The Zen Cart Expert
My name is
Scott C. Wilson and I am That Software Guy.
I am a
Zen Cart expert. Now lots of people
claim to be a
Zen Cart expert (or a
Zen Cart master or a
Zen Cart guru or whatever),
but you may want to look for supporting evidence instead of just taking their word for it.
What proof do I offer? You can look at my
testimonials,
plugins,
custom work, and
GitHub commits. No one has more. And I've been
developing with Zen Cart for over 15 years.
I am the only independent software developer who is allowed to advertise on the
Zen Cart forum.
You can see my ad on the
Services tab on the Zen Cart forum.
I’m a software developer. But unlike most software developers, I have also
done both product and project management. Most software developers have to be
told exactly what needs to be built, but I can work with you to help you figure out what you need. Then, I can help you stack rank your todo list so that the most valuable features are done first.
Here's my interview with tech journalist Ramon Ray:
If you have - or want -
an eCommerce website for your
product or service business, and you
sell with Zen Cart (or
osCommerce,
OpenCart,
BigCommerce, or
Shopify),
you're at the right place.
I have been helping small businesses improve their eCommerce operations
since 2006.
I create reliable, maintainable software customizations that work the way YOUR business works, and all for a reasonable price within a workable timeframe.
What can I build for you?
Or do you just need
Zen Cart Support or a
Zen Cart Upgrade? I can help there too.
Talk to me and see -
no one works harder for your small business selling online.
Current Status
- Zen Cart 1.5.8 is now available. The latest update is Zen Cart1.5.8a, and all users are encouraged to update. Read the release announcement.
- I'm getting my software updated to run on PHP 8. If you are testing PHP 8 and encounter an issue with one of my plugins, please check the plugin's help page to see if an update is available. If it hasn't been done yet, let me know and I'll get it fixed.
- The Zen Cart documentation has been moved to Github so that anyone can update it. You can see how it looks at docs.zen-cart.com. It uses
Hugo and the
Docsy template on the Netlify platform. (Read more ...)
Save for Later fixes for Zen Cart 1.5.8
Posted August, 2023
Save for Later has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.8.
FedEx REST API shipping method released
Posted July, 2023
FedEx has deprecated their old Web Services API. To replace it, I have created a new
FedEx REST API based Shipping Method for Zen Cart.
Invoice Payment Method updated
Posted June, 2023
The
Invoice payment method has been updated for PHP 8 and Zen Cart 1.5.8.
Admin Notes V2 updated
Posted May, 2023
The
Admin Notes V2 plugin has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.8.
Catalog Invoice updated
Posted April, 2023
Updates to the
Catalog Invoice plugin for 1.5.8 have been posted to fix references to missing .css files.
1.5.8a Release
Posted March, 2023
Zen Cart 1.5.8a has been released! Thanks to all the community members who helped.
CSV Inventory updated
Posted February, 2023
The
CSV Inventory plugin has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.8.
Responsive Fallback for Zen Cart 1.5.8
Posted January, 2023
I have updated
Responsive Fallback
to be compatible with Zen Cart 1.5.8 and the new language loading
procedures. And Responsive Fallback now has the option of falling
back to the
Bootstrap template, not just Responsive Classic. So if your desktop template is holding you back from upgrading, Responsive Fallback could be a good option for you.
PHP 7.4 End of Life
Posted December, 2022
PHP 7.4 (and thus, all versions of PHP7 and below) are now end of life. They are not receiving security fixes or any support at all. What this means to you as a Zen Cart user is that you should
upgrade to Zen Cart 1.5.8 as soon as possible. Make upgrading part of your 2023 business plan, so you can avoid getting hacked or having your cart stop working.
Boilerplate for Description
Posted December, 2022
Zen Cart 1.5.8 represents a major change in how language files are
handled, so some of my plugins will require updates. I just fixed
Boilerplate in Description so that it would work with 1.5.8.
Support Clients - Increased Monthly Base Charge for Support
Posted November, 2022
I'm not raising my hourly rates - my rates have been unchanged since the end of 2016 - but I'm raising my monthly fee for support from $25 to $50. I monitor your site for downtime and do a monthly check (and an offsite database backup) which is included in this price, but the real value is having me on call to deal with emergencies if your site has problems. I am no longer selling software to people who are not on support so I can focus all my energy on my support clients.
Zen Cart Preview Email and One Page Checkout
Posted October, 2022
I got a report that
Preview Email was not working well with recent versions of @lat9's One Page Checkout plugin.
