Shopping Cart or E-commerce site

I am transitioning from 1shoppingcart.com which is a full-featured, fairly expensive shopping cart. For any product that I loaded into their site, I would get an ID # that I could load as a link on my website. When somebody wanted to check out they would click on the link, it would take them to what looked like my shopping cart but was actually at the 1shoppingcart.com site. It worked well—just expensive.

Zencart starts to look more and more like an e-commerce solution with layout already finished. My website has been working for some time. I don't want to redesign the whole thing at this time. I just want to put a link on the website to take the customer to the zencart shopping cart checkout. How do I do that?

Thanks.

I just want to put a link on the website to take the customer to the zencart shopping cart checkout. How do I do that?

You don't. Zen Cart is a full featured ecommerce program.

Zen "Cart" is rather a misleading name then, isn't it?

Is there a way to integrate use of the shopping cart functions with the more sophisticated design programs such as Adobe GoLive, Dreamweaver, or even HotDog?

Is there a way to integrate use of the shopping cart functions with the more sophisticated design programs such as Adobe GoLive, Dreamweaver, or even HotDog?
All of these are NOT php environments but rather html xhtml coding devices.

"sophisticated design programs" I read as easy, not generally "sophisticated"

There is little in the way of a WYSIWYG php editor mostly for the reason that "pages" as most define them as do not exist.

They are assembled server side from pieces pre-defined and mostly
header
center section
footer\

Zen Cart IMO is not misleading - You might be expecting something else but as Kim stated it is "Zen Cart" NOT "Zen Pieces" or "Zen Buy now buttons"

Booksmythe:

Is there a way to integrate use of the shopping cart functions with the more sophisticated design programs such as Adobe GoLive, Dreamweaver, or even HotDog?

Sure, but Zen Cart isn't it. Zen Cart is a complete solution.

If you have a website that you just want to nail an "add to cart" button onto, look at FoxyCart.

Actually HotDog from Sausage Software also lets you edit PHP. It is a good coding program that also lets you preview what you've created.

The advantage of many of the fee per month shopping carts is that they work with existing websites.

Am I correct that if I wish to use ZenCart, I basically have to start over and throw out my existing website?

As Kim has already stated, Zen Cart is NOT a backend solution, so you would have to start over.

"lets you edit PHP. It is a good coding program that also lets you preview what you've created."

You can actually do this with Zen Cart. If you have a local server setup on your pc and a copy of your website installed on it (anyone can do this), you can edit PHP files in something like Notepad++ and see the effect as soon as you refresh the page. Of course this is straight PHP coding, not a wysiwyg editor that does the coding for you.

You can make the Zen Cart template match just about any existing design, so you don't have to throw out the design, just recreate it in ZC.

Notepad++ and Crimson Editor are free downloads from the net and are good editors to use for php. SmartFTP and Filezilla are good FTP clients and are also free on the net.

The Firefox browser with the web developer addon will allow you to tinker with the stylesheet (css) and see the results on the fly. You'll have to save the changes separately and upload them to the site.

I originally created the website in HTML and CSS. The database management, gateway interaction, and other back-end "shopping cart" features were handled with 1shoppingcart.com which gradually grew more and more expensive.

I found this approach appealing since I'm using a remote server, I had maximum control over the client side design, and the learning curve was not too high. My goal is to still to have the control over the design, but with a shopping cart that I own (or is free) and that I can put onto the remote server. [The webmaster for the server suggested ZenCart.]

I don't mind learning PHP or ASP or whatever, but that is probably not the most expedient way to transition. (You know, time = money)

Is there a back-end shopping cart that I can buy or get via open-source that will allow me to interact with existing websites?

Otherwise, I have to basically translate from one language to another instead of having them work together.

By the way, thanks for all the help with this.

Can you give a link to your existing site so we can see what layout you want?

Depending on the layout, recreating the template in ZC may be quite straightforward CSS/HTML/PHP reshuffling, or it may require considerable PHP recoding. Many modifications are already available from the Download section.

https://www.booksmythe.com

Tables and links.

Most of your current site can be replicated in Zen Cart with possibly more and simpler management for the future

To start I would install ZenCart and create the categories that you currently have and add to these categories individual products

If you have not altered the default settings you will then have a menu across the top and the similar in a side box...

You can turn off both the right and the left columns globaly to match your site and later style the css category menu with css styling and or a module to assist with this.

Yep, looks pretty simple to replicate in Zen Cart... and it might be a good opportunity to upgrade the look from the old-fashioned table-cell borders.

Tthere will be a few items that will require custom PHP coding, but most of it will be very straightforward. There will be a lot of HTML coding to insert in product listing and info pages. You might want to use ez-pages for many of the descriptive pages, or rededicate some define pages so that dynamic (PHP-driven) links can be added.

Hi all,

I am a complete beginner here, so apologies if this is a stupid question!

I seem to have the opposite problem to the person who initiated this thread.

I am actually interested in using 1ShoppingCart to process orders, as I like the marketing support, autoresponders etc etc. it offers. However, 1ShoppingCart appears not to offer the website/webshop functionality I need prior to the point where a user decides to click on the 'buy now' or 'add to cart' button.

So I am actually looking for a website/webshop-building tool which I can use to build my webshop WITHOUT a shopping cart already built in, and then link to 1ShoppingCart at the point when the customer wants to add a product to the cart.

I am hoping that Zen does this, as it looks like a great product - but I have the feeling from looking through the FAQ and reading here on the forum that Zen may already include the shopping cart functionality and therefore not be suitable for integration with 1ShoppingCart.

Can anyone throw any light on this please? If it is true that Zen is not suitable, if you know of something which will do what I am looking for, I'd appreciate it.

I know nothing about HTML or PHP, so I guess something like DreamWeaver would be like using a hammer to crack a nut - and would take me a long time to produce anything. I think I'd be better off with a product which allows me to create a webshop from customisable templates, so I can get something up and running fast.

Many thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

Why would you pay someone else to process the back end when it is all built into Zen Cart and you only have to learn one program.

Ian,

1ShoppingCart.Com is very easy to use, has lots of features, and costs a chunk of money each month. That is why I decided to try something different.

Since you don't have experience designing websites, ask yourself what you want to accomplish and how fast.

If you want a working site up quickly, then using one of the Zen templates will get you going very fast. I found ZenCart to have a steep learning curve if you want to make any changes.

If you want a particular look, then you can't beat Dreamweaver or another WYSIWIG coder. Then just include links from your page to your products at 1shoppingcart.com. It is covered in the tutorial and is very simple.

Another very good company is via volusion.com. Looks good. Also not cheap.

So far I have not truly launched the zen cart approach. I have some links on my regular site, booksmythe.com, linking to the appropriate product on booksmythe.com/shop. Many links are incomplete or broken yet. I am not pleased with the results yet but I'm getting there; although, I got an order today anyway. Somebody must have been very determined to order. :smile: At some point in the future I may just replace the existing site with the Zen-enhanced site.