Newbie Questions

I am a student at the Art Institute and one of my fellow students suggested Zen cart to me. I see after reading through some of the threads that web designers use Zen Cart with great success to design for their clients, so that apparently isn't a problem. I have a few friends with shops that would like for me to design sites for them.

Are there generally more errors when working on a Mac vs Windows with Zen Cart? I normally design on a Mac, but I have access to PC platform as well. It would be more convenient if I could work on my Mac.

I noticed the book for Zen Cart. I do much better when I have a guide to work from. Have any of the users on the forum purchased the book?

The fact that this help forum is here is really impressive. There are so many products out there, but support is not easy to come by.

I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of me. I hope I don't drive you all nuts with my questions.

Regards,
Bev:thumbsup:

Bev-

Welcome to Zen Cart.

First, the book will be invaluable to you and it would be recommended you give or have your clients get a copy too.

Second, if you are familiar with CSS and XHTML then you can design a template for Zen Cart. Take some time and get familiar with the program and its operations before you begin though and it will be easier.

Good luck!!

Thank you Kim. I ordered the book. I think that it will be worth the 44.00. The plan is to build a site for myself with Zen cart before I try to build one for a client. I don't do well when I'm trying to learn something new on a deadline. Hopefully that will give me a chance to get over the bumps. Thanks for your response.

Bev

Bev4515:

Are there generally more errors when working on a Mac vs Windows with Zen Cart? I normally design on a Mac, but I have access to PC platform as well. It would be more convenient if I could work on my Mac.

If you design well, there should be no problems re Mac vs PC. In theory, at least.

But there are always some little cross-platform gotchas, so just be sure that you check all the pages and functions on as many platforms and browsers as you have available before releasing it into the wild. Just like you should with any other website design.

We're a mostly-Mac shop, and have had very little problem with Zen on either platform. One of these days I need to get a Linux install and see how they do there!

BTW, there are sites where, for a fee, you can log in and check your work on a vast array of browsers and platforms. The name of one is browsercam.com (I have no connection to them, and to date have not actually used their service). A friend found a site where a bunch of smaller designers got together to buy an annual subscription, saving a lot of money.

Bev,
I started using Zen since November 2007, with a fair wind we may lauch our site before the end of the month. I have a MAC a PC and a Linux(SUSE flavour) environment and they all work very well with Zen. When you get the book it will talk about setting up a local environment to run Zen on your lap|desk-top. The book refers to XAMP, which is really for Windows. I think you'd do well to try MAMP for you MAC. Once you'v set-up locally you'll be in business. Then, as suggested by Billc108 I would say the key design challenge is getting the site to present itself consistently to all the browsers out there and don't forget the iPhone (no I don't work for Apple).

As long as we're expressing opinions here, I'd suggest that you ignore the portion of the book which describes a local Zencart installation. Unzip the files onto your local computer so you'll have some sense of the directory/file structure, and do your first actual installation on your remote server (not with Fantastico). Then edit the files you need to override with a good text editor and FTP them to the server. This way, assuming a proper FTP client, the Mac - PC - Linux thing will be moot.

Thank you everyone for all of the great advice. I tend to get intimidated with new programs and I have listened to friends who have told me to avoid web development on mac. I used to work strictly on a PC, but when I bought my MAC I fell in love with it. I have two sites to finish up and then I plan to play with zen cart by creating a mock site to start. I'm sure I'll be back asking many questions. It's great to know that you are all there to share your experience.

Thanks again.
bev

stevesh:

As long as we're expressing opinions here, I'd suggest that you ignore the portion of the book which describes a local Zencart installation. Unzip the files onto your local computer so you'll have some sense of the directory/file structure, and do your first actual installation on your remote server (not with Fantastico). Then edit the files you need to override with a good text editor and FTP them to the server. This way, assuming a proper FTP client, the Mac - PC - Linux thing will be moot.

What's the drawback of not installing locally to design and configure before I make the site live? Security issues?

I'd love to be able to ignore the first chunk of the manual.

There aren't any real reasons, security or otherwise, to not install locally.

I have never done so because hosting is cheap, and I learn how to install and configure Zencart in the process, which I'll have to do eventually, anyway.

The only advantage I know of to install locally is that you save the download and upload time you'll see using FTP.

Thanks, that's reassuring.

What do you think about setting up a test directory on the live server, though, so my site can be completed before people check it out?

That's the main difference between setting up a local copy of Zen Cart and setting up on a server - on a server, you can ask people to try it out. (Though even a local copy can be temporarily opened up so that others can see it. But this is not advisable for a number of reasons.)

Personally I use both methods. When I want feedback I put the whole thing into an obscure directory on the server, give out the URL and ask for feedback. But I always have a local copy running in MAMP so I can experiment. The local copy also helps me when I'm answering questions on the forum.

Rob