How would I take orders for food and delivery?

I have searched this website but could not find a good solution so far from the already posted topics.

I have been trying to get Zen cart to perform in the manner of being able to take orders for Pizza, pasta, etc.. and allow drop-down menus to custom pizzas, etc.. and print order to connected printer when done....automatically

After tinkering and trying to get it to perform in such a manner since December, I thought to myself, do I need to learn CSS and PHP inside out to make this happen? or is there an easier way of going about it that I am missing.

I have a fully working Linux server dedicated with a LAMP stack in place. Zen cart is installed and working fine, it is just configuring Zen Cart itself to make this all happen and I am struggling.

I am willing to do the leg work, and I love a challenge, I just wish to know am I going in the right direction...

1. Learn CSS from the ground up and master it
2. Learn PHP to be able to manipulate Zen Cart inside and out.
3. Learn Perl to setup automated printing out of orders once they are submitted through Zen Cart/website

If any expert coders/users have advice, I will follow it in great detail.:smile:

Hi could you please enlighten the rest of us as to what the advice was?

I have tried many carts as I had the challenge to make an online grocery store using local delivery by our own drivers.
Most carts are set up for selling 10-100 items and are not flexible enough to do what I needed.
GOOD news!! I love Zen cart and all the add ons and this forum.
I am not a programmer at all, and I have few occasions where I could not find a creative way to get the job done with ZC.
I know where you are coming from, as I built many a store on other cart platforms (usually costing money) just to hit a roadblock. Support usually would say "sorry that cant be done with *&^^% cart".
Be creative and take your time, you will be rewarded (Oh, and use this forum).:yes:

I should add: im at https://www.igofresh.com

I appreciate the feedback, looks like I am going to go the route of learning PHP and customizing my own solution. After I am done I will document all steps here in the forum or at least link to it. This forum is great might I add, even reading unrelated topics I learn a little more about how Zen Cart works. :D

...but with that said, I am still open to any advice anyone may wish to throw my way, because my goal is to have this done this week at the latest.:yes:

I would really love some help on this issue, too. Anyone out there knows how to do it and is willing to help?
I want the orders to be directly printed on an Epson TM-U220 printer, as the online orders are placed.

Since ZC already emails orders you could set up a script to print emails as they come in?

http://www.outlookexchange.com/articles/glenscales/icomprn.asp

I'm interested in doing the same thing for my site as the opening poster. But have not been able to find much information about it.

cmslearner101:

I appreciate the feedback, looks like I am going to go the route of learning PHP and customizing my own solution. After I am done I will document all steps here in the forum or at least link to it. This forum is great might I add, even reading unrelated topics I learn a little more about how Zen Cart works. :D

...but with that said, I am still open to any advice anyone may wish to throw my way, because my goal is to have this done this week at the latest.:yes:

so you are going to learn php and css/html in a week and launch a workable site that customers feel comfortable spending money on?
:shocking:

CSS is easy enough to learn in a few weeks but PHP will def take time guy.

good luck i guess