Things every New Zenner needs to know

Sermonzone:

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.
This looks like a fantastic idea. Is it still in progress? Has it lead to helpful documentation other than the FAQ and Wiki? If so I'd love to get that info. I think that while there may be 'common areas' where many new ZC users experience difficulty with the learning curve, it's probably fair to say that the background of the new ZC user will affect what they struggle with or find easier. E.G. I have an intermediate level knowledge of XHTML/CSS so presentation edits were'nt that difficult. The overide system on the other hand took a little getting used to - and finding the correct files. A agree with a post on this where the person pointed to the bewildering structure and array of folders, files, etc. Stunning piece of work though Zen Cart is...the developers are really really really clever folks. I wish I could get more store finished more quickly and starting kicking back to them. Good topic :-)

Most of this material can be found here:
www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=16

clydejones:

Most of this material can be found here:
www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=16

Clyde,

I've checked the link above and it's very helpful info. I'm still trying to
get my head around it all. You can do those things piece-meal, but I
think it would be very helpful to new users to have an overview of the
relationships between the files....eg, I didn't realize the php loaded every
css in the folder regardless of the name.....I thought they were linked as
in an html page to a certain css.

Also a "Yellow Brick Road" , "step-by-step, what to do first, where do we go from here now that it's installed" is what I thought the "Things every New Zenner needs to know" project was about....there have been a lot of suggestions and questions since it was first started 7/06, but haven't heard
how it's coming.....maybe an update would be helpful.

In the meantime, I'm printing out the pdf, faqs, Wiki info, etc so I can better
understand the overall structure. I'm hoping it will suddenly gel, the clouds
will part, and bright sunshine will beam down, and I'll hear the Halleleujah Chorus like when I finally understood the file system on my PC.

"Never give up, never give up...." Winston Churchill :wink2:

The project began with the release of version 1.3 and we're now at 1.3.7 in just a little over 6 months so keeping the documentation equal to the changes becomes a challenge.

The basics of creating your ZC "shop" remain the same though.

install the distribution both on your server and PC.
come up with an idea of how you want your site to look like.
create a template to get that look.
add and activate that template to your "shop"
create the override directories matching the name of your template.
edit the stylesheet and other files to meet the goal of your envisioned site.

The more you get into the customizing process the easier it gets and, yes, the light bulb will go on.

clydejones:

The project began with the release of version 1.3 and we're now at 1.3.7 in just a little over 6 months so keeping the documentation equal to the changes becomes a challenge.

The basics of creating your ZC "shop" remain the same though.

install the distribution both on your server and PC.
come up with an idea of how you want your site to look like.
create a template to get that look.
add and activate that template to your "shop"
create the override directories matching the name of your template.
edit the stylesheet and other files to meet the goal of your envisioned site.

The more you get into the customizing process the easier it gets and, yes, the light bulb will go on.

Thanks for the basics....:D.....hope the details will follow soon.
I know it's time consuming (the project) and time is probably what I have least of (you, too, I bet).....but I appreciate the info and your time.

Gunga Zen
(aka Cal)

Clyde,

I feel that what you have done, what you are doing and how you are consisting redirecting us back to FAQ and the tutorials for answers… is terrific!!!!!

Those do seem to answer the most the questions about setting up a site and programming changes.

What about once a site is up? Is there documentation available to help understand how ZEN-Cart works and how one actually operates a Shopping Cart? Is there any Step by Step operating procedures? Again, any help on using a Zen-Cart shopping cart.

Some questions I have are:

a. What e-mails will I get that are generated by the program (when a customer registers or places an order)? What activates them. What they mean. What do I do with them. etc.

b. Handling New Customers… What tells me someone is registered. How do I look at the Customer data. Can the Customer data be transferred to a stand-alone data base or is there now a way to print off this data? etc.

c. Processing Orders…. How do I know I got an order? What do I do next? How and what do I change in my ZC program as I process an order? etc.

d. What about creating a Newsletter? How to generate a newsletter. How to send. etc.

Clyde, you are helping the programming and setting up a shopping cart and that is very good!!! But, what about us trying to operate our sight once it is set up?

Since I'm new to this.... If all this somewhere already? Please tell me where.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Russssssssssssssssssss

First go to admin -> configuration -> e-mail options and make sure you enable the options to receive copies of e-mails.

E-mails are generated/activated automatically by Zen Cart.

a. What e-mails will I get that are generated by the program (when a customer registers or places an order)? What activates them. What they mean. What do I do with them. etc.

b. Handling New Customers… What tells me someone is registered. How do I look at the Customer data. Can the Customer data be transferred to a stand-alone data base or is there now a way to print off this data? etc.

