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Newbie - Please verify my understanding

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14 Jul 2008, 5:58 PM
#1
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Newbie - Please verify my understanding

I have a very basic static html/css site with 6 pages. Only 1 of the 6 pages have the need for zen cart integration. I'm thinking that I should create EZPages for the static pages, but for the 1 page listing a few products and service...what is best (not necessarily the easiest)?

Should I create a custom template for the 1 page or make it an EZPage as well, and just make the 'add to cart' buttons link to zen cart with a custom template to match the rest of the EZPage designs.

I apologize if this is a redundant post or if there are a million similar posts already. Without knowing the right terminology, I have been blindly searching the FAQ and forum for about a week without being able together a clear scope.

thanks,
Will

14 Jul 2008, 6:05 PM
#2
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

A site with an e-commerce component requires quite a few pages. Pages for listing products, pages for checking out (e.g. customer info, payment info, shipping), pages for account maintenance, pages for terms of use, privacy, shipping info, returns, etc.

If your site has only a few static informational pages (5 by the sounds of it), then I'd recommend building your whole site in Zen Cart, using, as you suggest, EZ-Pages as a quick and easy way of getting that informational material in.

14 Jul 2008, 6:22 PM
#3
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

Thanks for the fast reply!

That makes sense and I probably didn't do such a great job of explaining myself. That's exactly what I was getting at -- keep my site and zen cart separate or integrate my site into zen cart. What you described sounds like the way to go.

I'm sure that I'll have more questions, but for now I'll start digging through the EZPage FAQ pages.

thanks again,
Will

14 Jul 2008, 7:28 PM
#4
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

Kuroi is right.

If your current site is just a few pages, then it's much easier to integrate those pages into ZC, than to try to do it the other way around.

15 Jul 2008, 1:07 AM
#5
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

What's the difference between the define pages editor and the ezpages?

15 Jul 2008, 7:48 AM
#6
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

EZ-Pages allow you to construct a whole page using an HTML editor. The define_pages manager allows you to edit a block that has been pre-created outside the editor and inserted into a page that has been also been built externally.

The Define Pages editor name made for sense before EZ-Pages was added and usurped it. It still has a minor role for maintaining a few sometimes important areas, such as the top of the center column, but EZ-Pages is probably going to be much more significant for you.

15 Jul 2008, 8:03 AM
#7
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

I guess the other differences at the moment are that the define pages editor can be used for multi-lingual sites and you can have difference define pages blocks per template, whereas for EZ-Pages you would need an add-in module to make them multi-lingual and they are the same for all templates.

16 Jul 2008, 8:49 PM
#8
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

Kuroi,
I had already used the "define pages editor" to create the main page for my site. Then after your replies, I began adding a handful of EZPages. How can I link to those from my main page? I tried "<php echo zen_ez_pages_link(page ID, chapter number, page is SSL [true/false], open new window [true/false], return full url [true/false]); ?>" from the FAQ, but the PHP isn't being parsed. I'm guessing that the "define pages editor" doesn't store that content as a .php file so it's not being interpreted by PHP.

Any ideas?

thanks,
Will

16 Jul 2008, 8:56 PM
#9
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

The content of an EZ page, as well as a Define Page, are all standard HTML. You don't need to worry about php here. Hyperlinks will be the standard <a href.....>

You can even create the page content in an wysiwyg html editor, copy the source code and paste it in to the define pages editor (after making sure to "toggle" to html mode. In HTMLArea the menu symbol is <>).

Just be careful not to put in html page HEADERS if you do this. Just copy and paste code that sits INSIDE the <body> </body> tags.

16 Jul 2008, 9:28 PM
#10
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

So how exactly do I link to an ezpage? You say that I should use an anchor tag, but what is the URL?

16 Jul 2008, 9:53 PM
#11
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

EZ Pages appear as menu items - in the EZ-Pages Header Bar, a sidebox, or the EZ-pages Footer Bar.

You need to first CONFIGURE these (and other ez-pages settings) in:-

ADMIN>>>CONFIGURATION>>>EZPAGES SETTINGS

Then, you CREATE your ez-pages using the facility under the TOOLS menu.

You will see options to have the links to ez-pages displayed in one of these menus.

To make them display, simply choose YES or NO against the desired menu position, and make sure to give them a SORT ORDER greater than 0.

To ENABLE the ez-pages sidebox, you switch it on in TOOLS>>>LAYOUT BOXES CONTROLLER.

In this way, you can have some ez-pages links appear in the header bar, some in the sidebox, and some in the footer. There is nothing preventing you from having a specific ez-page showing in ALL THREE menus, or a combination - simply choose the positions when you configure the pages.

17 Jul 2008, 3:48 PM
#12
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Re: Newbie - Please verify my understanding

Nevermind. Once I saw the file name listing in the define pages editor, I realized that they are all php files. So the code that I pulled from the FAQ (https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=251) worked...once I corrected the php opening tag. Now I just have to figure out how to remove the silly ezpage header and the title change.

thanks!
Will