How to Integrate with CMS?

While attempting integration of one CMS with another, some simple principles should be remembered. For all integration attempts, you have to consider the following aspects:

• Master-slave relationship: While integrating one CMS with the other, one of the applications act as the master and the other as the slave. If you integrate application A to application B, then application B will be considered as master. Master applications maintain authentication and sessions for both applications. While integrating Zen Cart with some other CMS, first consider whether Zen Cart will be the master or the slave. If you are integrating Zen Cart with an existing website, Zen Cart is going to be the slave. On the other hand, when you are adding blogging functionality to the Zen Cart shop by integrating WordPress with Zen Cart, Zen Cart is going to be the master.
• User and Group Management: One purpose of integrating two CMSs is to have a common user and group management system. Zen Cart integration may be tight, where both Zen Cart and an other CMS will use the same database for user and group management. On the other hand, loose integration will allow periodic or event-based synchronization of user or group databases. Tight integration becomes easier when both CMSs use the same type of user database. If the user databases are very different from each other, then tight integration may not be possible and some sort of fallback solution such as synchronizing the databases may be used.
• Visual integration: Users see the integration only through the visual integration. In fact, visual integration should be such that users will be unaware of integration attempt. While integrating the two CMSs, the visual template of the master should preferably be used for both CMSs. However, using a master’s template system is difficult and a central template system should be developed which can be used for both applications.

Now, we will see how to integrate Zen Cart with other CMSs. You will notice that at least one of the above-mentioned aspects is present in such integrations.

Joomla!/Mambo

If you are using Joomla!/Mambo and want e-commerce functionality, you have a number of choices. Among these, the best one is using the VirtueMart component. The VirtueMart component for Joomla!/Mambo is quite similar to Zen Cart or osCommerce. Only a few features of Zen Cart or osCommerce are missing in VirtueMart. However, if you still want to integrate Zen Cart into the existing Joomla!/Mambo website, you have two options-and neither is easier than the other: Use Zen Cart as a wrapper or, develop a component based on Zen Cart.

Using Zen Cart as a wrapper is in its true sense not an integration. It runs separately and Joomla! provides a menu link. Clicking on this link will show Zen Cart in a wrapper window. If you are experienced with Joomla! or Mambo, you can figure out how a menu item can be added to show the application in a wrapper. However, adding a wrapper may appear to be an integration if you modify the Zen Cart template accordingly. As the Zen Cart shop appears in the wrapper, it would be wise not to use headers and sidebars in the Zen Cart template. Links to the categories and other menus can be provided in the headers. A separate login mechanism should also be provided in the Zen Cart template.

Developing a bridge for Zen Cart and Joomla! is a hot topic in the Zen Cart forum. Users of both Joomla! and Zen Cart agree that integration or bridging of these two will be of great value. However, due to the framework of these two systems, developing such a bridge has some complexities and takes some time. Recently, a discussion on this topic has led to the development of such a bridge by the open-source enthusiasts. Please watch the following thread:http://tinyurl.com/65ypyu.

Another possibility is JFusion plug-in for Joomla! (available at www.jfusion.org) which is a framework for integrating several forums to Joomla!. The developer of JFusion has proposed developing such a plug-in for Zen Cart as well. It is hoped that JFusion will be able to integrate Zen Cart to Joomla! soon.

Drupal

Drupal is a powerful CMS and is widely used. There are a wide range of modules available for Drupal and it is used for different types of websites. There are a great number of Drupal users who want to integrate Drupal and Zen Cart-as both are considered useful in their category. Until recently, there was no easy way to integrate Drupal and Zen Cart. Very recently, Zen Cart Integration module has been released as a development version. For now, it works on Drupal 5.x and Zen Cart 1.3.7. Once this module is installed and configured, you can create Zen Cart categories and products from Drupal. As other nodes, these products and categories will be displayed as nodes in Drupal. When visitors click on these products they see product details as a Drupal node, but when the product is added to cart, it redirects to the Zen Cart shop. This module also provides a single sign-on facility.

For integrating Zen Cart into Drupal, download the module from http://drupal.org/project/zencart. Before we proceed with the integration of Drupal and Zen Cart, assume that you have installed Drupal and Zen Cart on the same server. Let us suppose, Drupal is installed in e:wwwdrupal57 directory and Zen Cart 1.3.7 is in e:wwwzc directory, and these two uses separate database on the same MySQL server.

Follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip Zen Cart integration module: For integrating Zen Cart into Drupal, download the module from http://drupal.org/project/zencart. On your computer, unzip the zencart-5.x-1.x-dev.tar.gz package. You will get a folder named zencart, under which there are some files and a subfolder named zencart.
2. Copy files for Zen Cart: Inside the zencart subfolder you will find the includes folder. Copy this subfolder, that is /zencart/includes, to your Zen Cart installation directory, that is e:wwwzc. This will overwrite the e:wwwzcincludes directory, but will not overwrite any files. Once you have copied all the files in this folder, you are finished with Zen Cart.
3. Install Zen Cart installation module in Drupal: Copy the zencart directory with all the files inside it, except the zencart subfolder, to Drupal’s installation directory, that is e:wwwdrupal57. As an administrator in Drupal, you can install this module from Drupal’s Administer | Site Building | Modules section. In the module list you will see the Zen Cart Integration module group. You will find the following modules in this group:
   • Zencart-This is the main module for integrating Zen Cart shopping cart to Drupal. This is required by other modules in this group.
   • Zencart Catalog-This module allows creation of Drupal nodes for Zen Cart products and categories.
   • Zencart Category Node Hierarchy-This module depends on the Node Hierarchy module and organizes Zen Cart products and categories. Download the Node Hirarchy module from http://drupal.org/project/nodehierarchy and install it before enabling this module.

   To enable these modules, select checkboxes in Enabled column and click Save configuration button at the bottom of the list.

   
4. Configure Zencart Integration module in Drupal: After enabling the modules, you can configure those from Administer | Site Configuration | Zencart Integration screen.
   • The Zen Cart Status section will provide you information about your Zen Cart installation. The module will search and find the Zen Cart installation and show its version, path to Drupal installation and other information.
   • The Zen Cart Settings section will give you the opportunity to mention the Zen Cart installation directory path. Type it into the Path to Zencart field.
   • The Zen Cart Page Redirects section allows you to configure page redirects from the Zen Cart page to Drupal node.
   • Zen Cart Catalog section allows you to configure redirect from the Zen Cart catalog items to Drupal. While using this integration module, you create Zen Cart catalog and products from Drupal. If you want to create these categories and products from inside Zen Cart and synchronize those with Drupal, then check Update product info on cron. This will synchronize product information both on Drupal and Zen Cart by running cron command on linux/unix. Checking Redirect Product Info Pages will automatically redirect visitors from the Zen Cart product info pages to equivalent Drupal nodes. Similarly, checking Redirect Category Listing Pages will automatically redirect visitors from the Zen Cart category pages to equivalent Drupal nodes.
   • The Zen Cart Users section allows you to configure single sign-on options for Drupal and Zen Cart. If you want to allow Zen Cart existing customers to login to Drupal, then check the Allow Zen Cart Customers to login to Drupal checkbox. On the other hand, if you want to allow Drupal users to login to Zen Cart as customers, check Allow Drupal Users Customers to login to Zen Cart as Customers. Checking Allow Single Sign-On will allow users to login once and access both Drupal and Zen Cart.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       


The Zencart Integration screen has the following sections:

Once you have configured these options, click the Save configuration button, or revert to defaults by clicking the Reset to defaults button.

5. Create Content Type in Drupal for Zen Cart categories and products: If you have ever used Drupal, you know how to create content types in Drupal. You can add new content type from Administer | Content Management | Content types | Add content type. Now you will get a Zen Cart Catalog group. From this section you can define whether this type will be used as a Zen Cart product or category. You can also configure node hierarchy-ability to be parent or child (default is parent). In the Identification section, type a human readable name, for example Zen Cart Product, in the Name field. Then type a machine readable name of this content type, for example zc_product, in the Type field. Provide a description of this content type in the Description field.

   In the Submission Form section, provide a label for the title and body field, minimum number of words, and explanation or submission guidelines. Configure default options in the Workflow section. Finally, click the Save content type button.

   Create two content types—one for the Zen Cart category and another for the Zen Cart product.

