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WordPress is known as one of the best open source content management system (CMS) frameworks for creating blogs while Zen Cart is a one of the best open source e-commerce frameworks to build an online shopping cart. Each has its own outstanding features. However, wouldn’t the combination of these open source powerhouses make a powerful combination?

If you are interested in integrating Zen Cart and WordPress, it’s probably because you want to mention the products from your Zen Cart store in your WordPress blog. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put links to your product listings into the relevant blog posts and pages AND have those product listings update automatically as your Zen Cart store changes? Wouldn’t it be nice to include some of your blogs most useful widgets in your Zen Cart store without having to fuss with a complicated blog embedding module. Wouldn’t it be nice if session-dependent information like your shopping cart (cart contents, checkout link, or shopping cart link) could be displayed inside WordPress?

We are pleased to announce the release of Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen). We think that these plugins and modules will be VERY useful to your business. In our opinion an automated means to integrate Zen Cart content within WordPress or WordPress content within Zen Cart are MUST HAVE functions for shop-owners to make their WordPress sites into a more effective tool to drive business to their Zen Cart stores.

Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) is series of widgets, shortcodes, and sideboxes that integrate Zen Cart and an associated a WordPress installation. Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) is based on a collaboration between Vinos de Frutas Tropicales and Over the Hill Web Consulting. WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) is based on a collaboration between Over the Hill Web Consulting and Marian Coleman.

Finally this kind of SEAMLESS integration is possible. Read more here: Zen Cart and WordPress.. together at last the way they should be!

To get Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) for your site today. Go to  »  http://overthehillweb.com/shop/

Please Note: Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) does not integrate the user logins between Zen Cart and WordPress. If your site requires users to login for content or shopping, they will still have to register on both Zen Cart and WordPress. If you desire SSO (single sign-on) for Zen Cart and WordPress, please contact either Vinos de Frutas Tropicales or Over the Hill Web Consulting for a quote.

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Together At Last the Way They Should Be | Features & Functionality

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(AKA The Marriage of Zen Cart & WordPress..)

WordPress has long been viewed as a useful tool in a shop-owners SEO arsenal. Because blogs are (usually) frequently updated, this can help with search engine rankings (provided the site-owner is posting RELEVANT content — nonsense content will be ignored by search engines). Blog sites and Social Media Pages are an essential part of your web presence and if eCommerce is a part of your web presence, they can help you engage new and existing customers and serve as a mechanism to drive them to your store and products. Properly used (meaning that you should be regularly creating new, compelling, & relevant content) WordPress (like Facebook) can be an AWESOME tool for driving clients to your website.

Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) makes integration of Zen Cart and WordPress easier than ever.

Why You Want These Add-Ons

  • Helps you to build backlinks to your store
    Now when you post an article, you can provide links to products in your shop for some awesome anchor text. You’re in charge of your blog, so take advantage and put those anchor text best practices to use.
  • Give people something that they can naturally link to
    Although it’s totally possible to email someone about your store and include a link, sometimes people aren’t motivated to do so unless there’s a story to go alongside it. It’s much easier and more natural for people to link to your blog post with content related to your product. And if your blog posts links to those products, then you’ve just helped your website’s SEO.
  • Encourage people to “socialize” your work
    When you regularly post to your blog, you have more content to share with your network via social media – namely, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Similarly to how people are more likely to link to your blog posts, people are also more apt to retweet you, like your Facebook post, or +1 it. It’s an easy one-click of a button – and ease is key in getting people to share your work. Once someone has shared your post, then it get shared with their network, thereby increasing its reach beyond your own personal network.
  • Increase website traffic & build a following
    If you post engaging content that presents value to your readers, then they will probably spend more time on your blog/shop and continue coming back for more. If you’re frequently linking to your products, your blog becomes a tool to drive traffic to your shop.
  • Play nice with Google’s Freshness Update
    In fall 2011, Google announced that it had altered its search algorithm to provide users with fresher, more recent search results. Dubbed the “Google Freshness Update”, the intended purpose was to place greater emphasis on returning the most up-to-date web content. Said Google:
    “Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh. Even if you don’t specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent.”
    What does this mean for bloggers? SEO experts largely agree that Google’s update means that fresh content can boost your blog or website in the SERPs for a certain period of time. Bloggers have an advantage because serious shopowners/bloggers continuously publish large amounts of fresh content.


