X-Cart forums

[Jerrad]

Hi all!

My first (serious) post so let me start with a brief introduction:
My name is Jerrad and i'm from the Netherlands. I've got limited html skills and got non with X-cart, but am also very eager to learn.
And one of the reasons i decided to go with X-cart, were the positive story's i red about this forum on the internet.

The last days (and nights) i did alot of reading in this forum and despite the difficulty of it, i understand the general principle of modifying and configuring.
What i really don't get (it isn't easy to admit being stupid...) is the way the layout is changed. I don't mean the colors, fonts, etc., etc., but changing the the standard template in a way it's hard to tell you're looking at a X-cart shop.

For instance how it's done with the following shop:

http://www.angelacarolpearls.com/

It looks like the menu on the left includes the logo and goes all way up next to the head.tpl. How and where was this done?
Same question for the table which includes the four images; where and how was this table inserted?
Can this only be done directly in the tpl templates or is there a visual way, maybe (in combination) with Dreamweaver or Frontpage (which i really hope...)?

I've got a zillion questions left but first of all i really want to learn how to change the layout to something like the shop mentioned above.

I hope somebody can help.
Many thanks in advance!

[TelaFirma]

Hello Jerrad and welcome to the forum.

Also, thank you for using one of my sites as an example (I feel like a proud papa LOL )

The site that you are looking at represents a lot of time and effort to change the templates. If you have been reading the forums, you realize that the entire look of the cart (and some of the functionality) is controled by the templates. X-Cart uses Smarty Templates. These have a certain amount of logic built into them that will allow you to do things like IF/THEN statemtent, loops and other things. This is a simplistic way of looking at the templates, but this will give you an idea.

There is only so far that you will be able to get by using a visual editor like Dreamweaver or Frontpage becuase of the logic that is used in the templates. However, they can be used to a point.

The large task will be learning all the templates that are involved to display any given page. This is weherer the "webmaster" mode comes in handy for beginners. It will list all of the templates used on a give page.

As you get deeper and deeper into learning x-cart one of the best references that you will have will be smarty.php.net. Using this reference, a good design that you have done in Photoshop (or something similar), your visual HTML editor and a lot of coffee and long nights, you will get it done

[Jerrad]

Thanks for the quick and extensive reply, TelaFirma!
And you've got all reason to be proud, the angela carol pearls site is one of the most clean, stylish and mature shops i ever have seen!

I understand your answer and know now for sure that knowlegde of the Smart templates the key is for designing X-cart to your wishes.
At the same time i think it's a pity that the learning curve of X-cart, with no doubt the best (priced) cart around, so long and difficult is.

That won't stop me of trying and then maybe some day with the help of this forum (and the smart forum), i will be able to produce something as wonderfull as you did with the angela carol shop.

Any chance you could show me (maybe in a small tutorial) how some things are be done. For example how the menu is valigned to the top next to the head...

And again; many thanks for your reply!