Zen Cart

Infobox Software
name = Zen Cart™


author = Zen Ventures, LLC
caption = Newly installed Zen Cart screenshot
developer = [http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=infopages&pages_id=9 The Zen Cart Development Team]
latest_release_version = 1.3.8a
latest_release_date = release date|2007|12|11
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Online store management system
license = GPL
website = [http://www.zen-cart.com/ www.zen-cart.com]

Zen Cart™ is an open source online store management system. It is PHP-based, using a MySQL database and HTML components. Providing support for many languages and currencies, it is available for free under the GNU General Public License.

Zen Cart™ branched from osCommerce as a separate project. Beyond some aesthetic changes, the major differences between the two systems come from Zen Cart's long list of added features. Among the modules included are a Gift Certificate/Voucher module which allows you to create, send and manage the digital coupons. The Downloads Manager enables you to effectively manage downloadable sales (pdf or other media files). Attribute configuration options in the Download module allows you to configure how many days the download is available for and how many downloads per purchaser.

On August 12 2007, Zen Cart team announced that the future versions of the software, starting with 1.4.0 will require PHP 5.2 as a minimum.

Features

Zen Cart's default installation provides everything needed to maintain a professional shopping cart web site for an unlimited number of products. Products, pricing, shipping, newsletters, sales and more are managed by the store owner through the administration area. The shopping cart is already set up to receive payments from any major credit card and several popular payment gateway services are included.

The following is a list of some of the key features of Zen Cart as stated on their website:
* multiple language support
* multiple customer modes
* unlimited category depth
* multiple sales and discounts
* multiple display modes
* XHTML 1.0 compliant template system
* unlimited extra pages
* multiple ad banner controller
* multiple shipping options
* multiple payment options
* newsletter manager
* discount coupons
* gift certificates
* featured products
* quantity discounts
* phpBB integration through external module