Hope to be a new Zen Cart User

[nancy haitz]

Hi all,

I hope to install ZC tomorrow evening... well maybe the next two evenings. I have been waiting for my domain name registration transfer and new hosting to be set up, which finally got sorted out today.

I have spent the waiting time reading things on this forum. I have a couple newbie questions and a couple others.

First off, I have downloaded ZC, have FTP Software, have a Text Editor (BBEdit) installed Firefox & the assorted web tools for it, requested a MySQL Database be set up for my account (with the hosting company as they need to do that), and have ordered the Zen Cart book (which shipped today).

I have a simple little starter web site (created with iWeb) that I want to leave up while I get ZC configured. So, I will be installing Zen in a subfolder for now. It is going to take me months to get my products loaded. We have thousands of them and I will need to photograph about a third of them for the website. Thankfully, I have an existing POS system and I can transfer/export the item numbers, names, prices, etc.

FIRST QUESTION: Should I password protect the folder that I install ZC into and leave the permissions to write, making it easer to configure things along the way. I am a total dummy about coding and don't know how to protect myself from hackers while I get thing set up. Password protecting the folder sounds like an option. Your opinions most welcome.

SECOND QUESTION: I have still not figured out if I want to design a website and put the zen cart catalog inside that or do the entire site with zen cart. Security is a big question mark for me with part of my site outside of ZC. I read through most of the hacker related posts and would be totally clueless without something like this forum, in dealing with hacked pages that reside outside ZC. I have a seventeen year old bricks & mortar retail cookware business. We offer a number of services that have nothing to do with online sales. I realize I can create some extra pages with the EZ Pages but have not figured that out at this point. I did read that a few people have created sites and added ZC to it for the shopping cart. However, it looks like most of you do the entire site with Zen Cart. Looking for suggestions here too.

THIRD QUESTION: This had to do with the "down for maintenance feature." Does this take everything related to ZC down, or just the ability to view products. I like the down for maintenance feature, but that will have a big impact on my decision on creating some parts of the site outside ZC or all of it inside ZC.

FOURTH QUESTION: Does everything related to zen cart resides on the server, or is some of it is on my desktop system? If part is on desktop, can it reside on a portable drive? I will need to work on ZC at home and at my shop. So, if some of it is on my desktop system, I guess I need to know if it will work from an external hard drive (for portability), and even if that is possible.

FIFTH QUESTION: Right now I have no ability to keep inventory current on the Zen Cart side, as it does not interface with my POS system and inventory (this is in the works with my POS software but not yet ready to use). I would like to be able to do credit card transactions where the software captures the items and credit card details - then verify the items are in stock - then process the credit card through my existing merchant account. I don't know how that works and could not find posts specifically related to it. This is getting in to the whole new can of worms about PCI compliance and temporarily storing credit card details. Guess I am wondering how other people do offline credit card processing.

I know I will have many more questions, but this will hopefully get me started zenning.

Nancy

[stevesh]

I'll take a stab at some of your questions-

1. Won't hurt to password protect the test directory, but it probably isn't necessary, security-wise. Thw writeable directories , except for the config files, stay writeable after your cart is live.

2. I think the best way is to use Zencart for the site software. You can install Zen in a directory (e.g. /store) and call it from a link on your site, but you can't really switch back and forth between the two, adding products to the cart, etc. The E-Z pages are surprisingly versatile, once you grasp the concept.

3. 'Down For Maintenance' prevents all access to your site. The 'Showcase' setting allows customers to see your products, but not to place an order.

4. All of the Zencart installation is located on the server. I keep a copy of all the files I've modified on my local machine(s).

5. We don't do offline processing, so I can't help here.

Steve

[TShooters]

Welcome to Zendom, Nancy!

#5 Maybe this tutorial will explain how the built-in cc module works:

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=67

[nancy haitz]

Thanks Stevesh for the comments. It looks like I won't be doing offline transactions either. I would not consider doing credit card transactions without the benefit of the CVV code for verification.

And a big thanks to TShooter for that link. I suppose I would have found that eventually while reading posts and the rest of the newbies section. It explained a lot of the CC questions I had.

I am not sure how I will proceed with the credit card part... When a customer does a "buy it" that means they want it NOW. I am afraid I would lose too many sales if I had to go through a bunch of email exchanges about what is or is not in stock. I did contact the FirstData people that are in the link at the top of this page. Hopefully I can come up with a way of taking web sales through to the authorized point - then verify stock - then complete or cancel the cc transaction.

I currently do my face-to-face cc transactions through another division of FirstData Merchant Services. I will probably touch base with them as well, although I don't object to having a different Merchant Services provider for online sales and face to face sales.

Nancy

[schoolboy]

Welcome aboard Nancy...

You seem to have done lots of homework, and that suggests you will be extremely successful, as you look organised and meticulous.

If you have THOUSANDS of products, there is a very easy way to manage their upload - and as you suggest, you can export off your current system. If you can export to a CSV (or even MSExcel) then loading thousands of products should not take more than a few hours.

