Using the cart only function of zencart

I am looking at zen cart for the backend of a shopping site I am setting up, but I think to re-design what zencart can provide (vs just having a very simple layout and utilizing only the cart functions and order backend that zencart provides). Ie, I want to have my own layout, with my own previews for items, and simply have an "add to cart" button added (to add the items in stock) - is that possible to do?
The reason I want to do this is I'll have items like t-shirts where the user will be able to specify what text they want printed. I have code to automatically do a preview of what they want (which I dont see an easy way to add to the product page) - I know you can set attributes for text and color, but can I simply call the add to cart with all the appropriate fields defined to get it to work? Or am I stuck trying to re-do a templeta removing everything but the functionality I want? Thanks

Daniel

Zen Cart is not designed to just be the back end- too much functionality is tied to all the parts and pieces. The program is meant to be the whole site.

It seems that way from what i've played with it. Its not something that is necessarily a negative, but it probably means more work to get things integrated. I appreciate the reply, but as you said, an implementation that allows me to segregate the two portions better (something like phpshop) would probably require less customization to achieve my goal.

That being said, zencart looks extremely configurable, and it is a bit daunting starting from scratch given the myriad of options it presents you.

Daniel

Everyone starting out with ZC has the same :shocking: reaction. There is definitely a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder why you thought it was so difficult.

To create a very basic custom template (you can build from there), you need:
includes\languages\YOUR_TEMPLATE\english.php
includes\languages\english\YOUR_TEMPLATE\index.php
includes\languages\english\YOUR_TEMPLATE\header.php (to change the logo)
includes\templates\YOUR_TEMPLATE\template_info.php
includes\templates\YOUR_TEMPLATE\common\tpl_header.php
includes\templates\YOUR_TEMPLATE\images\logo.gif
includes\templates\YOUR_TEMPLATE\css\stylesheet.css

Any where you see a \classic\ folder, you can create a folder for your custom template.