6. Add Category and Product in Drupal: You can create categories and products from Create Content section. In the list, click on Zen Cart Category. This will open Submit Zen Cart Category form. In this form, type the category name in Title field, type a description of this category in Body field. In the Node Hierarchy section, you can select a parent category. Check Category is Active to make this category visible. Configure other options like Menu settings, URL path settings, Publishing options, and so on and click the Submit button to create the category

   Similarly, you can create Zen Cart products by clicking on the Zen Cart Product content type. This will display the Submit Zen Cart Product form.

   

   Fill in the Submit Zen Cart Product form with appropriate information, such as product name, model, quantity in stock, tax class, base price, and so on. You can select its parent category in the Node Hierarchy section. Check the Create Menu option to make a menu item for this product. Configure other options like Menu settings, URL path settings, Publishing options, and so on and click the Submit button to create the product.

7. Test Zen Cart Integration to and from Drupal: Now it is time to test whether the Drupal-Zen Cart integration is working or not. First, go to your Zen Cart shop, for example, http://localhost/zc. There you will find the categories and products you have added. Click on any of these, and you will be redirected to the respective Drupal node. Again, in the Drupal, click on a product link, type a quantity and click the Add to Cart button. That will redirect you to the Zen Cart shop’s Your Shopping Cart Contents page.

Similarly you can test single sign-on features by signing in to either Drupal or Zen Cart and trying to purchase items from these two shops.

Gallery2

Gallery2 is a web-based software product that lets you manage photos on your own website. It creates a catalog of photos which visitors can view as thumbnails as well as in its original size. It has an intuitive interface to create and maintain albums. It can create thumbnails automatically and can be used for image resizing, rotation, ordering, captioning, searching, and some other functions.

You can use Gallery2 to build a community site for sharing photos. You can create the community using Gallery2 and registered users can share their photographs by uploading their own photos.

You need to integrate Gallery2 with Zen Cart if you want to sell photos from your photo gallery. Gallery2 has a great mechanism to integrate with Zen Cart. The Gallery2/Zen Cart integration module is available at the Gallery2 download site http://dakanji.com/g2stuff/zcg2-3_2_1a-full.zip. Using it, users can organize their photos and other multimedia files into Gallery2, and offer them for sale through Zen Cart.

In integrating Gallery2 with Zen Cart, you have to configure Zen Cart first. Follow these steps for Zen Cart:

1. Download the Gallery2/Zen Cart Integration module and extract it.
2. Copy the zencart/includes folder into your Zen Cart installation directory. This directory contains some templates for Zen Cart. Copying these files will not overwrite any existing file.
3. Login to your Zen Cart administration panel and create a new product category, such as Photographs. Photo items from Gallery2 will go to this category.
4. Select Tools | Template Selection and choose one of the Gallery2 Integration templates provided. You can take a copy of the template folder (../includes/templates/pgxxx) and modify stylesheet.css. You can also modify these templates.
5. Edit ../includes/languages/pgxxx/english.php if you want to change language strings or date formats.
6. Replace ../includes/templates/pgxxx/images/logo.gif with your site’s logo.

Remember that for Gallery2/Zen Cart integration, both Zen Cart and Gallery2 data tables need to be in one database.

In Gallery2, you need to make the following changes:

1. Upload the module files in the gallery2/ directory to your Gallery2 installation’s modules directory.
2. In Gallery2 Site Administration, click on Plugins and find Zen Cart under the Commerce heading. Then click Install.

3. After Installation, click Configure.

4. Enter the entire server path to your Zen Cart installation, for example, /home/your_name/public_html/zencart/.
5. Select the category you created in Zen Cart earlier (for example Photographs) from the drop-down menu.

6. Click activate next to the Zen Cart listing on the module page.

7. Refresh the page and click on the Zen Cart link under Admin Options to edit product details.

8. Edit permissions for the individual items as you wish. The module will have assigned permissions to non-album items on activation.

If you do not want to sell an item, you will need to disable that item in Zen Cart as the module adds all data items in your gallery to Zen Cart.

You can add photograph items from Gallery2. Adding any item to the Gallery2 album will simply show that item in Zen Cart. You can add product options from Gallery2 by clicking on the Zen Cart link in your Gallery2 site administration menu.

When you have installed the Gallery2/Zen Cart bridge, you will find a product type in Zen cart named Product-Gallery. All the items from Gallery2 need to be of this type. If you edit any item from Zen Cart and change the product type of any Gallery2 item, the link with the Gallery2 will be broken. Also, note that the Gallery2 bridge will co-exist with Zen Cart image handler and lightbox add-on for Zen Cart. These will handle product images for Zen Cart, whereas Gallery2 add-on only handles images added in Gallery2.

