X-Cart: shopping cart software

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-   -   X-Cart 4.1.0 beta 1 released (https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=17404)

svowl 10-20-2005 06:46 AM

X-Cart 4.1.0 beta 1 released
 
Quote:

Dear customers!

We are excited to announce the first Beta release of X-Cart 4.1.0. Over a year X-Cart team has been working to enhance the functionality and performance offered by X-Cart e-commerce software and finally you have a chance to experience the many improvements introduced during this period.

While developing X-Cart 4.1.0, not only did we add new features, but we also paid a lot of attention to performance advancement: decreased the number of complex SQL requests, added a data caching mechanism, optimized the PHP code to reduce the required memory limit.

Our thanks to everyone who actively participated and provided feedback.


Here is a list of key features for 4.1.0 version:
- a more user-friendly and intuitive checkout procedure (Fast Lane Checkout module);
- a new patch/upgrade center that will allow you to upgrade installed add-ons and non-standard X-Cart skins;
- export/import functionality for almost all data types (products and all related information, categories, coupons, destination zones, users, etc);
- support for simultaneous use of more than one user type in one browser session (for example, a user can be logged in as an administrator and a customer at the same time);
- ability for administrator to enter the store as another user;
- X-FancyCategories module revised to ensure stable performance of the store with large numbers of categories (over 500);
- advanced membership system: ability to assign one or more memberships to each of the products, categories, payment methods, tax rates and discounts;
- System fingerprints: ability to compare the status of the store files before and after modification and to discover which files have been deleted, added or modified;
- wholesale prices and thumbnail images for product variants;
- ability to display product detailed images in popup windows;
- Australia Post's Delivery Rate Calculator support;
- 'Same as billing address' checkbox on the user profile page (for the shipping address section);
- support for a number of new payment gateways;
- ability to create discount coupons with more options;
- multi-language support for the speed bar, payment methods, user titles etc;
- support for a more advanced encryption method for sensitive data (Blowfish);
- Smarty template engine upgraded up to version 2.6.10;


Just like any Beta release, we welcome your bug reports and suggestions.

A demo store based on X-Cart 4.1.0 beta 1 is installed here: http://www.x-cart.com/demo_preview/


WARNING!
The software is NOT recommended for production deployment at this stage. Please do not use X-Cart 4.1.0 beta 1 for live stores: although we have declared a feature freeze, this version is still suppossed to undergo a period of thorough final testing and polishing. Please be aware that X-Cart 4.1.0 beta 1 is just a preview of X-Cart 4.1.0 and comes without technical support or a reference manual.

--
Sincerely yours,
X-Cart Team

svowl 10-20-2005 06:48 AM

CHANGELOG
 
Below is a classified list of the main changes between 4.0.x and 4.1.x branches. For a full list of changes, please refer to the CHANGELOG.

Quote:

USER INTERFACE
==============

Fri Sep 30 11:45:34 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: 'No cookies' warning message is restored for the Customer area.

Wed Aug 10 15:21:05 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Usability of "General Settings" in the Admin area is improved: ability to select/unselect checkboxes by clicking the option names is added.

Thu Jun 23 10:18:50 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: anti-double-click functionality is added on the last checkout page.

Wed Jun 22 14:57:27 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: 'Display detailed images in popup window' option is added.

Mon May 16 16:05:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - The section 'General settings' is improved: the options structure is revised and changed, option separators are added; each module has its own options group now.

Mon Apr 25 14:11:43 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Reset (JS-script-based) button is added on Search for users page, Search for products page and Search for orders page.

Mon Apr 04 17:21:54 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Select product popup window is improved: selectboxes now react to onDblClick event.

Fri Feb 25 14:32:11 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Text direction option for any language is added (needed for languages with a right-to-left text direction, e.g Arabic).

Thu Feb 24 16:10:15 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Settings for 'Checkout registration page' are added on User profiles options page; Shipping/billing title/firstname/lastname fields are added on User profiles options page.

Thu Feb 24 15:33:35 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: "'Same as billing address' checkbox on register page" functionality is added.

Tue Jan 25 17:25:09 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: An option "The section 'Send to friend' on the Product details page is enabled" is added.



USER MANAGEMENT
===============

Fri Apr 22 17:34:38 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: A new option "operate as this user" is added to the Multi-type login feature. Available only to administrators (enables administrator to operate as ordinary users).

Tue Apr 19 10:56:19 MSD 2005 [+] - mclap - Multi-type login is added: now store administrator or developer can work in multiple areas at the same time using different login names.

