Convert to CSS?
 

Has anyone converted their site to remove all the tables and use CSS instead? Are there any problems to be aware of? Any experinces in this would be greatly appreciated. My concern is not to accidently remove some functionality :-)

What are the dangers to the static html generator?


Mocara.

Converting the entire site to CSS is a daunting task, but one that is possible. You would need to keep some of the tables, as they were originally meant for display of information anyway :)

As far as the static html, I would skip it and just use this mod instead:

http://www.safetynetweb.com/Dynamic-Search-Engine-Friendly-URLs-pr-1.html

I'm really only concerned for converting the customer pages.

Re that mod: Will it work no matter what changes I make to the CSS? I can see that using mod_rewrite one could convert /'s to ?'s but how the internal processes would give back those characters would envolve modfiying a fair amount of code. Does this mode patch a lot of the xcart code?

Mocara.

I'd contact John (the mod creator) about the specifics. It shouldn't have anything to do with the table/div layout though, as it modifies the product url.

Contact boomer from cart-labs.com he undertook doing a CSS skin for x-cart, it's not a task for the faint hearted thats for sure!

Thanks for that. I've droped them a line via their contact page.

Mocara.

I have semi-converted x-cart to css on a live site and I am working on a closed copy of x-cart making a css driven template. From my experince, there is a lot of things x-cart desinged with tables in mind, so converting to CSS has caused me a few headaches, however much of it is possible. Like balinor said, there are going to be a few cases where you are going to need tables, however tables have a use for displaying certain data where css would fall short (or require a ton of code which defeats the purpose of css) so dont worry if you have a couple tables still. Ive been saying x-cart needs better templates/template system, but for now your stuck doing the conversion yourself. Good Luck!

Keep in mind if you convert the entrie site to CSS upgradeing templated will be a complete nightmare for you due to the changes required.

That's truth, convert the entrie site to CSS is real nightmare, but it is possible.
I have converted(80% and still working on it) x-cart skin to css and valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional, take a look(ignore design):
http://www.7danahost.com/xcart


Also, I have converted the default orange skin to valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional (not table free), I can share this skin if someone is interested, just drop me an e-mail at info @ 7dana.com.