Wordpress On ZC [Support Thread]

[DivaVocals]

Nice sites.
Are the two sites referenced above NOT embedding WP, but merely duplicating styling within each platform, then?

Not duplicating the way you are thinking..

After spending (wasting) a LOT of time with embedding blogs inside Zen Cart, I realized that many folks walked down this road to avoid having to create a matching WordPress theme. There was this perception that creating a matching WordPress theme was "hard" or "too much work". I believed this too, but I eventually realized that blog embedding JUST to avoid having to create a matching theme seemed like a lot of work for very little gain.. I now have a few theme generator tools I use for WordPress that makes the work of creating a matching WordPress theme easy as pie for me.. (the Laserdisc Vault site is an example of that in action) However, I realized that anytime I made look/feel changes I had to make them in both WordPress theme and the Zen Cart template.. While this wasn't "hard", it was labor intensive making sure every detail was consistent between the two frameworks. So I began to look for a way to cut down on the work required to make WordPress and Zen Cart maintain the same look/feel..

WordPress has always supported calling it's codex and displaying it outside of WordPress (which is how the various blog embedding solutions work). To apply this to the Zen Cart template, I merely created a Zen Cart template which makes calls to much of the WordPress theme. So on the EyeItalia site, WordPress and Zen Cart are "sharing" a theme/template. There are some elements that I do have to re-create in the Zen Cart template to keep things consistent, but they are minor in the scheme of things.. For example the sidebox and centerboxes styling mimics the widgets styling in WordPress, but those styles are maintained in the Zen art template stylesheet.. But the MAJOR look/feel is driven by the WordPress theme.. This minimizes the number of changes I need to make in the Zen Cart theme to keep the look/feel of WordPress and Zen Cart in synch.

After that I have WordPress sideboxes that I use to display WordPress content inside Zen Cart and Zen Cart widgets to display Zen Cart content in WordPress.. No "embedding" needed, and I can still effectively tie WordPress to Zen Cart..

The changes to the wordpress_config file are not in the sideboxes only version I submitted, which is why I posted the changes here for anyone who is using the numinix method and since they only deal with the sideboxes themselves which are outside of the scope of the numinix changes, I imagine there would not be any conflict.

Great.. that was my concern.. I understand why this change needs to be made if the WOZ Sideboxes Only Edition is being used with the Numinix solution as it would duplicate calls to the WordPress codex already made in the Numnix embedding solution..

There is a Numinix Blog Embedding support thread here on the Zen Cart forum.. May I suggest posting your code/changes there as well..

I tested most of them and they worked. The one called tpl_wp_sidebar didn't seem to do anything and I'm not sure what it was supposed to do.

The tpl_wp_sidebar is based on outdated WordPress theming methods.. In older WordPress themes where there was only "sidebar1" and "sidebar2" this sidebox would display the contents of both side bars in one sidebox. I have two clients who have older WordPress themes who can still use this sidebox.. (See this site: http://www(dot)lanikshair(dot)com/in...=index&cPath=0 -- except for the currency sidebox, the rest of the right column is the sidebar sidebox)

Modern WordPress themes can display widgets ANYWHERE so the tpl_wp_sidebar would have to be re-written to accommodate this, and perhaps allow one to chose which sidebars to display..

The blogroll sidebox is also probably outdated as there is no more blogroll in the WordPress core code anymore..

I'm questioning whether or not this method will be useful to anyone if WP4Zen and/or other more contemporary methods serves the same function.

I think the more contemporary functions I am now using are a better long term solution and they certainly solve the problem with regards to "reciprocity".. By reciprocity, I mean REALLY improving upon how to make WordPress a more effective means to drive customers to the Zen Cart store.. What better way to do that that to make sure that your Zen Cart product content is VERY visible in your WordPress blog.. Blog embedding is nice, but in the end there are more effective ways to integrate WordPress and Zen Cart in my opinion. I took a holistic approach to how that integration is done versus the traditional, yet sadly one sided means of accomplishing WordPress/Zen Cart integration..

[mutinyzoo]

...avoid having to create a matching WordPress theme.

Are there two distinct "header" pages, depending on whether the user is viewing blog or ZC pages?

I now have a few theme generator tools I use for WordPress

I'm curious what you'd recommend. I've mostly been making very simple child pages from WP twenty-ten, eleven, twelve and now thirteen.

I merely created a Zen Cart template which makes calls to much of the WordPress theme.

