Things every New Zenner needs to know

PRE-EMPTIVE EDIT:

A lot of documentation has been added to the NEW Knowledgebase:
https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/

Original discussion:
New Zen Cart users get easily frustrated. They often do not know how to find answers to their questions and if they stumble onto the right answer they don't realize it's the right answer. The recent 'reboot' for the forum so closely on the heels of the upgrade to 1.3 seems to have made things worse.

I am considering writing a "Getting Started" style document that focuses on templates, overrides, colors, text, images and the like. Perhaps a reasonable title will be "Top 10 Questions asked by New Zenners" or "10 things every New Zenner should know but doesn't know where to find."

I would like to hear from New Zenners about this project. What did you have the most trouble with? What documents did you feel were lacking? What were the top problems and questions you had? -- Things like that.

Part of the rationale for this project is that as users can perform more tasks without having to post a thread like "I am such a newb and have no idea what I am doing" it will free the Devs for more time in core upgrades. Hopefully, users that are more successful at the beginning will press on and have a viable online business and donate back to Zen Cart.

I will be away from the forum for a few days (niece's wedding) this weekend. Further, I don't plan to reply to every post. This is a place to collect feedback from new users.

If more experienced users post, perhaps you could list the mistakes you most often see.

The final location for the project is uncertain. In many ways, it will be a duplicate of material in the FAQ and Wiki. However, much of that material needs to be updated and New Zenners seem to not read it or not understand it. I will continue to try to coordinate this with the Devs so that it benefits the most in the community.

Please presume a successful install of ZenCart 1.3+. I would like to focus on customizations issues that every new users is likely to experience.

Feel free to PM with info you would rather not be in the forum.

Bruce,

To get you started, here are two of of the most common questions I've seen.

How do I change the "sales message goes here" text.

How do I change/turn off "Welcome Guest" message.

I also see lots of questions on modifing the tpl_product_info_display.php

Let me know if you would like some help with the project.

PS.

Ryk had a really good primer on preparing images for Zen Cart

Here's a link for his tutorial

There are several other "sticky" HOW TOs in the archived forum that might be useful to pull together.

If you need help with the paypal let me know,
I need to update the current paypal tutorial anyway might as well put it all in one place

1. How to add a logo and remove "sales message goes here"

2. How to centre a logo

3. How do attributes work - in plain english

4. How to understand what a CSS file is telling you, so you can edit it yourself!

5. What are the main PHP files that zenners tend to edit for layout, and what does each one do? For example, to work on my sideboxes...which php?

6. Why is it a bad idea to modify the custom template and install a blank one in a "custom" folder. I have this, and still don't understand why.

Nat

I would like to see a solid and thorough explanation on ZenCart's CSS. What to change for a specific effect, etc. Especially since 1.3x is more CSS based, and that seems to be the direction for future releases as well.

A well thought out, well commented tutorial with a fully commented (NO abbreviations) CSS file example would help newbies and struggling intermediates tremendously.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

wtashby:

I would like to see a solid and thorough explanation on ZenCart's CSS. What to change for a specific effect, etc. Especially since 1.3x is more CSS based, and that seems to be the direction for future releases as well.

A well thought out, well commented tutorial with a fully commented (NO abbreviations) CSS file example would help newbies and struggling intermediates tremendously.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Yep, I agree. I would even give away my very last piece of chocolate if I only knew how to navigate properly around the zen css.

The things that have helped me the most would be the programs that you can use to edit this stuff to make it easier, like dreamweaver and the fact that you can search for code of more than one file, so as to when you see something on the page that you want to change, and you have no clue how to do this, you download a backup copy of all your stuff and then search it all at one time with dreamweaver, that has been great! Also there is a css program called top something, i will post back what it is later when I get to my home computer, I don't have it on my work pc.

The wiki docs and faq are good, but....it would be great if we could get some example pics on what to do.