You use EasyPopulate to do this.

I assist with the management of a site that has over 4000 products, and ALL the management of the product data is done in MS Excel. We then use EasyPopulate to send the modified data to the zenshop.

Customers like ease and speed, so online CC transaction is essential - even if it's via paypal.

You MUST have SSL and I would strongly advocate a Static/Dedicated IP (talk to your host) and a reputable SSL Certificate. Again, customers feel better when they see this degree of care taken by a webshop owner.

On the design issue... You should rather use zencart as your principal design, then model any elements of an external site round it - this is easier. Unless you're an absolute whizz with CSS and PHP, re-configuring the templates and stylesheets can be extremely challenging!

Integrating the zen database with your current POS database will require some expert input. You may have to buy that expertise.

[nancy haitz]

I have to be organized as I am the CEO, IT department, sales staff, stock girl and janitor.

I have read a bit about Easy Populate and it looks like that will work nicely. I try to avoid Excel whenever possible. Filemaker works nicely for me for import/export conversions.

My site host does have a shared SSL certificate but I am planning to add my own. I want to be able to put the SSL company's logo on my site. Most people don't notice the padlock in their browser or the "s" in the url, but they do recognize the SSL logo graphic. Not sure yet about the static IP address.

Right now I am about as far away as you can get from being "an absolute whizz with CSS and PHP." I know absolutely nothing at this point. My background is in graphic design, so I will be very particular about the design of my pages. I don't expect the customization of templates to be easy, just possible. That was why I chose to go with Zen Cart. Many of the programs I looked at were inflexible (as well as ugly).

Steve Crossman, who wrote MacPOSX (the POS software I use) is currently working on a version that will integrate with a shopping cart. Actually he wants it to work with Zen and OSCommerce. He was the one who originally suggested I take a look at Zen Cart.

I did fill out the form requesting an account with the FirstData folks and have had two phone conversations with them. It looks like that will be a very workable solution. I can set up the account to go through to the authorized point - then proceed or cancel at a later date (as long as it is not too much later). They seem agreeable to a couple days later, which would allow me to check stock and exchange an email or two with the customer if I am out of stock on something. They also seem agreeable on using the same authorization for a reduced transaction amount too, so I would not have to ask the customer to reorder omitting the out of stock item(s). Sounds like I could do everything on my end with their virtual terminal. MacPOSX is very flexible. I can easily add a "sold online" to the payment types and run the items sold online through that to keep the inventory current here at the shop.

My MySQL is now set up, so it looks like I will tackle the ZC install this evening.

Nancy

[gjh42]

In your copious spare time when you want to try customizing your template, you might look at the CSS tutorials at www.w3schools.com. They also have good info on HTML and PHP, which you may need some of to get some particular styles or functions. But a lot of customization, even functional, can be done by moving labeled chunks of code or installing drop-in mods.

[schoolboy]

[QUOTE=nancy haitz;512534]I try to avoid Excel whenever possible. Filemaker works nicely for me for import/export conversions.[Quote]
The issue is getting the exported file into the format required by easypopulate. I find Excel does this well - especially when you have to shift data around in big chunks. You will need to use a good spreadsheet program to manage easypopulate properly.

[QUOTE=nancy haitz;512534]My site host does have a shared SSL certificate but I am planning to add my own. ... Not sure yet about the static IP address.[Quote] If you want to have your own SSL, then a dedicated/static IP is mandatory.

[nancy haitz]

Glenn, I think I have downloaded and/or printed about half the w3school site so far. Most of it has not sunken into my brain yet, but hopefully will as I work with ZC.

schoolboy, my biggest objection to Excel has been with barcodes. I use barcodes as the item IDs in my POS system. Excel (and most other spreadsheet programs) tend to truncate the 13 digit EAN codes, especially if they have a leading zero. I found Filemaker more agreeable to work with. Maybe I have just gotten used to its quirks over the years.

My hosting company works with Thawte or Verisign for individual SSL certificates. I only verified that I had the option of adding my own, and what the certificates cost. This is what they said on their web site: "Before applying for a digital certificate through one of the above SSL certificate providers, it is necessary to contact us so that we may order your desired SSL product. Virtual Secure Servers are a yearly $25/set up fee and the cost of the SSL certificate through your preferred vendor." I did do a little reading about Virtual Secure Servers and SSL but right now it is not clear. At this point I have no idea how much traffic my web site will have, or if my (new) host can grow with me. I might need to move my hosting in the future. For now, they are a vast improvement over the previous hosting company. I got really tired of receiving form-letter emails in response to questions. When I asked where to put the Zen Cart folder, so it would not disrupt my existing web site they told me to contact the tech support people of the company I bought the shopping cart software from. It boiled down to the fact that they did not even know what open source software was or anything about ANY shopping cart software other that what they offered.

Nancy

[misty]

Decent hosting companies allow you to purchase SSL
cert from company of your choice,
and should not charge you for installing it.
If you are thinking of moving webhosts again,
suggest you do it now,
before installing zencart...
reduce your workload later on..
HTH