My ZenCart hero
Now, for the record, I know I don’t talk about ZenCart on this site much….actually, I believe this is the first time I’ve mentioned it. It’s been my plan, ever since this site’s conception, to eventually put in the things I learn about ZenCart. One of the companies who use me as a subcontractor loves ZenCart, and I’ve found myself customizing that little doohickey more often than I ever thought I would.
My inital contact with ZenCart was, to say the least, a nightmare. As a person who fully supports web standards and tableless design, I wanted to shoot myself. ZenCart came “totally tabled” and not very clean, either. You had to hack core files to get what you wanted, and I hacked a lot of core files. There were times when I just wanted to kill my computer - it was very frustrating. It got done, though, and it turned out to be lovely.
But the creators of ZenCart have greatly improved - by leaps and bounds, actually. My first experience with ZenCart was only last year. Over that span of time, they have moved forward so quickly, it’s almost unbelievable. Now, you can get it completely tableless (well, almost completely) and they’ve created a “template override” system so you don’t have to hack the core code anymore.
I’ve been coding another ZenCart site - it’s about to go live - and it’s absolutely beautiful.
The site is a photographer’s site, and she wanted something that - by the stuff you read in the forums - was utterly impossible. The photographer was sorely disappointed, because when she went to trade shows, this was her best-selling item. What she wanted was to sell by an attribute - but ZenCart doesn’t really allow for that.
But someone came along to save the day.
I’m bypassing my “wait time” to bring up my ZenCart stuff that I’ve learned (which will eventually house it’s own section) to give this guy a shameless plug. His name is Scott, and he helped me on the forums. Now, Scott is quite a knowledgeable guy, and although he has his own software for sale on his website (“That Software Guy”), he waded through my issues for a lot longer than I ever would have expected him to, pointing me to free things and just doling out information.
It wasn’t until I got to a really difficult point that he offered his services. And, in all honesty, he didn’t offer them, I asked. Talk about not being a pushy salesman!
His rates are unbelieveably cheap. I paid him via paypal, and he emailed me for information. After looking at my details, he said he might be able to have something by tonight, but possibly not until Monday. Well, that was fine with me!
Amazingly, he had working code (perfectly working code!) for me within a few hours.
So guys, if you run into a ZenCart issue that you just can’t seem to get around, find Scott on the forums. And believe me, if he can’t help you on the forums, his unreal rates will make it well worth your time to hire him out.
The only other person I’ve ever known to work so well, be so friendly and helpful is…well, me! 
Posted by
January 19th, 2007