Also a basic definition list would be great! or coder slang, sometimes im so lost just by what people are saying, I know that the answer is there, but I just can't get it, b/c I don't know what people mean. I will post more on this when I get home, thanks for the good topic!:thumbsup:

1. Basic skeleton of ZenCart. All those files/directories/subdirectories and extra folders look like a big pile of spaghetti to new people. And we're looking for the short noodle...

2)terms, terms terms and more terms. New people do not understand code terms, most web terms and most php terms. (im speaking in general here)

3. This forum. It's huge, it's vast and it's hard to search when you don't know the NAME of thing/answer/whatever you need. The FAQ's and the Wiki only work if Numbers 1& 2 (see above)
   are NOT a problem for the person. For reg. newbies, both items are present, rendering the FAQ and Wiki stuff pretty much just as confusing.

4. CODE. Point blank. Opening one of the css docs or php docs (unless you're a code/php knowing dude, thus NOT a newb) is like trying to read DNA when you're a sandwich maker.

5. How to phrase problems/errors/questions. We need a KISS kinda statement like: Error mssg. Server type. Cart type. Attach file here. That's not a good example but you get the point.

6. See numbers ONE AND FOUR ......

7. The override system. Makes no sense when you read the basic everyday reply in a post. We need to know NUMBER ONE (like a blank diagram would be amazing) and then we need to know WHERE SPECIFICALLY the /whatever/ folder goes. Zen cart is quite a huge expandable tree and thus very easy to get LOST in. Trying to know where to put a /whatever/ folder when we don't know where anything else is doesn't work.

8. SEE NUMBERS ONE AND FOUR.

(please don't think I am complaining or trying to bad bag ZenCart. I love this thing, but that's honestly as real newb what my issues are when I got onboard and installed)

OH OH and ...

A BLANK with comments basic CSS document. Meaning: NOT a blank sheet with CSS Document on top. BUT a REAL FULLY CODED sheet with the stuff taken out and instructions/description put in it's place. So someone can copy to their CSS editor, and use it as an actual template to create other, correct, pages. I so so tried to do this on my own and WOW what CLUSTER I turned it into. :(

I think thats a really good idea. i know i had need of this when i was starting, and probably still do
im not going to restate what everyone else has said, but im not going to restate it or quote it.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

my template is based off the custom template, in a different folder with a different name of course. If there is a problem with that, it needs to be stated clearly and it also needs to be mentioned in the install. So I agree about that.

Also I second the explination on attributes, I know zen cart is very powerful and can do a lot of things, but some of the options I just don't understand. Also, how come you make an option name like "color" and give it a whole bunch of options, but then when you go to add an option to a product, you have to select each option name and each option individually, so you can put an option like "extra large" in an option name of "color" or what not... I got it to work and everything, but it's either designed poorly or I don't understand it.

Also an explination of what's modified in the overrides and what's modified in the admin, because sometimes I looked for stuff in overrides and it was in the admin, and the developers tool kit doesn't search the admin (database) as far as I can tell, so it can be very frustrating. (I had this problem when trying to figure out how to remove the prefix of "|_" for sub directories.

In fact, there should be a write up on every single option available in the admin and what it can do. The structure of the write up should be the same as the admin, that is, on the admin home you have a list of options, and all options have sub options. In the write up the categories should breakdown exactly the same way so if I see an option somewhere and I'm like "what does that do?" I can quickly and easily find it. And it should be searchable, and every little option should have a description with common search string meta tag type things so that if I search for "subcategory prefix" the thing will pop up that controls that.

Yes, that would be awesome.

An explination on the following options while adding a product for sale:
Product Qty Units:
Product Qty Units Mix on/off:

Bruce,
a fantastic idea indeed :) It seems like many people have already called out the areas I struggled with most.
A list of free tools would be quite helpful - I was already a Firefox convert, and if I wasn't already, the web developer tools would have won me over.

The Override system should definitely be included (or rather perhaps the link to the FAQ).

