How configurable is the design, really?

[cbsteven]

I am still in the process of evaluating carts. I've looked at dozens by now, and now 3DCart is at the top of my shortlist. One thing that has been hard to determine from the demo cart is how configurable the store design is in reality.
A lot of carts only have specific blocks on the page where you can write your own HTML, or only allow you to control the header, for example. What kind of limitations are there on HTML placement? Can I add my own custom javascript? Would PHP work? I doubt the last one, since it is an ASP.net cart.

Thanks!

[BestCostumeSite]

You can do custom javascript. PHP is a no - ASP only.

The store design is really as configurable as you want it. Really, the key is using the built in tags for the asp calls, and knowing how they work. It took a while for us to figure out how everything worked.

You get access to the frames for each section, and you can make changes and FTP them up. Realistically, you can make any changes you want.

I don't know how many sites you've looked at, but you can take a look at ours to see how it has been modded. Best Costume Site

[cbsteven]

Thanks for the reply, by frames do you mean HTML frame elements (which are generally bad for SEO), or just wireframe areas within the page?

I like your site design. One thing you may have missed - you have advertisements all over your home page for Terminator 4 costumes, but when I click on them, or search for "terminator", I get 0 results.

[ScribeTime]

The templates can be easily customized using a program like Dreamweaver and then uploaded via ftp as BestCostumeSite mentioned.
I introduced my brother-in-law (who owns a web design company) to 3dcart months ago. He now uses them for most if not all of the sites he designs that use a shopping cart.

Here's a few examples of the templates he's created with 3dcart:

http://store.belovedga.com/
https://store.kathytroccoli.com/
http://www.murchisondrillingschools.com/

From my own experience customizing the templates, once you learn the basics of customizing a template, it's mainly a matter of ensuring that you have the right code in the right place. Our site, though not a model design, was created from scratch with snippets of code inserted into the design where needed.

If you haven't already done so, I would check out the articles on customizing the various templates on the 3dcart support site.

https://support.3dcart.com/index.php...rticl eid=149

You can also search for "templates" on this site to bring up other articles.

[maksum]

Originally Posted by cbsteven

Thanks for the reply, by frames do you mean HTML frame elements (which are generally bad for SEO), or just wireframe areas within the page?

No, it's not HTML frames. It's more like a template file, but they use "frame" as the term for the file that controls the visual "shell" around your content pages (header, footer, left col, right col.)

I've been actually very impressed with the flexibility so far. Yes, there are some restrictions, but I've been able to do about 90% of everything I've attempted, and I'd say my store is heavily modified in regards to it's general look and feel.

I haven't gone live yet, but you're welcome to check out my broken site.
Here is my Cubecart store that I'm coming from:
http://www.karenscookies.net/shop
(that link will not work after I make the switch)

and here's the 3dcart shop so far:
http://karenscookies.3dcartstores.com/
(again, after I point my domain there, this may not work)

As you can see, I got it pretty darn close. I wanted a unique "frame" for my homepage (as I have in my cubecart store), but unfortunately that fell in the 10% of things I couldn't accomplish.

Good luck in your research.

[BestCostumeSite]

Originally Posted by cbsteven

Thanks for the reply, by frames do you mean HTML frame elements (which are generally bad for SEO), or just wireframe areas within the page?

I like your site design. One thing you may have missed - you have advertisements all over your home page for Terminator 4 costumes, but when I click on them, or search for "terminator", I get 0 results.

I think the others summed up what I meant by frames rather well..

Yes - the terminator costumes haven't came in yet - which is why we don't have them on the site yet. We did the prep work on the front page well ahead of actually getting the products in. Thanks for the heads up though!

[cbsteven]

Is it possible to configure 3DCart to use <h1> tags surrounding product titles? This is supposed to be SEO best practice.

[maksum]

Absolutely. Many of the pages (including product listing) is controlled by editing HTML files, which you can download, tweak, and upload again via ftp OR edit them through admin.

In the case of a product listing, you'll come across straight-forward HTML with a tag that brings in the specific title like this:

<p class="txtProductTitle"><strong>[name]</strong></p>

Throw some H1 tags on that, bring in a class and tweak the look through css or whatever you want.