I have posted the required patches on the forum
here.
Zen Cart 1.5.8 Release
Posted October, 2022
I could not be more excited to announce that more than two years after the initial release of 1.5.7, Zen Cart 1.5.8 is finally ready for general use.
Here is the
release announcement and the
What's New document.
Change of Business Focus
Posted September, 2022
I am no longer selling individual pieces of software. My goal instead is to focus on my
Zen Cart Maintenance and Support
(and
Zen Cart Upgrade) offerings.
Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge
Posted August, 2022
The
Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge plugin has fixes to ensure zone selection is correctly applied.
Limited Grouped BOGO for Zen Cart
Posted July, 2022
The
BOGO Discount got a refresh this month, with the ability to group categories for a BOGO (buy any 2 from categories A, B, C, get 1 from category A, B or C at a discount).
Zen Cart Attribute Report
Posted June, 2022
The
Attribute Report plugin allows you to easily determine which attributes are being used by which products.
Zen Cart Preview Email
Posted May, 2022
The
Preview Email plugin has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.7 and to fix PHP logs for those running with E_NOTICE on.
Zen Cart Checkout Calendars
Posted April, 2022
My new
Checkout Calendars page describes the possibilities for stores that need to
schedule pickups or deliveries in advance.
Zen Cart Demo Sites Updated
Posted March, 2022
My
Zen Cart Demo Sites have had a refresh and are now running the latest versions of Zen Cart and my plugins.
Unfortunately I had to take down the admin demos, but everything else should be working nicely.
Zen Cart Notes
Posted February, 2022
Zen Cart Notes is a new plugin that allows you to add notes to the customers, orders and products pages.
Zen Cart Define Page Anywhere
Posted January, 2022
Zen Cart Define Page Anywhere is a new plugin that allows you to show define page content on any page in your cart, including on the product info page under various conditions.
While I was doing this work, I also refreshed
Boilerplate in Description with a new admin tool for managing boilerplate strings.
Zen Cart Sale Ending/Special Ending
Posted December, 2021
Zen Cart Sale Ending now allows you to display a countdown timer showing when the sale or special is ending. No more guessing for your clients or time zone conversion - just a number of days, hours, minutes and seconds (months are also shown if the end is more than a month out).
Zen Cart CSV Inventory
Posted November, 2021
Zen Cart CSV Inventory allows you to export the stock and sales levels of each of your products to a CSV file suitable for importing into a spreadsheet.
Zen Cart Per Customer Statistics
Posted October, 2021
Zen Cart Stats Per Customer allows you to view customer purchase history broken down by year.
Zen Cart Audit
Posted September, 2021
Zen Cart Audit now checks for categories which contain both sub-categories and products, a configuration which is not permitted and can cause problems.
Zen Cart Extended Family
Posted September, 2021
Extended Family has been updated to permit easier integration with the Bootstrap template.
Never seen Extended Family? It allows you to configure cross sells and integrates with
Zen Cart Discount Chooser to help build your customers' baskets.
Zen Cart All Purchases
Posted August, 2021
Does your store sell food, supplies or other items that are frequently repurchased? The
Zen Cart All Purchases plugin makes it easy for your customers to repurchase items they have bought in the past.
Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge
Posted July, 2021
The
Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge plugin now has weight and value thresholds for the imposition of a surcharge.
Discounting/Cross-Selling Updates for Zen Cart 1.5.7
Posted June, 2021
The following modules have been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.7 and the newer versions of MySQL:
Zen Cart Quick Quantity Update
Posted May, 2021
Quick Quantity Update has been updated for Zen Cart 1.5.7.
Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge
Posted April, 2021
Do you have a few places you deliver to that have higher shipping costs?
You can handle this by having multiple shipping modules, but
another option is to use my
Zen Cart Shipping Surcharge
plugin, and just add a visible surcharge to the order.
Search Extensions
Posted March, 2021
I have been busy building search and filtering capabilities for clients.
Some of this work is described in my page
Zen Cart search customizations.
Zen Cart Delete Spam Customers
Posted March, 2021
Due to the ever evolving behavior of spammers,
I have updated
Zen Cart Delete Spam Customers
to run multiple queries to find fake accounts.
Seasonal Centerbox Updates
Posted February, 2021
Seasonal Centerbox
now can be configured from your Zen Cart admin.
Disabled Products Report
Posted January, 2021
Disabled Products Report
allows you to easily review all of the disabled products in your store.
eCommerce with Zen Cart!
