How do I preview an incomplete ZenCart page?

How, in Zen Cart 1.3.9d, can I view the page I'm working on to check and see how it looks so far? I just added
zen lightbox 1.6.2, and want to make sure my (partially-completed) product info is displayed with the
photos (photo posters are the product, and the sizes and
prices for each size are the attributes I haven't added yet)?

I've looked through the FAQ several times, searched on the
forum, docs pages, all of the tutorials I've found so far (which,
I'm sure, is not complete, despite the number I've found),
searched on google, etc., and if it was there, I missed it
(and this is very possible for the very medical reasons
that keep me out of work....post-cancer stuff.
I've tried the one thing I did find, trying to access it
via http://www.mydomain.com/zencart/ which took
me to the sample ZenCart page, not my page. I've
also tried one where the address is something like
http://www.mydomain.com/index.php[stuff]...id=1
or something like that. Result: Page Not Found.

Is there a way to do this? Or do I have to have a finished
page before I can find out if it looks right? (with the
lightbox gallery, that is)

Suggestions?

Thanks,
--jim (spooky130u######################)

Could you get to a product info page before installing Zen Lightbox? Once that is installed correctly, you should have the product info page with lightbox function. Whether you have attributes configured is irrelevant to this. As you set them up for products, you should see them on the page in the standard location, and can then edit tpl_product_info_display.php further if you want to adjust this.

You should always be able to go to a product info page by the normal route through the category and product listing; if it doesn't display, you can look in the /cache/ folder to see the latest myDebug file for an error message showing where it is breaking.

gjh42:

Could you get to a product info page before installing Zen Lightbox? Once that is installed correctly, you should have the product info page with lightbox function. Whether you have attributes configured is irrelevant to this. As you set them up for products, you should see them on the page in the standard location, and can then edit tpl_product_info_display.php further if you want to adjust this.

You should always be able to go to a product info page by the normal route through the category and product listing; if it doesn't display, you can look in the /cache/ folder to see the latest myDebug file for an error message showing where it is breaking.

Could I go to the page before? I hadn't gotten that far. I've
been trying the various shopping cart apps on my web
hosting site, and got started with each before finding them
too complicated. Keep in mind, while I have done plenty
of "ordinary" web pages, I've never done one that isn't
plain HTML/CSS. For pages that don't have an actual
physical location in my path, I'm lost.

After reading the above, I thought I'd found the link when,
in HTMLarea, I saw a small, light-grey on white icon
that included a link when my mouse hovered over it. But
it turned out to be a link that displayed only that one photo
(products are photo posters from the photos). I want to
preview all of this in Zen Gallery to see how that looks.
I backed out to the Category listing, and found my one
category, but no nearly-invisible button with a link, and
I have no idea what the "normal route" from there is
to determine that link. Everything I've tried so far, that
says "this is where your page is" wasn't where my page
was. I either get a page not found error, or the generic
ZenCart sample page.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
--jim

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're askig, but you can't view Zencart pages from admin.

The method I (and, I suspect most Zenners) use is to have admin open in one browser tab, and the store open in another, and switch back and forth between the two to view your changes. Since many changes in Zencart are made by editing PHP files, I use the FireFTP plugin for Firefox and open that in a third browser tab.

stevesh:

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're askig, but you can't view Zencart pages from admin.

The method I (and, I suspect most Zenners) use is to have admin open in one browser tab, and the store open in another, and switch back and forth between the two to view your changes. Since many changes in Zencart are made by editing PHP files, I use the FireFTP plugin for Firefox and open that in a third browser tab.

What I'm asking is how do I determine the link to open the
store web page. All of my past experience with web pages
is 1) edit html in vim, 2) upload to my .org site (not the
current site), 3) open the file I just uploaded in Mozilla
Seamonkey. That's all HTML/CSS, though, so I know
exactly what the link will be. I'm in new territory now,
and don't know what link to use (again, I've seen sites
that say here is where your page is---at least three different
versions now; one got the ZenCart example page, the others
all led to a page not found.

That's what I'm asking---how, from the information in admin,
(or from somewhere else I don't yet know about) do I
determine what the link will be?

Thanks,
--jim

You shouldn't have to "determine what the link is"; can you go to the Zen Cart store homepage? If so, you should see a "Categories" sidebox. Click the appropriate category, then click the product, and you should be taken to the product's info page.

Have you created a category and a product in admin?

gjh42:

You shouldn't have to "determine what the link is"; can you go to the Zen Cart store homepage? If so, you should see a "Categories" sidebox. Click the appropriate category, then click the product, and you should be taken to the product's info page.

Have you created a category and a product in admin?

Well, that sort of worked.... I did see the category/product
page listing, but it opened it up in the ZenCart page...not just
my page. And...Zen Lightbox didn't give me a lightbox for
the products...just a bunch of popups to windows that were
far from the right size. But I think I know where to find
documentation on how to fix that stuff. At least, I HOPE
I know where to find those docs.....

Ok, one more question for now. If I understand correctly,
based on the demos I've seen, a lightbox should start by
showing one image (the first in the set); clicking on that
image should enlarge it on the current display, right?
And then there should be Prev and Next buttons to move
around between images, right? That is exactly what I
did NOT see.

Thanks,
--jim

it opened it up in the ZenCart page...not just my page.You are not creating a whole new page when you set up a product; you are creating content that will display through the Zen Cart page template.

For the lightbox, you might try asking in the support thread for the mod to best get the attention of people who use it.

gjh42:

You are not creating a whole new page when you set up a product; you are creating content that will display through the Zen Cart page template.

Ok, so I just need to find or make a much, much simpler
template, then. That should be easy enough---if I can't find
one, download any template and use it as an example, then
modify it to remove or change it all to how I'd like it to look.
That, I already know how to do. :-)

As for the lightbox, yeah, I know...go to the Zen Lightbox
docs...or if I can't get it to work the way I want, try another
one. I seem to recall seeing a site that had dozens of them
for ZenCart. I can always go back to that site.

Thanks for the help,everyone!
--jim

Have you looked at (sorry, site offline) ? It has live demos of most of the free templates available from this site.

gjh42:

Have you looked at (sorry, site offline) ? It has live demos of most of the free templates available from this site.

I'm there now, in another tab. Thanks.

Later,
--jim