Free Template "Future Zen"

Big GEE:

Hi Kuroi,

I've just downloaded your template. I'm in the middle of getting my first ZC store up and running (take a peek if you like http://sccambria-online-linux-store.com/shop ) As you can see I've already started running into problems with the "header_bg.jpg" that I'd like to use! It's only a couple of hours since I installed the v1.3.0.1and I've already got a few issues with Matthew Therrien's instructions on how to change a few things in his book "Zen Cart Building an Online Store the Zen Way" - for beginners! I guess it's not his fault as the book came out before the latest version of ZC.

I've uploaded your template as per install.txt. Problem is in my .../includes/templates directory there's three template directories (classic, template_default and now future_zen_v1_1) however in my admin control panel (templates section) only "classic" is listed! No others are available or even mentioned. Any ideas?

Many Thanks,

Gwilym
It's quite normal to run into a few problems in the early days of using Zen Cart. It can take a while to wrap your head around how it all fits together. But if you put in a bit of effort, there's lot's of people on this forum who will help and it's remarkable how quickly you can find yourself looking back and wondering what all the problems were.

As to your specific problem. I posed a question for you about that in the place you posted it first. No need to post twice, or to address to me specifically, as that will probably put off other people who are able to answer your question when I'm not around. That aside, welcome to Zen Cart.

kuroi:

Pssst. Big Gee. Over 'ere. A quiet word in your lug'ole. Kim is one of the developers of Zen Cart and I doubt there's anybody who knows more about it, or is in a better position to judge how well the book represents it.

Thanks for that - my lug 'oles are also big, and very fresh on this forum, KEEP ON FILLING THEM!

Thanks also for your reply to my previous post. I'm off for some zzzzzs now. I'll try out your suggestions later on today. I also need to get rid of the ZC logo, but don't want to replace it with anything - I guess I'll need to take out the reference to the gif in some php file or other, perhaps you (or anyone else who's so inclined) can help me out with that one as well.

One quickie before I go - how and where do I get my hands on the TABLE attributes to change the size of the cell that contains the backround image?

Thanks Again,

Kind Regards,

G.

PS can anyone suggest some reading material - seeing as the jury's out on Mr Therrien's contribution!

can anyone suggest some reading material

The very best material is in the FAQs, the WIKI, here on the forum and you could check the recommended services page too. :smile:

Kim:

The very best material is in the FAQs, the WIKI, here on the forum and you could check the recommended services page too. :smile:

Thank you very much Kim. I haven't even started on the FAQ section yet!

Regards,

G.

kuroi:

Welcome. Let's take a look at each of your problems in turn
As your header image is a background image, it will be fitted as many or as few times as necessary to fill the div to which it is the background. To make it fit exactly, you could give the div the same height as your image by fixing the height of TABLE.header in your original stylesheet.

I'm not familiar with the book to which your refer, but your conclusion is almost certainly right. Zen Cart has recently gone through a significant upgrade to move away from tables and towards CSS for layout. This is a hugely beneficial step, but also discontinuous and some aspects of the old structure could not (and should not) be maintained.

You will never see the template_default as a template that you can select. It's not strictly a template, but rather a set of defaults that plug any gaps in the template that you are using. It's more of a surprise that you can't see Future Zen. Could you take a look in the directory where you have put the future Zen template and check that there is a template_info.php file there.

At .../shop/includes/templates/future_zen_v1_1/future_zen/template_info.php sits your file. That really is my last for tonight! Or I'll get a sore nose from dropping off on my keyboard.

G.

I have collected some light reading material at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36567

Happy Zenning.

At .../shop/includes/templates/future_zen_v1_1/future_zen/template_info.php sits your file.

Should be ../shop/includes/templates/future_zen/template_info.php

And the template_info.php should be edited to read future_zen

from future zen.

I think that this could be the problem... Any others care to comment?

kobra:

Should be ../shop/includes/templates/future_zen/template_info.php

And the template_info.php should be edited to read future_zen

from future zen.

I think that this could be the problem... Any others care to comment?

BigGee-

Kobra is correct.

Whatever the template is named within the template_info.php file, that name should be the EXACT name of your template directory.

Best practice is to not insert spaces in directory names (or file names). So name it future_zen, future-zen, futurezen, or whatever you like.

Possibly Kuroi can update the distribution to remove the space in the template name (and update version number in template_info.php).

BTW I previously posted some additional help info in regards to utilizing this "starter" template at here.

I don't think this is cross posting! ;-)

Woody

Big GEE:

I also need to get rid of the ZC logo, but don't want to replace it with anything - I guess I'll need to take out the reference to the gif in some php file or other, perhaps you (or anyone else who's so inclined) can help me out with that one as well.

BigGee-

See my previous post in this thread with a link to instructions on removing logo.

Also you will want to edit your stylesheet.css for future_zen. By default you should see the following in that file:

#logoWrapper {
	width:760px;  
	height:110px;  
	background-image:url(../images/header_bg.jpg); 
	background-repeat:no-repeat;
	}

If you want no logo and want to reclaim the space used by the logo, either comment out each entry or empty the container (best to comment out as if you want to bing logo back you can just uncomment).

To forum admins. The thread on the future_zen template is already split into TWO threads when Kuroi announced in separate forums! This is an issue with the new forum set-up. Too many places to talk about templates. Any ideas on how ALL template questions can be linked to one single forum to do with templates?

Woody

All fixed Woody. :wink2:

Kim:

All fixed Woody. :wink2:

Thank you Kim for merging the two!

Sermonzone:

I have collected some light reading material at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36567

Happy Zenning.

Thank you Sermozone - I'll plough through it when I get a free five minutes :thumbsup:

G.

LOL.

