Some help with redesigning left cat menu & cart update

Hey everyone

Just after some help and advice please if you don't mind helping!

I've been spending too much time trying to figure it out alone when I just need to post the problems on here and will get the help much quicker!

Ok, firsty, I have re-skinned a zen-cart template I purchased from templatemonster. I am fine with design tasks but any coding etc just baffles me!

I must say first that this website of mine is to do with the sale of 'adult products' so should you not wish to check the site, it's cool but just feel it's fair to let you know first. :shocking:

So anyway, first question is how would one re-design the whole left menu? the catergory tabs? It looks very ugly and I have already designed how I want it to look in photoshop but just need to know where I look to alter it, which php files and how to make it use rollover images etc?

Check here to see what I mean: https://www.adultattic.co.uk

2nd, if you were to click on a product and add it to the cart, you will notice the top left 'cart' area updates with your product in. I once again think it looks very ugly and clunky, and would rather it just update with '1 item' in your cart and not display the actual product. Is this poss? and if not how do I edit the text size instead and change it to lowercase as it's all uppercase at present.

There will be a few more coming but for now if anyone could help me with these it'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all :D

Template Monster is the worst choice for a template
Search this forum them and the issues they cause by coding their templates outside of normal functionality

Your best option is to contact them

kobra:

Template Monster is the worst choice for a template
Search this forum them and the issues they cause by coding their templates outside of normal functionality

Your best option is to contact them

Yeah you are right, I did contact them and they take forever replying and are pretty useless lol.

It is too late as it was one purchased a while ago for a family members site so I've just reskinned it all really

What would the usual php files be for to edit the left cat menu though? found in the includes folder or is it within my template? see link for my basic directory on ftp:

http://www.adultattic.co.uk/includes/templates/theme413/images/directory.jpg

The left menu is not categories-tabs but the categories sidebox. If you want to use rollovers, your best bet is to install Categories Dressing which includes that feature. We can advise on the best way to get your result with a picture and description (post in the Cat Dressing support thread if you want help with that).

The quick and dirty way to eliminate the cart sidebox item/price display is to add to youe stylesheet

#cartBoxListWrapper, .cart_line, .cartBoxTotal {display: none;}

The best way would be to edit /includes/modules/sideboxes/your_template/shoppingcart.php.

To affect the text display, add these rules and adjust to taste:

#shoppingcartContent {font-size: 0.9em; text-transform: lowercase; color: red;}
#shoppingcartContent a {color: red;}

As kobra says, TM is a bad starting point, and what you currently have does not even use the fancy layout/graphics that TM templates frequently have. You could get the same result with a little work modifying a copy of the /template_default/ stylesheet (in a new custom template folder).

gjh42:

The left menu is not categories-tabs but the categories sidebox. If you want to use rollovers, your best bet is to install Categories Dressing which includes that feature. We can advise on the best way to get your result with a picture and description (post in the Cat Dressing support thread if you want help with that).

The quick and dirty way to eliminate the cart sidebox item/price display is to add to youe stylesheet

#cartBoxListWrapper, .cart_line, .cartBoxTotal {display: none;}

The best way would be to edit /includes/modules/sideboxes/your_template/shoppingcart.php.

To affect the text display, add these rules and adjust to taste:

#shoppingcartContent {font-size: 0.9em; text-transform: lowercase; color: red;}
#shoppingcartContent a {color: red;}

As kobra says, TM is a bad starting point, and what you currently have does not even use the fancy layout/graphics that TM templates frequently have. You could get the same result with a little work modifying a copy of the /template_default/ stylesheet (in a new custom template folder).

Awesome, thanks gjh42

I will go on that thread now, it's all still so new to me, learning little by little.

Yeah TM seems to suck lol, I've gone to far with it now tho, will feel like I've wasted too much time to start again and reformat stuff etc. All i'm after is a basic site really and once i sort out the menu etc it's simply adding my products and maybe tweaking the product info pages a little to suit so shouldn't hopefully be too much of a pain
we'll see! :lookaroun

On looking at your template directory image, there are lots of files modified for your template; but most of them do not need to be modified for the look you have now. Some of them may be necessary, but apply changes only on an as-needed basis, after investigating stylesheet possibilities.

gjh42:

On looking at your template directory image, there are lots of files modified for your template; but most of them do not need to be modified for the look you have now. Some of them may be necessary, but apply changes only on an as-needed basis, after investigating stylesheet possibilities.

Hi
Sorry, I'm just trying to edit the php file you mentioned for the shopping cart. I'm a real noob and don't want to make a mistake on the file so please see the img link below of the page code for this file, where exactly do I place the 2 lines of code you said? anywhere within this code?

http://www.adultattic.co.uk/includes/templates/theme413/images/shopcart.jpg

Thanks Again

Style rules are never added to PHP files, but to your stylesheet, the same as the item/price note says.

The tpl_shoppingcart.php you show is a very old version (2006); it was last updated for current Zen Cart in 2007-10-06. Is your copy from /includes/templates/theme413/sideboxes/? If so, that means TM hasn't correctly updated that template in four years, and there are probably other old versions of files in it that could create security holes. If it is in /template_default/sideboxes/, you have an ancient version of Zen Cart which is completely unsafe these days.

gjh42:

The tpl_shoppingcart.php you show is a very old version (2006); it was last updated for current Zen Cart in 2007-10-06. Is your copy from /includes/templates/theme413/sideboxes/? If so, that means TM hasn't correctly updated that template in four years, and there are probably other old versions of files in it that could create security holes. If it is in /template_default/sideboxes/, you have an ancient version of Zen Cart which is completely unsafe these days.

Yeah it is from that path you state.. oh dear what can I do?

TM are a bunch of jokers

On a good note I managed to sort the cart out in the css as you suggested. Thanks! :D