Hi
I have two very important stores based on CSCart V4.x.x, one V4.2.4 and one V4.3.2 and a demo on V4.3.3
The frustrating part is that out of the box all of the addons that I had either custom made or purchased as an ready to install addon from several CSCart Developers here in the community run perfectly or near perfect when I use the default theme that ships with CSCart. In the past that was the Basic theme and since 4.2 I believe it is the Responsive theme. Now the theme that we use for both our stores and a theme in which I invested many hours customizing it uses the Basic Satori theme as it's base.
Now if I could it all over again I would first just go with the default theme and add all the products, all the store wide discounts, set the reward points, set the various shipping methods, add a carrier, work with all the addons I deem essential for a good shopping experience in 2015 and then later add a theme that has not as many issues as “our theme”. While the good people who created this theme we use are trying there very best to keep up with CSCart releases and sometimes try to improve on there creation by themselves. I ended up with a bit of a mess. One addon on does not work with our theme in CSCart V4.2.4 but does with V4.3.2 and vice versa.
Now really wish I could start with a fresh start, a fresh CSCart installation import all the products, the images, the store wide discounts, the reward points schema, the custom shipping methods, product features and the pages I created/translated. But something is holding me back and that is where would I start ?
I know there is prop. not something as a single best practice in such a case but this case is causing me very much a severe headache.
Many questions I asked in this forum are very much related to this overall questions and I do thank many of you for contributing and answering my questions and sometimes hands on help. Some of the issues I had where theme and or store related and some where server related.
Now the server issues have been finally resolved but now the compatibility issues with the addons and the themes.
Right now I have installed the lastest V4.3.2 in free mode and have installed almost 99% of all the addons for which I acquired a license and this store is working great… but then again it runs the default Responsive theme and not our nifty theme that we have in our two live stores.
What would your advice be ? All input more than welcome.
The main question is what is your “[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]nifty theme”.[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]In other words, there are plenty of ways to integrate new theme. Here are some of them[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]1) Using add-ons (e.g. my_chganges) and override templates[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]2) Copying all the templates from default theme to yours and modifying them[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]3) Add only changed templates to your theme.[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]Another question is wether you theme is build on basic or responsive templates?[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]So first of all we should figure out “What” we are dealing with, and only after that discuss “How” should we deal with it.[/font][/color]
I suppose discussing this with examples would give more results. You can describe some 3rd party add-ons and what problems do you have with it in your custom theme.
Hello Imac
Theme that we employ right now is the Buyshop theme that by itself is based on the Basic (Satori) theme that used the be the default theme for V4.1.x
The thirdparty addons I use for both stores are[list]
[]Searchanise (default CSCart addon) (no flaws)
[]A-Z Product Catalog (Hungryweb) (only a flaw in V4.3.2 with the Buyshop theme and requires tweaking for V4.2.4 with the Buyshop theme also
[]Advanced Breadcrum (Hungryweb) (no flaws but it does rely on the Responsive theme and needs manual tweaking)
[]Stock filtet (Alt team) (no flaws)
[]Custom Code (Hungryweb) (no flaws)
[]Custom Manufacturerss / Brands Carousel (Hungryweb) (no flaws)
[]Easy Tabs manager (Dvs.gr - / CartBiz) (no flaws)
[]EZ Admin Helper (EZ-MS) (no flaws)
[]EZ Common Addon Tools (EZ-MS) (now flaws)
[]PayNL iDeal plugin (PayNL - payment provider) (requires tweaking, ignores the Buyshop theme by default)
[*]Zopim Live Chat (Hungryweb (requires maual tweaking but not functional in V4.3.2 in combination with again the Buyshop theme
[/list]
Now I had some others from other developers like Cart Power and all in all they addons are great but in one way or another they sometimes conflict with the premise that our theme is based on the Basic theme and not the Responsive theme as perhaps the case is with many other themes out there.
And in all fairness - the Buyshop is really a theme we love but the feeling between the Buyshop theme and certain addons is not mutual.
When ever a addon relies upon the Responsive theme as underlying principle I have a problem. I do have however much support from the third party addon developers so that is not the issue.
The basic issue is that the addons that have front end (store front) visible attribution is not always visible in the store.
If your theme installs from the standard locations should include all of the add-on code needed. I.e. installed from theme repository.
[quote name='tbirnseth' timestamp='1437099992' post='223293']
If your theme installs from the standard locations should include all of the add-on code needed. I.e. installed from theme repository.
[/quote]
Well perhaps that is were the issues start. Does that mean you cannot start installing addons before you select the theme you desire for you shop or that you cannot install and activate a theme after you have installed all the addons you need ? That means you can be screwed by your theme right ?
When the new theme is installed, the system checks parent theme (it can be specified in the special manifiest file or in the config.php file). It installs parent theme at first and then uploads your files to it.
So if the parent theme contains all required addons (in the repository), you will get all of them in the new theme.
[quote name='eComLabs' timestamp='1437123747' post='223326']
When the new theme is installed, the system checks parent theme (it can be specified in the special manifiest file or in the config.php file). It installs parent theme at first and then uploads your files to it.
So if the parent theme contains all required addons (in the repository), you will get all of them in the new theme.
[/quote]
Aleksey
Are you saying that the parent theme, for many new themes that is Responsive (shipped with CSCart by default since V4.2x) instead of previously Basic, determines how the child theme from whoever developed that child theme interacts with addons ? If so then in our case Buyshop is looking to the theme_repository but since the theme_repository is based upon the parent theme and the parent theme of Buyshop is Basic not Responsive it cannot find all the nescessary “hooks” as you developers put it and there for an addon may or may not work as the developer of that addon intended it to be.
In that case it is really time for me to drop the current child theme and therefor the underlying parent theme Basic in favor for the Responsive theme and opt for a child theme that is based on the Responsive theme.