Wed Mar 23 11:18:03 MSK 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: account status and activity flag can now be changed for groups of users.

Thu Mar 17 17:51:54 MSK 2005 [+] - mclap - User accounts now can be temporarily disabled: admin can deny login to a user or disable acitivy for providers and partners (provider's products will be temporarily hidden, partner will not get any commisions).



PRODUCT CATALOG MANAGEMENT
==========================

Tue Jul 26 15:09:40 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement (Group editing of products functionality): Group editing is now possible for large quantities of product titles.

Fri Jul 22 10:38:40 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Ability to apply a tax globally to all the products in the store is added.

Thu Jul 21 16:05:25 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Now productcode identifiers may not be unique with regard to the entire store, uniqueness by provider is enough.

Mon May 16 15:21:58 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Product options design is changed; product options exception mechanism is changed (Now it is possible to set up exceptions based on a number of options smaller than the number of options necessary for a complete option combination corresponding to a specific product; for example, if size S is unavailable for Red and Blue t-shirts, it is enough to set up an exception "Size S" instead of two separate exceptions "Size S + Color Red" and "Size S + Color Blue").

Fri Apr 08 16:45:01 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Ability to define keywords for products is added (now products can be searched for by these keywords).

Thu Apr 07 17:15:22 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Memberships mechanism is redesigned; now memerbship-based restrictions can be defined for access to products.

Tue Mar 29 15:39:14 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Images mechanism is redesigned; ability to use product images for products and product variants is added.

Fri Jan 21 17:35:04 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: HTML catalog can now work with the dynamic part of the store when the Customer frontend is closed (customers can browse the catalog pages as usual, but when an attempt is made to access the dynamic part, 'shop closed' message is displayed).

Wed Jan 19 16:58:11 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: "Orderby" field is added for Extra fields module.

Tue Dec 21 14:28:43 MSK 2004[*] - max - Improvement: Ability to use thumbnails for Product variants is added; an option "Default variant" is added.

Mon Dec 20 14:17:31 MSK 2004[*] - max - Wholesale prices for Product variants are added.



SHIPPING MANAGEMENT
===================

Fri Jun 17 17:23:21 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: "Add unknown shipping method to database" functionality is added (If a real-time shipping calculation service provides information about a payment method unknown to your store, it will be added to the database).

Wed Jun 15 09:44:09 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Shipping methods page design is changed; fields for origin address are added on the Test realtime shipping methods page.

Thu Mar 03 11:58:16 MSK 2005 [+] - max - Australia Post realtime shipping method is added.



CART / CHECKOUT
===============

Fri Aug 19 16:36:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - Improvement in the calculation of cart totals: discounts and taxes are now applied to the product subtotal instead of the product price to avoid a number of rounding up errors which may occur in some cases.

Mon Aug 15 16:53:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - The customer's zone calculation algorithm (func_get_customer_zones_avail() function) is simplified and optimized to decrease the number of SQL queries and code lines.

Wed Apr 20 14:26:15 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: the possibility to define a maximum order subtotal and a maximum quantity of products is added.

Fri Mar 04 11:55:00 MSK 2005 [+] - svowl - 'Fast Lane Checkout' module is added.

Mon Jan 24 15:27:46 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: An option "Return the customer to the dynamic part of the store if the option "Redirect customer to cart" is disabled and the customer got to the cart page from the HTML-catalog" is added.



PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE
==================

Fri Oct 07 10:14:58 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: All disfunctional payment methods are disabled during checkout now.

Mon Sep 19 09:04:00 MSD 2005 [+] - svowl - The ability to add a payment method surcharge is added.

Tue Apr 26 13:53:07 MSD 2005 [+] - max - PSiGate XML interface payment method is added.

Mon Apr 25 16:00:48 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: COD payment method is updated: extra charge is added; option for shipping methods is added.

Mon Mar 07 11:17:28 MSK 2005 [+] - max - ANZ eGate Merchant-Hosted payment module is added.

Thu Oct 14 10:44:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - Heidel payment module (DirectDebit) is added.

Wed Oct 13 15:49:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - Heidel payment module (CreditCard) is added.

Sun Oct 10 13:15:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - A web-based payment module Bank of America is added.

Thu Sep 30 11:05:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - Bank of Asia payment module is added.

Thu Sep 23 10:49:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - PayPro payment module is added.

Tue Sep 21 15:22:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - TotalTrans payment module is added.

