Second step in setting up your cart - templates

You are most welcome ... glad that you got your custom template sorted out and thanks for posting the cause of the problem and how you fixed it ... :smile:

Thank you for all the information. I am new to zen cart and am incredibly overwhelmed right now. I have a million questions which i'm sure will be answered in time. For now, I have a simple inquiry - can you install addons if they are in an earlier version than the one you have installed. For example, can I install an addon that was designed for version 1.3.6 if I'm running version 1.3.8?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

You can, though there are risks. Some mods because of a combination of their features and good design can continue being used unchanged through many versions of Zen Cart after the one for which they were designed and tested. Others need to be updated for each release of Zen Cart.

Best place to find out about compatibility issues is the mod's support thread (though not all have one).

Thank you Kuroi!

Sorry I didn't have a chance to read every post.

Well I pretty much got my store basically setup with a custom template. Besides the css file and I think 2 images, that's all I've added to my custom folder template. Now I have edited the default files, before knowing that they should be copied into a custom folder.

Now let's say I go to .\includes\languages\english and I want to edit create_account.php.
So after I edit the file, I should upload it to .\includes\languages\english\custom.
This part I understand now. Any directory that has a classic folder, you should create your custom folder and put the edited file(s) in there.

But could I just put the file in my template folder under the proper folder structure so it would be like: .\includes\templates\custom\includes\languages\english\custom?
It's be nice to have the edited files in one folder, instead of multiple places.

And is there any files that you may edit, that may not have a classic folder in that directory? Or is it basically any file that you edit, will have a classic folder?

Thanks.

Files have to be placed in the correct locations or else they will not be recognised. So language files must go in the languages area, not the templates folder.

As Zen Cart is open source software you can edit any file. The template, module and language overrides are commonly changed and so have template-related overrides. However other areas can be overridden in different ways (e.g. the init_system files) where there is an override folder, or extended by use of notifiers/observers. Other areas that are very unlikely to need to be overridden so don't have an override system.

So as changes get more sophisticated and go deeper into the code there's less chance that there will be a classic folder associated with them, or even that that would be the right approach to overriding anyway.

Thanks for the info. Now if I could just remeber which ones I edited.

[/CENTER]
What am I missing here?

Ok, I found how to change the size of the left column to be a little larger as we have some category names that are longer. But I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to make the whole page wider. While the column did adjust in width, the page itself did not....

http://wholesale.reddevildistributing.com

I changed all my classic folder name to something else, based on experts' advice. But then I found information were missing under the "layout box controller" under the tool-admin, what did I do wrong?

where is template_info.php? which folder?

Hi There

You seem incredibly knowledable!
We inherited our site last year and it needs a good tidy up, graphically and font wise, the actual working of the cart are fine, we have version 1.3.7.1 do you suggest we upgrade, if so how do we do this, can we start a new version whilst the old is still running? or could we just tidy up what we have some how, we would really appreciate your advice, we are complete technophobics, if you need to view to see what I mean www.alphafactor.co.uk

Kind Regards

Clare XX

I just dowloaded Zencart. I am trying to create a custom template. I created a custom folder in:
includes, templates. I added folders: templates, template_info.php, header.php, images, sideboxes, CSS.
I see my folder on the server, but when in the admin section, I do not see if in the drop down box to select a new template.
Why is this?

I think my php is 4

ok, I am stuck. I have done well so far, going step by step with your instructions on setting up my own customized cart. I have gotten to > Extra Data Files

Custom file names - /includes/filenames.php
You've created a custom page (about_us) and need to reference the filename.
Create a new file (about_us_filenames.php) which would include the following:
<?php // About Us Filename Define define('FILENAME_ABOUT_US', 'about_us'); ?>
Save the file to /includes/extra_datafiles/about_us_filenames.php and upload it to your server.
Note: These files will be called automatically, as would any other file in this directory, thereby telling the system what your custom filenames are. and have been unable to find my about_us file. I named it about_us.php, as I thought that's what it should have been named. Problem is, when I refresh my site, it don't show, and I can't find where to put a link called "About Us" on the main page.

my site link is http://squeakeycat.net/shop. so far you can see the changes I have made to the template itself, while doing step by step with your tutorial pages. I am very very very "stupid" when it comes to php and how to code it properly, as I have never ever ever worked with php before now.

the about page that I made, I followed exactly the above direction, but nothing showed up anywhere.