Oh is that all. : ) Any good tutorials on this?

So on the EyeItalia site, WordPress and Zen Cart are "sharing" a theme/template. But the MAJOR look/feel is driven by the WordPress theme.. This minimizes the number of changes I need to make in the Zen Cart theme to keep the look/feel of WordPress and Zen Cart in synch.

Meaning pulling styling from the same stylesheet? Would this be the WP style.css, predominantly?

There is a Numinix Blog Embedding support thread here on the Zen Cart forum.. May I suggest posting your code/changes there as well..

Done and thank you.

By reciprocity, I mean REALLY improving upon how to make WordPress a more effective means to drive customers to the Zen Cart store..

Good word, reciprocity. In the end, the idea is to facilitate the users fulfillment of their needs based on what we can offer, possibly even cultivating some needs in them and their community in the process.

[DivaVocals]

Are there two distinct "header" pages, depending on whether the user is viewing blog or ZC pages?

There has to be since WordPress and Zen Cart still have distinct templating/theming systems.. Since WordPress has always supported calling/displaying WordPress content outside of WordPress it's just a matter of making calls to specific header elements from WordPress in the Zen Cart header..

Oh is that all. : ) Any good tutorials on this?

Not really.. I did a LOT of research on the topic of WordPress Zen Cart integration to come to the path I've moved down on the topic.. Tried a LOT of stuff.. some successful.. some not so much.. I'll see if I can find some of the articles I used in my travels and share them.. BUt if you are interested search "integrate WordPress Zen Cart" should get you to some of the stuff I read..

The challenge is that every WordPress theme has some common elements, but how each theme uses these elements is different enough that unless your theme uses the EXACTLY same underlying layout structure there is no "good" means to turn this into any kind of consistent process which could be used to create a distributable "WordPress wrapped" Zen Cart template.. To successfully build a "WordPress wrapped" Zen Cart template, you really have to get VERY familiar with WordPress' basic theme structure and WordPress' codex..

That said I suppose one could build a "WordPress wrapped" Zen Cart template based on the DEFAULT WordPress themes, but the minute someone spins off a child theme based on Twenty Ten, Twenty Eleven, Twenty Twelve, or Twenty Thirteen, then all bets are off because the Zen Cart template would need to be modified a bit to correctly call the child theme, and going back to what I originally said, "To successfully build a "WordPress wrapped" Zen Cart template, you really have to get VERY familiar with WordPress' basic theme structure and WordPress' codex"..

I'm not sure how to write up anything resembling some kind of step by step tutorial to cover what needs to be done. It's not for the faint of heart, and certainly not something most novice shopowners would be able to just jump into.. If you want MORE info, the Catalyst forum has some of my earlier ramblings on the topic.. Here's one of my early posts.. http://catalysttheme.com/forum/showt...hlight=zencart There are more if you search for my username..

I'm curious what you'd recommend. I've mostly been making very simple child pages from WP twenty-ten, eleven, twelve and now thirteen.

Artisteer is a great tool for quickly churning out WordPress templates among other frameworks.. It's what I used to build the Laserdisc Vault site's matching WordPress theme. I have been using it since v1.0 and have always found it a useful tool, but the latest versions a MILES from the originalin terms of functionality.. It's a pretty useful tool, but you do need to be familiar with the target framework's underlying theme/template structure to really use the tool and the output correctly..

But lately I am a BIGGER fan of WordPress theme frameworks.. I chose Catalyst, and they have now merged with Genesis which is the granddaddy of WordPress theme frameworks.. There are others (such as Headway) but now that Genesis and Catalyst are united, IMHO this is the CADILLAC/GOLD STANDARD of theme frameworks and very well worth the investment..

I understand why folks like these embedding solutions, but IMHO, using an embedding solutions as a means to integrate frameworks like Zen Cart and WordPress are a waste of time and they make integration work overly complicated because they seek to solve the WRONG problem. At the end of the day what my clients REALLY needed was the ability to display Zen Cart content in their WordPress site, and vice versa without all of the headaches that go into maintaining an embedded solution.. It takes LESS time for me to create a WordPress theme and matching Zen Cart template than it does to deal with every single issue that rears it’s ugly head to make sure my embedding solution doesn’t wreak havoc on my site because it doesn’t play nice with one of my plugins/modules.. Plus, there are plenty of NICE template options out there -ALA Picaflor Azul and Brandon Turpin- and WordPress themes and theme generators that makes all the fuss over themeing and templating a NON-ISSUE now..

