Adding buy now button to existing website?

Newbie here having problems figuring out where the code is to add to existing website for the buy now button for each item in Zen Cart,
I am hoping that I can use my existing website but am really struggling here.
I have the newest version of Zen Cart installed 3 days ago, working on a macbook pro if that makes a difference.

I think I posted this same issue to a wrong place so here goes again,,, so sorry,,,,,,,,, I want to add order buttons to my existing website, how do I do this?????

Zen Cart is NOT designed to operate in that manner, it is a full ecommerce solution that is meant to be your primary site.

Thank you Kim,
I had a feeling that was the issue but not to happy about that because now I have to figure out how to recreate the website using Zen Cart, I ordered the book today that you have the link to, but if you have any links to any tutorials on how to change the the layout of my Zen cart website please post it.

Post a link to your site if you have it hosted other than locally, and we might be able to offer advice.

^^ Top of the page in the orange bar - link to tutorials/FAQ - It's a good place to get started.

stevesh:

Post a link to your site if you have it hosted other than locally, and we might be able to offer advice.

https://www.mjstack.com

The book is great for the technical workings of zen cart - but the design aspect is not covered.

Your zen cart can be styled to look very similar to what you have now - editing the stylesheet, images, etc.. will get you started in the right direction.

Tina

In the Free Software Add Ons you can search for easyEmbed, which is a module that might help with what you want do.

stevesh:

Post a link to your site if you have it hosted other than locally, and we might be able to offer advice.

Hi Stevesh,

I have a site now that is fairly simple and I have built a cart for it with zen cart. I am at the point where I wanted to add a "Buy Now" link from my site products (fine wine) to the Cart.

But now I read that it would be better to have the whole site be done in Zen Cart! Can you advise me on this.
Here is my url

https://www.ashtonwines.com

I can send a PM to you with the prototype of the cart.

Thanks,
Stephen
[email protected]

I'll almost always recommend making Zencart your whole site, especially if your current site is as simple as yours. Adding a cart script to an existing site can be a chore, and often looks kind of slapdash.

If you want to keep the same look, it wouldn't be difficult to do in Zencart. Using Zencart also gives you a lot of features you may not need now, but that might be handy down the road.

stevesh:

I'll almost always recommend making Zencart your whole site, especially if your current site is as simple as yours. Adding a cart script to an existing site can be a chore, and often looks kind of slapdash.

If you want to keep the same look, it wouldn't be difficult to do in Zencart. Using Zencart also gives you a lot of features you may not need now, but that might be handy down the road.

Great. So how would I go about setting up ZC to be like my site, which is php as it is.?

Will my menu system be applicable?

Now I have the cart linked to the Buy Now Page of my site, although I still need to add a button. the first sentence is linked to the cart.

How would you recommend configuring everything to ZC?

Just install Zencart separately, and style it to look like your current site, if that's what you want. I'm of the opinion websites should be restyled regularly anyway.

I don't know what your menu system is, but by using Zencart as your site, none of the function of your current site will be involved.

The overall layout of your site is spare and elegant, but the details (menu especially) look a bit crude. You could easily recreate a similar (sharpened-up) look in Zen Cart, with the ez-page sidebox menu replacing your menu and pointing to all the pages you want, including product pages. You can easily create the information pages with ez-pages. You don't need the dynamic categories menu now, with the small and slowly-changing product list.

gjh42:

The overall layout of your site is spare and elegant, but the details (menu especially) look a bit crude. You could easily recreate a similar (sharpened-up) look in Zen Cart, with the ez-page sidebox menu replacing your menu and pointing to all the pages you want, including product pages. You can easily create the information pages with ez-pages. You don't need the dynamic categories menu now, with the small and slowly-changing product list.

Thank you both for taking a look and recommendations! True, we only produce a few releases a year. But the convention of a dynamic menu is pretty cool for people who are used to this, right?
Is there a dynamic menu that you would suggest?

What steps would you take to convert my current site to the zen cart 'shop' I have now?

Thanks so much!

@filmlover - my comments were general, and I think Glenn was replying to the OP.

I'd be glad to take a look at your site to advise about recreating it in Zencart, but we'll need a link.

gjh42:

The overall layout of your site is spare and elegant, but the details (menu especially) look a bit crude. You could easily recreate a similar (sharpened-up) look in Zen Cart, with the ez-page sidebox menu replacing your menu and pointing to all the pages you want, including product pages. You can easily create the information pages with ez-pages. You don't need the dynamic categories menu now, with the small and slowly-changing product list.

Sure thing:
https://www.ashtonwines.com

and on the Buy Now page there is link on the first lines of text it connects to the shop.

By "dynamic menu" I meant one that automatically shows the current categories. There is no difference in appearance to the customer between that and the ez-pages menu. It would be possible to hide the trim of the categories sidebox so it appears seamless with the ez-pages menu sidebox.

The first steps to convert your ZC site to look like your original site would be to turn off the right sidebar and adjust the width of the left (Configuration > Layout Settings), turn off most of the sideboxes in Tools > Layout Boxes Controller, and change the width of #mainWrapper in your stylesheet. The sidebox styling can also be changed in the stylesheet.

gjh42:

By "dynamic menu" I meant one that automatically shows the current categories. There is no difference in appearance to the customer between that and the ez-pages menu. It would be possible to hide the trim of the categories sidebox so it appears seamless with the ez-pages menu sidebox.

The first steps to convert your ZC site to look like your original site would be to turn off the right sidebar and adjust the width of the left (Configuration > Layout Settings), turn off most of the sideboxes in Tools > Layout Boxes Controller, and change the width of #mainWrapper in your stylesheet. The sidebox styling can also be changed in the stylesheet.

Can you make EZ pages be shown like my Menu? I like the idea of the user being able to go down to particular pages (as with a dropdown or flyout menu) without having to open a page, then click on another link, etc. until they get to the page they want.

Do you know what I am trying to say?
eg. Can we use horiz. or vertical menus in zc?

How?

Search the Free Software Add Ons (link above) for flyout.