Best way to learn how to edit templates
 

Just got my xcart up and running today.

I want to customize it of course. I have read the FAQ on Design and Configuration that Xcart provided. It appears that it is way more technical than i thought. I don't understand the slightest bit of code.

What is that code, is it HTML, PHP, Smarty? Any suggestions on the best place to get started to learning this stuff so i feel more comfortable editing the templates. Is there special software i need to modify the smarty templates or do i just open them up and change them?

Any help for me would be much appreciated.

PS i am running my cart on a linux platform.

Tough learning curve on this stuff indeed :( The templates are made up of a combination of HTML, CSS and Smarty. Smarty is the toughest part to get the hang of, but the nested table layouts are also tough.

Honestly the best way to learn it is to just dive in and start getting familar with what is what. Webmaster Mode will help you with which templates control what. Once you know what to edit, you can either edit the code directly, or you can also get a plug-in for Dreamweaver that will help you view/edit the templates:

http://forum.x-cart.com/viewtopic.php?p=79807

You probably won't touch the php portion of the files that much, but some mods will require that as well. You need to access those files via ftp, as you can't get to them from the admin area of X-Cart.

Your best resource is this forum. Most of the common questions (which template is this, how do I make my cart do this, etc) have been answered hundreds of times, so be sure to search thoroughly. Hint: use 'and' in your searches - instead of searching for 'welcome text' search for 'welcome and text'. Improves the search results a ton.

If all else fails, post a question and we'll hook you up with the solution :) Good luck!