See These in Action

Our Approach

  • Display WordPress content in Zen Cart OR display Zen Cart content in WordPress
  • Seamlessly transfer visitors to Zen Cart or WordPress
  • Minimize duplication:
    • Any change to product data should take place in Zen Cart, WordPress will simply output and display product data.
    • Any change to post/page data should take place in WordPress, Zen Cart will simply output and display blog data. 
      (having to remember to make the same changes in different places is a recipe for disaster)


Features:

Zen Cart 4 WordPress

Zen Cart® for WordPress Basic (zen4wp) is a WordPress plugin that allows shopowners to display Zen Cart content on their WordPress site via a series of widgets.

Zen Cart® for WordPress Premium (zen4wp) extends the functionality of Zen Cart® for WordPress Basic (zen4wp) by adding additional widgets and shortcodes. (including the shopping cart widget)

Here’s the features this awesome new plugin will offer:

Basic Features (Free)
Widget Shortcode Name and Short Description

x

 zen4wp_new
Displays a collection of new-products from the Zen Cart store, including the product’s name, image and price with a link back to the product’s detailed information page. You configure the total number and the number-per-row for each instance. The Zen Cart configuration controls what products are considered new.

x

 zen4wp_featured
Displays a collection of featured-products from the Zen Cart store, including the product’s name, image and price with a link back to the product’s detailed information page. You configure the total number and the number-per-row for each instance.

x

 zen4wp_specials
Displays a collection of products-on-special from the Zen Cart store, including the product’s name, image and price with a link back to the product’s detailed information page. You configure the total number and the number-per-row for each instance.

x

 zen4wp_best_sellers
Displays an ordered-list that contains the current best-sellers from the Zen Cart store, each list-item is a link back to the associated product’s detailed information page. You configure the number to display and whether the purchase-count is included.

Premium Features (Paid)

*To use the premium (paid) features, you must first install the (free) base plugin
Widget Shortcode Name and Short Description

x

 zen4wp_categories
Displays a list of top-level category links from the Zen Cart store, including each category’s name. This widget is hideCategories-aware, i.e. if a top-level category is hidden, its link will not be shown.

x

 zen4wp_manufacturers
Displays a list of links to the index-listing page for each of the manufacturers from the Zen Cart store.

x

 zen4wp_reviews
Displays a collection of product reviews from the Zen Cart store, including the review’s text and rating and the product’s image with a link back to the review. You configure the total number and the number-per-row for each instance as well as the number of characters of the reviews text to include.

x

 zen4wp_testimonials
If the testimonials_manager plugin is installed, displays a collection of testimonials from the Zen Cart store, modeled after the Testimonials sidebox. You configure the total number and the number-per-row for each instance as well as the number of characters of the testimonials text to include.

x

 zen4wp_shopping_cart
If enabled via the Zen Cart admin, this widget shows the number of items and current total amount associated with a customer’s Zen Cart shopping cart. You configure whether the Zen Cart login/logoff and the Zen Cart shopping_cart page links are shown. Requires a SQL patch and a piece of code running on the Zen Cart store.

x

 zenprod id=xx
Generates an HTML link to the specified product in the Zen Cart store, if the product ID specified is a valid product ID, using the product’s name as the anchor-text. If the ID value is not valid, the string “The product with an ID of “xx” was not found.” is output.

x

 zencat id=xx
Generates an HTML link to the specified category in the Zen Cart store, if the category ID specified is a valid category ID, using the category’s name as the anchor-text. If the ID value is not valid, the string “The category with an ID of “xx” was not found.” is output.

x

 zenmfgr id=xx
Generates an HTML link to the specified manufacturer’s index page in the Zen Cart store, if the manufacturers ID specified is a valid manufacturers ID, using the manufacturer’s name as the anchor-text. If the ID value is not valid, the string “The manufacturer with an ID of “xx” was not found.” is output.

 

WordPress 4 Zen Cart

WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) is a Zen Cart module that allows shopowners to display WordPress content on their Zen Cart site simply using sideboxes.

These admin configurable sideboxes are meant to link your WordPress blog to your Zen Cart store without having to implement complicated WordPress blog embedding solutions/add-ons. These sideboxes pull content links directly from the WordPress blog. All a store owner has to do is to style their WordPress blog to match their store (or vice versa).

Some may find these sideboxes are a LOT less troublesome than blog embedding solutions. Here’s what this module offers:

Basic Features (Free)

  • Blog Pages
  • Blog Post Categories
  • Blog Archive

Premium Features (Paid)

*To use the premium (paid) features, you must first install the (free) base module
  • Blog Calendar
  • Latest Blog Posts
  • Blog Tag Cloud
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Solutions for Better Zen Cart & WordPress Integration

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Why Widgets & Sideboxes are a Better Solution than Blog & Shop Embedding for Integration

…embedded blog solutions make Zen Cart/WordPress integration overly complicated mainly because they seek to solve the WRONG problem..

