Is it easier to write a new template, or modify an existing one?
 

I'm having some trouble here. I have a design based off of the fashion mosaic, but it's amazing how hard modifing the template is. Tons of nested templates, code being reused where it shouldn't be and not being reused where it should, it really is a mess. I've thought about just writing a new template, but how hard is this? I've never worked with smarty and my php knowledge is so-so.

Re: Is it easier to write a new template, or modify an existing one?
 

If you have never worked with smarty, it won't be that easy. You don't need to know PHP, as the tempaltes are just smarty and html/css. Going to be easiest to start with some sort of base, but I'd suggest starting with a more 'vanilla' set of templates, like the ones that come with X-Cart by default. The Fashion Mosaic is indeed kind of messy.

Re: Is it easier to write a new template, or modify an existing one?
 

Blah, okay. I started with Fashion Mosaic already, and it's driving me nuts. I've replaced quite a bit of it with DIVs and whatnot, since their table structure is pretty nasty.

Re: Is it easier to write a new template, or modify an existing one?
 

It is a huge job to convert X-Cart to a CSS-driven layout...ask Boomer..he wrote a CSS skin for the 4.0 branch...believe it took him 80 hours or so. cart-lab.com