One great aspect of Zen Cart is the flexibility to change configuration options. Whether it be the number of new products to show on the front page to how the product listing page displays the products.

This is all great, but with so many options available it’s not always easy to find them. This is where the reference plug-in comes in very hand. It was released ages ago and is now only available in the dungeons of the Zen Card downloads section.

Basically this very simple plug-in allows you to search for options. So you might be looking to change the minimum number of characters that have to be inserted as a first name. You go to your new reference plug-in (under the extras drop-down menu) and search for, say, First Name. That returns every configurable option with “first name” in it and allows you to click on it to edit it. Simple!

  1. Download the reference plug-in here
  2. Unzip it and upload all the files to your admin folder (keeping the directory structure)
  3. Then go to your admin pages, roll your mouse over the extras menu and click Reference
  4. Use the search box at the top to find the configuration option you are after.
  5. Click on the require config key and alter accordingly.

This very simple plug-in will save you the time and frustration of looking hi and low for configuration options.