When I was first introduced to WordPress I wanted to try and build a WordPress site linked to a Zen Cart store.

There are “embedded blog” (WordPress on Zen Cart) solutions available which allows a shop owner to “embed” their WordPress blog within their Zen Cart store. However I often wondered why no such solution to embed Zen Cart within WordPress had never been created. When I decided to pursue a “Zen Cart on WordPress “solution (based on a client request/need), I followed the path that had already been established in the world of Zen Cart and WordPress integration solutions. So naturally I initially pursued a solution which “embedded” Zen Cart inside WordPress. After all, that’s how the WordPress on Zen Cart solutions had all worked in the past. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that the opposite is what was needed for Zen Cart and WordPress integration? AKA Zen Cart on WordPress.

em·bed (emˈbed) also im·bed (imˈbed)
v. em·bed·ded also im·bed·ded, em·bed·ding also im·bed·ding, em·beds also im·beds
v.tr.

  1. To fix firmly in a surrounding mass: embed a post in concrete; fossils embedded in shale.
  2. To enclose snugly or firmly.
  3. To cause to be an integral part of a surrounding whole: “a minor accuracy embedded in a larger untruth” (Ian Jack).
  4. To assign (a journalist) to travel with a military unit during an armed conflict.
  5. Biology To enclose (a specimen) in a supporting material before sectioning for microscopic examination.

v.intr.
To become embedded: The harpoon struck but did not embed.
n.
One that is embedded, especially a journalist who is assigned to an active military unit.

As I began to explore this, I was shocked that what  I got back from most developers and Zen Cart gurus was a LOT of resistance. I was told that what I was asking for was “impossible” — “hard” — “not necessary” or simply not doable at all.. Most of the responses went something like this: “I don’t think it can be done easily as you are trying to merge two very different codesets”

Along the way I was frequently asked, “WHY are you doing this?”. My basic answer remains pretty much the same as when I first tried walking down this path two years ago. I have never been happy with the available options for WordPress e-commerce plugins. While that landscape is changing with the introduction of  The Cart Press, WooCommerce and now Ready E-Commerce, these plugins in my opinion still fall a little short in that these plugins still do not match all the features found in other standalone e-commerce frameworks such as Zen Cart, osCommerce, Presta Cart, and even Magento..

Based on my 15+ years of experience as a software solutions Business Analyst, I KNEW that Zen Cart & WordPress integration was totally attainable. However, with all the resistance I was getting whenever I would inquire about or express my interest in Zen Cart & WordPress integration, I began to ask different questions. I began to question if the traditional approach and assumptions surrounding Zen Cart & WordPress integration were indeed correct. Here’s what I found:

Upon hearing that there was an osCommerce plugin for WordPress, I was excited. Since Zen Cart is a fork of osCommerce, I took a look at this plugin to see if I could gain insight on how to accomplish the same thing with Zen Cart. The WP Online Store plugin support forum SAYS you can install any osCommerce add-on module, and upon further research I verified that yes that is true.. BUT a closer look revealed that you may need some knowledge of PHP to modify your favorite osCommerce module so that it works inside the WordPress framework.

Eventually updates to PHP, WordPress, and the version of  osCommerce used for the osCommerce for WordPress plugin KILLED the plugin.

NOTICE: As from Summer 2014 this plugin will no longer be supported.
Changes in the latest version of PHP, which was being rolled out across many servers, meant that there would have to be a major re-write to most of the files within the WP Online Store Plugin. The developers could no longer afford to update and support this free plugin.

I don’t know about you, but for the shop owners in the dubious position of having to migrate a site built around a now VERY dead plugin seems like a lot of work JUST to avoid creating matching themes/templates. Not to mention the risk of lost sales because a shopowners embedded solution is interfering with some aspect of their site. (you know interfering with something  like SALES!!)

After spending a LOT of time reviewing solutions to embedded blogs inside Zen Cart and looking at WordPress plugins to embed the osCommerce framework inside WordPress, I began to realize that many folks (including myself) walked down this “embedded blog” road simply to avoid having to deal with WordPress and Zen Cart themes/templates. There seems to be this perception that creating a WordPress theme to match one’s Zen Cart store is “hard” or “too much work” or that creating a Zen Cart template was also too much work or too hard.. I believed this too initially, but I eventually realized that blog or store embedding JUST to avoid having to create a matching theme/template was a lot of work for VERY little gain..

