soulmann Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 hi Does any one know if you can use Microsoft web expression 4 to create or edit a prestsahop theme/template? sorry im a total newbie on this and would appreciate some help Thanks Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 Prestashop is a chain made of links. Each link gives you some functionality. You need some of that functionality to enter your products and handle your orders. Prestashop calls that the back office or BO for short. You also need to display at minimum a home page, a category page and a product page. Add to this the actual cart to sell your products and Prestashop calls this the front office or FO for short. Prestashop uses the “smarty template engine”. Search on Google for more information on Smarty. The short version is that it is a system that allows core programing of PHP to be separate from most of the programing required for display of page functionality. Code required for display of images and forms, or user UI like menu and buy buttons are stored in files that end with “tpl”. The tpl files do contain some html, but all layout is handled by CSS. Prestashop mainly uses a header.tpl and footer.tpl. with include calls and placement of functionality controlled by CSS. PHP pages do the work needed in the background TPL displays your images and forms and glues PHP functionality with JavaScript and CSS. So … the short answer is, if you know CSS, you can control and change the look of Prestashop. Almost anything you want to do can be controlled by one or more CSS files. To add or remove functionality, Prestashop can solve most problems using the BO. You can install or uninstall almost all available functionality with just a couple of clicks. For example, of you don’t like the way one page checkout works, you can buy a different module, (or find one for free), uninstall the old, install the new and in minutes with no programing required. Or if you do like the way it works, but don’t like the way it looks, you can edit the CSS file. There are times when you could open the footer.tpl with a program like Microsoft web expression or Dreamweaver and edit the file directly. But even in those times its debatable if you should because there are free modules that you can install that allow you to add content using a WYSIWYG editor or cut and paste code in almost all areas. The advantage is you can login from anywhere to edit your web site. For more unique/special functionality not already built in or available in an addon module, you can post what you need in the paid help section of this forum and get good help fast and affordable. For display, learn CSS, or if you are like me, pay someone that knows CSS. Or buy a prebuilt theme that gets you close to what you want. Spend an hour over in the Prestashop addon section, highly recommended. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulmann Posted May 12, 2012 Author Share Posted May 12, 2012 Thank you very much for the reply however, what application would you use to creaet a template/theme/website using PS the reason why im asking is that my developer is not demanding more money to install a module and make some text changes so ive took it upon myself to start to learn all about how to do this from scratch I'm looking at web expression version 4... is this the right tool to use if i wanted to change the theme or add more pages to it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Dalton Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Soulmann, all modern web site editors will have strong tools to help with editing JavaScript's and CSS. If you already have a copy of the program, Expression ... it will do. There are dedicated CSS editors out there, for example here is a review of several that are great for beginners, http://www.devlounge.net/code/best-css-editors-for-beginners And here is a quick course on CSS, http://www.w3schools.com/css/ If you spend a couple of days learning CSS, you'll then be able to open up PrestaShop's globle.css file and play around. 1. After you learn the basics of CSS, make a copy of your Prestashop. That way when you edit files you can always restore things if you need to. 2. You'll find almost all elements of Prestashop named in the CSS file, globel.css. You can move things and change colors by editing values. For example, you can move the logo up or down. Change background or menu colors. This gives you a lot of fine control. That said, Prestashop provides a way to edit the look of your web site in the BO. So regardless of what editing tool you use, many changes to a Prestashop site are made in the BO. This is because every module is assigned a position. If your Small AJAX cart is in the left column and you want it on the right column, you use the BO to make that change. You may have several modules installed in your left column, such as a list on Product categories, a list of manufactures, a list of new products, a list of top sellers, and so on ... you simply enter the BO and change the position of each. Rearrange any way you like. Install or uninstall any of that functionality. So ... all of the above takes care of how your web site will look. To build your web site, you use the BO. You enter products. You organise the products in categories. For every product you add, PrestaShop will provide a product page. For every Category you make, PrestaShop will provide a menu system. In short, you do not create pages with an editor. You simply add your products, and PrestaShop does the rest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulmann Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 thank you for your great help I will start learning CSS but it does not help when you suffer for Dyslexia will get cracking on it now thanks once again 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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