Not surprisingly, the fact that zen-cart mods do not work in ZenMagick seems to be the single biggest reason for people to complain or decide not to use ZenMagick.

As mentioned in a previous post, converting mods is my plan of attack to improve the plugin architecture. So, everyone that feels strongly about mods that should be converted is invited to comment and leave their wishlist of mods that are essential.

I am not promising anything - some mods just will not work without substantial changes to ZenMagick core. I am not sure how far I would like to go.

A zipped version of the API documentation is now also available for download. Nice to see that it is useful for some

No software developer really loves bug reports - still they are an important piece in the game of building good software.

In the context of reporting ZenMagick faults, there are a few things you should include to make a bug report as good as possible:

1. System information
   This should include the used application software versions (zen-cart, ZenMagick), as well as the system
   software used (PHP, MySQL)
2. Explain what you did
   Create a simple list of steps that will make it easy to reproduce the error
3. Attach error logs
   If you have access to the httpd logfiles, attach the logged errors (if any). Alternatively, you can add the following line of code in your local.php file to tell PHP to return error messages to the browser:
   @ini_set("display_errors", false);
   This should allow you to cut and paste error messages from your browser.

Of course, this is not an ideal world, but at least aiming at doing all the things in the list will make it much easier for me to fix the reported bugs.

Phew!

It took a while and admittedly, the worst thing is always writing the release notes.

Please read the release notes carefully, as they include additional installation instructions. Due to the fact that the plugin code changed a bit (and it is most likely not the end of it!) the upgrade is a bit tricky. Aditionally, Ultimate SEO moved into a plugin, so there is some additional cleanup required. The installation screen should prompt you to remove a few files…
I urge everyone to test the upgrade on a test sytem first to be sure that everything is working.

In that context I am rather embarrased to admit that I managed to screw up the admin site of the ZenMagick website while doing the upgrade. So much for not following the instructions!

Anyway, it’s out and I am quite proud of the new plugins and features.

Another change is that the files are now exclusively hosted on sourceforge.net. That will give me a much better idea of how many people actually download ZenMagick. (I realise that that number does not represent the number of sites using it…)

enjoy

This post is inspired by a question about what is not implemented in ZenMagick compared to zen-cart. The list might not be complete, but that’s all I can think of at the moment…

(more…)

Why zen-cart mods are not compatible with ZenMagick

The major factor is perhaps that most mods change core zen-cart core or template files. Since it is not required to isolate code and there is so much business logic in zen-cart templates, the user often ends up with pieces of PHP code that need to be pasted somewhere.

The alternative is that the code is burried in a distributed modified zen-cart template or module file. That makes it almost impossible to reuse files as they are. Usually it involves to extract the added code and wrap it in some nice functions.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with modifying core files. It’s just that usually the code is just bits and pieces that are hard to be used by other.

For me this is one of the major drawbacks with some of the mods. If you have other changes to the same file it’s virtually impossible to maintains all changes and keep track of updates.

ZMThemeInfo

Creating a new theme requires to write a subclass of ZMThemeInfo.

While the minimun requires consists mostly of the name, description and version, there are a few more things that can be done here. Before doing that, though, let’s examine the anatomy of a ZenMagick theme page. (more…)

Localisation in ZenMagick

Localisation, that is, the ability to translate page content is implemented via some custom zm_l10n... functions. Bascially, all text that might need be translated is wrapped in one of those functions.

Default language for all text in the default theme and anywhere else in ZenMagick is english. This is perhaps discrimatory, but the alternative would have been german, so I think we can agree I made the right choice

Since a lot of sites are in english this means they do not have to do anything to use the default theme. Since the text is actually in the files, rather than in a separate file, it is also easy to change. (more…)

If I were to measure the popularity of ZenMagick by the number of bug reports I’d have to say it is growing. However, most bugs are still reported via email. Don’t get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with sending me a nice email. Still, when it comes to reporting bugs, using the sourgeforge bug tracker would be much appreciated.

Not only would this make it easier for me to keep track of things, but it would also document existing bugs for other people interested. It also would enable users to see the status of things and if workarounds exist.

The same applies, of course, to  feature and  support requests.

… is now live! That means you’ll now be able to check out progress and/or quickly access fixes even before a new release is out!

The folder structure is designed to keep things separate should you decide to checkout the code into a zen-cart folder. There are a couple of ant scripts that make live easier to:

• build releases
• create a phpdoctor .ini file
• create plugin packages
• create .md5 checksum files
• update a local zen-cart installation

The scripts expect the code to be in your zen-cart root folder (ie. where the main zen-cart index.php is).
Feel free to ask questions about the scripts if you have trouble. All you need is a recent version of Ant and Java RT installed.

I have to admin it feeld a bit weiryd now that everyone can peek over my shoulder - a bit naked and exposed. I guess I’ll get over it, though

EDIT: I should perhaps tell you where you can find the code, right?