Tell me this, please

I'm a newbie, and I'm building a website with zencart. I'm not doing any design stuff yet; just loading products and pictures.

I've already discovered that using html in the descriptions makes it far easier to display additional product pictures, etc., and I understand option names, values, attributes, etc (I have E-start your Zen Cart..."in front of me as I go; what I can't figure out, I figure out by trial and error).

I'm sure to have lots of questions as I go.

Here's my first one. I already searched, and can't find anything, so I'm posting this:

My directory structure is mysite/zencart/admin. I don't know if I want the "zen cart" directory to be visible. I might change that directory to "store." Can I do that? Should I do that? Why or why not?

I'm asking that question now, because I am using html links in my product descriptions to render pics of additional products, accessories, etc. I probably ought to resolve this issue now, since the pathnames for the additional images will need adjustment...(and I'd rather not have 500+ find/replace changes to make)

I don't understand the large and medium directories mentioned in the book. I put pictures in there, with the correct suffixes (_LRG, _MED) and those pictures don't show. I'm not too concerned about figuring out why that won't work, because if I can use html and put everything in the images directory, it's all good, you know? Of course, I wouldn't mind knowing how to make the LRG/MED display features work.....

Sorry if that's two questions, but they are related, kind of.

I just figured out (by reading one of the stickies) the large and medium pic. directory/settings question. Disregard that part....

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=122

I went to that link, and that's what I need to do. The first step (after backing everything up, which I did) is to go to admin area, configuration, sessions and change the session directory to the new folder name.

The present session directory is:
/mnt/p3hnas111_data01/p3nlh084/content/k/n/i/knight4122/tmp_defentech/zencart/zen-cart-v1.3.8a-sp-20090619/cache

I want to change the directory from defentech.net/zencart to defentech.net. Period.

The above session directory thing stops me cold. What do I change?
And I haven't even LOOKED at the other files I have to change.

And, if I ever figure that out, then I have to delete the present directories, and FTP over my backed up copy of the zencart directory and rename it defentech. Right?

Seems like a lot of trouble just to have a cleaner address bar.
Can I just change the name zencart directory to "store," like I originally contemplated? That would be clearly less difficult, and I could get on with product uploading.

Comments? I would just change the zencart directory to "store" by altering a few things in the configure.php file, just like you would for changing your admin. name, as mentioned <a href="https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=33">here</a>, right?

I think you're over-complicating this.

Using the tutorial afo referred to, just move all your files and folders to the root of your site (where it belongs, in my opinion), then edit the two configure.php files (includes/configure.php and admin/includes/configure.php) to remove all mentions of the subdirectory (in your case) /zencart.

Then run this:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=82

It really is pretty easy to do. I set them up that way and never had any issues with it.

As for your renaming the /admin file.... you NEED to do this for security reasons. Found that out the hard way. There is a Wiki on how to do it. I'll see if I can find it for you, if not just search in the security section. This is a change I would HIGHLY recommend doing.

I agree (for what that's worth). I already changed the name of my admin. file using the tutorial I mentioned above.

What stops me with this root directory issue is changing the sessions directory in admin.

It doesn't even LOOK like a directory. If I login go to my Admin, and then configurations, and then sessions, the present session directory says this:

/mnt/p3hnas111_data01/p3nlh084/content/k/n/i/knight4122/tmp_defentech/zencart/zen-cart-v1.3.8a-sp-20090619/cache

Do I just change that to this: /mnt/p3hnas111_data01/p3nlh084/content/k/n/i/knight4122/tmp_defentech/zen-cart-v1.3.8a-sp-20090619/cache?

This is the first step in that tutorial I was given. I'm stuck there.

It also says
"If you cannot do this, see the alternate approach in step 5 below."
so I would advise you to continue on to the next step and take care of this in step 5 (the utility stevesh recommended in post 6).
Steps 3 and 4 are the heart of the process, and really not difficult as long as you pay attention to what you are doing.
When you ftp the configure files down to edit, you may need to go into cPanel to reset the permissions to let you ftp them back up to the server (then change back to 444 or whatever they were).

