email overrides

I have a question about the various email that can be sent and changing the content of that email.

I am changing the content of the email that is sent from my store to remove the ZenCart logo (sorry folks) and inserting my own for example. My question is, where do I save the changed email files? I've only seen one email directory and that's directly underneath the zencart directory. Assuming the override system works with email also, there must be a way of keeping the original files intact on the server. I do maintain all the original files locally as well as my modified files.

The /email/ folder is the place where all your rich-text (HTML) email layout templates are stored.
There are presently only language-specific overrides there, so if you're only using one language, you'll just edit the files in that folder.
And, to change the logo shown, the simplest way is just to replace the content of the existing /email/header.jpg file. Naturally, you can get more elaborate than that, which would involve editing all relevant email templates in that folder.

So any changes that are made to the files in /email/ will be lost if the an upgrade is made? Meaning there is no real override for this folder?

Also, it appears that the txt emails are just formed from various defines in php files???

yes and yes

I too am a little confused on how to change the text in the email templates. I purchased the book advertised on ZenCart; e-start your web store with Zen Cart. So far it is great, a lot of help. But I cannot figure out how to change the text in emails sent to customers to be what I want it to say.

In the book, on page 49 it says. "to customize the text in any
emails, you should go through the section [of this book] “The Template Override System” before returning to this page because that section shows you** how to utilize the Override System to edit files properly** and also covers some of the terminology we shall be using in this section."

I checked out that part of the book, page 286, and it talks about the override system, but says absolutely nothing about where it is and how to use it.

I have also read the part about the Developers Tool Kit, but that only shows you the line where the changeable text is, but when you open the respective file up in an editor, that line is not there, just $EMAIL_WELCOME, or whatever the case may be. You can't see the text you need to change.

Help!!:cry:

Changing the header image and changing the text are two different animals. While changing the header image is done by editing the files in the /email folder and there is no overrrides system, changing the text is done by editing the associated language files and there is an overrides system:

includes/languages/english/your_template/checkout_process.php

define('EMAIL_THANKS_FOR_SHOPPING'

includes/languages/english/your_template/create_account.php

define('EMAIL_TEXT'

Sorry about that. I did a search and read quite a few threads on the subject and not one fully answered the question. I got confused as to which one I was replying to. But I thank you for your answer. It is a little closer to what I want. Please, I am a worthless newbie. Could you be specific as to HOW to do the change, step by step. Or direct me to a thread that is step by step.

FukienMan:

Sorry about that. I did a search and read quite a few threads on the subject and not one fully answered the question. I got confused as to which one I was replying to. But I thank you for your answer. It is a little closer to what I want. Please, I am a worthless newbie. Could you be specific as to HOW to do the change, step by step. Or direct me to a thread that is step by step.

Download the files I've listed above, one set to a folder named "backup", and another set to a folder named "edit". Open one of the files from the "edit" folder with a plain text editor. I'll use checkout_process.php as the example.

define('EMAIL_TEXT_SUBJECT', 'Order Confirmation');
define('EMAIL_TEXT_HEADER', 'Order Confirmation');
define('EMAIL_TEXT_FROM',' from '); //added to the EMAIL_TEXT_HEADER, above on text-only emails
define('EMAIL_THANKS_FOR_SHOPPING',' Thanks for shopping with us today! ');
define('EMAIL_DETAILS_FOLLOW','The following are the details of your order.');
define('EMAIL_TEXT_ORDER_NUMBER', 'Order Number:');
...

The text in red is what you would change. After you've made your changes upload the file to includes/languages/english/your_template/

If you screw up, just upload the file from the backup folder you created.

Thank you RescoCCC, that is exactly what I needed. I hope this is helpful to others as well.

You're welcome. It wasn't that long ago that I was asking similar questions.

split63:

So any changes that are made to the files in /email/ will be lost if the an upgrade is made? Meaning there is no real override for this folder?

Got everything working fine with email text. Thanks to all for help.
One question about the email header logo. If you change the logo (header.jpg) to be your own header with the same file name, how likely is it that this file will be changed back to the original header.jpg with the next Zen upgrade??? If it is, then what is the answer? Changing the file name to something the upgrade won't touch? Such as header2.jpg. Then you have to edit all the email templates (.html) in the /email directory to reflect this new file name for the logo. Right? What keeps those changes from getting overwritten with the next upgrade? Since you can't use the override system with the /email directory. Boy that makes no since. You would have to change your email logo back to yours every time they do an upgrade. Right? Seems like they would allow you to make an override on the /email directory.

It takes about two clicks in your FTP program to re-upload your own logo. In fact, that would be one of the easiest things involved in upgrading. Before you do any upgrade, one of the things you need to do is make a list of all the customizations you've made, and the other is backup everything.