Zencart

[matt smith]

Hi
Currently I am using a Paypal shopping cart, but as the business and sales are growing I need an alternative - do not have the time for all that copy and paste stuff, also I want the look to be more professional.

I was considering Zencart as it was free and looked as though it can be adapted. 2 questions on Zencart.


Will it work with my Dreamweaver site?
Is it fairly easy to set up?
Will the way it works impact badly on my SEO?By the way I am sticking to Paypal as my preferred payment method at present.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks a lot

Matt

[Joanne_UK]

Will it work with my Dreamweaver site?
Is it fairly easy to set up?
Will the way it works impact badly on my SEO?By the way I am sticking to Paypal as my preferred payment method at present.


Hi Matt,

I just started to play with zencart a few weeks ago so I will try to answer some of your questions.

1. Do you mean if you can just copy and paste your html code from your current website so it looks the same?
Unfortunately the answer is no. With zencart you start with a basic template (default template) but there are different ways to change it.
Just to show you what it looks like, I added a .jpg on my server you can see it on here (http://www.ammolite.co.uk/members/cci/home.nsf/scr_template_default.jpg%21OpenImageResource) (I will keep it there for a week or two but I will delete it after ). Some changes can be made easily :
logo, top banner (but they have to be in the same size as the default ones, to change the size you will have to play with the .php file and it's more complicated)
you can also move (left or right)/delete the boxes (search, currency, categories,etc..) from the admin panel.
To change the colours you will have to play with the .css files
To make more changes you will have to learn how to change the .php files

2. I had my web hosting company to do it for me (I am with www.unitedhosting.co.uk (http://www.unitedhosting.co.uk)), they set it up free when I opened an account with them, they have a good customer service.
I also installed it locally on my computer so I can learn (mess around) how to change the .php files without affecting the website but that was not easy (and I am a software developer so I know a bit about computers !)

3. I don't know

Paypal is already integrated to work with zencart so that should be easy.

hope this helps

Joanne

[ExpandOnline]

Hi I'm a PHP developer and have setup and customised some ZenCart sites for clients.

You can make ZenCart look any way you like by modifying the various PHP files, CSS files and Admin options - and also extend the functionality (eg sideboxes, payment handlers, postage calculators, etc, etc) by adding modules - there are some pretty good extensions you can get from the ZenCart site. You would probably need a SEF url module for your question 3.

But as Joanne stated, you can't just drop it into dreamweaver 'cos it wont work!

Happy to advise further and/or quote, PM me.
Peter

[Spiderden]

You will need to make sure you have PHP/MySQL hosting to install it. Judging by your questions, you'd probably be better off getting someone to install it and a template for you. There's lots of pre built free and paid for templates available that can be installed in 5 mins, or you can commission someone to build a custom one for you.

Once it's installed, it's easy to configure and maintain using it's admin menu. As for it's impact on your current SEO, it won't affect it unless you're going to overwrite what you already have on your site with your Zen store.