zencart Templates

[Andy c]

 
looking for a tutorial on template installation

thanks 

[Baa]

Are you creating a new template or uploading an existing one?

[seamus]

Righty,

templates, first things first, you'll need a copy of filezilla client, its not really a job you can do using the cpanel file manager system, you could do it that way, but its not really advisable.

filezilla client download it here
http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/files/

free and payed for templates are usually in the right folder stucture in the first place, so its just a matter of uploading the includes folder and all the files will land in the right place, heres how that works,

Start filezilla and enter your website into the "host" area at the top left, minus the www. ie, yourdomain.co.uk
then add your FTP username into the username field, and add in your password.
Usually by default the main FTP account for your website has the same login details as your cpanel logins.
you only need to enter your website address (minus www.) into the host field, username and password, nevermind "port"
then click quick connect.
If your zencart is located in the root of your site (ie, when typing in yourwebsite.co.uk into your web browser, if it takes you straight to your zencart main page, the zencart is installed in the root, if you need to type in yourwebsite.co.uk/store or somthing similar, then your zencart is installed in /store and not in the root)

installing templates is just a matter of dropping the includes folder of your new template into the root of your site, public_html, or if your zencart is in another directory, then you drop the includes folder into that directory, ie, public_html/store

by doing this, all the files will follow the file stucture they are already in, this wont overwrite your original includes folder, it will simply place the files within includes, and all the rest of the files in the directories they are meant to be in, as the folder stucture is already layed out within the template. Filezilla wont overwrite any folder or directory, it will overwrite single files if there is already a file with the same name in a directory that filezilla is trying to upload to, before any files are over written, filezilla will let you know and give you the option to overwrite or cancel.

It really is as simple as dragging and dropping the includes folder, and the template files will find their way into the right directories.

to check your template is in the right place, follow the file stucture and have a look,

public_html/includes/templates/yourtemplate
your template should be the same name as the template you'v just uploaded, if there isnt a directory there with the same name as your template, then something has gone wrong.

If your zencart is in its own directory called store for example, then you'll be checking in
public_html/store/includes/templates/yourtemplate
remember though, if your zencart is in /store then you should be dragging and dropping the includes folder of your template into public_html/store not straight into public_html or else it wont upload any of the files to the right place

[seamus]

after uploading your template and checking the files are where they should be, go into admin>tools>template selection within your zencart admin panel and choose the template you have just uploaded, then go into admin>tools>layout boxes controler and reset your boxes, if you dont, none of your sideboxes will show up at all.
Click reset at the bottom of the page, then set the sort order for each box and turn off the boxes you dont want.

Job done, your template is installed.

To upload your own logo image to the template, make an image the same size as the original logo image and name the file the same as the original (usually logo.jpg or logo.gif depending on file type used) and upload it to
public_html/includes/templates/yourtemplate/images/
yourtemplate being the name of the template you'v just installed.
If your zencart is in its own directory ie, yourwebsite.co.uk/store then the image should be uploaded to
public_html/store/includes/templates/yourtemplate/images/
and your template should have been uploaded to public_html/store/ and not just dropped into public_html

[scotserve]

Piece of piss eh!

TBH zencart for me has the most unwieldy structure of them all

Good write up seamus 

[seamus]

cheers scottie 

the file structure is a bit here there and everywhere really, takes a bit of getting used to so it does

[Andy c]

Hi
I've tried putting them in the root ,in zencart in templates in zencart and they never show up in the tools template ...I am using 1 of rainbows templates and even tried another I downloaded off the net .still nothing ...ALso am using scottserve as host for now .... can't find windows 7 screen grab

[seamus]

which folder are you uploading? is it the includes folder?

unzip the template folder, say its called rainbowblack just for example, open the rainbowblack folder and find the includes folder, its the includes folder you need to upload, not the rainbowblack folder,
in the same folder as the includes folder there should be a readme.txt file if you cant see the readme.txt file, your not in the right folder, chances are your uploading the wrong folder, it has to be the includes folder, not the rainbowblack folder or whatever the name of the template is.

if it is the includes folder you're uploading, then you'r uploading it to the wrong place.

is your zencart installed in the root of your site? in other words, when you go to yourdomain.co.uk (yourdomain.co.uk being the name of your site) does it take you straight to your zencart main page? if it does, the zencart is in the root.

one thing you'll need to do is remove the files you'v uploaded, if the template isnt showing up in admin (which it should seeing as I made all the free templates that rain-bow has on offer and they'v all been thoroughly tested) it means the template has been uploaded either to the wrong place or the template has been uploaded inside another folder, which means theres an extra folder sitting in a place it shouldnt be, with all the template files in it.

if you'v tried a few times to upload various templates without success, you will have template files scattered everywhere, these will need removed.

send a message to rain-bow with your FTP login details and we'll remove the templates that you'v tried to install, then we'll install the template for you (I say we, it'll be me that'll do it for you)

[scotserve]

Ok took a look you have upladed rainbowblue to the root folder - what you need to do is copy everything that is in the /rainbowblue/includes into /public_html/zencart/includes/ that should then allow you to see the template in admin.
I could do it for you but it is best you try and figure the logic out for yourself

[Andy c]

nope still not .... got it in 3 different places now ..... but am tired will try again in the morning ..I know I can do it and will ,but yes doing it myself is the best way

[Andy c]

mmmmmm thought I had solved it but setting up is going wrong still

[seamus]

the easiest way to do this is find all the rainbowblue folders you'v uploaded and delete them, aswell as the other template you tried to upload
then once you'v done that, on the left hand side of filezilla (your computer files) find the rainbowblue template, go into the rainbowblue folder and find the includes folder, dont go into the includes folder, on the left hand side of filezilla you should be able to see the includes folder and a readme.txt file, if you'v got that showing you'r on the right lines.

on the right hand side of filezilla (remote host, in other words your website) go into the public_html folder, inside there you should see your zencart folder, this is where you have installed your zencart, dont go inside that folder, simply drag the includes folder from the left of the filezilla screen to the right hand side and drop the includes folder directly ontop on the zencart folder, thats all you need to do, if you do that, all the template files will be placed in all the right places within zencart
then its just a matter of activating the template and resetting the sideboxes in admin>layout boxes controller
if you dont reset the sideboxes none of them will show, they will all be turned off untill you reset them.

[Andy c]

I am there with rainbows and found out what I was doing wrong
where is the bast place to find free zencart templates I've looked everywhere and can't find any half decent templates .... I will buy 1 but until I can afford it I will have to do with free :(

[seamus]

finding free templates can be abit hit and miss, theres a good few around, but they tend to be quite old, can cause issues with the new versions of zencart, zen-cart.com have a few templates, but most are quite dated, thats why we started making free templates, theres about 16 templates that we'v done for free, all similar (colour changes and stuff) bar one, a two column layout, not the usual three column click here for a look that one is quite different to the rainbowblue one.

only thing I can suggest is to search around, I'v not found any one site that has really good free templates, there will be somthing about that you'll like though

[Andy c]

found a good template ..well I like it anyway nice and clean with probably easy to work with , my only problems are that the "contact us" and the "my account" seem a little messed up
they all look like this

# Ms.                 ENTRY_REQUIRED_SYMBOL_ALT
# First Name:      ENTRY_REQUIRED_SYMBOL_ALT
# Last Name:      ENTRY_REQUIRED_SYMBOL_ALT
# Street Address: ENTRY_REQUIRED_SYMBOL_ALT

with all the  ENTRY_REQUIRED_SYMBOL_ALT in red and getting in the way ..How do I go about removing this please

thanks