1. Get the ftp details from the client.

2. Logon to the client’s control panel and search for fantastico and look for zen cart installation. On installation it will ask you the mailed of the client, put the client’s mail id, then you can have the user and password and admin, admin and complete the zen cart installation.

3. Open filezilla with the ftp details of the client and upload all the files of languages / modules / templates to the server in their respective directories.

4. Follow the instructions in the readme.txt (which comes with the template).

5. Go to the website.com/admin panel and login by using the admin – admin username and password, then go to Tools -> Install SQL patches, then browse for short.sql and full.sql which comes along with the template and upload it to the server.

6. Upload all the Images in the template to the server to the respective folder.

7. If the categories and sub-categories are given by the client, add them by going to the Catelog -> catagories/ Products and you can upload the images as well if you have it.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Locations / Taxes link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Tax Rates link, like the one below.

Zen Cart allows you to create sales tax based on different zones. You may create more than one tax (eg., state, federal, etc.) In this example we shall create a sales tax for California, so first let us make sure that we have defined a zone for California.
Click on define zones.

Then click on Insert button

Enter the California zone information.

Now that we have a zone created, let us go ahead and add a new tax rate.
So click on the Location / Taxes link on the main menu, then click on Tax Rates link, click on the new tax rate button

Configure the setting for California Tax Rate and click on the insert button.

That’s it, you now know how to Configure Sales Tax in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Catalog link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Specials link, like the one below.

From time to time, you may want to offer select items at a special price, we will see how that is done here.
Click on the new product button.

Select the product you wish to put on special. Enter the price for the item while it is on special. It can either be a fixed amount or in the form of a percentage discount (eg. 10%), you can pick a date when the promotion will end, remember if left blank, it will run indefinitely, then click on the insert button.

Take a look at the results on the site, you will notice that you have successfully added the item on special.
That’s it, you now know how to create specials in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Modules link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Shipping link, like the one below.

Note: If you see an error at the top of the page, it means, you have not set your store’s zip code, first go and set the store’s zip code.
Go to the configuration link found on the main menu, and click on the Shipping / Packaging link.

Click on the postal code line item found on the page, you will notice that the arrow points towards the right in the Action column.

Put in your postal zip code and click on the update button.

Alright, now we can go back and configure shipping.
Go to Modules, click on Shipping, you will see several options for calculating shipping charges. It all depends on the product you are selling and what is best for your business.
In this example let us setup Shipping on a per item basis. So click on the Per Item line.

Continue to set the values as per your preference. You can change the values in Shipping Cost, Handling Fee, Tax Class, Tax Basis, Shipping Zone, Sort Order, then click update button to save the changes.
In case you do not want a particular shipping module, click on that particular line item and press the remove button

That’s it, you now know how to add a  Shipping Module in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Catalog link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Option Name Manager link, like the one below.

On the screen displayed, since there are no product attributes, let us go ahead and create one.
Enter the name of the new option name, we shall call it Color.
In the dropdown menu, select the way in which your customers will make their selection (in this case select Radio).
Then click on insert button.

Let us go ahead and add some values to the newly created option. Click on the option values found on top left of the page.

Select the option from the dropdown list and create an option value and click the insert button.

Repeat this process until you have added all the values you wish to associate with this option.
After you are done with this, you can now add this new attribute to a product. Click on the Attribute Controller found on top of the page.

Select the product from the dropdown list, with the product highlighted, scroll down to add attributes, select an option name and value.
In the Attribute flags select “Yes”, if you wish to have this value pre-selected by default, then finally press the insert button.
Go ahead and add another value, after you are done, click on the insert button to save it,
Go and check the results in your store. You will find the revised rates have been applied.
That’s it, you now know how to add product attributes in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Modules link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Payment link, like the one below.

Zen Cart allows you to easily integrate several payment methods in your store.
With the module highlighted, click to install it.

Then click on the edit button to edit the payment module.

Authorize.net is used when you wish to allow real time online credit card processing with your own merchant account.
Type in your login Username, Transaction Key, Transaction mode (be sure to set to production when you’re ready to go live), Transaction method,

You have an option to set a value for order status.

You can set order to display this option to your customers, the lower the number the higher the display.

Click on update button.

That’s it, Authorize.net has been successfully set up.
Installing the credit card  module allows you to collect credit card details online and manually process the orders offline.
Let us try to install the PayPal module.

First highlight the PayPal module and click on the install button besides it.

