Glossary

Note: If a term is not in this list, use a web search to learn more about it. This list is intended to be specific to Zen Cart, with only a minimal number of additional generic terms.

• AOSC - Attestation of Scan Compliance; a document provided by an ASV that your site has been successfully scanned and found to be secure.
• ASV - Approved Scanning Vendor; a company that has been certified as qualified to evaluate the security of your website.
• Categories Tabs - Categories Tabs is the name of a feature that places a set of links to every category in your store across the width of your home page just below the logo and tagline.
• Centerbox - a centerbox is a block of content in the middle of the page.
• Character Set - A character set is a group of codes which represent a written language. Current versions of Zen Cart use the utf8mb4 character set.
• Collation: A setting which determines how strings are compared during a sort.
• cPanel - a branded hosting control panel which is very popular. See Hosting and Domain concepts.
• Default Files - The file provided by the base software that provides some functionality which can be overridden using a template file. See Default files, template default and overrides.
• Define Pages - Define pages are special pieces of content that appear above normal page content for certain pages.
• Document Root - another term for “webroot.”
• Domain Name - (also “domain”) the mnemonic name of your website. The domain name of this site is zen-cart.com. See hosting and domain concepts. A Name Server converts this mnemonic name into an IP Address.
• Downloadable Product - A downloadable product is a digital item such as an ebook, a music file, an image or a software product.
• DTK - Short for Developer’s Tool Kit.
• ESP - Short for Email Service Provider.
• Extra Pages - Extra pages are the three built-in additional content pages that people can use without needing to add software to their installation.
• EZ-Pages - Zen Cart provides the ability for storeowners to create their own content pages without a developer through the EZ-Pages facility.
• Hoster - a company that provides servers for you to run your site on. See hosting and domain concepts.
• Index Listing Page - sometimes the product listing page is called the index listing page. There is no difference between the two terms.
• Infobox - an infobox is like a sidebox for the admin. When an item from a list is selected, an infobox appears on the right with more details on that item. For example, on the customers page, details on the selected customer would appear; on the orders page, details on that order.
• IP Address - a number assigned to a piece of hardware connected to the Internet. Computers identify each other by IP Address. See hosting and domain concepts.
• JavaScript - a scripting language that adds dynamic effects to your website.
• Linked Product - a linked product is a product which exists in multiple categories (categories other than the product’s master category).
• Listing Page - a listing page in Zen Cart shows a group of products with certain things in common, such as age or being featured .
• Master Category - The category in which a product was originally created. Products can be added to other categories by creating linked products. See product management and linked products.
• Name Server - a piece of Internet infrastructure that converts a domain name to an IP Address. See hosting and domain concepts.
• Order Total - an order total module allows you to add a fee or a discount to an order.
• Overrides - Zen Cart provides the capability of partitioning your changes from the base software; this is called the override feature. See Default files, template default and overrides. Note that the term “overrides” is also used in two other places: site specific overrides and the four subfolders named “overrides”.
• PCI - A set of rules for data security adopted by credit card companies. See PCI.
• Prefix - Using a prefix in your configure.php files allows you to have a special naming convention for your Zen Cart tables, to distinguish them from the tables of other applications. Using a prefix is no longer encouraged; instead, use one database per application.
• Plugin - A plugin is a packaged software modification you can use to change the behavior of your Zen Cart installation.
• Release - Zen Cart Releases are numbered to indicate if a release is a full release requiring a database change, or a patch release. The complete release history of Zen Cart can be viewed, if you are looking for information on a specific release. The version numbering system has changed starting with 2.0.0, please see Zen Cart Versioning for details.
• Responsive - a template is responsive if it is designed for mobile viewing (on a phone or tablet) as well as desktop viewing. See Responsive Templates.
• Sale - a sale is a price reduction on one or more categories of products. See also Special.
• Shared Hosting - a hosting configuration that allows you to share a server with other users to reduce cost. See Hosting and Domain concepts.
• Sidebox - a sidebox is a block of content on the left or right hand side of your page, when viewed on a desktop.
• SNAF - an acronym meaning Specials, New Products, All Products and Featured.
• Special - a special is a price reduction on one product. See also Sale.
• Spider - a spider is a computer program running on the Internet which tries to index the contents of a website. Spiders are also called “web crawlers.” Zen Cart keeps a list of spiders in the file includes/spiders.txt.
• Sub-Zone: This term refers to a zone which is an element of a larger zone. For example, Florida is a sub-zone of United States of America.
• SSL - Secure Sockets Layer. A technology that allows you to securely transfer information between your webserver and a client browser. See hosting and domain concepts.
• Template - Set of files which provide the theme or skin (eg: layout, colors, fonts) for the site. See Default files, template default and overrides.
• Template Files - The individual files (css, js, php, and some images) involved in providing the Template for the site. See Default files, template default and overrides.
• UTF8 - A variable width character set which can represent a large number of characters.
• VPS - Virtual Private Server - a hosting configuration that puts you on your own dedicated server. See Hosting and Domain concepts.
• Webroot - The top level folder that is visible to someone using a web browser. See how do I install Zen Cart.
• Webserver - the computer associated with your hosting account that runs your website or the program on that hosting account that serves web pages (e.g. Apache). See hosting and domain concepts.
• YOURACCOUNTFOLDER - the folder in your hosting account which holds your site’s files. See basic terms. Webroot will be under this folder. For example, if YOURACCOUNTFOLDER was /home/scott, your webroot would (probably) be /home/scott/public_html. See basic terms.
• YOURLANGUAGE - the language your site is presented in, which is english by default. See basic terms.
• YOURSITE - the domain name you are using. See basic terms.
• YOURTEMPLATE - the template you are using. See basic terms.