Hi,
I've carefully read this thread - I want to tailor Zencart to fit my needs better: not just the catalog but also the Admin side of things, as more than just I will be admin-ing the store.
Early on in the thread there was a post about adding a table to the database that would contain the fields being added - this as opposed to simply adding fields to existing tables. I'm trying to determine the risks involved in these two approaches:
1. if the file structure of the database is ever updated, will new (non-standard to Zen) tables be a. erased? b. ignored? c. updated?
2. in the scenario above except instead of a new table, fields have been added to existing tables, will the new fields (non-standard to Zen) be a. erased? b. ignored? c. updated?

On the php pages side of things, I *think* I've finally got my head around using templates. Let's say I have a template called 'roses', for which there is a folder called roses in the
/store/includes/templates
folder. Then, if I change a file anywhere in the store, I simply add a folder called roses and place my modded file in it. For example, in the
/store/includes/languages/english/
I modified index,php. I added a folder called roses:
/store/includes/languages/english/roses/
into which I placed my modded index.php
This seems to work right the way round the shop... and from what I've read, will keep updates from overwriting your mods. My question is: will this same approach work for modded product_x.php files, i.e., pages that reference new fields and tables?

I hope that last question wasn't too obscure... can't think of a different, clearer way of asking it...

Thanks to all that reply...