Adapting Home Page

Hi Everyone

Really impressed with the Opencart software and how easy it was for someone with little to no website knowledge to set up ... ie. Me

My question is, how easy is it to change the layout a little. I am a complete noob to this so it all seems a bit daunting tbh.

I have put a logo on the home page but it isn't in line with the menu bar beneath it. I need to raise the logos position and move it to the left. I used to be able to do this sort of thing in *.html by just searching for the image name in the pages code and adapting the position references but I don't really understand style sheets and php so not sure where I begin. Is there a wysiwyg editor for this sort of thing? if yes, can anyone recommend one and how do I tell which file is the one that needs altering as it doesn't seem as easy as html where the name of the page you need to alter is literally the address in the browser.

Is it relatively easy to do this or am I going to have to study up a little more on php and css to be able to suss it all. I am trying to learn as I go along but I haven't really got the basics yet so it is seeming like a pretty big learning curve.

Also, although this is a different topic, I was wondering where I adapt the wording of the default emails which are sent out to customers confirming their order etc.. I couldn't find these anywhere in the control panel.

Hope someone can help. Thanks very much

Nicky

Hi Nicky,

OpenCart uses a templating system.

The main files that you need to edit are found in the catalog/view/theme/default/template folders

The css file can be found in catalog/view/theme/default/stylesheet folder.

You may recognise some of the code as it is html mixed with some inline css and php code.

The main layout files for header footer and site layout are in the common folder.

The site images are found in catalog/view/theme/default/image folder.

The css wysiwyg editors that I have seen are next to useless and can be very confusing.

The text for the emails can be found in the catalog/language folders.

checkout/confirm.php

I hope this helps.

Phil.

That is a help, it makes a little more sense now but it does sound like I need to study up a little on the basics of structure and syntax etc.. so I can see a visit to the local Library in my imminent future on the hunt for CSS / PHP / Web Design books

Thanks again Phil for all your help, you are a star

You are welcome.

Good luck with your studies.

Thanks Phil .. well, have been to library, have 5 LARGE books on MySql / PHP / CSS ... hehe .. wish me luck, I am going to need it!

If you're not looking to reinvent the wheel and plan on sprucing up the default template, just grab a Firefox plugin called Firebug (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843). It will let you see exactly where all the CSS elements are, and you can even make on-the-fly CSS changes and see the result immediately.

Also, grab GIMP and start toying with graphics - buttons, left/right box borders, etc. I modified my template by changing the look of all the boxes, replacing the header, adding a proper footer and it took a few hours. Nothing fancy, but it spruced the site up enough for my liking.

Once you have that all figured out, you can start toying with the embedded PHP and HTML and play around with box placement and other core changes to the templates.

Cheers

Thank you Cavenerl, you are right, I am only really looking to tweak the standard template a little and have been doing that mostly by looking at image files and swapping them for one of my own with the same name .. I have pretty much got it looking how I want it now.

I have got Gimp and it is awesome .. used to use Photoshop which I liked but don't have a copy anymore so switched to Gimp and am really impressed. There are some very clever people out there dedicating their spare time to developing brilliant Open Source programs, Opencart guys included!

It is the PHP tweaking that is throwing me, it just all looks a bit like hieroglyphics to me at moment I am sure I will get there with a little help from you guys and some perseverence

Nicky wrote:It is the PHP tweaking that is throwing me, it just all looks a bit like hieroglyphics to me at moment I am sure I will get there with a little help from you guys and some perseverence

Yeah, the trouble is that its PHP mixed with HTML, so it can get quite confusing. If you're on Windows, grab a program called UltraEdit (not free) or Notepad++. Both of those can colorize the PHP and HTML tags, so you'll have a much easier time sorting out the code.

Good luck!
Lance