Test Drive Free Templates

SilverKop:

Question; Can they install the future zen template for me and are there any security, compatability problems with having this template either now or when updates are availble for the original zencart template.There are absolutely no security issues with future Zen as it consists mostly of a stylesheet and a small collection of images. The only php is a set of standard define statements that all templates have.

Furthermore this was the first template to be made available specifically to take full advantage of the Zen Cart 1.3 templating system, so there are no compatibility issues either. Any future changes that rendered this template invalid, would most likely have the same effect on all the templates currently available.

Your host certainly could install it for you (if they were willing), but it is very straightforward to do and I would actually recommend that you do it yourself as you will learn a little about Zen Cart's file structures. There is always plenty of support should you get stuck or run into any problems.

Silver,

remember also that if your host uses fantastico to install zen cart for you that they, or you , will need to go and add the security updates for 1.3.x

if your host uses fantastico to install zen cart for you
Fantastico install does not normally include sample shopping cart, which
gives demos of how to install different attributes etc..big minus point
over installing manually using zencart official download from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=83781
HTH

Sketchy's new Blue Strip Reloaded template has been added to the template demo site and can be viewed here.

The template demo system has been upgraded to default to Zen Cart version 1.3.5 and re-branded to reflect the cool green of the new default template, XHTML/CSS Classic Contemporary Green template (nice one Dr Byte).

You can see this new default template in action, alongside the old tables-based Classic at (sorry, site offline).

I had planned to include a version switching tool for when the new version of Zen Cart arrived, but like many others got caught on the hop by this release. However for the time being you can switch back and forth between versions by editing the URL in your browsers bar. Better still ... upgrade.

Kuroi/Merlinpa/Misty.

Thanks guys for your help:yes:

My host loaded the ZenCart but it was 1.3.02 so I still had to load the 1.3.5 version myself. Loaded the Future template with no problems...now to start playing!!

Merlinpa...I thought a little time ago I found a posting from you on security and contributions and how to safely install them. Can't find it now:blush: can you give me the link please.

Again many thanks guys, you have made the install painless for me.

Stephen

New free templates are continuing to flow through. Jettrue's Nifty Zen was added to the template demo site a couple of days back and Herbal's Arch Shoppe has been added today. See them in action at (sorry, site offline).

The template demo site is now running Zen Cart 1.3.6 and has a new template TruBlu by QHome.

At the time of writing, only one of the templates is fully compatible with Zen Cart 1.3.6. No doubt this will change quickly and the issues are minor and easily fixed - see this thread for details.

My upgrades have been submitted to the downloads area and they are pending for approval. Will notify on Sophy Blue thread when they are available.

Hello all,

New to Zen Cart. There are depressingly few free templates available, and half of them seem to be amazingly narrow, meaning any site with larger images for product displays won't work well.

I really like some of the narrow ones, but they simply won't work for the store I'm setting up, which will sell RPG books and 3d Grpahics products (the latter will have many larger sample images associated with them.)

For now I'm sticking with Trublu, since it's got a nice look to it and sizes nicely with the browser.

I've been looking for other free templates (until I can afford a decent commercial template), but they seem very few and far between. I've gotten spoiled with things such as phpBB and Drupal ;)

Anyway, I DO appreciate all the free stuff out there, and hope to be contributing monetarily to Zen Cart soon!

1. Why not use the CSS to change the width?

2. Your largest images open in a new window anyway, and surely you won't be using anything wider than 750 px and deeper than 550? Unless you are sure that all your audience will use 1024 resolution.

Ryk:

1. Why not use the CSS to change the width?

2. Your largest images open in a new window anyway, and surely you won't be using anything wider than 750 px and deeper than 550? Unless you are sure that all your audience will use 1024 resolution.

Because I don't know what other effects that would have with the rest of the layout. The images would probably at most be 640 width, height could be more than that. I would be placing the images into the HTML of the page, not as a click and popup, since the popup windows are always too small and have to be re-sized so the full image can be seen.

