adding the category links to a new front page

HI, and thanks for reading my thread.

I am adding a front page to my store and it will be a index.html, so it would be the very first page the customers will see. How can i add the category links to that page, ideally it would follow any changes from the admin panel. for example, I currently have:
Energy & Health Valentine’s Specials Women’s Urban Wear

i would like to add to the new html front page, later if I changed any of them from the admin it woulkd also change it on the new html front page.

Please let me know how I can do that.

Thanks

Damon

:smile:

Might look at theis module
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&cPath=40_47&products_id=79

If you want to embed the category links in a HTML hyperlink, you could try this:-

In your zenshop, click on a category that you want an external link for...

... you will see in the address bar on your browser, the URL to that category; eg:

http://www.YOUR-WEB-SITE.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94

Highlight that URL and copy to your computer clip-board.

Now, on an external page's HTML code, create a hyperlink:-

<a href="http://www.YOUR-Web-SITE.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94">MY CATEGORY NAME</a>
```.

Then, just use conventional HTML to manipulate how you want the link to appear, or function. For example, to have it open in a NEW browser window:-

```html
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.YOUR-Web-SITE.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94">MY CATEGORY NAME</a>
```.

PS... This method requires MANUAL changing !

The other relevant question is why you feel it is necessary to have a front page that is outside your Zen Cart.

It is possible to have a home page which looks totally different from other pages using define_main_page.php, index_home.css and some tweaks to tpl_main_page.php, depending on exactly what you want.
See my site for an example.

thanks for all your great responses,

I haven't used the 1st method yet, but the 2nd method mentioned wouldn't work, because that would be a had link to the categories, if I delete the category or create additional categories it wouldn't keep up with the changes.

PS. thhe front page would be an intro page, it would look cool :)

andy106,

You can design Zen Cart opening or main page to match most any design instead of trying to create an html landing page and worse yet using kludgy FrontPage to do it.

kobra, haha, thats funny,

I know but I would like to have an intro page outside the zendcart.

but I cant seem to get the single_sidebox.php to work, I have upload the single_sidebox.php, in the root directory ( all the zen cart files are there) then I created a php file with the following:

but when I call the file through the browser the page is blank.

Thanks for your help

Damon

From the instructions

On a PHP page where you desire to show Zen Cart sidebox content, insert the following code:
As far as I know, FP does not code php pages...
I probably steered you wrong in haste...Have a look at this Module
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&cPath=40_52&products_id=232