How to find help with Zen Cart customization?

Hi there,

I'm a graphic designer that has been hired by my client to revitalize a website that was partially built in zen cart and partially built statically in html. I worked first with the client on a head-to-toe redesign of the static site to match their specifications on the assurance from the client that they had contracted with a zen cart expert who could ensure that my design changes to the static pages would be replicated in the zen cart dynamic pages. Alas, the client was mistaken and their contractor's knowledge is limited to zen cart module customization and not full blown template re-design.

Warning: the client is a adult toy retailer so these links may not be suitable for work.

For reference, the static homepage redesign looks like this: http://www.clairemilligan.com/selfservetoys/index.html. The client envisions the zen cart page navigation and structure to be identical to this homepage with the center gray area replaced by the standard body of a typical zen cart page. (See their current shop layout at http://www.selfservetoys.com/store/vibrators-c-4.html and imagine removing the side bars, header and background to be replaced with the new design)

I've done my due diligence and scoured the forums and it appears to me the consensus is that I should be altering or creating a template for Zen Cart that mirrors any design in my static pages. However, the static page redesign is built and structured using CSS divs and structures I created that aren't called by the Zen Cart code. (While I'm skilled at CSS/html/javascript, I have no familiarity with PHP.) This is where I hit the wall and can't figure out what to do next.

The client is interested in hiring someone who can complete the customization of their Zen Cart to match my redesign if I cannot. How would I go about finding someone to do this? Or do I actually have the skills to do it myself?

Many thanks for your help in this...

Claire

There is no need to have a static home page in html when you can use Zen Cart home page to do the job.

As far as what your looking for, it's a simple template creation that can easily be done by any Zen Cart developer.

You can post in the commercial help section. One of the developer should be able to help you.

I hear you about the static home page and having no need for it and ordinarily I would agree with you, however the client retains a substantial number of pages built statically that are separate from the shop. Apparently the client attempted to use Zen Cart to build some replacements for those pages but were frustrated with the limitations that it placed on them, so the client prefers to keep those pages (about 100 or so) built statically and outside of Zen Cart.

I'll approach the commercial sector of this forum as well - thank you for that note.

If there are some pages that are really difficult to integrate into Zen Cart, fine... but at least 90% of the links I see from the new home page are to what look like they should be shop pages. It seems like it would make more sense to make the home page in Zen Cart, and link to outside pages where really necessary. Blog pages are a prime case of that.

Could you identify some of the pages that were found to be difficult to integrate? Perhaps some here can offer tips on easing that.