# Shopping cart integration



## ai file (Sep 9, 2006)

Hey everyone

I've been reading this forum for about a year now and have gotten all my questions answered one way or another and never had to post one until today.

I'm about to setup my website and the goal is to combine a custom designed front end (html) with a shopping cart backend (php) ie. oscommerce or zencart. Here's the problem, and mind you, I have no knowledge of programming.

How do I import/integrate my front end html codes to work with my backend php script?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Most of the ecommerce php scripts don't require you to edit the PHP to customize the look of the store.

They usually have skins or templates that are mostly just HTML that you can customize with your own website design. You just integrate your HTML into the templates (each script has a different way to integrate it, but the instructions are usuallly clear).


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## ai file (Sep 9, 2006)

hey Rodney,

Thanks for the reply. However, i've been searching online for steps on how to do this but can't seem to find anything user friendly. 

Just to clarify, if i wanted my website to look ie. something like glarkware with lets say cubecart or oscommerce, I most definitely need someone to do the html coding and integrating it with the shopping cart software..right?

Any other alternatives?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Just to clarify, if i wanted my website to look ie. something like glarkware with lets say cubecart or oscommerce, I most definitely need someone to do the html coding and integrating it with the shopping cart software..right?


It depends on what your level of HTML knowledge is. If you can do HTML, then it would be no problem to integrate your HTML design into the shopping cart software.

If you don't know HTML, then you probably would have to hire someone to do the integration for you.

It's basically just copying the HTML from your existing webpage that you designed into the appropriate template files (HTML pages) of the shopping cart software.



> Any other alternatives?


I'm pretty sure there's no "point and click" way to get your custom designed site to fit into a shopping cart software.

Someone at glarkware either had to design how they wanted the shopping cart pages to look, or they hired someone to do it. Once they had the design, someone had to copy the HTML over to the shopping cart script they're using (Canada-Shops is what glarkware uses)


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## Ken Styles (Mar 16, 2006)

ai file,
Just to point out that the transition from glarkware's store to the shopping cart is not 100% seamless. Even though the header is still orange, the logo is missing and the font is totally different. 

So don't worry too much about having it 100% perfect.


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