At the end of the day I realized what my clients REALLY needed was to be able to display Zen Cart products and a live shopping cart in their WordPress site, and vice versa without all of the headaches that go into maintaining an embedded solution.. It takes LESS time for me to create a WordPress theme and matching Zen Cart template than it does to deal with every single issue that rears it’s ugly head to make sure my embedded solution doesn’t wreak havoc on my site because it doesn’t play nice with some plugins/modules.. Plus, there are plenty of NICE template and theme options (free and commercial) for both Zen Cart and WordPress out there which makes all the fuss over themeing and templating a NON-ISSUE.

My clients know that they don’t need the WHOLE store displayed inside WordPress, but they do need their PRODUCT LISTINGS, PRODUCT CATEGORIES, and LIVE SHOPPING CART TOTALS displayed inside WordPress.. They don’t need their WHOLE blog displayed inside of Zen Cart, but they DO need links to their RECENT POSTS/PAGES, TAG CLOUD, and BLOG CATEGORIES displayed inside their Zen Cart stores.

My conclusion??

I realized that embedded solutions make Zen Cart & WordPress integration overly complicated mainly because they seek to solve the WRONG problem.

Unlike embedding plugins/modules, Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) allows siteowners to use the FULL power of WordPress and the FULL power of Zen Cart. This means that shopowners will be able to use any plugin/module for Zen Cart or WordPress without limits or conflicts (like having to implement some gnarly code just to get their Zen Cart module to work inside WordPress).

To get Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) for your site today go to  »  http://overthehillweb.com/shop/

Author: C Jones
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FAQs | Zen Cart for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart (wp4zen)

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Top FAQs for Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen)

Question: Where can I get  Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen)?

Answer: The base (free) versions are available on the Zen Cart and WordPress sites in the free module/plugin repositories.  The premium versions are available here »  http://overthehillweb.com/shop/

Question: When someone goes to the shop page I don’t want it to look like the Zen Cart pages. Will Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) make my Zen Cart site look like my WordPress site?

Answer: Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) isn’t going to change the look of Zen Cart or WordPress. The look and feel of Zen Cart is still controlled by the Zen Cart template and the look and feel of WordPress is still controlled by your WordPress theme. You WILL still need to modify your Zen Cart template to make it MATCH your WordPress site. (which is EXACTLY what was done for the sites that are using Zen4WP — http://tablelegworld.com, http://www.eyeitalia.com, & http://www.laserdiscvault.com)

Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) & WordPress for Zen Cart® (wp4zen) are not theming or templating add-ons.. They are CONTENT add-ons. They will allow you to display Zen Cart products, reviews, testimonial, shopping cart, etc in your WordPress site. They will allow you to display your blogs post categories, recent posts or tag cloud widgets, etc in Zen Cart. What your WordPress site and Zen cart site LOOK like is still controlled by the respective WordPress theme and Zen Cart template. But don’t stress about themes and templates. Making your WordPress site and Zen cart site LOOK alike is a LOT easier today than it has been historically. (As you can see in http://www.eyeitalia.com, http://tablelegworld.com, & http://www.laserdiscvault.com sites)

Question: Why do these tools require that Zen Cart & WordPress be in the same database ? Could I configure a different database for Zen Cart & WordPress? I don’t think it’s that desirable to mix the product and order data with blog data?

Answer: Having Zen Cart look up info in WordPress tables in a database Zen Cart already has access to is a world of difference from having to establish credentials and communication with a different database. The two table systems can be separated with prefixes if necessary; the database-prefix capability is built into Zen Cart. The database-prefix capability is also built into WordPress! The default Zen Cart database prefix is ” (i.e. none) and the default WordPress prefix is ‘wp_’. As long as the prefixes are different, you will have no issues.

The point is that there is NO REASON why your Zen Cart and WordPress tables cannot co-exist in the same database.

(http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2674222/what-is-purpose-of-database-schema) A database schema is a way to logically group objects such as tables, views, stored procedures etc. Think of a schema as a container of objects.

Question: Do I install WordPress and Zen Cart in the same directory?

Answer: IN GENERAL you need WordPress in a sub-directory of Zen Cart or Zen Cart in a sub-directory of WordPress. You don’t install them BOTH in the root of your domain.

On that same note you DO NOT need to install each into TWO separate sub-directories.

Question (s): How does one set this up for Zen Cart & WordPress to share a database?

Zen Cart is in my root and WordPress is installed in a sub-directory. Do I need to reinstall WordPress in a different manner?