Mon Sep 20 13:53:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - Credomatic payment module is added.

Thu Aug 26 13:41:00 MSD 2004 [+] - sdg - Secure-I payment module is added.



SEARCH PROCEDURES
=================

Tue Sep 20 10:51:00 MSD 2005 [+] - svowl - Ability to get product search results page via GET-request is added.



IMPORT/EXPORT PROCEDURES
========================

Wed Apr 27 11:56:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - Improvement: Data import procedure is made more flexible; the range of data types that can be imported is extended.



PERFORMANCE
===========

Fri Oct 07 17:29:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - Improvement: The procedure for processing tracking statistics is moved to the end of script execution (to the func_display() function). This should speed up the store performance when too much statistical data is already stored in the database.

Fri Aug 26 17:22:09 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Product categories functionality and Fancy categories module are improved: templates are optimized and rebuilt; inner categories structure for Fancy categories module is optimized.

Tue Aug 23 14:46:29 MSD 2005[*] - max - Clear benchmark statistics functionality is added for Internal performance measurement mechanism.

Mon Aug 22 17:47:27 MSD 2005 [+] - max - Internal performance measurement mechanism is added.

Tue Jul 19 13:40:53 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: product search mechanism is changed; data cache functionality is added.

Sat Apr 23 14:33:45 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: The product search SQL-query is optimized to increase the speed of product search when the products have product variants.

Fri Jan 21 09:36:05 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: The product search SQL query is optimized to allow work with big data selections on some MySQL server configurations.

Thu Jan 06 10:47:19 MSK 2005[*] - mclap - The function func_display() is improved: now it uses only one fetch.

Fri Dec 10 14:37:17 MSK 2004[*] - max - Improvement: Product search-Database interaction is optimized (the amount of SQL quiries is reduced).



MODULES
=======

Mon Oct 10 16:31:22 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: An option is added that will enable customers to choose a design for Gift certificate cards that will be sent by postal mail.

Fri Sep 09 15:02:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - Improvement: Ability to create discount coupons with more flexible options is added: 'How to apply the discount' option is added for absolute coupon types (once per order, to each product item or to each product title) and the ability to set up 'Times to use' option based on 'per customer' principle.

Fri Sep 09 11:13:19 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Multilanguage values are now supported for manufacturer name and description.

Fri Aug 26 16:28:40 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Multi-language support is added to the News Management module.

Thu Jun 23 16:29:35 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Ability to use HTML tags in the description of manufacturers is added.

Fri Jun 10 15:00:06 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Printing of Gift Certificates is imroved; 2 sample templates are added.

Tue May 10 15:51:09 MSD 2005[*] - max - Ability to delete a manufacturer logo image is added.

Thu Apr 07 16:20:42 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Admin can now select different templates for gift certificates meant for sending via postal mail and print them.

Mon Apr 04 12:05:51 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Newslist message now can be sent using multiple passes (N emails per pass) with an adjustable delay between the passes.

Thu Jan 20 15:55:10 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Updating IP addresses functionality in added (Stop list module).

Wed Jan 19 17:57:17 MSK 2005[*] - max - Improvement: pagination for Manufacturers list page (Customer area) is added.



SECURITY
========

Sat Sep 17 11:21:47 MSD 2005 [+] - max - Blowfish key generation procedure is added to install.php script.

Thu Sep 15 17:17:28 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: SQL error logging is improved: more details (QUERY_STRING, remote IP etc) are added.

Thu Sep 08 17:56:03 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Blowfish encryption method is now used for credit card number and credit card CVV2 fields.

Thu Sep 08 16:26:38 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: SALT encryption method was replaced with Blowfish encryption method.


Thu Jan 06 17:22:51 MSK 2005[*] - mclap - Security of compiled templates is improved: optional md5 check is added. See the option "Check MD5 of compiled templates for better store protection at a shared hosting" on the General settings / Security options page. This option is enabled by default.



PATCH/UPGRADE
=============

Fri Aug 12 09:59:13 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Patch/Upgrade center can now create new files when applying a patch.

Tue Jul 12 12:51:35 MSD 2005 [+] - mclap - Improvement: Patch/Upgrade center is now able to upgrade installed add-ons and alternative skins.

Wed Jun 08 10:49:42 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Patch/Upgrade center does not use patch.pl any more.



