Embedding zencart within another website?

19 Jun 2009, 10:33 PM

#1

New Zenner

Join Date:: Jun 2009
Posts:: 8
Plugin Contributions:: 0

Embedding zencart within another website?

I've just started Zencart and was wondering if it would even be possible to in essence, place my entire zencart page inside the table of another page.

Here is a quick PS I did. I want to place my zencart inside the table that is highlighted red.

Is this possible and how hard is it? Cause I either need to create a sidebar that has the navigation pane that you see on the right, or put the zencart inside the current website. And I am not a web guy by trade, I'm networking, but I have to wear lots of hats. Thanks guys!

http://nappyjim.com/zen.jpg

19 Jun 2009, 11:15 PM

#2

niccol

Totally Zenned

Join Date:: Apr 2009
Posts:: 2,138
Plugin Contributions:: 1

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

nappyjim:

I've just started Zencart and was wondering if it would even be possible to in essence, place my entire zencart page inside the table of another page.

Here is a quick PS I did. I want to place my zencart inside the table that is highlighted red.

Is this possible and how hard is it? Cause I either need to create a sidebar that has the navigation pane that you see on the right, or put the zencart inside the current website. And I am not a web guy by trade, I'm networking, but I have to wear lots of hats. Thanks guys!

Out of the two options I would say that creating a sidebox for Zen Cart that has the links that you require is much easier.

20 Jun 2009, 9:13 PM

#3

schoolboy

Totally Zenned

Join Date:: Jun 2005
Location:: Cumbria, UK
Posts:: 10,327
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Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

Zencart is designed to be your website, because the front and back ends of the site are intricately woven together. Zencart is not easily configured to be just the "engine" for your e-commerce. In fact, you would really need to re-write most of the code!

But 1.3.8a is extremely flexible in terms of how it can be laid out and most website designs can be re-created in zencart.

21 Jun 2009, 6:12 PM

#4

z3nn3d

New Zenner

Join Date:: Jun 2009
Location:: Porthleven, Cornwall, UK
Posts:: 43
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Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

You can always embed your Zen cart into an <iframe> within a table structure.
I've created a quick demo page at http://zenned.co.uk/testbed/

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>Embed Zen Cart</title>
</head>
<body>
<table border="0" width="100%" id="table1">
	<tr>
		<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#62D292"><font size="6" face="Verdana">My 
		Website</font></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td valign="top"><iframe src="index.php" width="900" height="750" frameborder="0"> </iframe></td>
		<td width="234" valign="top">
		<table border="1" width="100%" id="table2" bgcolor="#62D292" bordercolor="#FFFFFF">
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td> </td>
			</tr>
		</table>
		</td>
	</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

21 Jun 2009, 6:17 PM

#5

merlinpa1969

Totally Zenned

Join Date:: Mar 2004
Posts:: 13,031
Plugin Contributions:: 4

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

You can use the Iframe thats true

however you will NOT get any indexing,
you will have a bit of a time with any payment or shipping mods that need to call out

paypal IPN for instance dosnt work right

best to use zen cart for the store and build your nav table in the right column ( there is a blank sidebox mod for this )

22 Jun 2009, 11:13 AM

#6

schoolboy

Totally Zenned

Join Date:: Jun 2005
Location:: Cumbria, UK
Posts:: 10,327
Plugin Contributions:: 0

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

Z3NN3D:

You can always embed your Zen cart into an <iframe> within a table structure.

I completely disagree... this is a BAD idea.

Merlin alludes to a couple of issues (- most payment gateways just will not work, they will reject transaction requests out of an i-frame), but there are many more potential problems - performance and security issues included!

22 Jun 2009, 12:01 PM

#7

niccol

Totally Zenned

Join Date:: Apr 2009
Posts:: 2,138
Plugin Contributions:: 1

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

And without wanting to labour the point - it is very easy to make a Zen Cart page look exactly like the example above. So why step into territory that is fraught with danger.

Both schoolboy and merlin are talking at a level above my head but even I could make a page that looked like the example. I would take their advice and spend my time on styling and let the default Zen Cart set up deal with security and payment issues.

They will both look the same. One route is easy and safe. The other is difficult and unsafe. Your choice. :smile:

22 Jun 2009, 2:51 PM

#8

nappyjim

New Zenner

Join Date:: Jun 2009
Posts:: 8
Plugin Contributions:: 0

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

Thanks for the responses and options. I think I will try to make Zen look like my site as it would not be useful if customers could not securely checkout.

Will I need to know PHP in order to make a sidebox to match my navigation pane? Or can I just take the code that makes up the navi pane and copy/paste it?

22 Jun 2009, 4:01 PM

#9

niccol

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Join Date:: Apr 2009
Posts:: 2,138
Plugin Contributions:: 1

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

Have a look at the blank sidebox mod that merlin spoke of earlier -

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=174

22 Jun 2009, 7:44 PM

#10

stevesh

Black Belt

Join Date:: Feb 2005
Location:: Lansing, Michigan USA
Posts:: 19,793
Plugin Contributions:: 2

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

I have no PHP progarmming ability, and have used the Blank Sidebox mod (and Zencart itself, for that matter) many times.

22 Jun 2009, 10:02 PM

#11

schoolboy

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Join Date:: Jun 2005
Location:: Cumbria, UK
Posts:: 10,327
Plugin Contributions:: 0

Re: Embedding zencart within another website?

You can use EZpages links (both internal and external).. Much easier. I have combined sites full of HTML pages and core php pages and you would not know the difference unless you looked at the URL in the address bar.