You cannot assign the Main category in Zen Cart as the root product category for Gallery2. The category you are selecting in the Gallery2 bridge configuration must be a sub-category product.

Once the configurations are done, you can see the photographs from Zen Cart. Visitors can also order photographs from Zen Cart. While you are in Gallery2, you can also place an order by clicking the add to cart link, which is redirected to Zen Cart.

WordPress

WordPress is an extremely powerful and widely used open-source blogging platform. It has a wide community of developers and users, and almost all kinds of plugins are available for it. Although there are some shopping cart plugins for WordPress, they are not full-blown shopping carts like Zen Cart or osCommerce. E-commerce plug-ins available for WordPress have limited features.

Those who are running blogs using WordPress may want to integrate it with Zen Cart to provide e-commerce functionality to their blogs. In fact, there is a Zen Cart module for integrating these two. You can download that module from www.zen-cart.com.

After downloading the plug-in WordPress on Zen Cart, you have to install it on the webserver. You can install the plug-in in two ways: first, in an environment where you have a working WordPress installation, and second, when you have not installed WordPress.

WordPress and Zen Cart Installed in Separate Directories

When you have an existing installation of WordPress, generally it will be in a separate directory from that of the Zen Cart installation. If your web document root directory is public_html, then the installation directories may be: /public_html/blog and /public_html/shop. Follow these procedures to install WordPress on Zen Cart plug-in:

Step1: Install WordPress

If you have not installed WordPress yet, then download the WordPress files from www.wordpress.org and unzip the files. Then, upload the files to your webserver’s /public_html/blog directory. Now, change the permission of this directory to 777 and point your browser to http://yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/setup-config.php. The installation wizard for WordPress will be displayed. Follow the instructions on the wizard and give the necessary information. Once all of the information is given, WordPress will be installed.

Step 2: Configure WordPress

During installation, an administrative account will be created. Note the username and password for this account. Then, point your browser to http://yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin/. The login page will be displayed. Type the username and password for the administrative account and click on the Login button.

You will see the dashboard for administering WordPress. Go to Options | General. Now, change the Blog Address (URL) to Zen Cart’s URL http://yourdomain.com/shop/. From the administration dashboard, go to Presentation | Themes and select WordPress Default 1.6.

Step 3: Upload WordPress on Zen Cart

When you unzip the WordPress on Zen Cart plug-in zip file, you will find that there is a directory called ZC_ROOT and WP_ROOT. Now, upload the contents of ZC_ROOT directory to Zen Cart’s installation path on the server, that is, /public_html/shop/. Similarly, upload the contents of the WP_ROOT directory to WordPress’ installation path, that is, /public_html/blog. Before uploading the contents of the ZC_ROOT directory, please change the name of the /ZC_ROOT/includes/templates/MY_TEMP/ directory to that of the template directory you are using for your Zen Cart shop

Step 4: Edit WordPress File

For older versions of WordPress, you may need to edit the /wp-include/template-loader.php file. Open the file in a text editor and replace all exit; with return;. However, you may not need this for the newer versions of WordPress. WordPress 2.3.1 can work without this modification. First, try without this modification.

Step 5: Edit Zen Cart File

You also need to edit another file in the Zen Cart installation. Open the /includes/extra_configures/wordpress-config.php file under the Zen Cart installation folder and find the following line:

define ('ABSPATH','/var/www/vhost/example.com/public_html/blog/');

Type the appropriate WordPress path, that is, /home/username/public_html/blog/. The above line will look like this:

define ('ABSPATH','/home/suhreed/public_html/blog/');

If you are trying it on Windows, you may need to put the absolute path, as in, e:/www/blog.

Step 6: Configure Sideboxes from Layout Boxes Controller

Once the file modifications have been done, login to the Zen Cart administration panel. Go to Tools | Layout Boxes Controller. The screen will notify you that some new sideboxes-wp_cats.php, wp_archives.php, wp_pages.php, wp_links.php, and wp_sidebar.php-have been found. To use these sidebars, click on the reset button at the bottom. To show these sideboxes on your Zen Cart shop, click on the sidebar and change its left/right column status.