Sort order of display to “2”

Then click on the update button.

You might also find this tutorial useful.
That’s it, you now know how to add payment modules in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Tools link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Newsletter and Product Notifications Manager link, like the one below.

When customers place an order in your store, during the checkout process, they are asked if they wish to receive newsletters from you.
Let’s go ahead and create one.

In this new page, enter what you wish to display in your subject line.

Enter the message you wish to send.

Click on the save button, found at the right side bottom of page.

Remember, before sending out the newsletter, you must first lock it.

Then press the send button to send the newsletter you created.

Select the audience for the mailing.

Then click on the send mail button to send  the newsletter.

This is the process followed to send out newsletters to subscribers.

Now let us look at another type of newsletter you can send to your customers.

Then click on Tools link found on the main menu, then click on the newsletter and Product Notifications Manager link, like the one below.

Click on the new newsletter button.

Change the module from newsletter to product notification, this is a great way to promote repeat orders.

Follow the rest of the steps as newsletter, type in a subject line then the message of the product notification then click on save button found on the right bottom of page, remember to lock it before sending the newsletters.
With product notification, you are able to add products to a newsletter. In the page found, click on the products you want to send by first highlighting the product in the products column and then click on the right arrow button

You can choose more than one product and then click on the submit button.

That’s it, you now know how to send newsletter and product notification in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Tools link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Send Email link, like the one below.

You can e-mail to a specific customer or send a mass e-mail to all your customers. You can also choose to send e-mails to your subscribed newsletter members.

The e-mail address in your store profile is set here by default.

Mark a subject tag.

Write your e-mail message here.

Click on the preview button found on the bottom right of the page.

You have one final opportunity to preview the details before sending out the e-mails. If all is Ok! Click on the send mail button.

That’s it, you now know how to send e-mails in Zen Cart.

We assume that you have already logged into Zen Cart.
Click on the Tools link found on the main menu as shown below.

Then click on Layout Boxes Controller link, like the one below.

Here you can see the complete list of available box files.

Make sure you highlight the line item before you press the edit button on the right, as shown above.
In this example let’s remove the Document Box from the left column. Highlight the box file in the list and click the edit button on the right.
Sideboxes/document_categories.php
Set the box status to OFF

Click on the update button found at the bottom.

When you refresh the page, you will see that the box has been removed
Try and add it back, but this time we will position it to the very top of the left column.
Click on the edit button on the right, check the Left/Right Column Status to ON.

Set the sort order of your preferred position, remember the lower the number, the higher the priority and position. So in this case Left/Right Column Sort Order to “0”

Click on the update button found at the bottom.

Go and see the result of your site. You will see that the Documents box is in top position on the left column.
You can perform the similar changes with boxes in the right column.
That’s it, you now know how to edit the left and right columns in Zen Cart.

In this tutorial you will not only learn how to edit your home page content in Zen cart, but also help you change the text in the header. Note that this change will reflect site-wide on all pages.
Let us start by opening header.php in any text editor (like notepad, dreamweaver,etc.,). You will find this file in  includes/languages/english/

Important: If you are using your own template, be sure to upload this file to that directory, for example; includes/languages/English/YOURTEMPLATE/ as well, if you are using your own template, save a copy of english.php from includes/languages/  to include/languages/YOURTEMPLATE/

Now open index.php in any text editor. You will find this file in  includes/languages/English/
Locate the text you wish to edit or delete and highlight the text, you can either delete it or replace some other text of your choice. Either way be sure not to delete any other part of the variable. Repeat the process for any other text on this page.
Again remember, if you want to delete any text, be sure to leave the quotation marks intact.
After making all the changes, save the file and upload it to your site. Then refresh this page in Zen Cart to see the changes.
You will see the changes made to your home page content and header

In order to edit the page content using define page editor,

You must first be sure to set all files in   includes/languages/english/html_includes/   to writable. In the setting CHMOD set it to 777.
Select the file you wish to edit from here.

You will see, the content is displayed as a raw source code. If you feel more comfortable in a HTML WYSIWYG format, to ahead and switch to HTML from here.

Go ahead and choose any file and make any changes you wish, you can also use the built in fully featured text editor to easily format the content.
Make the necessary changes and save the changes once you are done.

Important: If using your own template, you will want to also save a copy of any html_area files to  includes/languages/english/html_includes/YOURTEMPLATE/

Now take a look at your site to see the changes.
That’s it, you now know how to Editing your home page in Zen Cart.