Not really the place for this discussion, but what the hell, I started the thread, I'll digress briefly from it :wink2:

Most of the free templates will play very nicely with any width setting put into the #mainWrapper styling in your CSS, as Ryk was suggesting.

You can also control the size of the pop up as this seminal FAQ entry by ... err ... Ryk (again :smile:) explains (about half way down).

kuroi:

Not really the place for this discussion, but what the hell, I started the thread, I'll digress briefly from it :wink2:

Most of the free templates will play very nicely with any width setting put into the #mainWrapper styling in your CSS, as Ryk was suggesting.

You can also control the size of the pop up as this seminal FAQ entry by ... err ... Ryk (again :smile:) explains (about half way down).

Thanks Kuroi. I've been going through the FAQs as needed, but hadn't gotten there yet.

Wow - haven't we come a long way since I wrote that? :D 1.2.1d ... 1.3.6

Anyway, if you install Image-Handler 2 you can indeed now set the max size of your large images, but it may still be necessary to carry out the tweak to the javascript window size.

Also, if you install IH, you can forget about just about all of that except preparing the best quality product images as the large versions and just upload them. IH takes care of all the rest - naming, location, resizing on the fly, and even helps you add additional images without fuss!

Apologies to kuroi for drifting off topic! :wink2:

Ryk:

Wow - haven't we come a long way since I wrote that? :D 1.2.1d ... 1.3.6

Anyway, if you install Image-Handler 2 you can indeed now set the max size of your large images, but it may still be necessary to carry out the tweak to the javascript window size.

Also, if you install IH, you can forget about just about all of that except preparing the best quality product images as the large versions and just upload them. IH takes care of all the rest - naming, location, resizing on the fly, and even helps you add additional images without fuss!

Apologies to kuroi for drifting off topic! :wink2:

Thanks for the info, guys. Sorry if I de-railed the subject!

just a note when you go to the True Blue example, you get stuck there and even returning to the main page and clicking on go again, still brings you back to the true blue. There aren't any sideboxes with other template choices.

Unless it's me and IE7 :blush:

Also, is there a way to put which version of Zencart they work with?

(pretty fussy for such a helpful site that's free aren't I :lamo: )

betty

bettysue:

just a note when you go to the True Blue example, you get stuck there and even returning to the main page and clicking on go again, still brings you back to the true blue. There aren't any sideboxes with other template choices.

Unless it's me and IE7 :blush:
It's not you. I forgot to sync the layout box controller table from the test environment. Done now with apologies to you and to QHome (the designer) - thanks for pointing this out.

bettysue:

Also, is there a way to put which version of Zencart they work with?
I'm afraid that I'm starting form a slightly different perspective. I want to show how each template's latest version works with the current version of Zen Cart (which is why the site is upgraded witin hours of each Zen Cart release). Trying to keep track of which versions of every template work with each version of Zen Cart would probably sink me. However, this information is available if you click on the download icon (top right when you are viewing the templates). Then you can see the version history of each template and the Zen Cart releases for which they were made available.

Thank You :)

I felt awful leaving a post about such a great service. I just didn't know if you knew about the blue template issue.

All I can say about my question about the versions is "duh me!". And never mind :lol:

I do have one request, sometime would it be possible to add the blue gloss template? I know it probably looks like the black one, only blue - but to a female it is always, well what shade of blue :blush:

I think my problem is, I've just been too many shades of blonde!!

thank you,

betty

bettysue:

I felt awful leaving a post about such a great service. I just didn't know if you knew about the blue template issue.If a template's not displaying properly, it's not a great a service. I am very grateful to you for drawing my attention to this oversight.

bettysue:

I do have one request, sometime would it be possible to add the blue gloss template? I know it probably looks like the black one, only blue - but to a female it is always, well what shade of blue :blush:Happily the Blue Gloss template has been on the site from the start (and hasn't changed since then). It's been hidden as, to avoid proliferation of templates with only minor changes, I only display one of each series and personally prefer Gloss Black. However, in response to popular demand (OK, just one request, but you said nice things about the site so you're popular with me), I have switched on Gloss Blue (and to maintain balance, switched off Gloss Black).