Shopping Cart

I'm going to add shopping cart to my website. I haven't found information detailed enough for me to learn how to do the installation. Can someone point me to the right direction? Thanks,

Warren

What do you think you need to know to do the installation? Do you have a tool to create a database and get its username and password? Do you have a host and server access? Your host should be able to help you with the DB, as we don't know your particular setup.
Beyond that, the installer walks you through the entire installation process, checking for all required server configurations. If something is missing, it will tell you.

Two things on the top of my head:

1. How to locate the software, activate the shopping cart; of course setting up database and acquiring user/password etc are part of the work.

2. Where to send a user to once the Add Cart button is depressed.

I suspect the shopping cart is very much embedded deeply inside ZenCart and that's why not much talk about it.

Warren

I think you are misunderstanding something, not sure what.

How to locate the software, activate the shopping cart;

You download the software to your PC using the link on the zen-cart.com homepage, unzip it and upload the complete fileset to your host. On the hosting server, you run the installer by following the directions in the readme and install files packaged with the fileset.

Where to send a user to once the Add Cart button is depressed.

This is part of the Zen Cart system - you don't "send" the user anywhere, Zen Cart does what it needs to do automatically. Or are you thinking you will have an add to cart button on a non-Zen Cart page? That is not the way it works.

The shopping cart page is an integral part of Zen Cart, and there is plenty of talk about various aspects of it.

If you have not yet learned these basic facts about Zen Cart, you need to read about installing in the tutorials at the top of the page. You may be over-thinking things and worrying about processes you haven't gotten to yet; most of these will become obvious when you get there.

I went to a few live showcase shops and found out you buy products the same old way. You click on a product to get detailed information. You press a button, an icon or whatever to add a product to the cart. The clicking takes you to the shopping cart page and on and on. Frankly I feel more comfortable since I don't need to tell customers do something differently from the good old way. So what I need to know is how to take a customer to the shopping cart page and how a product needs to be specified in order for the shopping to pull the right info and finally how to get to the checkout page to complete a sale.

Warren

Zen Cart isn't a back end operation. It will run your entire site. You can't use just the shopping cart/checkout function alone.

O.K. I heard about a lot of what I don't know. How do I get out this dummy state? Tell me where to start. I understand each system comes with a different concept in my 37 years of computer software career. Believe, it's nothing new. Please tell me how to do things. I may have to define products a certain way to just get a button to show up. Fine. I'll follow it. Thanks,

Warren

Let's go back to the beginning. The best way to use Zen Cart is to allow it to run your entire site. You define the categories and products within Zen Cart. The add to cart functionality should be created automatically once you do that. Zen Cart is not just a shopping cart you can add on to a site and create "add to cart" buttons. It's a much more sophicated piece of software.

That said, exactly what are you trying to accomplish?

You have asked some specific questions which we find confusing, perhaps because you are looking at the whole system from a non-standard approach. How about if you step back and describe to us the big picture of how you are expecting your website to work, and what software you have installed or pages you have built already.

My new website will be selling printer cartridge/toners. Since not many people memorize the part numbers of the toners they use,
I let them select up a printer manufacturer first followed by selecting a printer from a list of printers. Finally all toners/cartridges for that printer are presented. I figured all I need just to invoke the shopping cart to do the work and an "Add To Cart" button is needed to do the rest. By the same token, I need a Check Out button to allow a customer to check out easily.

Since I don't expect any system supports the product selection process I have, I just wrote my own code for the selection. I have no fear for writing software with my way too much 37 years in the software development. I could sneak in the back door if I'm really desperate I know if I know where the code is. However if there is a easier way you know, I'll rather do it your way.

Warren

BTW, you can take a look at my prliminary work "http://www.gowarrengo.com/zencart."

Warren

Top level categories are the manufacturers.

Sub-categories are the printers.

Products are the ink and toners.

If multiple printers use the same ink and toners, products can be linked to other sub-categories.

I'm not sure if that's helpful or more confusing. :blink:

It's definitely more helpful. I have one more step which might help. Customers pick by the part numbers from manufacturers. We find the compatible products to show them. Only the cartridges/toners we have are considered products.

Warren

Also, not only a product can be used by multiple printers by different manufacturers, but a printer usually have multiple cartridges/toners to use. I think I understand your approach. Just have my products defined ZenCart's way, and use their product display tools. One major reason for my approach is the speed getting data out of the database.

Warren

I have another way looking at my problem. Strictly speacking the product selection just simply identifies what a customer need. Can I tell zen Cart here is my product and please show it your way with an "Add t Cart" button. But I guess Zen Cart won't let me request for product display knowing their philosophy now. Will they?

Warren

You have created a big Javascript on the Zen Cart homepage which essentially appears to duplicate the categories/subcategories display and search functions built into ZC (of course, anybody who has js turned off will not be able to use your site at all). Try out the native functionality, and then if some part of it doesn't work quite right for you, you can tweak that instead of building the whole thing from scratch. Other people have built ZC sites for the same products, and questions you have may already be covered in forum posts.

Well I'm glad to see that. However the search part is a little bit unique. We allow any search terms and we make a guess fom unknown search term. It might need my own code their.

Warren

OK, adding improved functionality to the search is a reasonable desire. You may be able to extend the built-in search, so that you take advantage of database integrations that are part of it without having to come up with them yourself.

O.K., I'll try what you suggest. I'll kep you posted.

Warren

I actually have 4 levels of product classifification: manufacturer, printer series, printer model and toners. Can Zen Cart handles 4 levels or just 3?

Warren