Using Joomla! with ZenCart - Revision history

Cmb: Corrected and restored the Joomla Extensions Directory link.

2012-11-13T00:01:16Z

Corrected and restored the Joomla Extensions Directory link.

Cmb: Removed reference to non-existent Website. Removed the JED search link which returned no meaningful results. Corrrected punctuation.

2012-11-12T23:54:35Z

Removed reference to non-existent Website. Removed the JED search link which returned no meaningful results. Corrrected punctuation.

Chris Davenport: Removed references to non-GPL extensions

2009-11-02T23:30:45Z

Removed references to non-GPL extensions

Connectage: Added information about available commercial components, removed old information about Cartage that is out of date.

2009-11-02T16:49:38Z

Added information about available commercial components, removed old information about Cartage that is out of date.

Erdsiger: New page: I found that inserting ZenCart into Joomla is near impossible and ultimately does not work well.. (The Joomla wrapper function is inadequate for this) Finding ZenCart & Joomla templates th...

2008-08-02T11:23:29Z

New page: I found that inserting ZenCart into Joomla is near impossible and ultimately does not work well.. (The Joomla wrapper function is inadequate for this) Finding ZenCart & Joomla templates th...

New page

I found that inserting ZenCart into Joomla is near impossible and ultimately does not work well.. (The Joomla wrapper function is inadequate for this) Finding ZenCart & Joomla templates that were similar enough to begin with, and then attempting to synch them, takes an ENORMOUS amount of effort.. I was considering building my Zen Cart template from scratch to match my Joomla site, when I ran across the Sanguis Easy Embed Template contribution for ZenCart. Here's a link to the Easy Embed Template thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42105

The Easy Embed template is a ZenCart template that allows you to create an HTML wrapper to insert ZenCart.. It is the ZenCart template for folks who have an existing website, but would like to add ZenCart while still using their existing site design.. Seemed like the way to go if I wanted to use Joomla with ZenCart..

Here's how I implemented this:
# I created an HTML wrapper with the same header and footer as my Joomla site so that when you go from Joomla to ZenCart it will look seemless.
# After that all I had to do was a little work to synch the two stylesheets so that both Joomla and ZenCart looked and acted alike. Here's the result of this effort: http://clients.overthehillweb.com/phlaunthair

I used plain old HTML to make this happen, but I suppose a real PHP programmer could figure out a way to call the Joomla code from the ZenCart embedded template.. I may one day look into doing just this and having a developer create this code for me.. So for now my simple HTML solution works just fine..

ZenCart has been a MUCH better solution for my clients, and I will continue to offer it as an e-commerce solution.. It has a rich feature set which rivals some of the commercial carts available.. HTH

P.S. - I know I am not alone in wanting to see a viable solution to bridge Joomla and ZenCart. For those interested, there is currently a development effort underway to create a ZenCart bridge for Joomla. The product is called Cartage, and you can read more about it in this thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47269. The last word I hear is that Cartage is going to be released sometime this month (May 2008)..

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@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ZenCart has been a MUCH better solution for my clients, and I will continue to offer it as an e-commerce solution.. It has a rich feature set which rivals some of the commercial carts available.. HTH
-== Joomla Components ==
+See also: [http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/search/zen+cart Joomla Zen Cart extensions]
-−
-There are currently (November 2009) 3 commercial components that integrate Joomla and Zen Cart in some fashion.
-−
-A discussion of the merits of each solution can be found in the [http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=360006&start=0 Joomla Forums]. Due to changes to listings rules in the JED, only JZen is currently listed as both Cartage and JooZen do not have a GPL user license.
-−
-# [http://jvitals.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90 JZen] - The JZen bridge will allow users to register and login to Joomla and automatically be added to your Zencart user base or register in Zen Cart and be added to Joomla user base. Trial version available.
-# [http://www.connectage.com/cartage/info.html Cartage] - Cartage is a bridge/integrator which connects the open-source worlds of Joomla and Zencart. Trial versions are available to try.
-# [http://joozen.net/ JooZen] - JooZen is a component that gives full integration of Zen-Cart v1.3.8a into Joomla 1.5.10+.
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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-I found that inserting ZenCart into Joomla is near impossible and ultimately does not work well.. (The Joomla wrapper function is inadequate for this) Finding ZenCart & Joomla templates that were similar enough to begin with, and then attempting to synch them, takes an ENORMOUS amount of effort.. I was considering building my Zen Cart template from scratch to match my Joomla site, when I ran across the Sanguis Easy Embed Template contribution for ZenCart. Here's a link to the Easy Embed Template thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42105
+I found that inserting ZenCart into Joomla is near impossible and ultimately does not work well. (The Joomla wrapper function is inadequate for this.) Finding ZenCart and Joomla templates that were similar enough to begin with, and then attempting to synch them, takes an ENORMOUS amount of effort. I was considering building my ZenCart template from scratch to match my Joomla site, when I ran across the Sanguis Easy Embed Template contribution for ZenCart. Here's a link to the Easy Embed Template thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42105
-The Easy Embed template is a ZenCart template that allows you to create an HTML wrapper to insert ZenCart.. It is the ZenCart template for folks who have an existing website, but would like to add ZenCart while still using their existing site design.. Seemed like the way to go if I wanted to use Joomla with ZenCart..
+The Easy Embed template is a ZenCart template that allows you to create an HTML wrapper to insert ZenCart. It is the ZenCart template for folks who have an existing website, but would like to add ZenCart while still using their existing site design. It seemed like the way to go if I wanted to use Joomla with ZenCart.
 Here's how I implemented this:
-# I created an HTML wrapper with the same header and footer as my Joomla site so that when you go from Joomla to ZenCart it will look seemless.
+# I created an HTML wrapper with the same header and footer as my Joomla site so that when you go from Joomla to ZenCart, it will look seamless.
-# After that all I had to do was a little work to synch the two stylesheets so that both Joomla and ZenCart looked and acted alike. Here's the result of this effort: http://clients.overthehillweb.com/phlaunthair
+# After that, all I had to do was a little work to synch the two style sheets so that both Joomla and ZenCart looked and acted alike.
-I used plain old HTML to make this happen, but I suppose a real PHP programmer could figure out a way to call the Joomla code from the ZenCart embedded template.. I may one day look into doing just this and having a developer create this code for me.. So for now my simple HTML solution works just fine..
+I used plain old HTML to make this happen, but I suppose a real PHP programmer could figure out a way to call the Joomla code from the ZenCart embedded template. I may one day look into doing just this and having a developer create this code for me. So for now my simple HTML solution works just fine.
-−
-ZenCart has been a MUCH better solution for my clients, and I will continue to offer it as an e-commerce solution.. It has a rich feature set which rivals some of the commercial carts available.. HTH
-−
-See also: [http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/search/zen+cart Joomla Zen Cart extensions]
 [[Category:Tips and tricks]]
 [[Category:Tips and tricks 1.0]]
 [[Category:Tips and tricks 1.5]]