MISCELLANEOUS
=============

Mon Sep 19 18:05:13 MSD 2005[*] - mclap - Improvement: Temporary directories (like "log", "cache", "templates_c") are moved to a new top level subdirectory "var" (e.g. "var/log", "var/cache", "var/templates_c"). For a full list, see config.php.

Wed Aug 24 11:57:12 MSD 2005 [+] - max - Multithreading HTTP requester is added.

Tue Aug 23 17:26:47 MSD 2005[*] - max - 'Remove test/demo data' functionality is added (Summary->Tools).

Tue Aug 23 17:25:23 MSD 2005[*] - max - Checkboxes list checker (Javascript level) is added.

Fri Jul 29 11:51:35 MSD 2005 [+] - mclap - Improvement: new function "func_pathcmp()" for cross-platform path comparison is added.

Sat Jun 25 14:18:22 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: 'Multirow input data' Javascript-functionality is added. This functionality is used, for example, on the Product options and Product variants pages.

Fri Jun 24 15:12:40 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Advanced mechanism for including JavaScript code into templates is added.

Thu Jun 23 15:57:27 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Sorting of the modules list by actual names is added.

Tue Jun 14 16:48:32 MSD 2005[*] - max - Improvement: Ability to define a format that will be used for displaying numbers on all the site pages, as well as for validating input values, is added.

Fri Jun 03 16:50:15 MSD 2005 [+] - mclap - Improvement: function "func_xml_parse" for parsing xml data is added.

Fri Apr 22 14:54:00 MSD 2005[*] - svowl - Script for sending newsletters spam.sh renamed to newsletter.sh

Mon Apr 18 11:31:14 MSD 2005 [+] - mclap - Store maintenance agent for periodically sending store activity data etc is added.

Sat Apr 09 13:14:56 MSD 2005 [+] - max - Multilanguage support is added for: titles, memberships, speed bar, payment mehods, month names.

Fri Apr 01 10:26:29 MSD 2005 [+] - mclap - Improvement: Error logging functions are added. Shop logs can now be viewed from the Admin interface and are more configurable.

Thu Mar 31 11:18:17 MSD 2005 [+] - max - Ability to view customers' wishlists via admin/provider interface is added.

Tue Nov 23 17:02:02 MSK 2004[*] - max - func_send_mail() is modified: now 2 types of mail messages are sent: plain text and HTML text. The message body structure is changed and optimized.

Mon Sep 27 15:32:00 MSD 2004 [+] - svowl - System fingerprints management section is added.

ETInteractive.com 10-20-2005 06:49 AM

KUDOS!@

on releasing a beta for us to test and poke and get the kinks worked out before laying it on us.

I applaud this!! :D

svowl 10-20-2005 07:02 AM

PS. You can download X-Cart 4.1.0 beta 1 from your File area

ETInteractive.com 10-20-2005 07:09 AM

Seems to be an issue with Checkout.

Step 3: Shipping & Payment

I click "continue to move to step 4 and ..

IE, page jut hangs, wont load.

in FF i get this error msg
"Redirection Limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page, This may be caused by cookies that are blocked"

Either way, I cannot checkout.

balinor 10-20-2005 07:22 AM

VERY nice...lots of features that have been asked for. Looks very promising...will be sure to play with this extensively :)

cotc2001 10-20-2005 09:35 AM

Take a look at variations for the t-shirt products, is that image per variant I see???? can't see anywhere that it is defined though??? also anyone know what def is?

Looks interesting

balinor 10-20-2005 09:40 AM

Did you also notice the wholesale prices in the variants? :)

shan 10-20-2005 09:52 AM

for some reason cant log in as admin on my test server, running this localy for now.

holds judgement and starts to write a list :-)

cotc2001 10-20-2005 09:52 AM

ahh i see where to upload variant images now, still dont know what def is though.

Certainly seems that x-cart has listened to their customers on this, there is still quite a few bits from the wishlist that could of improved it a lot but have to say good on x-cart for listening.

Arghhhhh coupons usage times per customer........ I just paid for that mod 8O

RichieRich 10-20-2005 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cotc2001
Take a look at variations for the t-shirt products, is that image per variant I see???? can't see anywhere that it is defined though??? also anyone know what def is?

Looks interesting


Is this not default?

balinor 10-20-2005 01:12 PM

No, options/variants do not have specific images in the 4.0 branch of X-Cart.

RichieRich 10-20-2005 01:16 PM

I mean, is def not reffering to default?

RichieRich 10-20-2005 02:20 PM

The multi-language updates are good, the extra fields sort by is good, and the variant updates with images etc are good.

