Zen Cart for Develpers or Shop Owners?

Hi all

Just installed Zen cart. Been messing around with it. Looking to build an online store to complement an actual one.

I am right in understanding that Zen cart has no text editor facility? That this can only be done through editing and re-uploading files?

I believe strongly that websites should constantly change, to keep potential customers interest.

It seems, from 10 minutes of exploration, that editing text in pages directly is not possible. Am I wrong? I really do hope so! I can find no 'page editor' option in Zen cart admin.

If this is the case, that their is no way to edit text directly, I wonder who Zen cart is designed for? As a retailer, editing files, uploading,etc (even as an ex-IT person myself) is not what I have time to do.

I don't wish to criticise as this is free software, but I still hope I am wrong!

:huh:

You are wrong, because there is page editor. Tools->Define page editor

Mike123acc:

Hi all

Just installed Zen cart. Been messing around with it. Looking to build an online store to complement an actual one.

I am right in understanding that Zen cart has no text editor facility? That this can only be done through editing and re-uploading files?

I believe strongly that websites should constantly change, to keep potential customers interest.

It seems, from 10 minutes of exploration, that editing text in pages directly is not possible. Am I wrong? I really do hope so! I can find no 'page editor' option in Zen cart admin.

If this is the case, that their is no way to edit text directly, I wonder who Zen cart is designed for? As a retailer, editing files, uploading,etc (even as an ex-IT person myself) is not what I have time to do.

I don't wish to criticise as this is free software, but I still hope I am wrong!

:huh:

look at admin -> tools -> define pages editor

categories and products are handled in:

admin -> catalog -> categories/products

If you're talking about changing text such as "Sales Message Goes Here", then no, this is not editable from admin but must be edited in the individual "language file" and then uploaded to your server

Thanks for the replies (very fast!)

But I think I wasn't wrong.... sadly.

It is the text that I need to edit often. The Sales message goes here' I'm not so sure but I was thinking more of the 'Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.' that you see at the start after installation.

Changing / editing products is fine, but for me a decent online shop needs to 'speak' to it's customers. And that needs changing text.

I suppose I just don't see the point without this (from the point of view of having a 'friendly, changing online store). I might. however, explore the possiblity of having just Zen Cart product pages within another site developed with a 'quicker to edit' site builder.

Personally, Zen Cart looks like (I will reserve saying it 'is' till I know more) another one of the endless packages that is more suited to developers than the people that it is supposed to be designed for. I must give Soholaunch or Cubecart another look......

Thanks again to the folks that replied.

You dont need that text. You can edit the content displayed on main page via define page editor. The page needed to be edited is main page.

But the content in the Page editor for Main Page was different than the Zen Cart message (about the book).

Have I missed something? I assumed editing that wouldn't change the 'book' text?

I can't test it again as I've just uninstalled it to give Cubecart a test. Sorry.

It will change. Well if you already give CubeCart a try then go ahead then.

Mike123acc:

Thanks for the replies (very fast!)

But I think I wasn't wrong.... sadly.

It is the text that I need to edit often. The Sales message goes here' I'm not so sure but I was thinking more of the **'Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.' **that you see at the start after installation.

Changing / editing products is fine, but for me a decent online shop needs to 'speak' to it's customers. And that needs changing text.

I suppose I just don't see the point without this (from the point of view of having a 'friendly, changing online store). I might. however, explore the possiblity of having just Zen Cart product pages within another site developed with a 'quicker to edit' site builder.

Personally, Zen Cart looks like (I will reserve saying it 'is' till I know more) another one of the endless packages that is more suited to developers than the people that it is supposed to be designed for. I must give Soholaunch or Cubecart another look......

Thanks again to the folks that replied.

as yellow1912 said, the highlighted text is not needed and can be deleted by editing the appropriate language file. (a one time only edit).

"Speaking to your customers" can be accomplished by using the define pages editor and edit "define_main_page.php". You can do the editing whenever you wish to change your message.

Thanks again for the replies.

I will give this another go later. I suspect Zen Cart won't be for me, but that's ok.

Cheers!

No problem. Depend on your requirement and your taste, another software may suit your needs better.

Mike123acc:

Thanks again for the replies.

I will give this another go later. I suspect Zen Cart won't be for me, but that's ok.

Cheers!

I tested Cube Cart before settling on Zen Cart. Unless Cube Cart has changed, Zen Cart is easier to customize and when I looked into Cube Cart, many of the features that are included with Zen Cart had to be paid for.

Just my 2 cents.

Mike, it looks like you have some experience with this stuff, so I'll direct my comments to the new Zencart users who might stumble upon this thread.

I haven't had a lot of luck using internal editors like HTMLArea within Zencart or other programs.

The 'download - edit - upload' method of editing files seems at first to be time-consuming, but once you've done it a little and get into the rhythm of it, it's pretty efficient. It also gives you an easy way to save a copy of changed files on your local machine.

BTW, a dual-head video card and a second monitor are the hot setup for editing files on a remote server.

Thanks for the info folks.

I have some IT experience, but nothing in the ecommerce side of things.

I just think ZenCart takes too long to edit. Two things I need to do quickly. Add / amend products and add / change text on the site. I appreciate ZenCart is good for the first, but not the second (not if the priority is the text itself and the way it looks).

ZenCart would make a great intergrated cart though.

By the way, where do I change this text? :
*
"Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.
Welcome Guest! Would you like to log yourself in?'*

It is displayed on the home page. But not in the main page .php file (as text or image).

includes/languages/english/index.php

Mike123acc:

By the way, where do I change this text? :
*
"Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart™ E-Commerce Solution.
Welcome Guest! Would you like to log yourself in?'*

It is displayed on the home page. But not in the main page .php file (as text or image).
Found this FAQ by searching for "congratulations": https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=129

You know what DrByte? I think it's better to scrap that define all together, putting that text in define main page will make more sense (and easier to delete - change).

When I first used ZC, that line really caused me a headache as well.

yellow1912:

You know what DrByte? I think it's better to scrap that define all together, putting that text in define main page will make more sense (and easier to delete - change).

When I first used ZC, that line really caused me a headache as well.

Perhaps. However, there are switches to turn that off altogether. And, keep in mind, it changes from "Welcome Guest" to "Welcome Maria" when Maria logs in ... and you can't currently do that via a Define Page ...

But somehow I think we're digressing from the original topic somewhat ...

Hmm... You can use PHP in define pages. Can't the define page correctly process the "Welcome Maria" case? Is there information that is not available to it?

If the welcome code was in the default define page, then yes it would be susceptible to being deleted or corrupted, but could be restored if desired by resetting. Is there a circumstance when the define page shows on a page where the welcome message doesn't (or vice versa)?

Mike123acc:

I just think ZenCart takes too long to edit. Two things I need to do quickly. Add / amend products and add / change text on the site. I appreciate ZenCart is good for the first, but not the second (not if the priority is the text itself and the way it looks).

Those edits need to be made once and you're done.

stevesh is right. Making the edits locally and FTPing them up to your site gives you an "instant backup" of the information. Notepad++ or Crimson Editor will make editing the php files easier. Filezilla and SmartFTP are also easy to use. All of them are free on the net.

Thanks all for the help. Much appreciated.

A do appreciate the backup part of this, afo. Thing for me is, I'd like to update the text side of my website daily. I really believe strongly that people continue to read things and be interested when they know they might have changed. Like the restaurant blackboards - I only look at the ones I know change daily.