Wordpress On ZC [Support Thread]

[DivaVocals]

This was obviously the most important of my concerns, and luckily, there was an easy fix. Just backup /index.php and everything in the folder wp-content/themes/default and then restore these files after the automatic update. Pretty simple to do!

There may be a few little hiccups in WOZ, but overall, it works pretty darn well! The only thing I couldn't get to work were widgets -- you have to stick with the standard sidebar. However, WP is well documented so its pretty easy to figure out how to customize the sidebar manually. I am pleased! :)

Interesting.. Never had any issues with updating WP using WOZ once Kiddo posted her fix.. I also have not had any issues the widgets working with WOZ.. The "SideBar" sidebox displays them all correctly.. The sideboxes have ALWAYS worked (with the exception of that "sidebox positioning" issue I've posted about previously..)

I'm curious... Which version of WOZ are you using?? 1.3 or 1.4??

[DivaVocals]

So small change made, and it all works now.. Yeah the "fix" shoulda been OBVIOUS but when you start a project at 1am after a long day with kids.. (especially a long day with kids who are NOT yours..) well 'nuff said..

Anyway I got the Numinix solution installed.. I can see now that I've installed it why it would not work with the WOZ Sideboxes Only solution before I even TRY pairing these two together.. (shoulda seen this too I guess before I opened my big mouth and suggested pairing these two up..)

IMO if I can get blog content sideboxes to work with the Numinix solution, then WOZ will be a done deal for me.. Except for my dumb a$$ed mistake earlier, the Numinix solution was MUCH easier to setup than WOZ, and it WORKS without any strange quirks.. It just needs the addition of Zen Cart sideboxes IMO.

Why?? Now this IS one thing Hira took into account when creating WOZ, and why he included sideboxes in the WOZ solution.. Because IMO the WordPress blog being embedded along with the blog posts is esthetically not very useful nor is it a good user experience if the only way to get to the blog widget content is through an embedded blog.

I believe that I may be able to use the Admin Editable sideboxes contribution to create sideboxes to go with the Numinix solution using the WordPress loop to bring in the blog content I want to appear in each sidebox... However.. That will be an experiment for another long weekend when I have time to test and play..

If anyone else wants to play on their own, here's some links regarding the WordPress Loop:

http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags
http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop_in_Action
http://perishablepress.com/press/200...oop-templates/
http://perishablepress.com/press/200...mber-of-posts/
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/arc...ordpress-loop/

doh!! Disregard my last post.. Sitting at the ESPN Sports Zone watchin' the Daytona 500 and suddenly the stupidity of my error came to me.. Gonna try makin' a small change to my .htaccess file when I get home.. Shoulda been obvious.. unfortunately late night work usually means the obvious will get overlooked.. **sigh**
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So FINALLY have time to install and test the Numinix blog embedding solution... I wanted to try and get the WOZ sideboxes to work with this embedding solution.. I have posted a comment on the Numinix blog (not on his forum) but my comment(s) are marked "Your comment is awaiting moderation" so I'm not sure he's seen it yet.. So in the meantime, I decided to post here hoping someone here has run into this and can help..

I am getting a 404 error when you access the blog, and after rechecking EVERYTHING I am plum out of ideas what went wrong.. Has anyone else had 404 errors with this solution?? I saw posts about blank pages, but not 404 errors.. Hoping I can get a hand/hint about what I might have done wrong from anyone who had the same issue..


Zen Cart address (URL) http://clients.overthehillweb.com/testsite/
Wordpress address (URL) to http://clients.overthehillweb.com/testsite/wordpress
Blog address (URL) http://clients.overthehillweb.com/testsite/blog


====================================
Opened includes/wordpress_page.php and changed

require(‘../wordpress/wp-blog-header.php’); 

to

require(‘wordpress/wp-blog-header.php’); 

====================================


.htaccess file used is as follows: (I tried BOTH versions of the last line.. NEITHER seems to make a difference)

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^blog(.*)$ /index.php?main_page=blog&$1 [E=VAR1:$1,QSA,L]
#RewriteRule ^blog(.*)$ /index.php?main_page=blog$1 [L]

This does NOT work when the URL is: http://clients.overthehillweb.com/testsite/blog (I get a 404 error)

Here's the specific error I get:
I can get the main blog page to display when the URL is: http://clients.overthehillweb.com/te...main_page=blog. However, the blog links from here all get the 404 error. For example: http://clients.overthehillweb.com/te...log/?page_id=2

I’ve double and triple, and quadruple checked EVERYTHING.. Dunno what could I be missing..

Posted via Mobile Device

[DivaVocals]

So as promised I wanted to post detailed instructions on how to place WordPress blog posts on the front page of your store. No offense to the member who shared the quoted information originally, but I felt that the instructions posted to execute this were a little unclear.. So I tested this myself today, and wanted to share my results (and a down and dirty how-to) with the community.

This solution is a good example of how to make use of the WordPress Loop (see my post above).. The WordPress Loop allows you to call WordPress content on non WordPress pages..

Here is the code previously posted (with a few MINOR mods):

<?php
// Include Wordpress
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('/home/website/public_html/blog/wp-load.php');
query_posts('showposts=3');
?>

<?php while (have_posts()): the_post(); ?>
<font size=3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></font><br>
<?php endwhile; ?>

Please note the section highlighted in red. This needs to be modified to the ABSOLUTE path to your WordPress blog. Please search through this thread for the term "absolute path", there are few posts which explain how to find the absolute path to your WordPress blog.