Now if we can tie all three together to make multi-language "extra fields" and "variants" - this would seem logical to be added.

RichieRich 10-20-2005 02:28 PM

There seems to be a language-change bug in the international description area. When you select a language to change the title etc for, it is changing the language for the entire admin area, and unless you understand fluent german, you become Gesteckt (stuck)...

groovico 10-20-2005 04:07 PM

Some very nice improvements in there, hows the upgrade from 4.0.X to 4.1 going to work will it be a database patch or a full patch upgrade? Seems alot of files have changed.

kevin02 10-20-2005 04:19 PM

X-FancyCategories module revised to ensure stable performance of the store with large numbers of categories (over 500);

Any chance of getting the demo site updated with the module? Was planning on not using Fancy Cat's because of speed.

svowl 10-20-2005 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevin02
Any chance of getting the demo site updated with the module? Was planning on not using Fancy Cat's because of speed.


If you have X-FancyCategories add-on license, you can download the new version of the add-on from your File area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by groovico
Some very nice improvements in there, hows the upgrade from 4.0.X to 4.1 going to work will it be a database patch or a full patch upgrade?


Most likely, it will be a database upgrade only, because of a high complexity of the full upgrade patching process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichieRich
There seems to be a language-change bug in the international description area. When you select a language to change the title etc for, it is changing the language for the entire admin area, and unless you understand fluent german, you become Gesteckt (stuck)...


It was made so because, when you type in the international description, you need to setup the right charset for the current page in advance. It is not so critical if you have English and German, but very important if you also have Russian or Chinese.

Light Speed 10-20-2005 11:07 PM

Thanks for the beta!!!!!

I will play with it for a few days and post any issues.

This:
Quote:

Mon Dec 20 14:17:31 MSK 2004[*] - max - Wholesale prices for Product variants are added.

MADE ME REALLY HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

svowl 10-21-2005 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ETInteractive.com
Seems to be an issue with Checkout.

Step 3: Shipping & Payment

I click "continue to move to step 4 and ..

IE, page jut hangs, wont load.

in FF i get this error msg
"Redirection Limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page, This may be caused by cookies that are blocked"

Either way, I cannot checkout.


Hmm, could you provide some more details on this?
Is real time shipping rates calculation enabled? Did you setup HTTPS for the checkout?
Thank you.

shan 10-21-2005 03:26 AM

If it is going to be a database only upgrade then take this chance to go through all the templates and tidy things up. this oportunity was missed with 4.0

willirl 10-21-2005 04:05 AM

Small checkout problem
 
When checking out, fill in the personal information checking the box for "Shipping same as Billing address".

Then go to next page in checkout process.

Now click at the top of the page to go back to personal information. The "Shipping same as Billing address" check box is no longer checked.

shan 10-21-2005 04:15 AM

Re: Small checkout problem
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by willirl
When checking out, fill in the personal information checking the box for "Shipping same as Billing address".

Then go to next page in checkout process.

Now click at the top of the page to go back to personal information. The "Shipping same as Billing address" check box is no longer checked.


Shipping same as billing address should be

ship to a different address ?

and the shipping address fields hidden. The less a user has to fill in or see the better

btomasie 10-21-2005 10:25 AM

Quote:

- a more user-friendly and intuitive checkout procedure (Fast Lane Checkout module);


What's the chance of getting this new module HotFix'ed into the 4.0.x branch? That would be a VERY nice addition and a long-time coming.

Thanks,
Brian

ETInteractive.com 10-21-2005 10:25 AM

This happens on YOUR demo site.

http:www.x-cart.com/demo_preview/

Im using FF 1.0.7 all patched up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by svowl
Quote:

Originally Posted by ETInteractive.com
Seems to be an issue with Checkout.

Step 3: Shipping & Payment

I click "continue to move to step 4 and ..

IE, page jut hangs, wont load.

in FF i get this error msg
"Redirection Limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page, This may be caused by cookies that are blocked"

Either way, I cannot checkout.


Hmm, could you provide some more details on this?
Is real time shipping rates calculation enabled? Did you setup HTTPS for the checkout?
Thank you.


chris 10-21-2005 11:10 AM

where do we send/post the bugs we find as I have found one
 
Does any one know where to post the bugs for this new v4.1.0 beta as I have found that when you move an item from the wishlist to the cart it remains in the wishlist.

