X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

Hi friends,

Today we’re happy to announce the release of X-Cart 5.3 Beta. It comes with significant performance improvements and new features for merchants and for developers. Learn more in our blog http://blog.x-cart.com/5-3-beta.html

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

Will modifications of the template files (in look & feel -> webmaster mode) be automatically converted to 5.3 or will we have to manually reapply any modifications to the current tpl files when they move over to twig?

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

Interesting improvements so far ... ESPECIALLY in speed.

However, here is a suggestion that seems to be an issue in the 5x branch regarding themes and layout---SPACING. Why is there so much vertical space around every field to where customers (and admins) must scroll quite far to see all of the page content? Consider condensing these fields to a more reasonable read spacing. After watching the videos, even the the person creating the videos had to constantly scroll to enter data in the various fields (including checkout, etc).

It doesn't have to be crammed together like Facebook or a poorly designed 10 year old website, but in its current form there is just too much space for any site that has more than just a few categories, minimal products, or a massive monitor for the checkout page.

Keep up the improvements!!! We're hopeful.

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

They will not be automatically converted to Twig, unfortunately.
You will need to do this manually, a special tool for that will be available later.
If you are not comfortable with doing it yourself, you may contact our support team to do that.

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

Is there a v5.3 beta demo (frontend) we can have a look at ?

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

I can see this URL from demo : http://54.243.126.228/

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

Is there much change in the database for categories/products/attributes?

I'm wondering if it would be possible to use the 5.3 back-end to admin the products in an 5.2.14 install.

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

Can you please create a way to export all of the "webmaster mode" changes into a list so that it is easier to reapply them? They are all part of the "theme_tweaker" module.

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

This is the primary task of the beta testing for the core team. I cannot guarantee that the tool will convert all the files 100% correct, but we will make the converting process easier.

Re: X-Cart 5.3 Beta released
 

I highly doubt it will be possible to connect a 5.2.14 database to a 5.3 installation, there are a lot of changes to almost every aspect of the cart.