Messages

Just migrated from a completely different shopping cart to Abantecart v1.2.0.   I did not stray too far, if at all, away from the default templates and layouts.  The only significant change was to the header to put in a larger store logo.   

The site is up and running with Abantecart at http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/

Is there already or could a span class "fax" icon be added?

    Well other than some fine tuning I have Abantecart up and running as the storefront and shopping cart.  http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/  I'm much pleased with Abantecart and will be starting new posts for the nonessential but I'd like to change how this looks to personalize the site a bit.

I placed a 5-star review with comments and also did a separate comment post for the product.

I did stumble across the how to move to another directory post but as it was a several months old.  So my post was basically to findout if v1.2.0 changed anything of significance in moving the cart to another directory.

The moving all files and folders from the store directory to root directory is not difficult or confusing.  But there may be some advantage or disadvantage of when, before or after the move the Change store url setting to have correct URL should happen.  There is also no mention of how move affects access to the abantecart admin panel.  I could just make the move and figure it out but asking seemed worthwhile.

Also the creating a new store capability (multi-store) appears to be a good solution too, particularly since it appears (I'm guessing) to give ability to work with different layouts and test them without compromising customer access to the shopping cart.

so I threw this out for some feedback too.

I'm about ready to use abantecart as the main-primary shopping cart.  It's currently loaded as default in http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/store/.   I suppose I can do a redirect redirect script in http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/ to get it operational.  However it appears by looking through user manual and the abantecart user control panel I could just create a new store via Setting-create new store.

The create new store correlates to the create multi-store instructions in the user manual.  My concern is if I delete the store created in the http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/ does the deletion in any way be a concern of deleting anything in the http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/store/ as far as products and database (I'm basically being a cautious worry wart).

The user manual is also bit lacking on using the default in http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/store/  as the backend to manage the frontend store in http://www.thegiftbasketlady.biz/.  If it is an exact replicate lets say I need to add a new product or do a weight or price change it is presumed I do it in the backend, but I'm left guessing on how these changes get implemented in the frontend.

I also purchased today the offline_credit_card_processing extention. It installed with no difficulties and is working great.

My OS is 64 bit Window 7 professional.  Browser is Internet Explorer 11.   I will try clear browser cache to see if that results in any change.   However, the solution I found continues to work for me a-ok.

Changing the height for the header went without a hitch.  The appearance is suitable for my needs.  See attached screen shot.

The actual logo image pnp height is 250 px and I changed header height to 252px.  I Changed the header-logo height to 250px and width to 736px get what is shown in the screen shot.

I do like the design look of http://loveisreal-believe.com/ is close to the appearance I'm actually looking for pertinent to location of the cart-block and the social icon block.  However, I would like to retain the blue background on the right side of the logo at about the same width as it is on the left with the ble background for the login, cart, search being as it appears on http://loveisreal-believe.com/.

It's a low priority design change at the moment though as it's a bit more code change involved. However, I will eventually give it a design modification try.

BTW, I got to give a thumbs up to the functionality. robustness and ease to use of Abantecart.  The extension (templates, utility, productivity) concept is brilliant (although I've not purchased any yet).  I'm having fun learning how to configure and change through the admin control panel and getting products loaded.

My learning the using the features of Abantecart through use of the admin control panel is proceeding well.

I'm almost to the point of replacing my current shopping cart (not abante) with abantecart as it's suitable or adequate other than I need to make the header with more height as current header requires use of a store logo that is two small to read.

I also lack certainty of which files or files I need to do the CSS/HTML changes to.  Thus the focus of this post.

The logo is visible in the screen shot that is attached, but I need a header height of at least 250 pixels to get the readability desired.
   

Clicking the insert new product button results in plus icon going to a circling arrow icon.  However it is avoided by rapid multiple clicks.  It's weird as this is the only doing something action were this behavior is encountered and I'm providing what works for me if somebody else encounters this.

The situation is a single click on the insert new product button results in plus changing to a continuously rotating arrow.   It stays in this status for ever as I just let it do this for 60 minutes to see if it clears.  It doesn't.   If you start rapidly clicking the insert new product icon after it changes from a plus to the rotating arrow there is no popup of the add (insert new product) frame (panel).

However clicking on the insert new icon and immediately going into a sequence of rapidly clicking while it's still a plus icon takes me almost immediately to the desired add product screen.

This may just be a weird isolated fluke situation for my PC and hosting server, but if somebody else encounters the same problem, they can try what I found works for me.

I've inserted over 50 new products, and the circling arrow icon issue does continue to happen if I do not click and then immediately proceed into rapidly clicking the plus icon for inserting new product.

Other than this I've not encountered any other weird functioning or glitch with my use and interface with abantecart.

Actually disregard add product problem.  I went back to folders and files setting and found chmod 0755 or 0777 system/config.php was for some reason 644, changed to 755 and can now load products. (Either my goof or somehow it got changed to 644 without me realizing it).  It appears this incorrect 644 setting has the most disruption impact on adding new products.

However subsequently accomplishing table repair in phpmyadmin doesn't correct or resolve the auto increment "0" value warning.   Table repair is reported as successful, but check table show "0" value warning.  See attached increment pdf file.

I went back and double checked these install instructions these folders and files and found  chmod 0755 or 0777 system/config.php was for some reason 644.  Changed it to 755 and add new products is now functioning.

