How To Easily Install ZenCart Design Templates

Installing ZenCart design templates is easy. I ended up installing one tonight and wanted to note the location of some ZenCart templates as well as how easy it is to install the templates. ZenCart provides a great foundation for an ecommerce store which will allow you to customize any way you like. One thing that is very important from the beginning is the way you should go about customizing ZenCart. If done properly you will be able to keep your software up to date however if you start modifying any file in any location without proper notes then upgrading in the future will be near impossible. Instead of modifying the default ZenCart template you should copy all of the template files into another directory and modify this new group of files so you always have a solid ZenCart base.

Install a ZenCart Template:

Download ZC Template:First download a ZenCart template. One place some people might overlook but actually is a good place for a lot of open source ZenCart templates is the ZenCart site. Click here to browse the available templates.
Unpack ZenCart Template: Now unzip the the template package you have downloaded. This will create a new folder with all of the template files included.
Upload Files Via FTP:Now upload the new folder to your server in the following ZenCart directory: zen-root/includes/templates/.
Login to ZC Admin:Now login to the ZenCart admin to access the Template Manager.
Open Template Selection: Select Tools from the top navigation and then choose Template Selection from the drop down menu.
Modify ZC Template:Now click the Edit button located in the right column. Select the new template from the drop down menu and click the Update button.
Verify New Template:Now visit your site to verify the look has changed to the new ZenCart template.

Changing templates is very easy. If you want a really slim template to start with as a great foundation for full customization I recommend the BareBones template provided at the above link.