Why is this so complicated?!

I am not going to lie, I am quite peved right now. The "incomplete owners manual" I got is almost worthless, and the software has fought me every step of the way. Now I am a very resonable man, and know things can be missed when they are right in front of you, so I am going to calm down long enough to see if I can't find some answers.

My first, and very resonable question, is how do I change the the man index so it displays product catigorys and not the "welcome to Zencart" page?

Secondly, I would like to put in my own logo in the header in place of the zencart placeholder. I have not seen any settings in in the admin aria for this, nor have I been able to find the file that holds those settings

The most agravating of my problems comes from the program itself. I do not want to display the number of products I have in stock in my store EVER unless they are out of stock. Where do I turn it off so it doesnt tell everyone in the world my invintory?!

FAQ Entry: How do I show the Categories on the main page?

FAQ Entry: How do I change "Powered by Zen Cart" and add/position a new logo?

FAQ Entry: How do I disable the category/inventory counts (the numbers beside the category links)?

And, let's line this one up ready for you ...

FAQ Entry: I have set in my admin "Show Category Counts" to false, but now there are still arrows next to all categories (without folowing numbers). How can I erase those arrows?

Have you looked through the whole book? (Not even read every word, but seen what is discussed.)

Chapter 12 (Categories, Product Types and Products) covers the categories sidebox first, and mentions (p. 156) that you can turn off counts in Configuration > My Store > Show Category Counts.

On p. 157, Categories Displayed as Images on the Main Page, you are directed to Configuration > Layout Settings > Categories - Always Show on Main Page.

The book doesn't cover logo editing, but that information is amply described in the FAQs (where one might reasonably look for basic information like this).

It is also a good idea to take some time and look through the admin panel, seeing what every button in the main dropdowns is for, even if you don't think you need it now. When you do want to change something, you may recall that you saw it in admin.

I have been poring over the manual and admin panel FOR OVER TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT!! I am not one of the idiots you guys are used to that come in here and don’t know what they are talking about. Before I made this thread I had read the manual cover to cover (PDF version if that maters), Looked though your FAQ's and messed with three different installs of the current version of the software. I might be new to online stores, but I have been building sites and servers for over five years now. If the solution to a problem is written down under a heading that even comes close to describing the problem, there is a good chance I can find it.

And before you guys get all uppity and send me right back to the FAQs that have nothing to do with my problems, remember that if I find this software to (eventually) be easy for the end user to operate I will be recommending it to my clients. If not, I will be looking into other software for them. Cost at this point does not mater because the time I have wasted far outweighs the price of other software.

To your credit, one link did solve the logo problem. For some reason I was almost certain the setting to change the logo was in the Admin Panel. Now that I know its a manual edit, makes it much easier, thank you.

As for the other two, the first you mixed up with a different issue entirely, the second I followed the instructions in the manual and FAQ a long time ago, only nothing happens. Maybe some visual aid will help.

I could care less if it shows how many products are in a category. Where I come from, that is not INVENTORY. Inventory is how many of a particular product you have in stock. (See Attachment One). I want this GONE. The manual shows me all sorts of things to do with inventory. This is useful but not what I need. I just want to remove # in Stock from displaying ANYWHERE but the admin panel

As for categories on the main page, that would be a great solution IF IT WORKED!! I first found this solution on the bottom of page 157 in the manual. Did as it said, and WOW, it didn't work. When you posted that FAQ I rechecked my settings. Exactly what they are supposed to be. My current settings are shown in Attachment two. Still shows the "welcome to zen" page instead of my top level categories.

Yes, I am being a bit of an :censored: right now. Put yourself in my shoes. This little project was supposed to be done A MONTH AGO. I got heat coming in from all sides with both software and hardware that is fighting me every step of the way. Not to mention this entire project has been a headache in a half! I shelled out $30+ for a :censored: manual that so far has been useless and the online faqs that have been spotty at best.

You guy's fault? Probably not and in that aspect I am sorry for pulling out a huge can of RANT on ya. But I am beyond pissed right now and just want someone to look at these problems seriously without sending me the FAQ's I have already read over many times before. That’s all I ask.

Assuming your products are based on the "Product-General" product type (the default), you can turn off the display of "products in stock" via Admin->Catalog->Product Types->Product General->Edit Layout->Show Quantity In Stock.

omega_shadow:

how do I change the the man index so it displays product catigorys and not the "welcome to Zencart" page?Admin->Configuration->Layout Settings->Always Show Categories on Main Page -- set to 1

... which is the same as the FAQ that kuroi mentioned and the book suggests.

Now, if that's not working correctly, then it suggests that the code driving it has been altered somehow ... meaning more information about your site is needed:

• which version of Zen Cart are you using?
• which template are you basing your site on?
• what addons/contributions have you installed?

omega_shadow:

I am not one of the idiots you guys are used to that come in here and don’t know what they are talking about.Actually we don't normally think of them as idiots. They're new users. I was one of them less than two years ago. The idiots are the ones how arrive already thinking they know it all. Happily we don't see too many of them.