If you have configured your e-mail options correctly, you will receive a confirmation e-mail of new registrations.
Depending on what the customer was doing at the time the e-mail was generated, they mean someone created an account or placed an order.

After reading the e-mail you can do whatever you want with them.

Go to admin -> customer -> customers you will be presented with a list of customers which you can edit, delete, or send an e-mail.

You can use phpmyadmin to generate the customer data and then put it into a standalone database.

At present you cannot print the customer data but that may change when the admin portion of Zen Cart is re-written.

c. Processing Orders…. How do I know I got an order? What do I do next? How and what do I change in my ZC program as I process an order? etc.

If you have configured your e-mail options correctly, you will receive an order confirmation e-mail.
Fill the order and send it to the customer.
go to admin -> customers -> orders you will be presented with a list of orders which you can edit as necessary.

d. What about creating a Newsletter? How to generate a newsletter. How to send. etc.

Go to admin -> tools -> newsletter and product notification manager
click the new newsletter button
create your content
click the save button and follow the instructions from there.
The newsletter is generated and e-mailed automatically.

Hi Clyde,

This thread and the forums in general have been extremely beneficial in helping me customize the cart for our purpose and I am greatful for that.

My great concern now that we are on the cusp of going live to the public is that I have no idea of how to determine which countries can do business with me and/or how to control this. This hardly seems intuitive and yet remains largely undocumented.

For instance, does eliminating a country from the country drop down menu mean you can't do business with them or does leaving the country in the list mean you can?

Or, are all users able to create accounts but only users from established tax and/or shipping zones able to make purchases? Seems to be a lot of nuance here and not much clarity.

How is the glossary coming along? Seems that my search terms are not bringing me answers to questions like the above.

As an example of what answers I need (although this could be generalized for others), I have a store based in Orange County, California in the US. I want to do business only in the US and Great Britain. I need seperate tax rates for Orange County and the rest of California, no tax for the rest of the US, and VAT tax for GB. Having not removed any countries from that pulldown at this time, what prevents a Canadian customer, a German customer or even someone from, say, an Asian country from buying from me when I am not attempting to sell to them?

A How-To for a scenario like this would go a long way in expediting this aspect of configuring Zen Cart. I believe it would move many of us from haphazard "Trial and Error" to real understanding.

Regards,

Mark Harrison

You can create shipping zones for the countries you will do business with. Then when someone places an order but the shipping address in not within one of the shipping zones you create, you can create a message (I believe there is a default) to the effect that you don't ship to that country.

I think you can also set restrictions in the payment modules.

You can get more information shipping and payment options here:

www.zen-cart.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18

Try here for the California sales tax:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46091

I'm not sure why, if you are in the US, you would add VAT to your orders.

There is a glossary in the Tutorials/FAQ section.

Clyde,

I owe you a big thank you… and an apology. Thank you for taking the time to give answers to my questions on operating a shopping cart after one is established. It is helpful and I’m sure others needed this help, too!

My apology is for indicating that I wanted you to take the time to answer those questions on this thread! I thought this tread was for gathering items for writing a New Zenners Help Guide.

My putting the questioning forth was to make sure that this area was covered in the part of the documentation that covers “How it works”, in addition to “How it looks”.

Russsssssssssss

I don't konw if this is where to post this, but here it is. Perhaps something like this can be put in the New Zenner's Help Guide?

I had asked the question about emails generated after the shopping cart was up and running. Don’t know if this will help, but on my site (which has SSL), here’s what I found.

There are four (4) types of e-mails generated by the ZEN-Cart WEB Site.

1. Subject: [CREATE ACCOUNT] Welcome to “My WEB Site”
2. Subject: Message from “My WEB Site”
3. Subject: [NEW ORDER] Order Confirmation No. xx
4. Subject: [EXTRA CC ORDER info] #xx

E-Mail #1 and #2 has to do with Customer’s Registrations and Questions:

1. [CREATE ACCOUNT] is simply a copy of the e-mail sent to the Customer when they
   Registered and created a password.

a. This e-mail can be ignored and deleted, if you’d like.
b. If the details on any customer is needed… Go to“My WEB Site”– Admin. Login and move cursor to (green strip) “Customers” (DO NOT CLICK HERE. A drop down menu will appear), then click on “customers” in the drop down menu.
c. What you will then see is a list of all the customers that have registered.
d. To view a specific customer, click on the (i) in the Action Column and then click on [edit] in the right hand box. The Details, address, etc. will appear.
e. To go back to the Customer List, click on [cancel] in the lower right corner or [Back] in the upper right hand corner.
f. At this point, if desired, other customer’s information can be selected (Repeat steps D & E)
g. When done… Click on [Logoff] on the upper right (black strip)

2. Message from “My WEB Site”-- This is where someone who is looking at the WEB Site and decided to send you an e-mail question or comment thru the WEB Site (vs using your E-Mail Address.

a. This e-mail should be answered and/or dealt with!
b. When done, it could probably be moved into a “Customers” keep folder.