Took me a year to collect it and you are reading it in five minutes?? (appropriate huffing and shorting sounds in the background)

I am officially, offended, no, chagrined, no, embarrassed, no, ... well ... something.

Best wishes.

Woodymon:

BigGee-

Kobra is correct.

Whatever the template is named within the template_info.php file, that name should be the EXACT name of your template directory.

Best practice is to not insert spaces in directory names (or file names). So name it future_zen, future-zen, futurezen, or whatever you like.

Possibly Kuroi can update the distribution to remove the space in the template name (and update version number in template_info.php).

BTW I previously posted some additional help info in regards to utilizing this "starter" template at here.

I don't think this is cross posting! ;-)

Woody

Thanks,

I've done all that - changed the directory names (the path now shows .../shop/includes/templates/future_zen/template_info.php)

The template_info.php file has been edited and uploaded it now reads as follows:

<?php /** * Template Information File * * @copyright 2006 kuroi web design * @copyright Portions 2003-2005 Zen Cart Development Team * @copyright Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce * @license <http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt> GNU Public License V2.0 * @version $Id: template_info.php by kuroi */ $template_name = 'future_zen'; $template_version = 'Version 1.0'; $template_author = 'kuroi'; $template_description = 'A simple, lightweight template that acts as a model for (near) tableless Zen Cart development.'; $template_screenshot = 'scr_future_Zen.gif'; ?>

The original line was $template_name = 'future_Zen'; I've simply re-typed the "Z" in lower case (that was the only difference I could find).

However the 'future' template still does not show up in the Admin "Tools" menu under "Template Selection". It just stubbornly shows the one "classic" template.:huh:

Getting a bit stuck here! I'm sure it's something obvious - but as my experience of ZC can be measured in single figure hours it's a bit hard to get my head around it completely. I'm toying with the idea of re-installing the cart software somewhere else and just using that installation to play around until I'm reasonably comfortable with it - TIME is the big enemy, and having a 1001 other things to do at the same time.

Footnote: thanks everyone who also contributed to my other query (table header heights & logo use etc.) but I want to sort out this template issue before I tackle those problems.

Regards,

G

lawsu:

Look here

Please advice me....... taking note that I really a newbie..... :wink2:

Any1 care to advice me on my problem ?? :down:

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!

It's now working!!!

Silly me - in my haste I forgot to refresh, when I did the "future" template was available in Admin :oops:

Now I'm going to start re-setting my boxes etc. After I do that I'll attack the logo problems & header background problem.

Incidentally how do I include a page background for my store's page - to make it look something like the website it's connected to?

Regards,

G.

Sermonzone:

LOL.

Took me a year to collect it and you are reading it in five minutes?? (appropriate huffing and shorting sounds in the background)

I am officially, offended, no, chagrined, no, embarrassed, no, ... well ... something.

Best wishes.

NOW NOW! You know I didn't mean it literally - it'll actually probably take me 5 YEARS to get my head around it :laugh:

Woodymon:

Whatever the template is named within the template_info.php file, that name should be the EXACT name of your template directory.

Best practice is to not insert spaces in directory names (or file names). So name it future_zen, future-zen, futurezen, or whatever you like.

Possibly Kuroi can update the distribution to remove the space in the template name (and update version number in template_info.php).

BTW I previously posted some additional help info in regards to utilizing this "starter" template at here.Sorry Kobra and Woody, but the space in the line

$template_name = 'future Zen';
```is both deliberate and correct. This variable is not the name of the directory in which the template resides, it's the name of the template itself.

The presence of the template has already been detected by the existence of a template directory containing a template_info file before the template_info file is read. I agree that this directory should be named with an underline or some other connective in preference to a space (as indeed it is uin the template release package). However, the $template_name variable is a text string used in Admin's Template Selection menu where an underline would look a bit silly. For a similar example example checkout the template_info.php file for Classic where you will find the line```php
$template_name = 'Classic Template';
```You guys are however right about the Big Gee's problem having been the extra level in his(?) directory structure, and Woody, I've seen your other post, but been a bit tied up for the past few days, so haven't yet had a chance to digest it and respond.

Thanks so much for the template, Kuroi! Simply awesome! Good work! :thumbsup:

Rebuilding my store w/1.3.0.1 from scratch in a test folder.
Here's where I am so far :happy: :jump: :happy: with a few modifications
to your template. Thank you! Thank you!
http://90bodybasics.com/ZenTest/

kuroi:

Sorry Kobra and Woody, but the space in the line

$template_name = 'future Zen';

> 
> The presence of the template has already been detected by the existence of a template directory containing a template_info file before the template_info file is read. I agree that this directory should be named with an underline or some other connective in preference to a space (as indeed it is uin the template release package). However, the $template_name variable is a text string used in Admin's Template Selection menu where an underline would look a bit silly. For a similar example example checkout the template_info.php file for Classic where you will find the line```php
$template_name = 'Classic Template';
```You guys are however right about the Big Gee's problem having been the extra level in his(?) directory structure, and Woody, I've seen your other post, but been a bit tied up for the past few days, so haven't yet had a chance to digest it and respond.

Point taken Kuroi. I removed the extra level in the directory structure on the server (my mistake was to drag the whole downloaded directories folder as shown in the extracted download file - without noticing that I should have opened the main folder and actually dragged the folder found inside it. by not doing that I inadvertently created an extra directory level).

I then changed the string $template_name = 'future Zen'; in the template_info.php file  (thinking that it may also be responsible for problems and changed the string to show the directory name with an underscore and a small "Z"). that however has had no effect - for the reasons you suggested above.

Now on to the next problem - how do I change the height of the header table cell to accomodate the background image that I want to use in it? And also how do I get rid of the logo.gif? :dontgetit 

Thanks,

G