It sounds like I need to wipe-out and reinstall [Zen Cart/WordPress] manually as it was installed with [my host’s autoinstaller] & I never had the option of selecting or naming a database. My [Zen Cart/WordPress] install was a manual install. Will the default database settings for this install conform to these rules? There’s no way that I’d want to re-install [Zen Cart/WordPress] now that the site is built and customized.

Answer: If this is a FRESH installation of Zen Cart with an existing WordPress blog or a fresh installation of WordPress with an existing Zen Cart store, or a fresh install of BOTH Zen Cart and WordPress, the approach is pretty simple.. It doesn’t matter which one you install first (Zen Cart or WordPress), but during the installation when you are asked for your database information you use the SAME database information for both. (DB name, DB Password, DB Username)

You also need to make sure you are using a DB prefix for BOTH installs. For Zen Cart you can use zen_ and for WordPress you would use wp_. You can also use NO prefix for one and a prefix for the other. As long as the prefixes are different, you should be good-to-go! (no-prefix for one is “different” enough)

Because there are still a few errant WordPress plugins in the wild which do not inherit/use the wp_ table prefix for their plugins’ tables, we suggest ALWAYS including a table prefix in your Zen Cart and WordPress installs to be SUPER SURE that the tables for the two systems are distinguishable.

Question: What if I have an exiting WordPress blog & Zen Cart store, can I combine these databases without losing my store or my blog?

Answer: Yes It’s actually pretty easy to consolidate your databases into one database. Decide which one of the databases will be the one which you will import into to create the combined database.

It’s simply a matter of exporting one database (WordPress or Zen Cart.. your choice), and then importing that exported database into the other. Then you simply update the configuration files (for WordPress or Zen Cart) so that they BOTH point to the same database.. It is recommended that you do this by creating a clone of your site to “test” first so you don’t put your live site in danger..

One caveat, is that if your your Zen Cart database has it’s roots in the v1.3.x series, and you have not yet done the UTF-8 conversion of the Zen Cart tables, you will need to make sure you have converted your Zen Cart database to UTF-8 before combining your WordPress and Zen Cart databases.

DON’T WORRY!! You will not wipe out the existing tables if you import your WordPress database into the database with the Zen Cart tables. (or vice versa)

Exporting MySQL databases and tables using phpMyAdmin – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffmCGVse8yg

Importing MySQL databases and tables using phpMyAdmin  – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW5lrS6EUPM

Question: I found a plugin for WordPress which says it “integrates osCommerce into any WordPress theme“.  This plugin looks like it embeds osCommerce inside WordPress.  Does Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) work the same way? Will I be able to embed Zen Cart inside my WordPress site/theme?

Answer: Simply put, no. Unlike other plugins, Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) is not going to display a whole Zen Cart store inside WordPress.. Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) is NOT an embedding plugin (ALA WordPress on Zen Cart or other “blog embedding” solutions). Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) allows you to display specific Zen Cart content on your WordPress site using a series of widgets (which can be displayed inside ANY WordPress sidebar) and shortcodes (which can be displayed inside any page or post or text widget).. Unlike embedding plugins, Zen Cart® for WordPress (zen4wp) allows you to use the FULL power of WordPress and the FULL power of Zen Cart. This means that you will be able to use any plugin/module for Zen Cart or WordPress without limits (like having to implement some gnarly code just to get your Zen Cart module to work inside WordPress).

(http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/)
Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebar(s) of your blog. Widgets make it easy to customize the content of your sidebar(s). You can learn more about the widgets we offer by checking out the Related links on the right. You can access your widgets from the Appearance → Widgets screen in your Dashboard.

(http://devotepress.com/wordpress-coding/how-to-register-sidebars-in-wordpress/) Sidebar is a theme feature introduced with WordPress Version 2.2. This is one of the best features in WordPress that gave lot of flexibility in Theme and Dynamic Custom Site Development. Initially, sidebars were used only as a vertical column provided by a theme for displaying information other than the main content of the web page. But now sidebar usages has been expanded dramatically. It can be any part of your WordPress site and it’s an excellent way to display information.

(http://maddisondesigns.com/2010/03/how-to-add-multiple-widget-sidebars-to-your-wordpress-blog/) Even though it’s called a “sidebar” it doesn’t need to specifically reside in the sidebar of your website. You can add a “sidebar” to anywhere in your site you want to display your widgets. A common place to include them is the site footer.

(http://en.support.wordpress.com/category/shortcodes/)
A shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort. Shortcodes can embed files or create objects that would normally require lots of complicated, ugly code in just one line. For more information on the shortcodes we offer please check out the support docs below.

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