Configuring for UK

[danny4315]

Hi,

Trying to sort out my site, I have already got a template sorted and installed.

http://s225360940.websitehome.co.uk/

Just to let you know, I only have access to the admin pages not the server.

How do I do all of the bits to customise it to the uk?

I have already done counties and UK VAT tax.

So I think I still need to do:

1. Add Royal Mail module.
2. Change date format.
3. Change the address fields to match normal uk modes
4. Change lbs to kgs

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks

Danny

[GSIS]

1. Add Royal Mail module.
2. Change date format.
3. Change the address fields to match normal uk modes
4. Change lbs to kgs

1. The Big Royal Mail mod worked easily for me. It has some issues, mainly over options showing that aren't appropriate. Allowing the customer to choose letter, large letter or package just isn't good enough so some work is needed. For one thing they won't necessarily know and, second, they'll choose the cheaper option and let me take the loss. Your implementation may be different - you may be able to assume everything's a packet.

I'm not sure who's supporting the mod (if anyone) as the author became somewhat disillusioned around this time last year and hasn't, AFAICT, been heard from since.

2. There are threads that cover this. The forum search tool will help you find them.

3. I assume you mean 'Town', 'County' and 'Post Code' instead of 'City', 'State' and 'Zip Code'. Use the developer tool in admin to track down the define statements and change them as necessary. While you're at it you might also like to change 'Check' to 'Cheque' and 'Money Order' to 'Postal Order'.

4. Changing 'lbs' to 'kgs' is exactly the same as for 3. Note that the string 'lbs' or 'kgs' is just a label. You don't need to do any actual conversion in your database - as long as your shipping tables are set up correctly.

NOTE: You will need access to the file system via either ftp or a control panel. I can't imagine that Zen Cart (or any other hosted ecommerce site) will be much use without that.

[danny4315]

1. The Big Royal Mail mod worked easily for me. It has some issues, mainly over options showing that aren't appropriate. Allowing the customer to choose letter, large letter or package just isn't good enough so some work is needed. For one thing they won't necessarily know and, second, they'll choose the cheaper option and let me take the loss. Your implementation may be different - you may be able to assume everything's a packet.

I'm not sure who's supporting the mod (if anyone) as the author became somewhat disillusioned around this time last year and hasn't, AFAICT, been heard from since.

2. There are threads that cover this. The forum search tool will help you find them.

3. I assume you mean 'Town', 'County' and 'Post Code' instead of 'City', 'State' and 'Zip Code'. Use the developer tool in admin to track down the define statements and change them as necessary. While you're at it you might also like to change 'Check' to 'Cheque' and 'Money Order' to 'Postal Order'.

4. Changing 'lbs' to 'kgs' is exactly the same as for 3. Note that the string 'lbs' or 'kgs' is just a label. You don't need to do any actual conversion in your database - as long as your shipping tables are set up correctly.

NOTE: You will need access to the file system via either ftp or a control panel. I can't imagine that Zen Cart (or any other hosted ecommerce site) will be much use without that.

Thanks for this,
Is the only way I can change any of the above throught the file system? How would I do that, I now have access to my webspace and i can see php files and lots of folders.

How would I search in the developers toolkit? and then how would i change them?

Thanks

[misty]

http://www.mutualadvantage.co.uk/ukzencarttemplate1.php
Fair amount of help/downloads for UK zencart users at above site

[GSIS]

If you go to the Tools drop-down in the Admin part of your Zen Cart you'll find something called the Developers Tool Kit. It's really just a set of search utilities that find strings in the file system.

I usually just use the one near the bottom of the page ('Look-up in all files'). If you enter the string you're looking for (eg. lbs) and select the places you want to search (Catalog/Admin, just the Catalog, or just Admin) you'll get a list of the files your search string is in.

You can either edit the files on the server (via cPanel or whatever control panel you have), or you can copy them to your pc, edit them there and copy them back. If you choose to use the pc you'll need a simple editor that doesn't add its own formatting and control characters. For something simple Notepad will do, but for more complex editing you'll need something like Notepad++ (a free editor that will highlight keywords, etc, in scripts).

Notepad++ can be found at http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

A good ftp program (for copying files between your pc and server) is Filezilla. It'll retry failed transfers automatically and report on critical errors so it can be trusted to do a reliable job.

[danny4315]

Many Thanks for you help on this,

All done now. Well apart from the shipping module, I have decided I am going to do free shipping as all of our products are over £100.00. What is the best module for this?

Also is there any other modules you would reccomend installing for me beig in the uk?

Cheers

Danny

[GSIS]

I can't think of anything off the top of my head (not UK specific, anyway).

I find the 'Supertracker' and 'User Tracking' modules very useful for letting me know what people are looking at and where they bail out if they don't buy anything.

'Image Handler 2' is an absolute must for me because images are a huge bottleneck in my workflow. I have about 1300 1-off items, so far, each of which requires a scanned or photographed image.

(Aside) If anyone near Solihull has an A3 flatbed scanner going spare I want to talk to you!

Along with IH2 I also use 'Zen Lightbox' to save space on the server, besides which it looks far better than the standard pop-up for large images. I'm replacing it with the 'Fual' version during my upgrade. Same thing as far as the end user is concerned but more efficient and more reliable.

Look at your payment methods. You might need something that will handle your CC merchant's interface.

[danny4315]

for payment we will be using protx.

I will have a look for the tracking ones, they sound good!

Are there any others that you can think of that are worthwhile getting and what they do? even if they are not UK specific?

Cheers

Danny

[GSIS]

If I think of any more I'll let you know, but it's difficult to recommend without knowing more about how you want to organise your site, how you'll market it and who'll be allowed access to the admin side of things.

If you're employing staff the 'Admin Profiles' add-on would be well worth a look. It'll stop the staff tweaking settings that oughtn't be tweaked by them. I don't know if it has been upgraded to 1.3.8a yet. There may be some answers in the support thread for it (http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...admin+profiles)

[danny4315]

Thanks mate,

Is there any chance you could help me on my other post?

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86865

Thanks

Danny