http://some-domain.com"><img src="images/btn_submit.gif" alt="Submit" width="56" height="17" /></a></div>
<input name="textfield2" type="text" class="signuptextfield" value="Enter your email address" /></form>
</div>
<!-- // signup box ends -->

Here you can see that we have some HTML but within the context of the PHP file, which is displaying this custom sidebox.

Having said that - you can most certainly add HTML 'straight out of the box' as it were, in any of the 'define' pagesm, which you will find in Admin->Tools->Define Pages Editor or in your EZ-Pages, also found in Tools.

But these pages are only for HTML content and not for the design/layout/structure of your store.

[Merlinpa1969]

Love that custom hardcoded mess,

[gourmets]

Ok, I've attached 3 really quick ideas. I need 3 different templates based on the different areas of the website.
The image named siteidea.jpg is what I want my main page to look like. It will have images at the top (the large blocks) that I will change regularly myself, featured items below that on the left and then on the right, only a small listing of specific categories. Then of course with additional things like my e-newsletter signup, more banners as I add them, etc.
The image named siteidea2.jpg is what another section of the website will look like. There will still be blocks of images that I will change in the middle with featured items again on the bottom. The right side will contain many different links to browse through the products and then an additional green navigation bar at the top for more, popular search options.
The image named siteidea3.jpg is yet another section of the website which will be for specialty departments with more information than just shopping. It will contain products and links to them as well on the right, however there will be more info added like as text, links, banners to other sites, etc.
I hope this helps understand. As you can see, my site design looks nothing like the current templates do and I was hoping to just be able to create an html page that I could insert into one of the templates with either added placeholders for the categories, or even just links to certain product categories. I have used database programs before where I could tell it to just link me to all products under the category of coffee for instance, rather than being forced to use an entire category tree, or whatever. I just need so much more functionality and control over my design than I am seeing with many of these shopping cart software programs. So, is there anyway to do this? I may even have to look into hiring someone to customize this for me if its possible. Thanks for any help!

[barco57]

On a quick review this looks fairly straight forward to put together.....shut off left column, a few custom sideboxes, shove the right column down with some positioning to allow other content to flow above or add an extra div....blah, blah, blah...

take a look at http://www.mitea.com and http://www.moissaniteco.com/ for what can be accomplished. Your design is closer to stock than theirs are. The only thing I have to research is displaying different sideboxes on different pages.....but I do remember reading about that somewhere.....We are here to help, so just ask....

[cherylthe]

Love that custom hardcoded mess,

Not our code - from an existing mod, so...

[Merlinpa1969]

For example - this comes from one of our custom sideboxes:

sorry kinda reads like you guys were supplying it.....

lol

something about the way you guys write that is sometimes unclear or confusing

[kobra]

I was hoping to just be able to create an html page that I could insert into one of the templates with either added placeholders for the categories,

Zen Cart is not modular and pieces can not be placed into a design.

You might read the css readme in the css folder as this covers styles by page
You should search here for things like different main page or home page.

Your images appear to be not just styling betwen pages but layout alterations. This can be acheived but is more involved

[gourmets]

Ok, being that it does look like I need layout alterations and it will take much more time than I have right to learn and figure out, I've decided to most likely try to get someone to do this for me. So, I can let the person know exactly what I need in order to get accurate quotes, can someone please confirm that this is what I need:

1 template for the main page
1 template for the gourmet foods and kitchenware items which will have the same layouts just different products and categories (or would I need 1 template for each due to the different categories?)
1 template for the specialty departments of the website (main page of each) which will link to product categories for sale but also text for things like recipes, articles, etc. (very similar to the main page of the website)

Is that all I would need or am I missing something? I also need for whoever I hire to do this to make sure there are areas within the template that are either easily identifiable or can be edited in the admin section that will be updated regularly so I can edit them as needed.....such as images on the main page, text, banners, etc.

I hope Im understanding this enough to be able to relate exactly what I need. Does this sound correct?