The alternate step requires downloading a program, yet when I click to go to it it goes to the front of the zencart page. No way to download **any **program. Additionally, I don't understand that anyway. Why not change the session directory? You select edit, and edit. So I CAN do that. So that's what I should do, right?

So I took the zen cart reference out like I was asking earlier, and I also changed the admin/includes configure and the includes/configure files. I FTP'd the whole thing to the root directory, renamed it defentech, renamed the original defentech directory something else. Now, when I go to defentech.net, I get nothing. No page loads.

I may just change the "zencart" directory to "store" and deal with it. It's a compromise, but it'll work.

I FTP'd the whole thing to the root directory, renamed it defentech,

You should not try to change the name of the root directory, as that is set up by your host as the location for your domain name to point to.

Hmm... I see that both links in that tutorial are broken, and don't lead where they ought to. That needs to be fixed.

Anyway, stevesh's link does point to the "Fix Cache Key" download.

Another thing - I notice /zen-cart-v1.3.8a-sp-20090619 in the paths you have given. There is no reason for that extra level of subfolder - the folders and files at the same level as /cache/ should be directly in the web root of your site.

I figured out where the hidden download area is, and downloaded the program. I put it in the directory where the index.php file is located, as instucted.

Now I'm supposed to run it.

How?

gjh42:

Hmm... I see that both links in that tutorial are broken, and don't lead where they ought to. That needs to be fixed.

Anyway, stevesh's link does point to the "Fix Cache Key" download.

Another thing - I notice /zen-cart-v1.3.8a-sp-20090619 in the paths you have given. There is no reason for that extra level of subfolder - the folders and files at the same level as /cache/ should be directly in the web root of your site.

I think that whole notation is something my server did. I don't know if thats a directory.

I'm still trying to figure out how to run this troubleshooting program.

I'm tempted to delete everything and reinstall at the right level. But then I have to start over. But I don't want to start over every time I run into a problem.

If I can't figure out how to run this troubleshooting program (and no one else knows) , I'm going to delete everything off my server and start over. I made backup copies of the whole zencart directory (and my database) before I got into this mess.

If I go that route.....

How do I access the product descriptions, etc. in my backup copy?

Is there I way I could "transplant" all the work I've done already into a new ZC installation?

Moving existing information from a folder to the root isn't that complicated. I've done it more than once. It sounds like you might have made things more complicated than necessary, but if you want to install from scratch, this might help.

Leave what you've already done in the /zencart folder alone.

Create a new database for the new installation.

Install Zen Cart in the root (go through the whole installation process). Use the same passwords in the new install as you did in the original.

Backup the existing database (using the phpMyadmin export from your webmaster panel) and restore it to the new database (using the phpMyadmin import from your webmaster panel).

You should be good to go after that and you'll have copy of Zen Cart that you can play around with in your /zencart folder.

If you created your own custom template, you should be able to copy over the files to the new installation.

How do I take the original product descriptions, etc., and copy them to the new zencart copy?

I really don't want to do this if I can get the original running again. But, assuming I can't (nothing works now, and the fix_cache_key.php is doing nothing to change that, as I don't know how to "run" it), I'll have to start from scratch. So importing the old database will salvage all the prior work I did?

To run fix_cache_key.php, just enter its url in your browser (wherever your copy is located) and "go".
It's the same process you would use to look at an image stored on your server.

JDog21:

How do I take the original product descriptions, etc., and copy them to the new zencart copy?

I really don't want to do this if I can get the original running again. But, assuming I can't (nothing works now, and the fix_cache_key.php is doing nothing to change that, as I don't know how to "run" it), I'll have to start from scratch. So importing the old database will salvage all the prior work I did?

The products and product descriptions are all in the database.