Chris

balinor 10-21-2005 11:12 AM

I'd say post the bugs in this thread until X-Cart says otherwise.

chris 10-21-2005 11:29 AM

found 2 bugs in 1/2 an hour who did the alpha testing!!
 
found another bug - this time found that if you select check as a payment method and you do not fill in any of the fields it will still accept your order!!

Chris

cherie 10-21-2005 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shan
If it is going to be a database only upgrade then take this chance to go through all the templates and tidy things up. this oportunity was missed with 4.0

Yes! It would be very nice to have cleaner html and more readable templates.

Thanks for releasing this and letting us provide feedback. Do you have a rough date in mind when you hope to release the final version? Q1 of 06? Some of our customers are very concerned about wholesale variants which is probably the #1 item in this new version.

Stephen Hatton 10-21-2005 04:25 PM

Hi All

My quick observations of V4.1.0 from the distribution files are:

1. Pages generated are not XHTML compliant (all HTML tags must be lowercase and must have closing tags).

From the demo site (http//:www.x-cart.com/demo_preview/ ) given in a previous post:
I am running Mozilla Firefox which has a plugin that checks the HTML validity of pages.
The demo site has 24 errors (serious HTML compliance) and 158 warnings (usually titles for tables and images - not critical but would be nice to make compliant)

Some search engines will not spider pages with errors, so this could become a serious issue in the future.


Here is the link to the W3C validator for the xcart demo:

Here is the link to the CSS validator for the xcart demo


Also in config.php a Blowfish key is generated during the install process:

Quote:

#
# The variable $blowfish_key contains your Blowfish encryption key automatically
# generated by X-Cart during installation. This key is used to encrypt all the
# sensitive data in your store including user passwords, credit card data, etc.
#
# NEVER try to change your Blowfish encryption key by editing the value of the
# $blowfish_key variable in this file: your data is already encrypted with this
# key and X-Cart needs exactly the same key to be able to decrypt it. Changing
# $blowfish_key manually will corrupt all the user passwords (including the
# administrator's password), so you will not be able to use the store.
#
# Please be aware that a lost Blowfish key cannot be restored, so X-Cart team
# will not be able to help you regain access to your store if you remove or
# change the value of $blowfish_key.
#
# It is quite safe to use X-Cart with the Blowfish key generated during
# installation; however, if you still want to change it, please refer to
# X-Cart Reference Manual or contact X-Cart Tech Support for details.
#


If we setup a test site and wish to import an existing live database - do we copy the blowfish key across from the live site to the test site (as a new one is generated on the test site when the software is installed)???


Here are the competitor's verifications:


I am just trying to help with QA.

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton
:idea:

snorocket 10-21-2005 05:53 PM

X-Cart ROCKS !!!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by cotc2001
Arghhhhh coupons usage times per customer........ I just paid for that mod 8O


Thats why we no longer buy custom mods anymore, X-Cart ROCKS !!!

vulcan-works 10-21-2005 07:03 PM

Importing products wether it be comma, tab or semicolon does not work for me, it dosent give me an error msg or anything..just nothing
anybody else have this problem?

Stephen Hatton 10-21-2005 10:56 PM

Hi Vulcan-works

Try exporting the standard cart products and then import it. If that works, then look at the output format and see how it is structured.

Just a tip (it's called reverse engineering).

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton
:idea:

cherie 10-22-2005 12:53 AM

I had trouble logging into the admin area after installing. It appears the master passwd got corrupted. The Recover Password emailed "ц√б╓nOUе╫ц┬е╬" which has been a corruption indicator in the past.

I created a php script that uses a modified version of the blowfish.php and function call to help me create an encrypted password using the key that was generated during install. I could have reinstalled, but I'm not sure the reinstall would not have had the same results and I figured this script will come in handy down the road.

So, I'm back in business but a little concerned about initial master passwd corruption.

shan 10-22-2005 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cherie
I had trouble logging into the admin area after installing. It appears the master passwd got corrupted. The Recover Password emailed "ц√б╓nOUе╫ц┬е╬" which has been a corruption indicator in the past.

I created a php script that uses a modified version of the blowfish.php and function call to help me create an encrypted password using the key that was generated during install. I could have reinstalled, but I'm not sure the reinstall would not have had the same results and I figured this script will come in handy down the road.

So, I'm back in business but a little concerned about initial master passwd corruption.


same thing happened to me on my live server so i installed it localy and it worked. what waas the script you used ?

shan 10-22-2005 06:05 AM

Heres my list of things that came to mind when I first had a look. Ive not bothered to point out any good things :-) just things that could be better so it may not sound very possitive .....