E-Mail #3 and #4 has to do with Customer’s Orders:

3. [NEW ORDER] Order Confirmation No. xx -- This a copy of an e-mail that was sent to the customer after they placed an order.

a. Keeping the e-mail in the “in folder” is not needed. However it should probably be moved into the “Orders” folder for future reference or deleted if one is comfortable with that.
b. Make note of the Order Number (No. xx). This No. xx is the order number assigned by the ZenCart program.
c. The Order Number (No. xx) will be needed to match up to a follow-up email (Item 4) that will be sent by the program (SSL Secure Certification) and will have as the subject: [EXTRA CC ORDER info] #xx.
d. This e-mail “[EXTRA CC ORDER info] #xx” will have the middle VISA or Mastercharge Credit Card numbers that are missing from the Customer’s Order. (This is what provides the security to the Customer CC info).
e. Print a copy and move this e-mail to the “Orders” folder. This copy will later be attached to the Customer’s Order (These CC Numbers are needed to complete the charges).
f. To ready the Order to print… Go to “My WEB Site” – Admin. Login and move cursor to (green strip) “Customers” (DO NOT CLICK HERE…. A drop down menu will appear), then click on “Orders” in the drop down menu.
g. What you will then see is a list of all the Orders from customers.
h. To view a specific customer, click on the (e) in the Action Column.
i. The Details of the Order will appear. Note the Customer’s info is there, the date ordered, Items ordered, Prices along with the first and last part of the Credit Card numbers, as well as the Expiration Date.
j. One way to print the order is by clicking on the “Print Symbol” in the upper right hand corner of the Gray WEB band. (After printing, attach a copy of the e-mail “[EXTRA CC ORDER info] #xx” to the Printed Order to have the missing info available.
k. Some may do better by making use of the [Invoice] and [Packing Slip] feature for this step.
l. To go back to the Order List, click on [Orders] in the lower right corner or [Back] at the top right of the page.
m. At this point another Order can be selected (Repeat steps f thru k)
n. If done… Click on [Logoff] on the upper right (black strip)

Please keep in mind, this is how my site is set up and YOUR’s may be different! Not being a tech writer, I present this only as a help in understanding the process and I know of no where that this information is written. The details may not be exact and I’m sure the other options are probably many more than what I have here (keep in mind that I too am a newbee).

Russssssssssssssssss

cmcgaugh:

Clyde,

I've checked the link above and it's very helpful info. I'm still trying to
get my head around it all. You can do those things piece-meal, but I
think it would be very helpful to new users to have an overview of the
relationships between the files....eg, I didn't realize the php loaded every
css in the folder regardless of the name.....I thought they were linked as
in an html page to a certain css.

Also a "Yellow Brick Road" , "step-by-step, what to do first, where do we go from here now that it's installed" is what I thought the "Things every New Zenner needs to know" project was about....there have been a lot of suggestions and questions since it was first started 7/06, but haven't heard
how it's coming.....maybe an update would be helpful.

In the meantime, I'm printing out the pdf, faqs, Wiki info, etc so I can better
understand the overall structure. I'm hoping it will suddenly gel, the clouds
will part, and bright sunshine will beam down, and I'll hear the Halleleujah Chorus like when I finally understood the file system on my PC.

"Never give up, never give up...." Winston Churchill :wink2:

"Yellow Brick Road" , "step-by-step, what to do first, where do we go from here now that it's installed"
Could not have said it better myself.... that is exactly what I'm looking for and can't seem to find. Its broken into SOME step by step instructions, but I can't find a total step by step and I'm so afraid I'll miss something!!:down:
This is my 3rd store (1st using ZenCart), but I had help with the other 2 and I'm so afriad I'll leave something out or forget to edit somewhere or something. I also remember from the other stores (used OsCommerce) that some things need to be done in a certain order to work properly. Not sure if this is the same with Zen or not, but guess I'll be finding out. I know I can edit the header before I edit the sales tax info....stuff like that have nothing to really do with eachother, but what I'm looking for is step by step so that I don't FORGET to edit the sales tax info OR the header (that would be hard to miss since its visible, but hopefully you get what I mean!) :unsure:
Is there ONE place (link/page...) that has it all ?:smile:
Thanks in advance,
Lalla
LilleyPadGifts

LilleyPadGifts:

"Yellow Brick Road" , "step-by-step, what to do first, where do we go from here now that it's installed"
Could not have said it better myself.... that is exactly what I'm looking for and can't seem to find. ...