Meaning pulling styling from the same stylesheet? Would this be the WP style.css, predominantly?

Yes that's exactly what I mean.. the main WordPress stylesheet drives the majority of the look and feel for the EyeItalia site (and my own site).. So I let the WordPress stylesheet do most of the heavy lifting, and have removed any "common" styles from the Zen Cart stylesheet (body, h1, p, etc). The ONLY thing the Zen Cart stylesheet controls now is any Zen Cart specific classes and IDs which DO NOT need to be maintained in the WordPress stylesheet..

Good word, reciprocity. In the end, the idea is to facilitate the users fulfillment of their needs based on what we can offer, possibly even cultivating some needs in them and their community in the process.

This is true.. However, by reciprocity I actually mean that integration should be reciprocal, and most embedding solutions are not reciprocal.. (being able to display content in BOTH WordPress as well as Zen Cart) WOZ and other embedding solutions only address ONE SIDE of the integration equation in an attempt to solve the wrong integration issue (common themeing/templating)..

Unlike embedding plugins/modules, the methods I now use allows my clients to use the FULL power of WordPress and the FULL power of Zen Cart for their sites. This means that they will be able to use any plugin/module for Zen Cart or WordPress without limits or conflicts (like having to implement some gnarly code just to get your Zen Cart module to work inside WordPress or vice versa). Another example of where embedding can be problematic is the WP Online Store plugin for WordPress. Like WOZ and the Numinix solution embeds WordPress inside Zen Cart, WP Online Store embeds osCommerce inside WordPress..

The support threads SAY you can install any osCommerce module in your embedded osCommerce shop.. and yes that is true.. BUT a closer read reveals that the WHOLE truth of the matter is you often have to have some knowledge of coding to make it work and an update to WordPress or the osCommerce plugin could easily KILL your osCommerce module. This seems like a lot of work JUST to avoid creating matching themes/templates. Not to mention the risk of lost sales because your embedding solution is interfering with site functionality..

My clients know that they don’t need the WHOLE store loading inside WordPress, but they do need their PRODUCTS displayed.. They don’t need their whole BLOG loading inside of ZenCart, but they DO need links to their blog articles/pages made available inside their stores.

[mutinyzoo]

This dialog has given me a good deal of food for thought, DivaVocals. Thank you!

I guess the basic description of your approach would be:

1. Two separate platforms with matching design
2. Each enabled (by sharing DB permissions and some functions) to pull data from and link to sections of the other.

Question - do your plugins enable the user and/or admin to have a single login?

[DivaVocals]

This dialog has given me a good deal of food for thought, DivaVocals. Thank you!

I guess the basic description of your approach would be:

1. Two separate platforms with matching design
2. Each enabled (by sharing DB permissions and some functions) to pull data from and link to sections of the other.

More or less yes.. I don't seek to "merge" Zen Cart and WordPress, I seek only to be able to display Zen Cart product related content in WordPress, and WordPress blog content in Zen Cart.. I don't need for these two to "merge/embed" to make that happen..

Design/layout is NOT a function of integration.. So I don't need to "merge" just to simplify design/layout.

Question - do your plugins enable the user and/or admin to have a single login?

My plugins are commercial and as this discussion is a LOT off topic for the WOZ support thread, and it is a violation of forum rules for me to get into specifics, why don't you go to my site and drop me a line and I can answer your questions offline..

[kagaroo]

I had integrated wordpress into zen-cart, however, for some reason, wordpress sent 404 error to all zen-cart links except the homepage although all the links are valid.
my zen-cart is installed in the root folder while wordpress in /blog/ folder. I'd like to disable the wrong response code sent from wordpress. Is there anyone here having the same problem and find a solution?

[DivaVocals]

I had integrated wordpress into zen-cart, however, for some reason, wordpress sent 404 error to all zen-cart links except the homepage although all the links are valid.
my zen-cart is installed in the root folder while wordpress in /blog/ folder. I'd like to disable the wrong response code sent from wordpress. Is there anyone here having the same problem and find a solution?

It sounds very much like you have the Numinix Blog Embedding solution installed and NOT the WOZ module (for which this support thread is for..)

There is a support thread for the Numinix Blog Embedding solution.. I don't know it off the top of my head, but if you do a forum search you will find it..