Getting Started
Setup and orientation for Zen Cart developers
Zen Cart Developer Docs
Documentation for Zen Cart developers
Store owners, please also see storeowner docs.
Not a developer yet? Don’t worry - all these skills are learnable. Start here and work your way to Learn Zen Cart Development. Then jump in with your first PR or first plugin.
Architecture
Core Zen Cart internals and system behavior
Admin
Admin-side development topics for Zen Cart
Storefront
Storefront development topics, including UI libraries and rendering behavior
Modules
Shipping, payment, and order-total module development
Plugins
Plugin architecture, plugin authoring, and plugin maintenance
Database
Database structure, schema history, and database-related development topics
Languages
Language files, translation structure, and language-pack development
PHP
PHP-specific guidance for Zen Cart development
Release History
Releases of Zen Cart shown in reverse chronological order
Testing
Using the automated tests
Contributing
Contributing code and documentation to the Zen Cart project
Release Process
Maintainer documentation for preparing official Zen Cart releases
Last modified May 27, 2026 by Ian Wilson (e07ac859).