I still haven't found one either, but here's what I'm doing in the mean time
(post-installation):

• Printed the FAQs & PDF manual.....easier to find things (IMHO) than
  the PDF.
• finally figured out the override system (with the help of several
  patient posts from Merlin & others), and by reading the info in the FAQs
  and at the Wiki.....really pretty easy.
• Created a custom template using another template with my css
  and graphics.....haven't tried modifying the .tpl files yet.
• Used CraftZombie's No Login files (coded by PaulM)
  http://craftzombie.com/zencart/No_Account_v-dec-29-06.zip
• am replacing categories & products, removing sideboxes,
  banners, etc in a demo cart rather than start with an empty cart....
  there are so many bells & whistles in Zen Cart!I'm not sure how others have gone about it.....maybe if they just
  put what they did (basically) & in what order it would be sufficient to
  get a new user off in the right direction.

E.g. "After installing ZenCart I did this, then that, etc...." There may be such a thread already(?)
If there isn't one, I'll start it off if no one else does. :smile:

Thanks for that info!
I think my main concern here is that I get different answer from different people... not on this board, but other posts. I know that I'm not doing it correctly in advance for upgrades, but when I ask if I should have the files in a my_template folder, I'm told no, just use the folder they are in. Its very confusing!
I'm asked now how to protect my dirs and files, the response I got to that was ... post a url, I was hesitant because obviously I just told everyone that my files aren't protected, so now they want to know how to get to them? I posted the URL, but now wondering if I should have.

Oh it boggles the mind! :wacko:

LilleyPadGifts:

Thanks for that info!
I think my main concern here is that I get different answer from different people... not on this board, but other posts. I know that I'm not doing it correctly in advance for upgrades, but when I ask if I should have the files in a my_template folder, I'm told no, just use the folder they are in. Its very confusing!
I'm asked now how to protect my dirs and files, the response I got to that was ... post a url, I was hesitant because obviously I just told everyone that my files aren't protected, so now they want to know how to get to them? I posted the URL, but now wondering if I should have.

Oh it boggles the mind! :wacko:

I've been boggled, too....inhale...exhale, inhale...exhale....it will come to you.
Find a quiet spot....I got a lot done over the weekend in the desert.

...when I ask if I should have the files in a my_template folder.... Can you send me the thread so I can see what you
asked and the reply?

re: unprotected files........change the permissions so the folder is not
readable(?) Did you see this info on security in the FAQs?
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=14

Hang in there,
:wink2:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56121&page=2

hope that works, I still think I should have moved the files to a different dir so that I could edit them and not be messing with the original. I made a backup, but still....whats the point of the my_template folder it said to create?

LilleyPadGifts:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56121&page=2

....what's the point of the my_template folder it said to create?

If you downloaded the "BlueStrip" template..... copy it to the /includes/templates
folder... modify the graphics or css and rename it "LilleyPads".

If you go to Admin > Tools > Template Selection you will still see "BlueStrip" even though the template folder is named LilleyPads, untill you change the name in the template_info.php to "LilleyPads"......note it will tell you what folder it's in, too.

If you want to use the overrides system then as you make changes to the various php files save them in folders
named "LilleyPads" ......see the overrides system info in the FAQs......where ever there
is a folder called "classic", create a folder next to it called "LilleyPads"
since that's the name of your selected template and Zencart looks for the
phps in folders named the same as the selected template....if it doesn't find
your folder, it uses the default phps in classic.

Clear as mud? It will "click" if it hasn't already. Let me know if
that helped or was too complicated. :wink2:

clydejones:

the database files are installed when zen cart is installed.

check the wiki and the tutorials along with searching the forum. Lots of information in these areas.

Okay, I have a REALLY simple question which I have been unable to find the answer to in any forum, wiki, walkthru or guide, including all the ones mentioned several times in this thread (I just sifted through all of it...lot of good info).

I have seen in numerous places to "be sure you back up your database" before making some potentially disastrous update. And your response to the guy asking about the database files before was what is quoted above (back on page 18 if you need a refresh).

Can anyone explain or point me to where it has already been explained HOW to backup your database? I have seen "back up your database from the admin panel", but I am missing something (besides most of my original braincells...) if it's in there. I know it's not just "copy all the files on your server somewhere safe", though that wouldn't hurt, of course.

Thanks for all the info I've gathered here since deciding to do this! :D

Instructions for backing up your database can be found here:

www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=103

The simpler way is to download and install the backup contribution available in the downloads section:

Backup MYSQL Plugin

clydejones:

Instructions for backing up your database can be found here:

www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=103

The simpler way is to download and install the backup contribution available in the downloads section:

Backup MYSQL Plugin

Figured it was something dumb I was doing "backup database" didn't find that as a search string.

Thanks!

-James