Frequently Asked Questions

(click a question to see its answer)

Where do these templates come from?

Most have been developed and generously donated by members of the wider Zen Cart community. The Classic Template is bundled as part of the current Zen Cart release (1.3.9d).

Can I just download a template that I like and use it to build my on-line store?

Yes. That's part of why they're there. Some of the graphics may be copyrighted. See the Zen Cart Support Site's FAQ for more information on this. And hopefully you will also use the templates as a springboard from which to create your own original designs.

How did you choose which templates to include?

Most of the available templates are included. Templates have been excluded only under the following circumstances:

• Where a series of templates is submitted that differing only in color, a representative is usually included.
• A small number of templates have been excluded because we judged them to be dangerous for new users of Zen Cart to use (usually because of poor implementation). These have generally been removed from the Zen Cart downloads area too.
• From time to time old templates are resubmitted with a change of image and links back to "commercial" sites. We don't approve of this, and exclude those templates on principle. We don't think that Zen Cart users should have to remove unwanted commercial links themselves.

Have you altered the templates in any way for use on this site?

Yes and no. The templates have been installed in strict accordance with the installation instructions supplied by their designer (and included in the zip archive for each template).

However, many templates suggest that users change some of the Admin settings, and we've simulated these changes using CSS and javascript.

What do you do if you find and error on a template?

That depends on the error. Most templates are reasonably robust and problems have tended to be limited to cross-browser issues. These have been less common in recent years as browsers (especially Internet Explorer) have become less buggy and more standards-compliant.

For more specific problems we sometimes help the designer to fix the problem, sometimes they bring solutions to us. In both of these cases the solution is only reflected on the demo system if the designer uploads a new release of their template to the Zen Cart forum for use by the whole community.

If a problem would make a template dangerous for use by new Zen Cart users, we don't put it up, and we recommend to the Zen Cart team that they withdraw it from the forum downloads area too.

So what you see on this site is as close as we can make it to what you would get if you downloaded and installed the template yourself.

I submitted a template to the Zen Cart forum, but you haven't included it on site. Why?

Provided it hasn't been excluded for one of the reasons listed above (see the answer to "How did you choose which templates to include?" then we may have missed, or just be a bit behind with our updates.

Feel free to send us an email with details of your template and we'll get on it.

I'd like to demo my templates on your site, but don't want to donate them to the Zen Cart forum. How do I do this?

You don't.

That might change one day, we have considered allowing the promotion of good quality templates, well-implemented templates on this site.

But currently, this site is exclusively for demostrating the templates donated to the Zen Cart community.

I'm going to use one of the templates for my store and would like to show my appreciation to the designers. How can I best do this?

We can't speak for all the designers, but suspect that most would suggest that you make a donation to Zen Cart to help encourage its continued development. You can do that following this link.