Zen and the Cart of WebDev Frustration.
Neil, my client, and I began to refer to it as the “problem du jour.” Don’t EVER EVER EVER try to make that poor excuse for a shopping cart script called ZenCart work for a UK shop OR for a shop whose products need more than one photo. Therein lies the road to insanity . . .
Need I tell you ALL the reasons not to use ZenCart? First and foremost, they’re still back in the 90’s and templating to tabled layouts. They SAY a new release is imminent, but they’ve apparently been saying that for a long, long time.
Secondly, if you do have a problem with configuration you will never find the answer using their pisspoor simple unweighted forum search unless you happen to know the magic word.
Third, if you don’t find what you need and you dare ask on the ZenCart forum for the answer, I can already tell you what it’ll be- it’ll either be “Don’t you know how to use the search function?” or “Didn’t you read the FAQ?” This is the most unhelpful bunch I have ever in my life had to beg for answers . . . which, of course, I never got.
Fourth, instead of having a sensible interface, with options to locally configure things like weight, you instead have to HACK CORE, which of course those same ZenCart devs will tell you to never never never do.
Fifth– The mail/shipping for a MAJOR WORLD POWER is a module you need to download and install, instead of just choosing it on a dropdown list. Oh, and you have to do a mysql dump from another database to put in there what should already be in there, namely all the counties of Great Britain.
Sixth — if you do happen to find instructions in the FAQ, say, for instance, to do something like use multiple images for one product . . . make sure you’ve got the valium handy. Just to be sure I was NOT slappin’ it, I had my friend, Vicki give it a try- which gave her just slightly less angina than it gave me. Shawn, the php whiz, also gave the instructions a looksee. This is how our IM conversation went:
Shawn (11/17/2005 9:18:27 PM): Now you do not need to use subdirectories. All images can be loaded to /images /images/large /images/medium
kickasswebdesign (11/17/2005 9:18:32 PM): yup
Shawn (11/17/2005 9:18:37 PM): wait a friggin minute
kickasswebdesign (11/17/2005 9:18:46 PM): and only ONE image shows.
Shawn (11/17/2005 9:18:57 PM): you DONT need subdir, but load them into subdirs……
kickasswebdesign (11/17/2005 9:19:15 PM): yeah, the directions are really clear as mud, huh?
Shawn (11/17/2005 9:19:16 PM): YES I read the faqs…
kickasswebdesign (11/17/2005 9:19:34 PM): so I’m not f*cking nuts, huh?
Shawn (11/17/2005 9:19:38 PM): said dont put it in a subdir, just use the following subdirs….
kickasswebdesign (11/17/2005 9:20:00 PM): now you know why I’ve been banging my head against a wall for six hours.
Seven– you have to have an advanced programming or mathematics degree to figure out how to change the dates from mm/dd/yyyy to dd/mm/yyyy. OR know the magic word.
Eight– they LIE! This is from the ZenCart Homepage– “Some “solutions” seem to be complicated programming exercises instead of responding to users’ needs, Zen Cart™ puts the merchant’s and shopper’s requirements first. Similarly, other programs are nearly impossible to install and use without an IT degree, Zen Cart™ can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic computer skills.” Hacking core? Mysql Dumps using phpmyadmin? Programming logic? That doesn’t sound like the “most basic computer skills” to me . . . And then, further down on that page, “It provides usable, intuitive and unobtrusive purchase flows right out of the box based on proven industry best-practices - there are no major revisions required to get things right for your clients!” NO MAJOR REVISIONS???? You surely jest!
I finally gave up last night on trying to get ZenCart working in any way, shape or form. So I opened Fantastico, installed CubeCart, and, during the initial admin configuration, was asked which date format I preferred, which weight measure I preferred, which currency I wished the cart to default to, which mail module I wished to use (and yes, Royal Mail was ON the list), which country and county the shop was located in (and yes, the counties of Great Britain were ON the list) and had CubeCart installed and up and running CONFIGURED TO GREAT BRITAIN in less than half an hour. This is the same stuff I slogged away at for DAYS with ZenCart.
Oh, and you know the absolute best thing? I can use an xhtml/css tableless layout for googly goodness with CubeCart and make it look exactly the way I want without dealing with some authoritarian backend dev dictating to me what code I should use on frontend. So I’m doing the CubeCart Template this weekend, and Big Kahuna willing, we’ll have the Pretty Plus Lingerie Shop open for business in just a few days.
I think the ZenCart Devs should meditate on this– unless you truly respond to what people want- Devs, cart users, AND cart owners- you are wasting your time. Personally I doubt that any new version, if it ever appears, is going to see any testdriving from THIS webdev. I’ve got better things to do with my time than fight with software. Especially when someone else has beaten you to the punch . . . Thank the Big Kahuna for CubeCart!
technorati tags– ZenCart, Ecommerce, CubeCart, Shopping Cart
July 27th, 2006 at 11:55 am
thanks brilliant you saved me a lot of twists and turns. I was just about to take on the challenge of making neat compliant code out of the spaghetti.
Danny