Customization and Upgrades

[nelson]

I've spent quite some time reading the documentation and I can't find this answer.

I currently have an Open Cart store and am considering moving to AbanteCart Cart. With OpenCart, I have a template that allows me to make changes to the color and layout of my store. Any other changes are dealt with through vQMod or editing core files. However, the template is poorly coded, and I do not trust it to survive a core upgrade.

So how does AbanteCart Cart handle customization without requiring it all to be redone upon upgrade? Is there a blank css file included that'll survive upgrade and where we can create our own styles?

I don't really want to have to go in and change core files every time I upgrade.

[llegrand]

Glad to hear you've perused the documentation -  that's always a good place to start! 

About layout of your store  -  this usually quite easily handled thru the Design > layout  and enabling various blocks as you desire for the page look you want.  This was quite a change for my thinking when I first started, but once I figured it out,  it is simply terrific! IMO

Re-read this section in the docs for a bit more clarity

http://docs.abantecart.com/pages/design/layouts.html

BTW these layout changes stay put thru version updates (least that my experience thru 3 versions)

Now as to the color change -   You need to change main stylesheet file .... /storefront/view/default/stylesheet/stylesheet.css

look for the  Headerstip  -  it's about line 469 on my editor 

If there is no changes to the stylesheet on version update - it stays in place,  if there is it's a very quick re-do (one line)  to get it back.

Hope this helps explain what you're asking.  If not keep asking

Lee,  just another happy AbanteCart user

[nelson]

Hey, Lee, thanks so much for responding to my question.

I'm talking about changing things like typeface, font, size, color, column widths, height of header, footer, indentation, etc.

For example, I use the Thesis theme for my blog. Thesis has a section where you can set values for many of the styles in the site. They also have a separate css template for the user that overrides the main templates. I can make any changes in that separate css file and it's never overwritten by Thesis. I believe they accomplish this by placing a second wrapper around the whole site for a specific class, and then you modify the styles in that class. (Something like that. I'm not a programmer.)

The whole idea is to design a site I like, dictating color and style, and have all those changes remain after core updates.

[llegrand]

To the best of my knowledge after working with this cart for almost a year,  that is not available yet.  But I think they are working on something for a future version,  just not quite sure what/how it will work yet.

My best advice is to just install a test version (Softaculous makes it very easy)  and give some of the things you would like try.
If you don't think it is quite right for you yet,  check back frequently to see if there is a later version out there.

Lee