Basic 'simple button to URL in sidebox - HowTo Example needed

I have created a sidebox that I want to but some basic/simple buttons, like the search button in the search sidebox. My problem is I'm a novice at PHP programming (I am an experience programmer I just don't know PHP that well yet) and I'm having some problems understanding what I'm seeing in the see, so I'm asking for a good explination of just what is going on in tpl_search.php.

All my button needs to do is a simple href to an external URL like https://www.google.com.

Do you want a button to an external URL, or do you want some sort of search function attached to it?

I just want a button to an send the user to an external URL when pressed. I'm using it to send my users to our Forum support site: audiobookstownsquare.yuku.com

I'm looking for the simplest, cleanest way to do this is a sidebox because I will be adding other links to other places later.

If you want this separate from the existing sideboxes, you can install the Blank Sidebox mod and put your button code in it.

If you don't want the button in a box, you can hide the box heading and border in your stylesheet, using the box id to limit the effect to that box.

Yes, I understand that, but what is the code I put in the sidebox to create the button itself? That's what I need to understand, know.

Use simple HTML -

<a href="YOUR_URL"><img src="path_to_your_image.gif" /></a>

thanks, any idea how I could get the button type used in the search sidebox, or is it a gif too?

You can use a GIF, JPG or PNG image

Newbie question time: How do you figure out the path to a graphic. I have tried <img src="free.gif" /> with the free.gif in the images folder in the same level as the sidebox folder that has the sidebox php file with the code and I see nothing. As you can see in the code below I'm using the Blank Sidebox as a starting point.

<?php
/**
 * blank sidebox - allows a blank sidebox to be added to your site
 *
 * @package templateSystem
 * @copyright 2007 Kuroi Web Design
  * @copyright Portions Copyright 2003-2007 Zen Cart Development Team
 * @license [url]http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt[/url] GNU Public License V2.0
 * @version $Id: blank_sidebox.php 2007-05-26 kuroi $
 */

  $content = '';
  $content .= '<div id="' . str_replace('_', '-', $box_id . 'Content') . '" class="sideBoxContent">';
  $content .= '<a href="http://audiobookstownsquare.yuku.com"><img src="free.gif" /></a>';
 
  $content .= '</div>';
?>

You'll need the path in the img tag. A relative path would be: <img src="../images/free.gif"> That's two dots before the slash. You can also put in the entire path (http:// etc.), but you can run into problems on secured pages that way.

And that (../images/free.gif) would be the path to an image in the correct template image folder, /includes/templates/your_template/images/free.gif.

The /images/ folder in the root of the Zen Cart installation is intended mainly for product images, while template-specific images go in the template folder.

gjh42:

And that (../images/free.gif) would be the path to an image in the correct template image folder, /includes/templates/your_template/images/free.gif.

The /images/ folder in the root of the Zen Cart installation is intended mainly for product images, while template-specific images go in the template folder.

It is the browser that resolves the relative URL reference, so:

from the page at www.example.com/zencart/index.php?some-parameters the reference "../images/free.gif" points to www.example.com/images/free.gif.

and

from the page at www.example.com/index.php?some-parameters the reference "../images/free.gif" points to www.example.com/../images/free.gif.

Neither of those are what you want.

I can't stress enough that simply linking to images using "/zencart/images/free.gif" and "/images/free.gif" references with a leading slash simplifies everything instantly.

In that case, template images are referred to using "/zencart/includes/templates/your_template/images/free.gif" and "/includes/templates/your_template/images/free.gif" references.