Quote:

Add shipping methods - min as well as max weight limit would be good

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Final checkout stage - Should only show fields that are filled in (eg first name, last name)

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If you remove the master/master account or any provider the products added by that person are no longer shown in the store. In Gold should it not even matter who added the products as we are using a single provider / owner. At least it should say that products listed by that provider will no longer work or something.

you should be able to switch provider via a drop down in the admin area / modify products

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subcats list page, number of products is cut off

subcats list page, how come we still show an icon for the parent category and not that of the subcategory. People always complain about this and most mod it to show an actual list of icons and their own category name. would be much better to show

ICON - category name (6 products)

and allow for multi column display too

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Order details - customer - still shows badly laid out invoice - why can we not show the same invoice across the whole store
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Customer Notes - These are still stored along with the cc details and are not shown on the customers invoice. whats the point of this. if the notes dont go on the invoice / delivery slip how is anyone going to be able to make any use of them. been mentioned a million times in the forum. just give the notes their own field in the orders table and then people can do what they want with them. also make them editable on the order details page by the admin. basic stuff this.

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admin - products list - it would be good to be able to also update the list price from here

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Customer - Products list - can we get rid of the product code after the product name - god knows how many people ask about this. its pointless

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It was mentioned before that the word x-cart would be removed from the general text of the store. it still appears all over the place
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Customer - product detail - could we not loose the save % star and add the list price / our price / and amount saved and % in the details area.

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Product options - price modifier - imagine i add 3 options - small / medium / large and set prices for each. here we should be able to set a list price too otherwise the % saved is lost and becomes useless.
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Wholesale pricing - cant choose more then one membership level. this should be a multi select list not a drop down menu

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Wholesale pricing - added a qty and new price, set it for a unique membership. when i changed the membership to all and updated it did not display on the user side

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Static pages - would be great to allow embedded pages to be put into categories

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Upgrade center - usefull to be able to save xcart members area username and pass so that your not asked to log in when you click check for updates. Things like payment gateways should be able to check for newer versions. so much of upgrades is updating payment gateways that most people never even use. Why not just update and even install the ones that you want to use. make it so much easier to make sure you stay current. wouldnt have to wait for a release patch if you could update payment gateways on the fly

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payment methods - whats 'cash on delivery method' all about ?


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Credit card payments - how come we still have months instead of numbers in the drop menus. when did you last see the month as a word on a credit card ?

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Invoices - still look untidy, could be made to look so much more professional.. WARNING: Antifraud module is not enabled. is this needed ? why would a customer want to see this. would this not raise concerns or questions from end users ?

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Images Location - why is there not a set of default folders set up during install so that images can be put into files folder.

files/images/thumbs
files/images/detailed
files/images/icons
files/images/manufacturers
files/images/variants

The amount of people who ask about this and then have problems getting images into the filesystem. How many people would rather put the images somewhere else. probably none. once and for all have these basic folders set up as standard and drop an htaccess files in there. a new folder is made for every provider and still the images have not been thought about...........

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Languages - if only one language is installed why ask us to choose one when you first hit that page ? Tiny text boxs for descriptions just makes it hard to edit things. make better use of the space. Whats the point of the description field when adding language vars. 99% of the time its just a copy of the value field. why not just drop the description field and make the value field bigger and easier to use...

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Titles - why not just add these as a subsection of the languages page and build the array out of lng.title_mr , lng.title_mrs etc. having its own admin section is a bit much


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Detailed image pop up - only shows first image, the window it opens is never big enough to display the whole image and also cuts off the next / previous. this window should not be stretchable, it should just fit the image its displaying....

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buttons - can we not use one method for buttons.. whats the point in having go buttons. why not just make all the buttons look the same

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products list - sort by, whats the point in having an option for default ? as a user what does that mean to them. to make it useful why not have 2 drop menus, 1 says order by and the other says how many products to show per page. an option to list products without images would be useful too. so would an option to list products as just title / price / qty and an add to cart for the whole page (multi add to cart in one go)

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Send To Friend - I see theres an option to be able to turn this on and off in admin but why not just add this as a module and allow it to be switched oin and off with all the others. would make more sense that way.

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UK config - when installing the store and choose UK style - why not have the following ..

Zones - UK / Europe / Rest Of World
TAX - VAT - 17.5% for UK / Europe

why do we need a zone for UK/London - get rid of this
why have a euro zone that includes the UK (if the store is in the UK then this is national not international)
why bother with 5% VAT option - get rid of this

Every store Ive set up in the UK ive removed all the stuff that was set to supposidly be helpfull and set up my own zones / vat as it should be.

