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1

Make PDF Catalogs From Zen Cart

Make catalogs for every purpose: events, seasons, segments, etc.

Use the same content as your online store — including HTML, variants & more

Choice of dynamic or grid layouts, with many options

Brand with your colors, logo, & artwork

 

 

 

 

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2

Auto-Update PDF Catalogs On Your Zen Cart Site

Always Fresh® means catalogs are updated every night

Create a link to your site one time — the link remains the same

Post an Always Fresh catalog or brochure for every category

 

 

 

 

 

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3

PDF for Every Product Page On Your Zen Cart Site

Creates a PDF for every product on your Zen Cart site — updated nightly

Instantly downloadable

Uses your artwork & colors

Free up to 1000 product families

 

 

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4

Lite Edition for Sales Reps & Dealers

For sales reps, dealers, distributors, etc.

They select the tempate & products — you control the design and content

Perfect for 1:1 sales, wish list reminders, abandoned cart follow-ups, including with shipments, trade show handouts

 

 

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5

Flexible Job File (FJF) for Batch Processing

Run publications with no human intervention

Launch jobs with any configuration and any combination of products

Generate Job Files with any tool, or from any system (CRM, etc.)

 

 

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Zen Cart / Catalog-On-Demand

FAQ

How do I integrate Catalog-on-Demand with Zen Cart?

We have developed a Zen Cart export script. It is easily installed and password protected. Here is the documentation on how to import data and images from Zen Cart.

Is it possible to make the product description or image in my print catalogs different than what is in our Zen Cart store?

You can use the Private Data Editor (PDE) to change product data. This includes the description, images, and attributes. If you do this, you will want to use the Locked Product feature, which prevents your edited data from being overwritten by the next import.

Is it possible to import the product height, width, and weight values from my Zen Cart database?

Yes, there are checkboxes to indicate if you want to import these values. They are handled in Catalog-on-Demand as regular attributes.

For some publications (such as niche catalogs) I want to be able to add or override attribute values and prices. Is this possible?

Yes, you can do this and more with the “Override and Supplementary Data” capability, documented here. Here are the available features:

  • Price overrides — Publish a price that is different than the price contained in your database
  • SKU number override — Publish with a SKU number that is different than the SKU numbers in your database
  • Attribute value override — Publish attribute values that are different than the attribute values in your database
  • Attribute supplements — Publish attribute labels and values that are in addition to what you have in your database

Is there a way to automatically strip out, replace, or otherwise change content before publishing?

Yes, by using Catalog-on-Demand Plug-Ins. This is a powerful capability to apply JavaScript in just about any way you can imagine to transform your content for publishing. You might use it to publish or suppress prices, combine attributes in a separate field, pull data from another source, or almost anything else. You can create your own Plug-Ins, or we can make them for you.

I have extensive formatting and HTML in my product descriptions. How is this handled?

Catalog-on-Demand supports simple HTML for print publications, such as bullets and some styling. Other HTML, such as complicated embedded tables or extensive styling, does not transfer well from web to print. Such HTML may be easily stripped out with simple checkboxes.

In addition, Plug-Ins can be created to handle just about any other clean up or formatting replacement that you can imagine.

How can I make the product categories in my print catalogs different than in my Zen Cart store?

You can use Private Data Editor to recategorize your products. There is a Catalog-on-Demand setting that prevents the Zen Cart import from overwriting your categories.

The product images on my Zen Cart store vary in size and shape. Can I still use them for print catalogs?

Yes. Catalog-on-Demand automatically handles all the sizing, positioning, and text wrap issues associated with having different shape images for different products.

We use the Ceon URI Mapping (SEO) tool with our Zen Cart installation. Is this supported by Catalog-on-Demand?

Yes, please see the documentation below.

How to Automatically Import Product Data and

Images from Zen Cart into Catalog-on-Demand

Part I: Setup the Zen Cart Data Exporter

  1. Download “cod_exporter_for_zen_cart.php” from here to your local computer.
  2. Open the file in any text editor.
  3. In line 10, change the password from 123456 to something of your choosing. 
  4. Save the file as “cod_exporter_for_zen_cart.php”.
  5. Upload this file into the root folder of your Zen Cart installation.

Part II: Catalog-on-Demand setup

Sign in to Catalog-on-Demand (registration is free).

Go to Account > Data Import Setup.

  1. For Import type, choose Zen Cart import
  2. Enter the URL for your Zen Cart site
  3. Enter the password from above into “Password”
  4. The language field is optional. It indicates the language of product names, descriptions etc. If left empty, your default Zen Cart site language will be used. If specified, it should be a valid code for the language defined for your site.
  5. Click Create Data Import Setup
  6. Click the Test button
  7. If you have error messages and cannot troubleshoot the problem, please contact us
  8. If the test is successful, click Import Now
  9. Wait for a couple minutes.
  10. Click Import Now, wait for a couple minutes.
  11. Click History
  12. If the import is successful, a button labeled “Download report” will appear.

You are now ready to start publishing. Please contact us if you have any questions or problems.

Part III: Import Options

Catalog-on-Demand offers several options for importing data from your Zen Cart database.

  • Include tax in prices — This is important only if you want the price in your print catalog to include taxes. If this box is checked, the price (with taxes) that is displayed on your site will appear in your print catalog.
  • Ignore HTML tables — If checked, then any HTML tables in your product descriptions will not be imported. Sometimes this is necessary if you have complex HTML tables that do not appear correctly in your print catalog.
  • Remove color tags — This is useful if you have color formatting in your HTML that you do not want to appear in your print catalog.
  • Remove all styles — This is useful if you have font formatting in your HTML that you do not want to appear in your print catalog.

 

Part IV: Support for Zen Cart modules

If the Ceon URI Mapping module is installed on your site, Catalog-on-Demand retrieves product URLs in the following sequence:

  1. SEO friendly URI created by Ceon URI Mapping module for the requested language;
  2. SEO friendly URI created by Ceon URI Mapping module for the default language (if different from the requested language);
  3. User defined Product URL for the requested language;
  4. User defined Product URL for the default language (if different from the requested language).

If the Ceon URI Mapping module is not installed on your site, Catalog-on-Demand retrieves product URLs in the following sequence:

  1. User defined Product URL for the requested language
  2. User defined Product URL for the default language (if different from the requested language).