FPD, .html applies in ZenCart, but not the straight forward, page by page .html people generally work with.

You've probably already figured out that the core of the cart is based on PHP. The elements, such as the font, colors, etc are generated by CSS.

I think this makes site maintenance much easier than building hundreds (and I've done it) of pages in .html and then having to update them manually. CSS is a single sheet where the changes you make are applied site wide.

PHP works server side to call your .html elements and produce the page your visitor selects. For instance, when you change something in the header.html it's reused by PHP on every page that calls the header.html. If you've ever manually changed the header and/or footer a 300+ page site, it's easy to appreciate what a great tool PHP is.

You do not have to know PHP and CSS to work with ZenCart, but a basic understanding of how they function, along with your .html skills can produce excellent results. I suggest finding a PHP tutorial, reading the introduction and doing the first "Hello World" would help you understand it's function with .html.

To help you understand and apply CSS more easily, I have something that's more fun - if you use the FireFox browser. Go to Mozilla's FireFox section and look for the "Developer" extension by Chris Pedrick. Installed on the FireFox browser, one of the things this extension allows you to do is edit your CSS live. This means you can try things "on" your site until you create the look/feel you want. Then it's a matter of saving your CSS and uploading it to your site.

The beauty of the PHP CSS combo is that you can change your entire site - layout, colors, just about everything - by making changes to a hand full of pages.

Here's a little cheat to replace your banner without having to write any files: right click your banner and choose "Properties". From the dialogue box, make note of the location and name of your banner. Give your new banner the same name as your current banner. Upload your new banner to the exact location as your current banner. Refresh the page and your new banner should be in place.

I can't help out with the validator issues. I don't know if a fresh install of the cart throws errors so don't know if code changes have increased or decreased the error rate.

I understand your frustration...but whether you use ZenCart, OSComemrce, Cube Cart or another, they depend on a combination of PHP, CSS and .html to create a dynamic environment. If you're totally fed up, you always have a fall back position to build a site in .html instert GCO or PP buttons or grabbing a turn-key cart and plugging your inventory in.

Best good luck regardless your approach!

As my final attempt to understand all this, I will follow your suggestions LL & see if I can at least find out what PHP & CSS mean (not kidding). Trust me when I say this is all Greek to me, I mean GREEK.

Thanks for all your information, that should keep me busy for at least the next few weeks, LOL I'm so dang stubborn, I hate throwing in the towel after all the time (considerable) I've spent trying to get this site going. Funny thing was that the night I decided "that was it", I woke up the very next morning with my first sale which got me hopeful again.

Barbara

Cool, Barbara! You've learned .html, and I'm positive you can come to grips with PHP & CSS.

PHP derives it's acronym from "Personal Home Page Tools" - its earliest name. Today, it's more commonly referred to as Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP grabs the .html from specific pages to produce a single browser page.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Is an elegant short cut to hand coding every line with appropriate font, color, page color, table background, etc. Once you have a basic understanding of CSS, you'll have the ability to effortlessly change the look of your entire site from a single page. To see what you can do with a site by changing ONE page - the style sheet - stroll through the paths of ZenGarden

Fun with PSU....the Mozilla Developer Tool I mentioned? Here's a glimpse of mucking around with PSU from my browser. Y'all will be glad to know that the changes appear only in my browser If this were my domain, I could save and upload the CSS to apply these changes (and more) to the entire site....

The Tool Bar:


The "Work" Area:


Making a Mess:


I'm glad you're sticking with it! I totally agree about the time investment, especially when all you need is a little understanding of things you can obviously learn.

And you're welcome for the information. I'm just paying it forward. A lot of people have helped me through the years. It's one of my favorite things about the internet - people sharing their knowledge, talent and skills across an incredible range of subjects. Everyone has something to contribute

Found the extention in firefox by Chris Pederick, now please be kind but I'm stuck again. It's asking me if I want a download for Firefox Flock or Mozilla Seamonkey? Do I need to install one of those first to use this extention?

Somehow my firefox/mozilla has a yahoo home page? (likely my teens doing?) but never could find that extention. Found it doing a google search on Chris Pederick. Told you I'm so duh, duh, duh about all this stuff.