I have a great working system for doing all my editing. I have my main site through doteasy.com and with using google chrome browser, I am able to edit my pages without having to put any of them on my computer.

if anyone can help with maybe what I could have done wrong for this not to show up, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Kim

I do know how to connect to the directories everyone is talking about. I've installed Zen Cart and configured it but I don't know where the folders are. How do I establish the connection to these directories?

You must use your computer's FTP program to connect to the files on your website's webserver. Using an FTP program is a basic skill everyone needs to learn in order to manage a self-hosted website, and as such there are countless number of tutorials around the web for learning how to use FTP.
For some suggestions on available FTP programs and other tools you'll need for managing your website, see http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Useful_Tools

Cool post here. Thanks

Ugh. Okay, I've done a whole lot of work...backwards...after installing zencart, using the official zen cart manual for version 1.5.0. Didn't realize until now that I needed to install my own template to get the look I want for my site BEFORE doing anything else.

I've been trying for two weeks now to install the following, free template, using this thread, the manual, and the instructions provided the template's maker...and I still can't get it installed correctly so it looks like the screenshots provided here...

http://tinyurl.com/cvvqcu9

I've jumped through all the hoops in the manual for creating a set of 'custom' folders to override the classic setup. At this point I'm quite frustrated and have decided to finally throw in the towel and ask for HELP!

The manual describes how to create your own custom template from scratch. A third-party template, free or commercial, already has all of the custom folders it needs; if well built as most are, all you have to do is unzip the template package on your home computer and FTP the /includes/ folder with all its contents to the root of your Zen Cart installation (where the ZC /images/, /includes/, etc. folders are). The template files will drop into their correct places without disturbing anything else. If you are separately creating new folders for your picaflor-azul template, you are probably messing things up.

gjh42:

The manual describes how to create your own custom template from scratch. A third-party template, free or commercial, already has all of the custom folders it needs; if well built as most are, all you have to do is unzip the template package on your home computer and FTP the /includes/ folder with all its contents to the root of your Zen Cart installation (where the ZC /images/, /includes/, etc. folders are). The template files will drop into their correct places without disturbing anything else. If you are separately creating new folders for your picaflor-azul template, you are probably messing things up.

Via the first, small document I was using to install z-cart, I had already created numerous "custom" folders copied from zen cart's "classic" folders, and was trying to install the pica-flor inside the custom folders (duh!) Finally decided to uninstall zen cart and begin again, which is okay because this time I installed the latest version.

The new installation was smooth and seamless, and just as you mention...it dropped folders where needed. The files are now in two places, in the root and in a directory I created when installing zen cart.

I also messed up the small amount of code I had to add to tpl_main_page.php but once I got that sorted it worked, I've now got the basic template installed and am ready to begin customizing it.

Out of curiosity, which version is being called to do the work?...the root version (includes/folder) or the created (directory/includes/templates/folder)?

Do you have two complete sets of ZC files, one in the root and one in a subfolder? Or just one ZC, with two sets of template files in the locations you described? Where is your ZC installed?
If the latter, only the template folders/files directly in the ZC structure are relevant. They should appear in the same place as the /template_default/ or /classic/ folders.

I just installed zen cart and I cannot get the template for the front page to change. I uploaded 2 free templates to the includes/templates directory where the default way, and they show up in my admin as choices. However, no matter which one I pick it does not seem to go to my choice. It stays on the same one. I even went to the tools, layout layout boxes and hit reset but it doesn't seem to change the page.
Any one with advice is greatly appreciated, I am not a programmer and only have the basics.

Also along those lines I do not see a place to change the text on the front page, where would that be?

Thank you,
Steven