Introductory home page and then product page...

Folks,

My customer is generally happy with ZC but wants to make several changes, most of which I can handle. One, however, has me stumped:

The customer wants a "standard" home page in ZC (because she wants to be able to edit it as needed) but doesn't want any sideboxes showing, just links in the header and footer to the "catalog" or general product page. Initially this didn't seem too difficult but right now I just don't see how to do it. The flow would be something like the one shown in the link below...

and so on. But how do I set up the primary catalog page with the sideboxes, new products, featured products, etc.?

The simple way, of course, is to have the home page in the top directory and the catalog in the a catalog directory. This won't work because the customer wants to be able to edit the home page in ZC.

Incidentally, is there a way to make the image show in the post?

Thanks,
Jim

Turn off everything for the index except the defined page and let your customer go crazy

Kim:

Turn off everything for the index except the defined page and let your customer go crazy

Maybe I'm missing your point but this doesn't seem very helpful... If I understand what you're suggesting, my customer's customers wouldn't be able to get to the catalog. And that's NOT what we want to accomplish.

Jim

What Kim astutely has pointed out you can do that would satisfy your customer's needs but keep the main page withiin the Zen Cart environment is ...

The define main page is something that can be done in the admin and utilize HTML area etc.

If you turned off all the center boxes on the main home page, whatever your customer decides he/she wants to see will be there ...

Ajeh:

What Kim astutely has pointed out you can do that would satisfy your customer's needs but keep the main page withiin the Zen Cart environment is ...

The define main page is something that can be done in the admin and utilize HTML area etc.

If you turned off all the center boxes on the main home page, whatever your customer decides he/she wants to see will be there ...

I guess I owe Kim an apology so... Sorry, Kim!:cry:

But I still don't understand. I've set up the home page (define_main_page.php) in the Define Pages Editor but don't see any way to control the sideboxes or generate a secondary catalog page there. I can eliminate the sideboxes on some of the pages by the method described on the tutorials (I don't recall which one) and can do so with the main page. But then I don't have any access to the catalog.

I'm not sure either about what you mean by "center boxes." Are these the "New Products for..." and so on boxes on the default home page? I do have those turned off. Here's the url for the site: http://blackwaterfolkart.com

Can you walk me through the process step-by-step or point me to a specific tutorial?

Thanks,
Jim

Have you an URL to your site? It often helps to be able to see what you think you have done ... :cool:

http://blackwaterfolkart.com

If you want to control sideboxes on the main home page ... you can utilize the variable $this_is_home_page to know when you are there ...

That can be combined with anything to set whether or not things display when on the immediate home page vs on a Category listing or a manufacturer listing or New Products etc.