Zen Cart
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| Original author(s) | Zen Ventures, LLC |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The Zen Cart Development Team |
| Stable release | 1.5.0 / December 31, 2011 |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Online store management system |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | http://www.zen-cart.com/ |
Zen Cart is an online store management system. It is PHP-based, using a MySQL database and HTML components. Support is provided for numerous languages and currencies, and it is freely available under the GNU General Public License.
Zen Cart branched from osCommerce as a separate project in 2003. Beyond some aesthetic changes, the major differences between the two systems come from Zen Cart's architectural changes (for example, a template system) and additional included features in the core. The release of the 1.3.x series further differentiated Zen Cart by moving the template system from its historic tables-based layout approach to one that is largely CSS-based.
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[edit] Features
Zen Cart's default installation provides everything needed to maintain an online store. Products, customers, pricing, payment and shipping, newsletters, orders and more are managed by the store owner through the administration area. The shopping cart is set up to receive payments from major credit cards via the merchant's choice of numerous available payment gateway services, some built-in or easily added with free addons.
The following is a list of some of the key features of Zen Cart as stated on their website:[1]
- multiple language support
- multiple customer modes
- unlimited category depth
- multiple sales and discounts
- multiple display modes
- XHTML 1.0 compliant template system
- built-in content management system
- multiple ad banner controller
- multiple shipping options
- multiple payment options
- newsletter manager
- discount coupons
- gift certificates
- featured products
- quantity discounts
Zen Cart bills the software as easily customizable to whatever your needs, depending on the skills and resources you have available. Only minimal skills are required to get started. More advanced customizations may require stronger knowledge of CSS, HTML, and maybe PHP or maybe even MySQL, depending on your unique requirements. Numerous third party services are available to provide custom programming services if needed.
[edit] Version history
| Zen Cart Version | Release Date | Main Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1.35 | 6 September 2006 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.36 | 27 October 2006 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.37 | 31 December 2006 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.38 | November 2007 | |
| 1.38a | 1 December 2007 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39a | 2 May 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39b | 6 May 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39c | 19 May 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39d | 4 June 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39e | 29 July 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39f | 17 August 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39g | 30 September 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.39h | 27 October 2010 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
| 1.5.0 | 31 December 2011 | New Features/Changes/Bugfixes |
[edit] Instruction books
- Goh, Koon Hoek (2007). e-Start Your Web Store with Zen Cart. Singapore: Cucumber Media Pte Ltd. ISBN 978-981-05-6591-6. http://cucumbermedia.com. (Officially endorsed by the Zen Cart project.)
- Hardy, Kerrin (2009). Zen Cart CSS Guide - A complete Guide to Zen Cart Stylesheets. Australia: Kerrin Hardy. http://www.kerrinhardy.com/2009/10/19/zen-cart-css-guide-a-complete-guide-to-zen-cart-stylesheets/.
- Sarkar, Suhreed (2008). Zen Cart E-commerce Application Development. United Kingdom: Packt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-847191-17-5.
- Laughlin, Jeff (2010). Zen Cart Optimization, 2010. Canada: Jeff Laughlin. ISBN 978-0-9865653-0-4. http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Cart-Optimization-2010-Performance/dp/098656530X/.
- Watson, Kerry; Matthew Therrien (2005). Zen Cart: Building an Online Store the Zen Way. Trafford/On Demand Manuals. ISBN 978-1-4120-6645-7.
