I've started a website using Zencart. As support is near non-existant, I'm tying to decipher Zencart myself with help from another new site owner who is also going nuts.

The problem of the day is I just spent half the day correcting html coding so just my home page would validate. I wondered if there is some resource within Zencart to pre-enter html coding for frequently used codes so you don't need to keep typing them over & over for every paragraph you type. Like <font> & then the close html for each paragraph. And &amp for everytime you use &. There must be an easier way. Zencart requires html coding I've never heard of (doesn't mean much as I'm a html dunce). I thought maybe I don't have something or other set up correctly & am doing this the hard way (I hope).

It's very difficult to use Zencart with no manual or support, no list of their required codes, to explain all the ins & outs of the site. I thought I understood it basically, did about 100 listings & then discovered Cpanel & found I had endless html errors which of course all need redone now. Ready to throw in the towel. It just may be too complicated without help of some kind? HELP Please! Are all websites this complex or did I just pick the wrong one?

The forums at ZenCart have always been a great resource and pretty quick response from other users. Since you're new to Zen, perhaps you and your friend have not yet discovere the forums and manuals??

ZenCart Tutorials and Manuals

ZenCart Forums for Quick Assistance

Last year, I had a security issue that was addressed witihn 24 hrs by one of the developers on the forum, so it's usually the second place I go for help!

HTH & GO, FRONTPORCHDREAMING, GO!!! You CAN DO THIS!!!

Once you get used to Zen Cart, you'll love it and as you get more familiar, the add on mods created by other members add great value to your cart.

Well thank you so much. I wasn't aware of the tutorial/manuals or that Zen had their own forum. I will certainly check them both out & thanks for the vote of confidence.

You're welcome, FPD! Glad to help. I suspect you'll be flying along w/ Zen in no time. AS is right, once you get the hang of it, it's fairly easy to customize and snap in mods.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you've not spent much time w/ PHP, but it's pretty logical and won't take you long to have that AH-HA moment! ZenCart was my catalyst for finally learning PHP, which I'm doing in earnest now.

You'll be a pro in no time at all, and the Zen-Cart community will support you all the way.

You are so right that the Zen forum is a wealth of information (most over my head, lol). I did find a thread about favorite tools which is interesting as I see one of the tools recommended over & over is a html editor which I sorely need.

So far I've been hesitant to post there as I feel my amatuer questions would make all those experts sit shaking their heads but I'll get brave eventually & once the chuckling dies down, I'm sure they will be an invaluable help (and God knows, I sure need help, lol). Thanks again for the recommendation, you're a real hero!

Plus people using zencart is growing that means more support, they may not be as big OSCommerce users but the new release ZC shopping cart has more features that is easier to use even for begginer.

Well after months & months of trying to get used to Zencart, I'm about ready to throw in the towel. The html alone is enough to make me cry. It takes me 4 times longer to do a listing with zencart's html rules than it takes me to list at any of my other stores.

The little I thought I knew is apparently different at zencart (like no H5 to dictate font size). It seems at lot more typing of carrots, arrows, etc to type a simple description with paragraphs, etc. Must be just me?

I spend endless time following all the instructions I've found & then run the validator & they fine error after error. Last time I looked at my site on the validator thingee they found 76 errors. I'm too old to go thru all those errors & ever get them all fixed. LOL

Zen may just be out of my league. I find it hard to believe that every seller is an html expert. I need a program like the listing setup at feebay where you type your description hit the little html button & there it all is, like magic. My only hope!

I still can't figure out how to change my home page banner. It was done by the person who set up the site for me originally & for the life of me I can't change it & trust me I've sure spent plenty of time trying. I need to find a site with simplier ways it looks like.

FPD.. See.. these peeps who tell you how easy it is.. ummm... Sure its easy... After you learn Ugarit, Sumarian, Armenian anf Greek... Latin is a piece of cake.

Thank you Mo for letting me know I haven't lost the last vestage for brain matter I ever had. Thought it was just me! I'm a very rapid typist but to sit here typing all those >/=< etc line after line slows me down to a "intro to typing" pupil and the real killer is no matter how much time I spend checking & double checking, I run the validator & errors all over the place. So frustrating!

That's not even talking about all the other stuff that's really over my head in that CPanel (which is totally Greek to me). LOL I may just be that dog they were talking about when, whoever it was said, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks"

You mean you type faster then 35 wpm? WOW!!!

