X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Hi guys, I see some threads on this but I was wondering if anyone can explain how to integrate wordpress into x-cart. I would also be keen to continue being able to upgrade wordpress with Fantastico via my cpanel as this is such a simple way to update the software.

Im guessing that the setup will require no sidebars so that the blog can sit in the middle 'frame' of x-cart ...

any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

I usually keep the blog in its own sub-folder, and design a complimentary skin for it.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Hi balinor thanks for the reply. I have two x-cart sites with /blog subfolders but I dont like the way if you click on the block link in the speed bar the whole layout changes. I would rather it appear in the middle of my x-cart design. I hear other people are doing it, Im just wondering if this is a reasonably straight forward thing to do, or it is something that is best given to someone to integrate and spend some $$

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

That's what I mean - you just skin the blog to match the site :)

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Ashley from ArwVisions skinned a Wordpress blog for my site which integrates smoothly with the main site, you don't notice the difference! :) You might want to consult with him.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

smooth and easy :) just like me!!

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Thanks guys, yes I think you understand what I am looking for, its the ability to have wordpress appear within the x-cart frames, so I keep the side bars that my skin has that includesmy product categories, static pages, etc etc.

is this something you do Ashley.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

no not really. I can make word pres look exactly like your x-cart but I can't add word press to x-cart.

Im sure it possible but you would need to have some custom programming done.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

OK thanks for that. I dont see why it is so hard to add a single page (i.e. no side bars) wordpress theme to the middle of an x-cart page. Perhaps it isnt for someone who can program :O)

Thanks for your thoughts.

Best wishes

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

its really easy to add as single page, however wordpress uses it's own template system with multiple templates and folders, several stylesheet and so on and so on. just can't plug it all into one page.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

And putting it in the 'middle of x-cart' isn't as easy as it sounds unless you use an Iframe, which you don't want to do.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

So what you do is setup your blog, and either hard code your x-cart categories, which won't auto update when you add stuff in your admin, or just lose the x-cart nav and have the blog nav. either is acceptable to me. I wouldn't be turned off by not having shopping cart cats while reading a blog. I would just hit the home button or maybe you could add a button to the blog that says return to shop.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Thanks guys. It would be a great opportunity for someone to create a plugin to somehow make this work rather than sending clients to a completely separate page. I guess this is just choice in terms of layout, as some of course see the shop as a separate area to a site, but this doesn't happen in my market. With mine you are straight in with a site and layout that offers up details and a continuity that I want to not break. There is a guy out there advertising a blog mod, but its not integrating Wordpress with x-cart and I wasn't confident with the guy so didnt pursue .

Thanks for your thoughts, it does sound like it is not possible for WP to appear in the middle of x-cart. Maybe sometime in the future this will be true.

Best wishes :-)

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

I use Wordpress to post regular articles in a sub directory at http://www.drugteststrips.com/resources/ which looks similar to the main site http://www.drugteststrips.com/ (though not exactly similar, it has the same feel as that of my x-cart. I have separate databse for wordpress and x-cart.

The DrugTestStrips Articles section on the left hand side on all the pages on the main site shows the list of all the articles as and when they are published. Similarly I show related articles (from Wordpress) to the product page (in X-cart )

If this is something which you would like to have, you can do it by using BuzzBoost service from Feedburner (http://feedburner.google.com).

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Impressive. I like the way you have matched the designs so well. I also like the way you have labelled it 'articles' as opposed to a blog. Nice one. Thank you for showing me.

I put my site design together for x-cart and then went looking for a skin that best matched it. 1 year later I found a skin that looked 90% the same. So Im happy with that.

But it still looks like a blog...

Thank you for your thoughts.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

What about integrating the other way around --

Let's say I have a 'Best Sellers' column in my X-Cart store, is it possible to tap into that info from a Wordpress blog?

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

I am considering NewsPro from SafetyNetWeb. John is wonderful to work with and it sounds like the mod does just that. Does anyone else use it that I could see it live on the site? You can pm instead of posting. I just want to make sure it ill work the way I want it to.

Thanks!

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

I just installed Wordpress today and decided to give it a try. I'm lazy and didn't feel like re-skinning it to match my store. So I just opened one of my store's static pages in a browser, went to View Source and copy pasted the code into Dreamweaver. Then I replaced the content with WordPress' content section, and added the sidebar on the right. Saved over the index.php in the default theme, changed a few of the CSS classes, and now I have my WordPress blog framed in my store's theme. Of course it isn't dynamic, and it will be a pain if I do any major changes to my store, but I think it will work for me.
http://www.partssystems.com/blog/

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

for a quick and dirty solution you can simply use Phil from UK MOds free RSS feed mod and then all you do is set up a feed from your blog that is displayed within your xcart.

You can control how many characters are displayed in the feed and then the user can simply click through this to your blog...

You can see this on the home page of my www.CoffeeShrine.com.au site though you may want to display the feed in the centre section of your site and display mroe characters

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

izlee00,

I have found, over time, some really close matches to my own x-cart design available as a WP skin. So, on the cheap you can have some pretty good matches. Also, a lot of WP skins have a piece of artwork in the header so you could change this to match more closely your x-cart site.

Re: X-cart integration with Wordpress
 

Paul, where on coffee shrine?