Wordpress On ZC [Support Thread]

Hi everybody. I've spent the last couple of hours reading through the entirety of this thread, and I have a few questions.

First of all, BIG THANKS to hira for developing this mod, and misty for her extensive support in this thread.

I've set up a ZC (1.37) store before, and I also have a personal Wordpress blog, so I'm fairly familiar with both. I've found through my personal blog that Google absolutely EATS WORDPRESS UP and I want to leverage Wordpress for "informational purposes" (i.e. killer white-hat SEO) for a new ZC store.

Since everything is going to be fresh, I want to use ZC 1.38a and the latest WP release.

First question after having read this thread is: Are we pretty sure this mod will work with the latest releases of both?

Second question: Would somebody mind breaking down for me exactly what I'm gaining with the integration via this mod?

What I mean is... why wouldn't I just install WP in the root, ZC in /store, or ZC in the root and WP in /info, and use separate databases (preserving load times,) while merging the CSS to homogenize the styling, and linking extensively between the two "sections" of the site?

With no disrespect at all intended, please don't misunderstand, as someone who hasn't jumped into this yet, the thread has given me the impression that the mod comes with its set of challenges. And logic would suggest that the challenges only increase as other ZC and/or WP mods/add-ons/etc. are added to the mix. Seems to me that the advantages of the integration would have to be pretty compelling to outweigh the advantages of keeping WP and ZC "clean" and making the interaction between the two sections as seamless as possible via more conventional means, i.e. extensive crosslinking between WP and ZC and, without having tried it yet, the use of the WP add-on for sideboxes which will execute PHP code to add ZC sideboxes to WP.

Again, I don't mean any disrespect and I certainly don't mean to imply that this mod is useless or counterproductive. To the contrary, I'm here in the first place because it looks to be quite useful. But, having not played with it yet, I guess I'm not fully up on why I should go this route vs. what would seem to be the easier route, which would be separate, independent ZC and WP installs on the same domain, with one in a subdir and separate databases, and "integrating" the two the old fashioned way.

Thoughts? I'd appreciate any input.

Hi There Stroke,

I came to the exact same conclusion as you did. I primarily wanted the blog for SEO optimization. (frankly, I don't care much if anyone reads it, so long as at least google does). So in the end, I decided to post create a link to blog from my index page.

You can check it out if you want at the certified battery link below.

There is also a mod that allows you to place zencart boxes outside of the core zencart store. I am personally going to reexamine that to see if there is someway I could improve the integration of my cart back to word press. I don't know wordpress well though... just getting started. Any tips to help me cut to the chase would be welcome!

Good luck,

Thanks for the feedback, bifficus. Nice sites you have there.

Regarding the ZC boxes, keep in mind that I haven't yet tried this with ZC code, but there is a Wordpress add-on out there that creates sidebox widgets that will execute PHP (the out-of-the-box WP sidebox widgets don't.) My assumption is that you could simply paste ZC sidebox code into a PHP-compatible WP sidebox widget, adjusting paths and such to compensate for its new home in a subdir. I imagine it's not quite that simple (it is ever?) but I would guess that it's a pretty small task.

Hi Stroke,

I just added Wrodpress to another site I have that's not a zen cart and I like wordpress. I plan on adding one to my zen cart site, but I can't think of any reason to add the mod after looking it over. It would work, but not the way I would like it to. The RSS Feed and site map mods did what I was after. using both mods has placed my items around 5 or 6 on Google and getting more hits from the other bots. I've linked both feeds from my blog and zen cart to feedburner and been mass feeding the bots. I think holding your blog at a subfolder level on your site would work the same and placing links on each site would play better with the spiders.

I guess it depends on the type of site. I'm feeding just 1,000 items and not my entire site. Not something to use wordpress for.

my Blog

In the top left box is my feeds back to my store, both RSS and Atom. I'm still building more on both sites to better feed the search bots.

A little advice, if someone would be so kind...

I have zero experience using a blog of any kind and truthfully am not even sure if this module is applicable for my desired purposes. I would like create TWO running question/answer pages within our Zen store; A his and hers. (I am a glass bead maker and my wife a jewelry designer) Is this the best add-on to achieve this? Also, how would I achieve two, individual blogs within the same _shop?

Thanks for any help!

Tim

Could be done using two standalone installations of wordpress,
and not actual zencart mod..then use The Loop at
http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop
to call posts from those WP installs into an ezpage or
define main page..
Wordpress integrated into zencart, via mod, can slow down
site/store performance.
Alternatively, why not use a forum..only one need be installed,
with different topics per his/her main subjects..
PHPBB 2.0* has a script facility for calling posts into a block outside
of actual forum..did have such a block somewhere that fitted
into zencart sideboxes...
HTH

I tried to link phpbb2 many times, but I didn't succeed. Do you mind showing a zen cart site with phpbb2 installed? I want to see where is the forum located...

Thanks a lot for your information!

misty:

Could be done using two standalone installations of wordpress,
and not actual zencart mod..then use The Loop at
http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop
to call posts from those WP installs into an ezpage or
define main page..
Wordpress integrated into zencart, via mod, can slow down
site/store performance.
Alternatively, why not use a forum..only one need be installed,
with different topics per his/her main subjects..
PHPBB 2.0* has a script facility for calling posts into a block outside
of actual forum..did have such a block somewhere that fitted
into zencart sideboxes...
HTH

I tried to link phpbb2 many times, but I didn't succeed. Do you mind showing a zen cart site with phpbb2
This thread deals with WORDPRESS and not PHPBB.
Suggest you use search function, link near top
of this page, for PHPBB..

riiver_of_dreams:

The problem is that although Wordpress initially shows up in the center column of my Zencart, any link I click takes me to Wordpress itself instead of staying within Zencart's center column. If they opened in an entirely new window, that would be fine, but instead they completely navigate away from Zen.
Were you ever able to fix this behavior? I seem to be experiencing the same thing with most of the sidebox links. When I click on the "Blog Sidebar" sidebox link, I go to the blog within the ZC centerColumn, but clicking any of the other sidebox options puts me out to WordPress directly (outside of the ZC template). Putting code into my define_main_page.php to parse blog entries directly using the loop works fine as well.

Thanks, Karen

What I would like to do is what I have done in the past with strict HTML and that is to have a page with writings and different products offered for sale that relate to the writing. Can this be done?

Beth-katherine

This is one of the slickest mods out there!

Thank You!!!

It works very well with both ZC and WP installed in the site root.

Sharing the database makes the MySQL Backup mod grab all the data.

The Google Sitemap mod works perfectly in harmony with the WP sitemap plugin and includes the WP pages in their own entry in the sitemap index file.

Add a few plugins like NextGen and cform II...

This really puts the icing on Zen Cart.

Don't use a wimpy server and all will be well.

Hey Kiddo!

Very nice rounded corners mod, thanks very much. I often click the links at the bottom of people's posts, and the CSS help and packages you have for Nifty Cube and Nifty Corners were a rea help to me.

I wanted to post here, even though it is off topic to Word Press, because this is where I found your link, and think other people should check out your work too.

Thanks again,

Todd

Thanks!

Make sure to edit the configuration javascript file to your liking. I have most of the stuff commented out and it breaks some browsers if you don't customize it first. I guess I should fix that in the kit.

Sorry to be off topic in the thread.

And now back to your regularly scheduled topic...

Hi,

I have installed this mod and the first page (.../index.php?main_page=wordpress) appears fine as do the sideboxes. However if I click on any of the blog links I lose my shopping cart template/styling. Have I installed this incorrectly or is there some configuring I have missed?

the cart is on http://absholdings.bpweb.net/index.php?main_page=wordpress

I have installed wordpress in a folder called blog in the root of my shopping cart

any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks

Rachael

It works very well with both ZC and WP installed in the site root.
Sharing the database makes the MySQL Backup mod grab all the data.
I have installed wordpress in a folder called blog in the root of my shopping cart
See kiddo's comment above..
I, personally, have never yet successfully installed
zencart Word Press Mod in its own folder i.e. blog...
works fine as kiddo states, when installed into zencart root directory
and shares zencart database.
Just BACKUP zencart database BEFORE installing

hi, thanks for the quick reply.

I think I am being a bit think so please bear with me. If I install it into the root of my zencart folder wouldn't it overwrite the zen carts index page?

oops, I meant being a bit thick not a bit think - point proven :D

Latest version of ZenCart Word Press mod, dated
August 2007..instructions included, read as follows

****Wordpress and Zen-Cart into the same directory. ****

Step1)Install of WordPress

Download the main body of WordPress from http://wordpress.org/ and unzip.
Upload all files except index.php of WordPress to [Path of WordPress].

has anyone used this mod twice on the same site? I have two different sections that could use separate blogs - trying to create a CMS style feel. Is this a possible install if I customized the files "wp_" to something different on the second install, like "news_"? Or is there a better option?

You would have to clone the module and end up with another set of entries in the layout-box-controller so each copy of WP had it's own boxes.

I think the second copy of WP though would have to live in a different directory than the site root and as previously mentioned, there are issues getting that to work properly.

Would be pretty cool though...

That begs the question, is there anyone working on a Joomla on Zen Cart mod? ;)