The code should be added to the define_main_page.php using the define pages editor (Admin > Tools > Define Pages Editor). You MUST use either the Plain Text Editor OR using the HTML view of your WYSIWYG editor when adding PHP code to a defined page.. and before anyone asks, NO you CANNOT use this code on an EZ Page. EZ Pages do not support adding PHP code to them..

You could also use the Admin Editable sideboxes (the mod which allows you to edit sidebox content using associated defined pages) and create a sidebox with this same code to create a sidebox which contains blog content.

Now the disclaimer: I HAVE NOT TESTED THIS WITH WOZ.. However, I believe that this same code can be used with WOZ as well. In fact there is a previous post from Misty that leads me to believe this will work with WOZ: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=717

Hope this information is of use to others..

I understand that, and I did look at your posts.. lol

However, there are other ways to add content to the main page which is why I was trying to get specific details on what you did.. But thanks anyway for your help.. I'm sure that I'll get it all figured out anyway, and as always I'll share my results with the community.. lol

Look back over my previous posts. I was pretty detailed and gave explanations..... lol

It doesn't matter whether you use a simple text editer or the define page tool. Just put the language in the body of that file.

I'm not clear how WHERE you did this, and that's what I am trying to get clarification on.. Are you are saying you added this code to the main page using the define pages editor???

That's what made this so nice and clean. Right in define main:

<font size=4><b><a href="http://www.OurCollegeTown.net/blog">Latest Mercer News:</a></b></font><br><?php
// Include Wordpress
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('/home/website/public_html/blog/wp-load.php');
query_posts('showposts=3');
?>
<?php while (have_posts()): the_post(); ?>
<font size=3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?> - </font><font size=0> More</font></a><br>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<a href="http://www.OurCollegeTown.net/blog">More Mercer News...</a><p>

One more question.. Which file specifically did you add the code that calls the WordPress blogs posts on your front page??

[misty]

NO you CANNOT use this code on an EZ Page. EZ Pages do not support adding PHP code to them..

Yes you can i.e.
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...348#post219348

[DivaVocals]

Yes you can i.e.
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...348#post219348

Perhaps... So let me be explicitly clear about what I meant by my earlier statement.. WITHOUT a modification to the tpl_page_default.php as outlined in the post previously referenced, you cannot add PHP code to EZ Pages. I presume that only those who are more comfortable modifying core files might attempt making these kinds of changes.. However, I suspect that many DIY store owners will not feel comfortable going down this road, hence the suggestion in my earlier post.

Personally for me these posts by DrByte and others like it I've read elsewhere on this forum is why I would be cautious about doing this: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpo...73&postcount=9
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpo...5&postcount=57

[cslakans]

Somebody's had a very busy weekend between kid watching, races, and finding a cure to the worldwide blog/sidebox epidemic in Zen Cart! How do you do it DivaVocals? I think it needs an official name to make a distinction for the embedded blog with the sidebox not embedded compared to others..how bout blogbox? small pox...blog box.... Or if this epidemic is cured by DivaVocals then VocalBox

[misty]

Understood; several zencart mods require alterations to core zencart files...depends how badly you wish to use mods/changes...

[DivaVocals]

Understood; several zencart mods require alterations to core zencart files...depends how badly you wish to use mods/changes...

Got it , but for most DIYers I figured (assumed) that this may be more of a change than they need/want to make just to simply add blog posts to the main defined page (or another defined page)..

[DivaVocals]

Somebody's had a very busy weekend between kid watching, races, and finding a cure to the worldwide blog/sidebox epidemic in Zen Cart! How do you do it DivaVocals? I think it needs an official name to make a distinction for the embedded blog with the sidebox not embedded compared to others..how bout blogbox? small pox...blog box.... Or if this epidemic is cured by DivaVocals then VocalBox

You are VERY funny!!! I'm happy now.. After a little over two years, I now have a FUNCTIONAL (non quirky) blog embedding solution and a direction for how to add matching sideboxes to the mix. Still tweaking stuff, and I'm gonna post some follow-up thoughts on the CSS and styling aspects of using the Numinix embedding solution..

I am seeking FULL flexibility for WordPress/Zen Cart solutions.. I think it's important. Along the way I've changed my views on embedded blogs. I can see their usefulness on many fronts. I don't think there is a BEST option only one that works best on a site by site basis.. Besides like I posted a day or two back, I don't want to tell a client they can't have something (like an embedded blog) simply because I think it's unimportant or because I don't know how to do it..

• Separate blog with Zen Cart sideboxes
• Separate blog with Zen Cart sideboxes and an RSS feed on the home page (or another Zen Cart page)
• Embedded blog with Zen Cart sideboxes
• Embedded blog with Zen Cart sideboxes and an RSS feed on the home page (or another Zen Cart page)

I wanted something that doesn't have any quirkiness that I must "workaround". (Like sideboxes that can only be positioned on the lefthand side or incompatibilities with SEO modules) Like I said.. WOZ is a nice idea, but it has always been problematic from the day I started messing with it.. (and based on this thread, I'm not alone..)

[awesome]

Not if this is a WORDPRESS plugin that embeds an existing e-commerce site (like Zen Cart) into a WordPress blog.. (much in the same way that this thread is dedicated to a module which embeds your blog into a Zen Cart site -- Which does NOT require you to load your blog posts in two locations)

I read that as using the wp-ecommerce plugin from Instinct ( http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/ ) which creates tables in your wordpress database to store your product and other store info. It would be counter productive to use that plugin and use zencart on the same site.

I had been using the wp-ecommerce plugin, but had multiple issues with it since they don't seem to be able to keep up with the WP upgrades.