Take from me... I know EXACTLY what you are going thru... Remember me??? The person who bought an established auction site?

Get yourself a huge bottle of pain relievers... Tylenol may not be strong enough. A super huge box of tissue and a gallon of coffee per day. Probably a quart of whiskey wil help with some of it also.
And don't drink with the tylenol. Kills your liver faster.

Oh... a hint that might help.. if you know html well enough make a marker at the beginning and ending like ^. Write your codes and descriptions in notepad then do a search for the ^ and place your tags there. Maybe use ^ for open tag and ~ for close tag.

^palign-"center" Try this on for size ~/p

Then hit the search for the symbol and finish your tags.

or ^palign-"center"~ Try this on for size /p

search ^ replace with <Search>

Pick the symbol of your choice that you won't use in the description.

Mo what throws me is I thought I understood some html but apparently none of that applies in zencart. Like I've always used H4, H5 etc to determine font size, but zen wants you to type out all that "font size=+1 color blah blah stuff (or whatever it is, I have to copy it) & then end it with the reverse with / in front of everything, takes forever to type it all over & over. Then if you want to just go to the next dang line you have to do that stuff & on & on it goes. I've made copies of good descriptions, took out all the description wording & put in *** so I'd know where to type. Then I run the dang validator & have dozens of errors???? It's crazy

The other night I decided to add buttons on my home page that would link to my stores. So I type all this stuff out and the first 2 work as links (hoorah) but the 3rd one (done exactly the same it appears to me) doesn't show up at all? Go figure.

So I go run the validator thing & it says I have 76 errors, LOL yup 76. I'm baffled. The 2 buttons I have showing both work fine. In my book that should mean they're done right but apparently not?. Unless I'm totally blind the html for the 3rd one looks exactly the same as the first 2 that are working?

Really tho it's not just how much time I spend trying to figure out these godzillion problems with setup, it's the amount of time it takes to simply list something.

Geez, you'd think the errors would cause the cart not to work but each time I ever had a zen cart install, I never had a single problem.

arcanesanctuary: That's why I'm so frustrated. No matter what I check there seem to be errors galore. I'm stumped. I actually have quit listing on my site. I have 100 some odd listings running but until I understand what all these errors are about & how to remedy them, I've quit adding.

There are several buttons to check on your site in the cpanel & every one I check shows nothing but errors. Too exasperating. This is just a very small sample of the error log in cpanel. Sure doesn't look healthy to me & I am clueless on the remedy.

[Mon Aug 6 14:41:25 2007] [error] [client 71.193.252.147] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 14:41:25 2007] [error] [client 71.193.252.147] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 13:58:13 2007] [error] [client 75.181.40.0] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 13:58:13 2007] [error] [client 75.181.40.0] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 13:19:45 2007] [error] [client 69.113.104.244] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 13:19:45 2007] [error] [client 69.113.104.244] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 12:13:29 2007] [error] [client 74.6.28.33] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 12:13:29 2007] [error] [client 74.6.28.33] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/robots.txt
[Mon Aug 6 12:00:16 2007] [error] [client 71.200.11.186] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 12:00:16 2007] [error] [client 71.200.11.186] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 11:40:43 2007] [error] [client 65.55.213.99] File does not exist:

arcanesanctuary: That's why I'm so frustrated. No matter what I check there seem to be errors galore. I'm stumped. I actually have quit listing on my site. I have 100 some odd listings running but until I understand what all these errors are about & how to remedy them, I've quit adding.

There are several buttons to check on your site in the cpanel & every one I check shows nothing but errors. Too exasperating. This is just a very small sample of the error log in cpanel. Sure doesn't look healthy to me & I am clueless on the remedy. I'm suspecting that these are robots trying to access my listings??? There are many more than this for just one day & there is a long list for every single day.


[Mon Aug 6 14:41:25 2007] [error] [client 71.193.252.147] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 14:41:25 2007] [error] [client 71.193.252.147] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 13:58:13 2007] [error] [client 75.181.40.0] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 13:58:13 2007] [error] [client 75.181.40.0] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 13:19:45 2007] [error] [client 69.113.104.244] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 13:19:45 2007] [error] [client 69.113.104.244] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/favicon.ico
[Mon Aug 6 12:13:29 2007] [error] [client 74.6.28.33] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/404.shtml
[Mon Aug 6 12:13:29 2007] [error] [client 74.6.28.33] File does not exist: /home/frontpor/public_html/robots.txt