My apologies for sending you in the wrong direction re: suppressing stock. It's one of the options shown on p 163 of the book under "Editing Layout Properties", but not very prominently. Though if even point was made prominently the book would be rather longer than 400 pages.

omega_shadow:

You guy's fault? Probably not and in that aspect I am sorry for pulling out a huge can of RANT on ya. But I am beyond pissed right now and just want someone to look at these problems seriously without sending me the FAQ's I have already read over many times before. That’s all I ask.I suggest that you chill out and remember that this is a community forum. So the overwhelming majority of people here are other users just like you. In effect you're ranting at yourself.

Given your experience (wider, rather than with Zen Cart) you will no doubt understand just how unhelpful it is when users say "I followed the instructions and they don't work" but provide no further information.

for issue 1 ( in stock ) page 163 in the print version of the book
Go into admin -> product types -> general -> edit layout and turn the switch to OFF for SHOW STOCK

as for your second issue,

IF you went into
admin -> configuration -> layout settings and turned on display categories on main page it WILL display the categories,

but it will NOT remove the text you need to go into
includes/languages/english/header.php and remove the tect
leave the define but remove the text
example
DEFINE ('WHATEVER_HERE', 'what ever goes here');
to

DEFINE ('WHATEVER_HERE', '');

and I know for a fact that the directions inthis manual work.

and as you notice I have NOT flamed on you at all, I dont expect any back

DrByte:

Assuming your products are based on the "Product-General" product type (the default), you can turn off the display of "products in stock" via Admin->Catalog->Product Types->Product General->Edit Layout->Show Quantity In Stock.
EXCELLENT!! Right to the point. Thank you for your reply. That seems really odd to me that a "show inventory" attribute is under general merchandise settings. I also didnt even see the "edit layout" button on my other walkthoughs with the software. It is fixed now though as well as answering some other questions I had.Once again, Thanx

DrByte:

Now, if that's not working correctly, then it suggests that the code driving it has been altered somehow ... meaning more information about your site is needed:

• which version of Zen Cart are you using?
• which template are you basing your site on?
• what addons/contributions have you installed?

Now we are getting somewhere! Provided happily:
ZC Version: Zen Cart 1.3.8a
Template: Sophy Blue
Template Version : Version 1.0g for ZC 1.3.6 (hum, could that be the issue?)
No Add-ons.

Template Version : Version 1.0g for ZC 1.3.6 (hum, could that be the issue?)

Very possibly could be the problem - switch back to the Classic template and see if it operates properly.

kuroi:

Given your experience (wider, rather than with Zen Cart) you will no doubt understand just how unhelpful it is when users say "I followed the instructions and they don't work" but provide no further information.

When you reach a certain level of pissed off, common sense flies out the window. Your absolutely right.

omega_shadow:

When you reach a certain level of pissed off, common sense flies out the window. Your absolutely right.

Generally, I find that when I get to that level of frustration, I'm about to have a major breakthrough (not breakdown :laugh:) with whatever I'm working on. Zen Cart was no exception. Hang in there. Eventually, you'll wonder why you thought it was so difficult. :cool:

switched back to the default template. problem still prosists. I double checked my settings a third time. They are correct according to the book and faq

afo:

Generally, I find that when I get to that level of frustration, I'm about to have a major breakthrough (not breakdown :laugh:) with whatever I'm working on. Zen Cart was no exception. Hang in there. Eventually, you'll wonder why you thought it was so difficult. :cool:

LMFAO! Yeah, you got that right! Simular situation when I was trying to learn MySQL. Your gods, was that a :censored:! But it seems all so easy now.

:blink: I am an absolute idiot.

I went on to mess with the template to give it a darker look. Scrolling down on the home page I noticed the Product Categories listed under the "Welcome To Zencart" page. WTF, so I looked more closely at what I thought was just an advert for the zen book

This content is located in the file at: /languages/english/html_includes/YOUR_TEMPLATE/define_main_page.php

You can quickly edit this content via Admin->Tools->Define Pages Editor, and select define_main_page from the pulldown.
:oops:

Well, uh, yea. I feel about an inch tall right now. I am just going to leave this thread alone for a few hours an let ya guys post various flames, cause I know I deserve it.:frusty::P

We've all been there. Told you that you're most frustrated right before breaking through! :smartalec:

Well, ya can mark this thread solved. All I am stuck on now are some various template changes and the book looks like it can help beyond this point.

Thanx for the help, and sorry for being an ######.

Sometimes we look so long and so hard, and the answer is right there staring us
in the face. I know it took about 2 months into Zendom before my head stopped
spinning. :laugh: Glad you're on a roll now! :clap:

For you omega_shadow, and any other newish users who might follow this thread, getting started with Zen Cart can be frustrating at times. There is a huge amount that you can do with it, and that means a steep learning curve. And it doesn't help that the Admin needs some serious work (which is planned).

But there's also a huge amount of willing help and advice available. Just look what happens when you get to actually asking questions, even when still blowing off steam. So there's no point sitting there getting frustrated. Ask ...

.