A How-To Question

#1 04-27-2008, 01:34 PM

I've been massaging my new site (probably in all the wrong ways! lol) and one thing I would love to do is have a little bluebird come up before the url -- but I'm not even sure what this is called, so I don't know how to search on google to find out how to do it. (The forum has it.) I've looked at some source files, but basically I don't have a clue what I'm looking for.

It isn't a major by any means, (and I know there are other more important things I still have to do) but I'd love to add it in if any of you are in the teaching mood.

Thanks in advance,

P.S. I really have been listening and learning. I recently added both a blog and a forum to my site (I even went into the style sheets and made my own theme modifications! ... now I just need to figure out how to link my logo to my website on the forum ... but I'm progressing! I'm also reading a book on web-copy now and I plan to re-write all my product descriptions and my meta files. Lots to do, lots to learn ... but apparently web-sites are like Rome - they aren't built in a day.

Thanks for all of your help, even when I steal your advice without saying anything -- I appreciate you all very much!

#2 04-27-2008, 04:11 PM

It's called a favicon... make a 16 by sixteen size image then find a favicon generator on the web... then you need to upload the proper tags into the <head> section of your document much in the same manner as you would link an external cascading stylesheet... or you can just drop it in the webroot folder of your site and eventually... most browsers will pick it up... or so they say...

You can make different resolution sizes for when people bookmark you so your icon doesn't look pixelated if it's used in a bigger format on lets say the users desktop...

#3 04-27-2008, 04:36 PM

FavIcon has some more information about it as well.

Sometimes just have the favicon.ico in the root will be seen by the browsers.

#4 04-27-2008, 06:39 PM

Thanks! I've made the favicon and have it in the root folder ... I'm using Zen-Cart and put the code where I "thought" it would work, but alas, I was wrong -- so I'm going to peruse the Zen-cart forum to see if they have any clues as to which file the code should go into (or maybe I had the right file, with the wrong location ... or something.) Now that I know what I'm looking for, I might just be able to find the answers -- thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

UpDate:

I just did a google search on the zen-cart forum and discovered that the code is already in zen-cart, all I needed to do was add the file in the root directory. I did try a refresh, but it didn't work, but when I used Firefox it shows up -- so I deleted my history and I'm sure it will catch up in a couple days (someone else on the zen-cart forum reported the same difficulty with IE so I'll just be patient -- everyone but me should already be seeing it.

I just love successes ... even if they are little ones.

Thanks again!

#5 04-27-2008, 07:53 PM

the favicon looks good...

Your checkout is strange... if I purchased something from you... and I signed up for an account... and then I bought something... three days later if I logged into your site... would I still have to go to paypal?

If so... why do you even ask the user to sign up? what's the point? could you not just mail somebody a receipt and provide them with an account credentials in the receipt?

Also... when I went to buy something... it doesn't tell me how much I'm spending once I reach the paypal payment page... I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that way... but I know from watching others that many people go to the paypal page just to get an idea of how much everything totals to with shipping and taxes... even if you provide them with the totals on your own site...

anyways... I would think Zen cart would allow someone to checkout from your site... collect all the information needed once... and then pass the customer info along to paypal where payment could be finalized... maybe zen cart doesn't support that?

#6 04-27-2008, 08:16 PM

I hate making the user sign up in order to purchase -- I'm seeking to hire someone who knows how to bypass that mandatory requirement in Zen-cart. It is not my idea, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is an irritant I want to get rid of. Once that is gone, you should only have to sign in with paypal. (It is my goal to do my own payment processing in the future ... just too much to learn right now, that has to wait.)

It should give you the totals with shipping prior to your going to the paypal site -- my tests have worked out fine and I haven't had any other complaints, but thank you -- that is definitely an area where you do not want any confusion. Customers are hard enough to come by without scaring them away during the checkout. I'll do some more test purchases tomorrow.

After you complete payment, you are suppose to be re-directed back to my site, seamlessly. I do all of my checkout with paypal right now, so when additional purchases are made, the customer still have to sign in to both BirdhousesEtcetera and then paypal to check out -- it is one of those annoying web items I was discussing in another post. I hate it, but I don't have the knowledge to change it.

I'm not sure whether Zen-cart supports what you describe, or if paypal allows it. I think that one of the "selling points" of paypal is that they store your information and their credibility is greater than the multitude of e-commerce sites that come and go.

Thanks again for your interest, and for your comments, and your instruction.

#7 04-27-2008, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwood31

It should give you the totals with shipping prior to your going to the paypal site

Okay... I guess I would have to sign-up to see those totals first? If I go to checkout and then choose the xpress checkout I see no totals once I reach paypal...

If your going to hire somebody to do it you would be best to find someone who is familiar with Zen Cart and Paypal... I can tell you that integrating a shopping cart for use with paypal is not something that is fun to do especially if you do it from scratch... expect it to take a few days in some circumstances depending on the complexity of what you need...

Anyways... what you need to do it take the contents of your cart... apply taxes and shipping on your site... collect address information so it conforms to the standards that paypal will accept... so all customer info has to conform to Paypal specs or the person will get rejected at the checkout... then pass the info to paypal where they make payment...

I don't think zen cart is really built to handle what your looking for... not based on what these people are saying... which kind of boggles the mind considering the brand name they have going for them...http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88416

[EDIT] actually... if you read that thread... the answer that they are looking for is to set the no_shipping paypal variable to 2... that forces them to use the shipping address they typed into your site... I pretty sure anyways...

Anyways... you should grab one of their developers... somebody who has already done it with Zen cart...

Here's the specs as provided by Paypal...

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...eckout-outside

#8 04-27-2008, 11:04 PM

oscommerce doesn't do that (although oscommerce is pretty buggy and I don't recommend it). Zen is an outgrowth of oscommerce. There has to be a mod or option so you don't need to sign in every time or register before shopping which I gather is your complaint.

Checkout modules can be provided by your cc processor including paypal. Might be worth a phone call.

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