Having everything summarized tidily somewhere woudld be absolutely wonderful.
If you need a proof reader, let me know :)

I would point out that every new zenner would prefer to customize their template to suit their styles in the first place. So, a complete tutorial to guide novice in modifying the default templates is much appreciated.

Great suggestions! Great project! Afterall, everyone starts out as a newbie.

Lots of newbie questions about setting permissions on files. An explanation
of how to CHMOD permission changes from the FTP program and also through
cpanel would be very helpful.

Two things that helped me a lot was the FAQ manual and an administrator's
user manual (thru ver 1.1.2) in .pdf on the old forum. I downloaded both
and printed out the admin manual and put it in a spiral notebook
for quick reference. I still have the .zip file of both if it would be helpful.

:thumbsup:

As a recently very new zenner these are just some tips I would give. As I think of more I will post again (if I can find the post lol).

1. Once you have a clean LIVE working version of your site, download it to your local PC. Then when you want to change messages such as "Sales Message Goes Here" or copyright info etc, search for that text string using the search on your PC on the local copy. Then change locally and upload.

2. The advice to use a decent text editor should not be ignored. Crimson Text editor is great!

3. When downloading and installing user contributions from this site that require overwrites of existing files e.g orders.php (two contributions that need this file are at a glance and ukswitch payment modules) be very careful.

I first installed ukswitch, then added ataglance, both use orders.php. I blindly overwrote the ukswitch version of orders.php with the ataglance version. Needless to say the ukswitch module stopped working properly!

This might be obvious to most but wasn't to me!

Ciao!
Z

I suggest you take a complete newbie and watch what happens when he/she tries to set up the shop. This person needs to have the motivation of an entrepreneur.

Yes, the forums are big. I've had to wade through 80 to 100 pages of discussion to find a small crumb of information, for example "how do you tell the cart you have a template of your own?"
It doesn't help that very much information was hidden when I needed help.
I was looking for something else and landed on page 15 of a long discussion. Someone asked the question for the second time, and the answer was "I already answered you". Go back to page 1 and start looking. You find it on page 5 hidden into something else.
The wiki tells you how great the override system is, and how you should have parallel custom files and folders, but it doesn't tell "how the cart will know about them". Or then I'm blind.

Maybe it's blindness for self-evident things. They are not self-evident for a complete novice.

The things that have caused the most work:
The template system
PayPal IPN (still unresolved; server port 443 is used by another client for SSL)
How to change Page 2 to About us. I did all the changes in php myself, read through one 80-page discussion printed out, and wrote one line into the database. It works now.
CHMOD settings too strictly set.

Things I expect to cause work:
Translations of the customer interface into two more languages, unless someone else comes up with them for 1.3.0.1.

I'm still a happy zen follower, and realize I've saved a huge lot of money for my company to set this up alone. And I'm very grateful for all the time you guys have put on this forum and the wiki.
I'm an engineer who has studied a dozen other programming languages but not php.

I think just about everything has been covered. As a complete noob to ZenCart and PHP, I've managed to do quite well so far (I'm at the payment processing / shipping module stuff now). I could have done everything faster, but with the ZenCart website change, I was lost for a while. Below are my thoughts in order of importance;

1. A clear skeletal diagram of the interworkings of ZenCart to help noobs understand file/folder interaction would eliminate lots of pointless posts.

2. ZenCart CSS issues. I lot of users have had problems with the CSS, mostly due to lack of searching. Here's what I did (since it had been about 7 years since I had looked at a CSS document), printed out the stylesheet and wrote notes. Haven't had any CSS questions since.

3. The Template over-ride. A clear explination of what's being modified in the overrides and what's modified in the admin.

I've been happy with ZenCart. I used MivaMerchant about 6 years ago and I find ZenCart to be much cleaner. Keep up the good work!

May want to include some info I posted here...
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35793

JollyJim was building a Zen Cart tutorial site at:
http://zenhelp.helpfiles.co.uk/

Looks like it might be on hold? Certainly showed some promise.

Woody