New templates? Can't see them.

Hi all

I've just downloaded the latest zencart to try out but can't add templates.

I've done the following:

1. Downloaded a couple of template zips.
2. Unzipped them.
   3)Used Filezilla to copy the unzipped folder across to my Zencart folder, into includes - templates so it sits next to the Classic and template-default folders.
3. Read the README files
4. Logged into Admin on my site.
5. Gone to tools, template selection and clicked everything I can see

but I can't see any new templates. Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong please? Do I need to do something else because I renamed the admin folder as it said to do in the installation notes. I must admit I'm not finding Zencart as easy to use as I thought. A whole morning trying to find out what thousands of people must have done before!! Oh well. I hope it gets easier.

Thanks

Dave

You didn't mention the templates you're trying, but many templates, like most mods, have their folders and files set up so that you would drop the 'includes' folder from the template package to the root of your store, not the templates folder.

It should end up as includes/templates/NEW_TEMPLATE_NAME, and that folder will contain a template_info.php file.

Thanks for the help. I'm having a break and will try this suggestion in a few hours! So, I need to :

a) download the zip on to my PC.
b) unzip the folder on my PC.
c) copy the unzipped folder (and all its contents) to myzencart/includes/templates
d) finally, move the 'includes' file that is inside e.g. myzencart/includes/templates/mynewtemplate to the myzencart directory.

And I need to check with each template as they might vary?

I will succeed ....

c) copy the unzipped folder (and all its contents) to myzencart/includes/templates

Skip this part - you don't want extra files/folders clogging up your system. Just look at the unzipped folder on your pc, and copy (ftp) the /includes/ folder there into the /myzencart/ folder on your server. Then check to see that the new files are in the correct locations.
I haven't heard of any templates that are not organized in their zip under the correct /includes/ folder, though there might be some.

Thanks for the advice.

The problem is this.

I went here: http://(sorry, site offline)/templates.html
and downloaded bluecart premium.

I unzipped it on my PC.

There was one folder inside called includes.

If I copy that over to my root folder as suggested above, I will overwrite the includes folder that already exists there.

The readme file says "1. Copy the "includes" folder in installfiles to your website. There are no files to override. " but to where on my website?

I have no success installing other templates either, except the Pure Black one, which said to upload the unzipped folder and then extract it there, and it works.

Any ideas anyone?

Folders don't overwrite other folders. As long as the template's files are in the correct override folder structure, they will just drop into place alongside the files that are already there.

Any template that has an /includes/ folder should have that ftp'd into the root of your Zen Cart, as it will merge its contents with the existing /includes/ folder.

Ok, many thanks for your help. I appreciate your time.

For the benefit of anyone else trying to install a template:

I've been though many of the templates here: http://(sorry, site offline)/templates.html

It seems that some of them have an 'includes' folder, and you do indeed ftp it across to the root after extracting it on your PC , where it merges not overwrites the existing includes folder.

Some of the templates will only work by copying across the zip to the root and then extracting the zip there.

Some of the templates don't have an includes folder, but have a 'custom' folder or some other description. Of the ones I looked at, you copy across this folder to yourzencart/includes/templates/ and then some of them work and some don't.

One of them (green marble) produced a duplicate classic template!

Some of them just don't plain work - so move on!

Onwards and upwards ....

Just for reference, any template that is shown at (sorry, site offline) does work when correctly installed. This is not saying how tricky it may be to install any of them correctly.