I've always Firefox & Mozilla were the same but maybe not? Oh my!

Need more caffeine. Meant to type "I always thought" Firefox & Mozilla were the same.

LOLOL!! Barbara, don't feel "duh" - you're actually on the right road.

Mozilla is the umbrella organization for several projects. FireFox is one of Mozilla's babies.

And yes, you will need an additional download. Been using it for a couple of years and totally forgot about that...severe case of CRS. If you're using FireFox, you want SeaMonkey. Flock is another browser with SM functionality. Just depends which browser you prefer to use. If you're into social networking, Flock is a good choice.

I guess I should put the Developer Extension in my bookmarks and make it easier on people when I recommend it; glad you found it

Ok going to go get that Seamonkey working. Who thinks these names up? LOL Could there be light at this end of this long, dark zencart tunnel?

Just wasted another hour trying to find out how to install SeaMonkey. Thought maybe it was automatically installed when I installed Firefox but apparently not as I find nothing when I do a search for firefox seamonkey. When I click on seamonkey I don't see a way to install it, all I see is a way to install some chat forum connected to it? Hopeless? Could be! And this is the easy part, LOL

Seems I have multiple copies of firefox on my computer. I suspect my teen keeps installing it to get to myspace which I have blocked on aol. Anyone want a lovely 16 yr old complete with 2 rooms of clothing. I'll even iron everything before packing her up!

Not hopeless. Here's SM documentation
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/releases/seamonkey1.1.4/

The most important thing is to take you time. I get focused on things and impose urgency and unnecessary deadlines on myself. Start by reading the "Read Me" documentation and everything that relates to your system. Do a search for phrases that are unclear - chances are tons of other people have posed the same question and has received the answer.

And remember, when you started to install Developer, you were given an option to install SeaMonkey - so it may be all you need to do is remove the additional FF installations and attempt to install Developer again.

Give yourself a break. This is new stuff. Your time is never wasted when you're learning

Oh, BTW, you might post the 16 y/o on CraigsList. Took about 25 minutes for someone to come haul the leftover garage sale stuff away...

Think I'm going to go to search & delete all Firefox stuff & start over. My teen will probably have a heart attack (she's on vacation, I remember those) LOL

OK I deleted everything I had connected to Firefox/Mozilla & reinstalled Firefox & Sea Monkey & also the extension recommended. Lost again.

Now that I apparently have the extension, I'm not sure what to do with it. I put in my web address & hit the validator button & of course it shows 70 some odd errors. So I click on fix down at the bottom & I have 68 errors, LOL Probably doing it all wrong? Yikes! I really don't get what all those errors mean. Like they show a line of html with one red letter (like the c in center) so I go to my site html & that dang c looks perfectly OK to me (just an example).

But do sellers seriously sit & recheck each html line they write & correct errors? At this rate I would take a week to list one item. I have to be missing something big time (I hope)

Should have mentioned that when I click on check CSS, it says no errors found (whatever that means?)

This is just way over my head. Still showing a godzillion html errors when I check my listings with that validator thingee & in this lifetime, I could never change all the errors they mention on each listing.

Now FF has chosen not to work? Freezes my computer, jerks around & crashes the entire computer. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, deleted all Mozilla & firefox, reinstalled with same results each time. Who knows I probably "broke" something, LOL

Pretty frustrating tho when I have a website that I tremble to add a listing to. I know I'll spend an hour doing a listing I could do on ecrater/PH/blujay in 5 minutes or less & then have it all wrong. I need a different kind of site. Like the feebay system where you type in Kings English hit the little "html" button & magic, you have html. The only solution for me I'm athinkin'.

FPD,

For a simple HTML program you might try NVU http://www.nvu.com/

It's a free program that works much like you want to in plain English. You select the font style and other stuff from the toolber and it shows on the page. Then on the bottom of the page is a button for the HTML code view. NVU doesn't always get the codes completely right and "clean" but it's a good start for writting your pages and then copying the code to where ever you need it.

Carol