A shopping cart template defines the layout and elements of the shopping cart pages for a store. The template actually includes definitions for five separate pages in one file:
In other words, a single file (template) contains five sets of [-- DEFINE --] tags, like this:
Merchants have a lot of flexibility in how they configure options for the cart pages, and that can have quite an impact on what the pages look like. For example, a merchant can choose to display shipping options as a drop-down list or as radio buttons, and may choose not to display the ordering instructions box at all.
Fortunately, the custom template tags take care of this for you. For example, the [-- SC_Tax_Shipping --] tag will produce either a drop-down list or radio buttons, depending on the merchant's choice, and you don't have to change anything in your template. Likewise, the [-- SC_OrderingInstructions --] tag will not produce any output if the merchant has disabled that feature, so there is no harm in having it in your template regardless of the merchant's setting.
Because many of the custom template tags produce formatted output, your main focus when creating a shopping cart template will probably be the overall layout. To make that easier, the HTML output of most custom template tags includes CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) class attributes. The examples show you how to use those attributes to define the look of your shopping cart.
Next: Required SC Tags