Brand new. How do I convert my new .html files to a template?

Hi, I'm new to zen cart and new to business. Looking for insight.

I have built my website myself from scratch using html and all my website files are .html.

I'd love to get my store up and running. I have install zen cart and that's about it. I have changed some setting in my admin area and I got things to set up to make my own template.

But I'm guessing that in order to use zen cart, my pages must be in .php.

I guess I don't even know where to begin. I've look at some tutorials and I still feel lost.

How would I transfer all the work I already did to .php? How do I get products set up? Where do I find how to do more complex things? My business is custom made cloth diapers, so the total cost of the item is dependent on what options are chosen.

Any help is appreciated!

Zencart isn't intended to be an add-on shopping cart for an existing HTML site. It should be your entire site. You can, if you like, create your custom template, then style it to look like your existing site. If you can post a link to your HTML site, we might be able to advise as to how difficult it would be to re-create it in Zencart.

All your categories and products are set up in admin. Options are usually handled by what Zencart calls 'attributes'. Take some time to look through the admin section of your Zencart installation and the FAQ area of this site.

Most importantly, don't get intimidated or overwhelmed. It's just a piece of software, and we were all where you are now at one time.

Hi and welcome.
Ok, so you won't be converting your html to php, you will need to create your template from the ZC files or install a template that you like the look of then alter it to your needs and taste. Search the forum in the search box for free templates as a starting point, there are heaps of great ones here.
Also invest in the book, see the banner at the bottom of this page.
That'll get you started for now...

Thanks. If interested, my development site is at www.easyonthetush.com/dev

That makes so much more sense now. I just feel silly that I've spent the last 2 weeks developing my site only to realize I should have been doing in in Zen Cart the entire time. Ugh the frustration.

I'm almost at the point where I just want to pay someone to do it for me because of how much time I feel I wasted. Looks like I'm starting from basic scratch again...

I guess my problem too is I don't want my site to be just an e-commerce site, but I want to have information pages on their as well. So I want just general pages too, would that be an issue?

Info pages aren't a problem - read through the FAQ, surf the different categories on this forum and check out the sample sites. Some of us have wordpress blogs embedded, you can add simple EZ pages etc.

EZ-Pages are a simple and powerful way to create info pages within your Zen Cart structure. They won't require you to learn any PHP or do real coding aside from whatever HTML formatting you want in their content. You can largely copy and paste the HTML content (not the outer structure) from any pages you have already built.

There are other ways as mentioned above if you need something ez-pages can't do.

It would be fairly easy to duplicate your current site's design in Zencart, once you have the basics down.

That's good to know. I guess it's just getting to that point that is the real challenge. I'm by no means a programmer, but I'm not a novice either and this has been one of the most defeating experiences I have had.

easyonthetush:

That's good to know. I guess it's just getting to that point that is the real challenge. I'm by no means a programmer, but I'm not a novice either and this has been one of the most defeating experiences I have had.

Don't be disheartened... Most of us have had the same experience of getting our heads round the concept of PHP and a database, versus "flat HTML".

While the END RESULT of PHP and the database is genuine HTML, there are NO " Static HTML Pages" in a site driven by code such as PHP.

PHP is a set of "instructions" that assemble a web-page "on-the-fly". The code builds up a page from what can be hundreds of separate elements - some stored in the database, other in the code itself, and others such as images and graphics.

Each "page" is therefore cobbled together in real-time, and its content is determined by what the viewer has requested (add to cart, checkout, view a product, etc...) Along the way, the code may also perform calculations and store the result in the database (such as the cart total), which can then be used for other purposes (telling paypal what to charge the customer).

When a visitor clicks a link, or a button, the "page" they are on evaporates forever, and the PHP then builds up a unique new page, based on what the visitor is requesting.

So while a knowledge of HTML is partially useful to you, the real challenge is getting your head around the concept of DYNAMIC CONTENT and the relationship between the code (php) and its database (mysql).

You DO NOT need to become a "guru" in either, because the styling of a template is largely achieved by graphics and CSS.

You might want to consider using one of the free templates available for Zen Cart as a starting point. I found them to be a great learning tool when I started out. You can see them "in action" at http://(sorry, site offline)/

Edit: Ah, I didn't look at your site before I replied :blush: Don't get too tied in knots over it. You'll get there. I find that for most people when they're feeling most :frusty: and :censored: they're closest to being :smartalec: