Upload digital products

Hello,

   Im impressed with this zen cart. So decided to set up one in my site where i want to sell only digital products. Digital products in the sense, eBooks kind where after purchase the product should be available for instant download. So i tried adding a [roduct but theres only a place to upload an image of the product, can someone help me how to, where to upload the product file please.

Thanx a lott in advance.

Regards
Carty..

Sure, just follow these steps:

1. Using your FTP or your Cpanel file manager, upload the product file (the one you want the customer to download) to your downloads folder inside your ZenCart installation. I myself have my download folder filled with individual folders to make it easier to keep track of them.

2. In your Admin, go into catalog>Option Name Manager. Once you are in there, you'll get overwhelmed...don't...it's not that bad! You want to place a name there for your download type category. Let me explain:

Suppose that you plan to sell both pdf files and exe files...you would use the name options section to create a group called Download (this is the name I've used).

Right now, the sort order doesn't really matter, so you can just leave it at 0 until you are more familiar with this section of your store.

You DO need to choose what type of menu you will use. I suggest radio buttons unless you plan to allow them to choose more than one file per product order.

Also, don't worry about all the other stuff you see on the page - you don't need any of it at this point.

So, once you insert this, you will see that it is listed near the top of the page.

3. Click on the button that says Options Manager (you can also go catalog>Options Manager.)

Look for the Downloads option followed by a textbox (if you have typed more than just Downloads in the names option page there will be a drop down box where you will need to choose Downloads).

Here you would enter the TYPE of file that you are planning to offer. You only enter one at a time though. So, if you plan to offer zip, pdf, and tif files, you start by making ONE file called zip: Type zip in the text box, and set the sort order number as you would like to see it appear. Click insert and add any other file types the same way.

4. Click on the Attributes button.

Once you are on the attributes page, you will need to choose the product's category from the list that appears. If more than one product appears in the smaller box at the top, you will have to choose the exact product that you wish to assign a download to, then click display.

Scroll down the page and click on the Download option in the left box, and the appropriate file type from the right box.

Scroll down a bit furthur, then check the radio boxes that apply to that download.

Now, Make SURE that your product has been uploaded to the server - in the downloads folder of your ZenCart installation. This must be done first or your download won't work.

You will see a text box at the very bottom of the page. This is where you will enter the path to your download. Now, ZenCart searches from the downloads folder so you don't need to enter anything from the path that comes before that...

Suppose you put a file called books inside the download folder and then put your book.pdf inside that file. You would use the following path:

/books/book.pdf

If you just put the book.pdf in the downloads folder, then your path would look like this:

/book.pdf

I use the / because occasionally it won't work without it.

Now, choose the number of days and downloads that you wish to allow and click insert. scroll back to the top and look at the feedback section. It will show you all the information you just entered and you will see the name of your file with either a red or green dot in front of it. If it's green - you're good to go! If however, it's red, your download isn't set proper and you need to go back and check things out. Most often it just means that you need to ensure that the download path is specified exactly as it is.

Hope this helps, sorry it's so long, but this one can be a real frustrating pain.

Sabastina

EDITED: by Zen Cart Team ...
WARNING: Zen Cart was NOT designed to work with multiple depth directories on Downloads

***Using the / on the filename is a good way to break your downloads and has been causing issues for people reading this post ...

Thanks ... Linda McGrath, Zen Cart Team***

"3. Click on the button that says Options Manager (you can also go catalog>Options Manager.)"

I don't see this anywhere.

How do I enable downloads?

Sorry, it's the Option VALUE Manager. It's below the Option Name Manager in the Catalog menu.

If you follow my instructions you will have your products uploaded.
Using attributes like I explained below is the ONLY way to 'enable' downloads.

Sabastina

Hello sebastina, thanx a lot for that quick and great explaination.

Anyway, how did you get to know about this? Are you a part of the support team ?

Thanx again..

Regards
Carty..

You're welcomed, I'm glad I could help!

No, I'm not part of the support team, I just use the downloads alot and made lots of mistakes...lol.

This has been a big help to me.

I do have a question though, what If you
have a digital product that has several files
that need to be downloaded?

For Instance, and Audio set, that
has several segments...

Thnaks

Bob

netwiser:

This has been a big help to me.

I do have a question though, what If you
have a digital product that has several files
that need to be downloaded?

For Instance, and Audio set, that
has several segments...

Thnaks

Bob

I would think the best thing to do is to zip up the files if they all part of the set and that by making a purchase you get the whole set.

Granville

Sabastina, In Zencart, how does one enable a sample file for download so that a shopper can listen to the song before purchase? Do we use another attribute?

Granville

graper:

I would think the best thing to do is to zip up the files if they all part of the set and that by making a purchase you get the whole set.

Granville

I consider this, however file saze then would become a problem.
My customer has some large audios, and there may be several in
any given set.

Thnk..

Bob

• create your products using the "product-music" product type.
• Go to Admin->Extras->Media Manager
• create a new collection
• edit the collection and add media clips to it ... browse+add (this will upload files to the /media folder ... which must be read/write)
• edit the collection and click "Assign to products", and choose the product to which these clips should be linked

Then you'll see the clips appear on the product page in the store

DrByte:

• create your products using the "product-music" product type.
• Go to Admin->Extras->Media Manager
• create a new collection
• edit the collection and add media clips to it ... browse+add (this will upload files to the /media folder ... which must be read/write)
• edit the collection and click "Assign to products", and choose the product to which these clips should be linked

Then you'll see the clips appear on the product page in the store

so let me get this straight. You have to use FTP to upload the product files, but I can create a sample list which will automatically upload the files up for me? That's nuts, but I can understand as the upload limits for php is defaulted to 8 megs, I think it just seems wierd.

Yes that's correct. We may revisit that in the future.

DrByte:

• create your products using the "product-music" product type.
• Go to Admin->Extras->Media Manager
• create a new collection
• edit the collection and add media clips to it ... browse+add (this will upload files to the /media folder ... which must be read/write)
• edit the collection and click "Assign to products", and choose the product to which these clips should be linked

Then you'll see the clips appear on the product page in the store

I tried this, and nothing uploaded. My delema is the customer has audio ooks that come in segments. Wgen tey purchase, we want them to be able to download the sections. I dont want them on the product page, because they need to be delivered after purchased.

Bob

netwiser:

I tried this, and nothing uploaded. My delema is the customer has audio ooks that come in segments. Wgen tey purchase, we want them to be able to download the sections. I dont want them on the product page, because they need to be delivered after purchased.

Bob
Your situation is quite different. The above comments referred to adding music preview clips to music products.

In your case, you will need to attach multiple downloads to your products using the attributes+option values

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/faq.php?faq=cats_and_prods#faq_add_attributes

DrByte:

Your situation is quite different. The above comments referred to adding music preview clips to music products.

In your case, you will need to attach multiple downloads to your products using the attributes+option values

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/faq.php?faq=cats_and_prods#faq_add_attributes

Does this mean I will have to create an attribute for each File to be downloaded
abd then assign them to the product, if that is the case Im not sure Zen cart is the right solution. We have many products that require multiple files to be downloaded :(

Bob

Somewhere you gotta tell the php what file to download ...

It doesn't happen with osmosis ... :smartass:

Ajeh:

Somewhere you gotta tell the php what file to download ...

It doesn't happen with osmosis ... :smartass:

Well Thas Exactl what I have been trying to find out how to do.

I know using the attrributs to creat a downloadable product an
have done that. What I DIDNT know how to di is have a single
product, with Multiple file downloads.

The only way I see it happening is adding the attribute for each file
to the product.

Maybe attributes Linke Vol1, Vol2 etc.

Bob

Forgive my ignorance, this is my first time using the Zen Cart.

Yes, adding multiple files to the same Option Name + Option Value pair will cause them all to be available by choosing the same attribute selection during the shopping process.