If you have a Linux/Unix make sure the following folders and files are writable.
   chmod -R 0755  or 0777 image/
   chmod -R 0755 or 0777 system/cache/
   chmod -R 0755 or 0777 system/logs/
   chmod -R 0755 or 0777 download/
   chmod -R 0755 or 0777 extensions/
   chmod -R 0755 or 0777 resources/
   chmod 0755 or 0777 system/config.php

Abantecart v1.2.0

Clicking the insert new product button results in plus icon going to a circling arrow icon.  No frame to enter new product pops up.

Was able to load two products and could not enter the third.  Cleared all caches using cache management panel.  Even logged out of cart admin and logged back in.  A few hours later was able to load a third product.  After a few hours I have been able to load a fourth product.

I did a check of MySQL database and discovered "abc_stores] warning: Found row where the auto_increment column has the value 0"  This may or may not be connected to the problem, but its the only thing I've found in any log of a warning or an error.

I'm a brand new Abantecart user beginning with V1.2.0

Most of the basic configuration is simple and straight forward.  My greatest frustration is  I need to change the template significantly and with only the default template I'm worried I'll break code beyond an easy fix.  Consequently I'm patiently awaiting release of an updated Extension Developer Tools (Wizard Creator)  that will work with Abantecart v1.2.0. (I'm not complaining or whining as I can wait a bit).

Eventually however  I desire to change current default template considerable.  At minimum I need to increase header size so a larger store logo can be used, which will likely need some other layout changes.

Also I  don't need or desire the Euro or other currency option either, but I've not started looking for where to change that yet.

The social icon used for Facebook and linked are not the ones I desire to use and I have not found where these icons reside and I also need a fax icon for the contact info in the footer.

Attached is screen shot (header/footer) of configuration done so far.  I circled in red the changes I'm currently digging around in admin design control panel and code in various files to modify configure.   More or less I'm trying to gain as much familiarity with things while I wait for updated Extension Developer Tools (Wizard Creator) or perhaps stumble across a template to buy that may fit my needs better than the default template.

I agree with Nimitz's perspective pertinent to "good in-site indexing (ie well structured navigation)"   I tend to be a self learner and encounter much frustration in on-line manuals lacking a good site indexing.   A search is usually ineffective as it depends on knowing key words being used pertinent to a problem or solution being looked for.

For example I recently in the past week just down loaded Abantecart v1.2 (currently using a different shopping cart) and run into frustration trying to learn how to configure and manage the cart by jumping to Wikipedia, this forum, and available install and user manual.   It's also initially a bit confusing that useful extension that are desirable are browsed for in the extension store and no clear advice is disclosed if it integrates to work properly with the most current version.

For the most part I'm discovering Abantecart is robust and allows one-way-or-another easy configuration changes but some are bit more difficult with little if any clues provided.  I also like the extension capabilities or rather he ability to easily customize that extensions provide.

For example, eventually I would like to remove the donate button that currently resides besides the "Powered By AbanteCart" text in the footer.  The reason being the donate button on the fielded shopping cart I feel will confuse customers as to why and to who they are being asked to donate money.  I was actually browsing the forums looking for a solution clue to do something else when I stumbled onto  http://forum.abantecart.com/index.php/topic,2677.0.html .

Two adequate solutions were provided to remove the "Powered By AbanteCart" text.  I certainly went to the file in HTML mode and looked at the code  and even so in the new version it is on a different line and I will need to study the code a bit more to find the donate button code and either delete it or turn it off.

This points out another confusion factor of having a new version fielded while legacy versions are fielded that have significant code differences.  It mat be wise to have separate legacy version documentation and current version when the newest current version has significant code changes.

Overall Abantecart is growing in favor with me, it's just taking a bit more time and effort than I anticipated to get cart in use on my wife's (The Gift Basket Lady) website.

I just Google searched "wordPess" and the what improvement gain it is expected to provide Abantecart end-users appears unclear to me.  WordPress appears just to be another type of web content management system where the usefulness is determined by the quality of the content created that appears to be blog and discussion forum oriented rather than in itself being the manual.

I forgot to mention I searched YouTube and found how to configure Abantecart help videos.  How to video are great, but here again the usefulness of such videos is keeping them current.  The effort in managing video availability with current and correct information is not resolved by wordpress as it requires human interface more so than the "specific" platform making the videos findable and available.

Although digital and word processing technology makes paper somewhat obsolete a technical or user manual still needs to be structured with chapter content list (sections) and important word/key word/critical information word indexed.  In this regard Technical writing is performed by a technical writer and perhaps seeking out a technical writer may be more useful than playing musical forum, blog template switching as switching online format presentation still needs the effective technical manual and user manual to employ on the web for others to use.

No worries.  I'm still learning the cart basics and in process of configuring the default template.  Eventually I do desire to make a cart extension as my design tastes differ from the default template and other available templates.  I tend to like personalizing to give a differing form everybody else's web store front.

I installed the current version of Extension Developer Tools (Wizard Creator) which was release some months before release of Abantecart v1.2.0.  Although the Extension Developer Tools installs with no installation difficulties encountered it does not appear to be functioning properly.

A new template project can be created, but unable to open project to generate layout.xml file base of default_html5 template and add it to extension so the extension can be installed.   Any work around possible or available?

See attached screen shot--no open or close project options available.