Zen Cart: E-commerce Application Development

ZenCart is a popular open-source shopping cart application. This book targeting professional developers will show you how to install (chapter 2), configure (chapter 3), and customize (chapter 4) a ZenCart eCommerce website.

In order to provide you with information to effectively customize your store, this book cover the important aspects of templates, its file structure, and its override methodology. It gives you good tips about trying to avoid overwriting core files and to use own definition files and extra data files whenever possible.  This makes upgrading easier.

If you ever need to integrate Zencart with other open-source content management system applications, then you will find chapter 8 quite helpful.  It talks about the benefits of having a single sign on system and contain information on Zencart integration with Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, Gallery2, phpBB, and even e107.

Chapter 6 covers ZenCart's promotional tools, such as banner ads, newsletters, coupons, and gift certificates. There is even a section on search engine optimization and the use of the "Ultimate SEO URLs" module for making search-engine-friendly URLs.

Although ZenCart does not have cross-selling built in, the books talks briefly about the "cross-selling", "up-selling", and "better together" contributed modules.

The book shows you three ways of backing up your store: a) use of the useful "Backup Admin MySql" module, b) via cPanel, c) using phpMyAdmin.

Book provides many security tips including setting proper folder permissions and renaming crucial directories such as the admin folder. 

If you need to localize ZenCart for other languages and countries, see chapter 5.  

If you want to add full-featured eCommerce functionality to the Wordpress site. Since ZenCart is a full-featured shopping cart, it is natural to want to integrate Wordpress and ZenCart together.
Starting on page of 239 of this book, the author talks about using the ZenCart plugin called "WordPress on ZenCart". He explains how to integrate Wordpress and ZenCart when the the two are installed in separate directories and when they are installed in the same directory.

Disclosure: Author of this review has received complimentary copy of book from publisher.

e-Start Your Web Store with Zen Cart

ZenCart is a complex application and this book with plenty of screen shots and configuration instruction is sure to help. This book is reviewed and endorsed by the Zen Cart team.

Zen Cart: Building an Online Store the Zen Way

From the back cover, "This manual cover everything you need to know about installing and running your own online business using the powerful and easy Zen Cart".