New Template Creation Help

[Nick_Sonick]

Hello,

I am really sorry to ask this, but i'm in desperate need of help!

I know basic HTML etc. and want to build a template for zen cart to use for my online shop. I bought one from template monster, which I don't mind customizing, but I dont know which files change what, and how to change the layouts of all of the pages (eg product info, the index page, creating sideboxes, shopping cart etc).

I like a lot of white space - I think it helps make things clear and gives a professional image.

Can someone help me? I would love a step-by-step guide on how to create a template, but this may be asking too much.

Also:

- Is it possible to create a sidebox used for customer login?
- Can you have flash sideboxes?

Thank you so much for any help.

Nick.

[kuroi]

I'm afraid that a step by step guide to creating a template would be a very large document littered with "it depends" statements, since Zen Cart is so flexible that you can do pretty well anything with it. That can make it seem daunting at first, but a joy to work with once you get over the initial learning curve.

There's lots of information available in the FAQ and Wiki. Not necessarily presented in the easiest of ways to use, but there's also lots of folks here happy to help fill in the gaps.

Unfortunately you're now starting from the best of places, as Template Monster templates are very atypical. Basically they re-write much of the basic template and do so in a rather poor way, rending some of the advice in the FAQ and the forum invalid. When that happens we will be able to advise only that you take your chances with Template Monster's support team.

Your other two questions though are much easier to address. Yes can can have a login sidebox. There's an add-in module in the downloads area specifically for this. There's also no reason why you shouldn't embed flash in a sidebox. There's a blank sidebox add-in, also in the downloads area, and a good wiki entry on embedding flash.

[Nick_Sonick]

Thank you so much for your reply!

I was looking at another cart today, Avactis, only to discover that the functionality of the cart itself is terrible compared to Zen, but it is much more easy to customize the layout etc.

They have a library of 'tags' that call up certain functions, for example, if I writ a particular 'tag' in the HTML, it will pop in the shopping cart function - does Zen have any functionality like this?

I have the ability to create a site in dreamweaver quite easily, but obviously need to give the components functionality - is it possible to create a zen site using dreamweaver?

In your opinion, where should I start? Which file do i need to edit to change the appearance of the main page? And how do I then keep the design of all subsequent pages consistent?

Is there a way to edit the way in which products ae displayed on the main page? For example, as a list, or a grid?

I'm so sorry to trouble you!

[kuroi]

Recent well-constructed applications such WordPress and Drupal also use the approach that you describe, where chunks of functionality are made available through tags or php variables to be inserted into HTML templates.

Some of the more recent e-commerce carts have also adopted this approach. And with good reason. It's a helpful and intuitive approach for template builders. I'd personally love to see Zen Cart move more this way.

However, there is a drawback. As you have observed these carts tend to be a bit lacking in functionality. It's also unclear how well that approach would work in a truly heavyweight cart like Zen Cart, and the development team are evolving a rather more sophisticated approach to page building to cope with this challenge.

Nevertheless there is already has an analogous approach in Zen Cart in its use of template modules. If you look in the template_default/templates folder you will see a range of files that start "tpl_module" and are used to include blocks of functionality such as product listings or additional images.

[Nick_Sonick]

Thanks again.

Is there some kind of guide that tells you which of these tpl files changes what? And which file to you think I should change first? (ie, which file changes the appearance of the main page layout wise?)

Does the stylesheet only change colours and fonts?

I basically want to replicate the look and functionality of:

http://demo.avactis.com/1.6.0/flowers/

(minus the flowers :) ) But with Zen Cart. would this be hard to do? I just like how clear and well organised everything is.

One more thing, can you have the functionality of a zen sidebox, not in a sidebox? For example, on the link above, the shopping cart is in a table below the header. Could I draw a table and put the code from the sidebox shopping cart file into the table?

Thanks so much!

[Nick_Sonick]

Sorry, one thing i forgot to put in above :)

If I want to do a clean install of Zen Cart on my server, is there a way to back up the customers who have registered, so that they do not have to register again?

Thanks.

[kuroi]

Thanks again.

Is there some kind of guide that tells you which of these tpl files changes what? And which file to you think I should change first? (ie, which file changes the appearance of the main page layout wise?)

Does the stylesheet only change colours and fonts?

I basically want to replicate the look and functionality of:

http://demo.avactis.com/1.6.0/flowers/

(minus the flowers :) ) But with Zen Cart. would this be hard to do? I just like how clear and well organised everything is.

One more thing, can you have the functionality of a zen sidebox, not in a sidebox? For example, on the link above, the shopping cart is in a table below the header. Could I draw a table and put the code from the sidebox shopping cart file into the table?

Thanks so much!

There's nothing that explains that, but I don't think there really needs to be. The filenames themselves are pretty self-explanatory. The one's that you would start with are in the common folder and called tpl_header.php and tpl_footer.php. The tpl_main_page.php file (which deals with everything in between, wouldn't need changing for that design.

Apart from possibly amending the order in which some elements are drawn in the header, the main change that I can see would be add the shopping cart in header mod and most everything else would be done through Admin switches, language files for text and the stylesheet (quite a lot of stylesheet work) and no, it does way more than just control colors and fonts.

Have to say I was shocked that avactis would use a modern approach to templating, but then ruin it by having it produce oodles of nested tables. Theirs is certainly not a ring into which I (or most other self-respecting web designers nowadays) would throw my hat.

[kuroi]

Sorry, one thing i forgot to put in above :)

If I want to do a clean install of Zen Cart on my server, is there a way to back up the customers who have registered, so that they do not have to register again?

Thanks.

Are those customers from a Zen Cart or another cart?

[Nick_Sonick]

Thank you again for your guru-like knowledge :)

The customers I want to back up are in my current installation of Zen Cart. I was enquiring as I want to tidy up my server and SQL database.

Thanks!

[kuroi]

Unless you have reason to believe that there is something wrong with your database (unlikely), I'd just do a backup using Backup MySQL Database and then restore that into your sparkling new Zen Cart. Even if it's from an earlier version (from your earlier posts again unlikely) the upgrade would be straightforward.

If you are feeling more confident and just want to keep the customer tables for restoration to the new database, you could do this through whatever means your web host offers for managing MySQL databases (usually phpMyAdmin) and ensure that you backup and restore the following three tables together: customers, customer_info and address_book.