Oscommerce or Zencart or Cre Loaded for D.I.Y Site

madmik

I am looking for a complete ecommerce site with a modern style storefront,about 5 pages of inventory and incorporating shopping cart ,etc

I have a bit of experience using oscommerce but the standard install of oscommerce 2.2 looks a bit plain and boring


Is it better to customize oscommerce with a template or better to use zen or cre?

EKRIUQ

Zen is the easiest for customisation and the backend has a huge amount of options

pauldiv

What do you mean by plain? What are you expecting?

OSCommerce and Zencart are general purpose shopping applications that provide the usual functionality but not the look of the store. If you don't want to do any styling work or start learning about the PHP code then just buy a template. They are as cheap as chips.

daymobrew

Namesco wrote: »

Zen is the easiest for customisation and the backend has a huge amount of options

+1
ZenCart is sooo much better than osCommerce. The current version has a good template system and does not use tables (osC does).
I'm using ZenCart for a new shop I am developing. I like it a lot. A million times easier than osC.

There are some nice free templates (and as pauldiv says, the paid ones are cheap).

madmik

pauldiv wrote: »

What do you mean by plain? What are you expecting?

OSCommerce and Zencart are general purpose shopping applications that provide the usual functionality but not the look of the store. If you don't want to do any styling work or start learning about the PHP code then just buy a template. They are as cheap as chips.

I just thought the default install was a bit plain and drab looking although the functionality was almost perfectly as i wanted it

I have replaced the default with a few free templates i found on the internet and they have improved the appearance a bit but theyre not very modern

im trying to build using completely open source or free solutions so im not using commercial templates but i would like to replicate the style of this template

http://osc3.template-help.com/osc_22008/index.php

pauldiv

madmik wrote: »

I just thought the default install was a bit plain and drab looking although the functionality was almost perfectly as i wanted it

I have replaced the default with a few free templates i found on the internet and they have improved the appearance a bit but theyre not very modern

im trying to build using completely open source or free solutions so im not using commercial templates but i would like to replicate the style of this template

http://osc3.template-help.com/osc_22008/index.php

Thats is a nice looking site and you would not know that is was built using osc. It just shows what can be done using open source software and bit of artistic talent. Maybe you should find a free template that is as close to the look and structure you need and then take it from there. You would not really need to get into the php but you would need to learn how to handle the CSS and HTML.

Daymobrew has a valid point about why ZenCart would be better and I have seen many posts about the problems with OSC code. Apparently they were going to re-code it all for the release of version 3. I feel that if you had ZenCart running locally then you would like it a lot.

madmik

I have installed a template but the more i look at it the more unsure i am of whether to keep it or not

http://bargainfactory.ie

i think it looks a bit dated but ive been told it looks fine and im being too fussy etc

if anyone has any opinions on it dont be afraid to post them

daymobrew

madmik wrote: »

I have installed a template but the more i look at it the more unsure i am of whether to keep it or not

http://bargainfactory.ie

i think it looks a bit dated but ive been told it looks fine and im being too fussy etc

if anyone has any opinions on it dont be afraid to post them

I think that it looks grand - a lot better than some shops out there.

I recommend looking into adding the SEO URLs add-on - it will result in nicer looking urls e.g.
changing http://bargainfactory.ie/product_info.php?products_id=72
to http://bargainfactory.ie/nokia-6020-p-72.html

Is that template available for Zen Cart? I would really recommend Zen Cart over osC - it at least appears to be in active development and the version releases are easier to understand.

pauldiv

I think bargainhunter is nice, clean and functional. Just what shoppers need.
With regards to your store it looks like you are searching for a template that will have all the cosmetic work already done - colour, graphics and layout.

I would draw it with pen and paper so that I knew exactly what I wanted and then go searching for the closest thing I could find. That way you would minimise the modifications needed.

Finding the perfect free web site template takes time but it is not impossible.

Skadi

http://www.oswd.org/

a great site for open source templates.

But i guess if you are not familiar with html or php then it is hard to customise zencart or oscommerce exactly to how you want it.

madmik

daymobrew wrote: »

I think that it looks grand - a lot better than some shops out there.

I recommend looking into adding the SEO URLs add-on - it will result in nicer looking urls e.g.
changing http://bargainfactory.ie/product_info.php?products_id=72
to http://bargainfactory.ie/nokia-6020-p-72.html

Is that template available for Zen Cart? I would really recommend Zen Cart over osC - it at least appears to be in active development and the version releases are easier to understand.

I will definately look into developing the urls with product names etc

I had installed the most recent version of oscommerce but with my extremely limited customisation skills it looked crap

A friend gave me the template im using now which was a template he purchased and never used for his site in 2006
the problem is that template doesnt work with the latest version of oscommerce as its designed for version 2.2rc1 which is three releases ago

The only reason im sticking with oscommerce is because i spent/wasted/invested a couple of days learning it last week and moving to zencart would take me another couple of days to learn and also id have to start looking for another new template to suit zencart