Can I can do Forums, E-commerce & general website stuff?

I'm familiar with Wordpress & it's great for setting up a general website, but it's not really the best when it comes to Forums (terrible if you ask me) or E-Commerce and recently I've been setting up a website using Zencart & since it's primarily a E-commerce website, I'm not too sure how well it would be as a General website (blog, photos, articles etc) & I do not think it offers a Forum, or does it?

Is zen-cart.com based on Zencart? If so what Forum software are they using for this website/forum?

I want to incorporate 3 different things equally into one site and have it as seamless for the user as possible as far as navigating & login/account stuff etc. It would also be nice when styling the main website that the forums would take on the CSS as well - is this possible?

1. General website with photos, articles, other various content etc.

2. GOOD quality Forum along the line of BBphp that can be customized with sub categories - is BBphp forum able to be incorporated into Zencart? It really seems to have the best setup & customization for forums. The Forums is a very important aspect of the website so it must be very good.

3. Store/E-Commerce section

Without getting into a completely custom designed website, can Zencart do all of this & do it well.

Thanks.

The forum here is vBulletin and it was not integrated until recently
Meaning that seperate logins were required
Maybe DrByte or another that has access to the code can post about what is required

It also has it's own css

If you are serious about your online shop then this should be first and foremost
With others in support of instead of in place of

Meaning your "general" website should not be at the root of your domain it should be your eCommerce solution

JohnnyScience:

2. GOOD quality Forum along the line of BBphp that can be customized with sub categories - is BBphp forum able to be incorporated into Zencart? It really seems to have the best setup & customization for forums. The Forums is a very important aspect of the website so it must be very good.
   There are plugins that allow you to use either phpBB or SMF as a forum that's linked with your Zen Cart:
   http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1597 (which is a pre-requisite for the next two)
   http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1598 (phpBB)
   http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1608 (SMF)

JohnnyScience:

I'm familiar with Wordpress & it's great for setting up a general website, but it's not really the best when it comes to Forums (terrible if you ask me) or E-Commerce and recently I've been setting up a website using Zencart & since it's primarily a E-commerce website, I'm not too sure how well it would be as a General website (blog, photos, articles etc) & I do not think it offers a Forum, or does it?

Is zen-cart.com based on Zencart? If so what Forum software are they using for this website/forum?

I want to incorporate 3 different things equally into one site and have it as seamless for the user as possible as far as navigating & login/account stuff etc. It would also be nice when styling the main website that the forums would take on the CSS as well - is this possible?

1. General website with photos, articles, other various content etc.

2. GOOD quality Forum along the line of BBphp that can be customized with sub categories - is BBphp forum able to be incorporated into Zencart? It really seems to have the best setup & customization for forums. The Forums is a very important aspect of the website so it must be very good.

3. Store/E-Commerce section

Without getting into a completely custom designed website, can Zencart do all of this & do it well.

Thanks.

My 3 cents:

1. While Zen Cart has the EZ Pages functionality which is said to be capable of providing CMS-like functionality, I have long been of the opinion that EZ Pages are not an adequate substitute by themselves for a CMS solutio.n (ALA WordPress or Joomla) If a site I'm building needs this kind of functionality I build a WordPress blog and take the time needed to make sure the user experience when navigating between the blog and the store is a seemless transition. This means a common look/feel and navigation.. I also make sure that the blog contains PLENTY of navigational elements to the store (categories listings, menus, etc) I also strongly suggest to my clients that they make sure that every opportunity they can that there are product mentions inside articles etc.
2. Forum software is a seperate being and requires forum software. at one point there were ways to integrate phpBB with Zen Cart (never used it) it's not part of v1.5.1 anymore, but I'm sure you can find instructions on this forum for making this integration work with ZC v1.5.1

Yep, I agree with Lat9 & Diva vocals...
integrate BBphp using the Links provided by Lat9 and style your forum to match your ZC, also use this link https://www.numinix.com/blog/2009/09/26/integrating-wordpress-into-zen-cart-1-3-8a/?main_page%3Dblog%26%2F2009%2F09%2F26%2Fintegrating-wordpress-into-zen-cart-1-3-8a to integrate WP, this'll also cover style matching. But as Diva states, include plenty of internal links to your products.

picandnix:

Yep, I agree with Lat9 & Diva vocals...
integrate BBphp using the Links provided by Lat9 and style your forum to match your ZC, also use this link https://www.numinix.com/blog/2009/09/26/integrating-wordpress-into-zen-cart-1-3-8a/?main_page%3Dblog%26%2F2009%2F09%2F26%2Fintegrating-wordpress-into-zen-cart-1-3-8a to integrate WP, this'll also cover style matching. But as Diva states, include plenty of internal links to your products.

While I think the Numinix solution is fantastic for those who want a blog embedded in the store, I actually am no longer using this (or any other) blog embedding for my clients.. I have found that a separate blog styled to look like the site works much better than an embedded blog for my clients.. I realized that the reason a majority of folks pursued this method is because WP templates used to be a PITA to create.. With the advent of v3.x codebase now there are SOOOO many more options for creating WP templates.. Template frameweoks and apps like Artisteer make short order of creating WP templates and make it very easy for me to spin up a WP template that matches the Zen Cart template..

What I am MORE interested in pursuing these days in terms of WP/ZC integration are more automated ways to include Zen Cart content within the blog.. Unfortunately no such solutions exist now, but I may more actively pursue a real ZC on WP solution this year.. In the meantime, it's pretty easy to add manually created menus and widgets to add ZC links in WP..

I found IPS Community Suite - it has everything I was looking for, CMS, GREAT forums & store/shop with a seamless integration of all of them, including the look of web 2.0

http://www.invisionpower.com

Does anyone have any cons to this software suite? Seems perfect to me...

JohnnyScience:

I found IPS Community Suite - it has everything I was looking for, CMS, GREAT forums & store/shop with a seamless integration of all of them, including the look of web 2.0

http://www.invisionpower.com

Does anyone have any cons to this software suite? Seems perfect to me...

Discussions of commercial apps is somewhat taboo on this forum.. (not allowed by the admins)