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Countries management - has states - why not have these all unchecked as standard unless they actually do have states or at least allow them to be all turned off in one go.

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Emails - customer order complete, processed, cancelled etc etc etc - why not simplify the whole email thing and make a standard header and footer and pass a variable to the main mail template to say if processed include processed body. lets just cut down on the amount of seperate templates needed. most of them repeat the same things over and over. same applies for profile notifications

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<PRE>
<FONT>
{include file="customer/main/customer_details.tpl"}
</FONT>
</PRE>

- could we just loose these tags and format the things like customer details in a clear and simple way. having things displayed in such a way really make the store loose its edge. So simple to apply some attention to detail.


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Currencies - its a pity that were still stuck with only 2 currencies. we should be able to add as many as we like


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what are we using <font> tags or <span> tags. should we not by now just be using <span> tags. are font tags not outdated now ?

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CSS FILE

.CategoriesList - can we just loose this, no reason why categories links should be any different to other links

Do we have to have all the fancy cats styles in there. most people dont use this. can these not stay within the module itself
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If this is to be a database only upgrade then seize the moment and clean up all the templates. Even if it takes another few months.

lets get as near html compliant as possible.
Make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view
streamline the user experience and make it idiot proof
did i mention make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view


cherie 10-22-2005 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shan
same thing happened to me on my live server so i installed it localy and it worked. what waas the script you used ?

I'll PM you. If anyone else is interested, please PM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shan
If this is to be a database only upgrade then seize the moment and clean up all the templates.

Agreed! This is where most customizations occur, and having a rock solid base to start with would be great. And it can be more logical for both shoppers and programmers.

jmell 10-22-2005 12:10 PM

X-FancyCategories
 
When you have enough Categories and Sub Categories that puts the menu out in to the pages far enough that your menu goes over a Qty drop down
the Qty drop down is in front of the Menu. Making it look bad................

Online Michael 10-22-2005 06:39 PM

The new checkout process has a similarity to John's Easy Checkout mod so it just goes to show what a good mod it is (menus disappear for less distraction, progress bar on top, etc.).

It's also great to see there is a detailed image popup option too. Any chance of enabling this so we can see it in action?

Images for variants...WOW!

Just one more question... Will the new Fancy Categories module work with 4.0.XX????

Stephen Hatton 10-22-2005 09:49 PM

Hi Shan and all

Shan, your list of items are very detailed and include many things talked about on the forum. Some of the issues you have touched on are issues that many people have a lot of heartache about (even over the many revisions).

<font> is totally out of date and the .bottom styles in the css are too loose in definition (they can be used in font, tables, img, etc). XCART PLEASE READ W3C on stylesheets and prepare the way for compliance to XHTML.

My skin1.css is 50Kbytes at this point, however it is precise control over fonts, tables, images, fields, backgrounds, etc. and is downloaded once by the customer until the customer clears their cache. With ADSL > 50Kbytes per second, it is no longer a byte/time issue.

Images - Just check the forum for how many people have had issues with images. A shopping cart without images is a textbook - nice read but you most likely will never buy anything.

Embedded Static Pages (not on the help menu) - I have a solution if somebody wants it now. PMAIL me.

Invoice detail - define accurately and use css to control looks.

Make sure excel Export/Import module works - a lot of people on the forum have many problems.


As a side note - I have addressed all of these issues in my cart, however there are too many templates to fix for W3C compliance. So I re-iterate Shan's last comments (who is seeing all the forum feedback and trying to bail water on basic issues):


Quote:

lets get as near html compliant as possible.
Make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view
streamline the user experience and make it idiot proof
did i mention make everything as logical as possible from a shoppers view not a programers view


You will get more recommendations when you address critical basic issues first. It is nice to have features, but it's not nice if it breaks the cart and you have to become a programmer to fix problems (or have very deep pockets with money) and have the patience of a monk.

From 99% of software on PC's, all upgrades work painlessly. I realise our customisation will cause issues, but look at your changelogs objectively. Do some statistical analysis on them - the more features, the more bugs/fixes and they have been increasing over the years (and what is not good is the same faults re-occuring regularly).

So QA should be a priority, not a secondary item. MAKE V4.1.0 A FLAGSHIP OF EXCELLENCE, then add features.

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton
:idea:


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