X-Cart: shopping cart software

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-   General questions (X-Cart 5) (https://forum.x-cart.com/forumdisplay.php?f=66)
-   -   Xcart 5 benefits over Classic (https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=76021)

DanUK 02-23-2018 05:22 AM

Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
I have a bit of a dliemma as our ageing 4.6.1 needs to be upgraded so as to work with a PHP version that has some longevity, either PHP7.1 or 7.2.

I have been mulling over whether to pay a fair amount of money to get it upgraded to the latest branch of Classic, which only gets me pretty much what I have already albeit up to date...only to go through the same process in the next few years when PHP changes etc

Is 5 more bulletproof in this respect e.g. does it make it easier to upgrade, maintain, make everything work together? I've been with Classic for many years now and dread the upgrade as inevitably a third party mod is not supported, developer has gone bust/moved on etc and consequently costs an arm and a leg to get it updated. I'm trying to compare whether the investment in getting migrated to 5 and its consequent costs and what look like recurring addon yearly costs isany better than what I would get by using the same money to upgrade to the latest branch of Classic.

Or, god forbid, look at something completely different e.g. some cloud based cart where I don't have to worry about the underlying service architecture!

Dan

cflsystems 02-23-2018 06:34 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
This pretty much depends on your budget, business, the way you maintain and support the cart, etc.

It will cost you less to upgrade to latest XC4 than to move to XC5.
However XC4 support and maintenance in a long run will cost you more compare to XC5.
Both XC4 and XC5 have annual subscription fee.
XC4 modules are one time fee compare to XC5 modules which are annual subscription fee.
You are not required to pay the subscription fee (although XC will automatically opt-you-in). If you do not have active subscription you don't get the upgrades but cart will not stop working.

The way current XC4 landscape is you are basically forced to either move to XC5 or move to another cart if you do not like XC5.
You can upgrade to latest XC4 and get another 4-5 years out of it but it will be either mostly stock cart or you have to pay for custom coding. No one releases any new modules for XC4 and whatever is there right now is either abandoned or not supported much anymore.

I think you are looking at the same scenario that happened with LiteCommerce - all of a sudden all using it were left dead in the water. Same will happen with XC4 sooner than later I think. We are getting to a point where XC5 starts to overrun XC4 simply because it is the only platform actively supported. It is not a bad platform but it has its issues too.

DanUK 02-23-2018 07:59 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Thanks Steve, so XC5 clearly has the longevity, I'm just looking at the potential for an easier life than the one I have had with XC4, most notably the big change times e.g. updates and forced upgrades when the likes of PHP get to EOL.

In my ideal world I would want a stock cart that does everything I've paid to make our XC4 get to where it is. I've been hoping every year that the stock cart might catch up but I am guessing it is probably not in everyone's best interest if every decent third party's mod is integrated as a stock feature! So once again I face the mod upgrade runaround dealing with many third parties or, if I move to XC5, researching and purchasing equivalents again.

cflsystems 02-23-2018 08:25 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
XC5 is here to stay - for as long as QT is in business and continues to develop it of course.
XC4 is left behind and it will phase itself out eventually. This process started few years back and it is supported by QT. While they kept some development for it over these years lets face it - QT has no interest of supporting 2 completely different platforms that do the same. Not to mention XC4 is harder to control from licensing point of view.

If you move to XC5 you have to invest in cart, modules, theme, etc. While with XC4 from 4.6.x to 4.7.x you may be able to keep most of it. However you may not be able to upgrade from 4.7.9 to future versions without actually breaking the store and all it has.

Few years back I would have advise you to just stick with XC4. That's no longer the case.
I don't know of any 3rd party deb that makes modules for XC4 anymore and most of them will even not support what they had outside custom coding. So unfortunately if you are looking to move forward XC5 is the choice or you can stay where you at with XC4.

Ideally (on paper) XC5 upgrades work without the need to modify anything anywhere. You may still need to test and make sure any 3rd party modules and custom coding is ready for the XC5 upgrade but usually between lower version changes all works out ok.

So far XC5 upgrades even between major releases are not what XC4 are. Moving from 4.3.x to 4.7.x allows for database upgrade only. Moving from 5.2.x to 5.3.x upgrades everything and if all your non-stock changes are compatible the upgrade is not as expensive as with XC4 one.

To me now it is not a hard decision anymore which one to go with - 1. stay with what you have - not worth the headache to upgrade XC4 anymore; 2. upgrade to XC5; 3. move to another platform. Is that simple.

herber@wirehub.nl 02-23-2018 10:04 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
How heavily modified is your X-Cart 4.6.1?

It's not too big of a step to just upgrade it yourself to 4.7.9, which supports PHP7.1 & 7.2 and has all the latest features/functionality.

I'd say do the upgrade in a few versions in between until you're at the latest & then keep up2date with every release.
We've done this since the beginning of 2014, when we had a large server crash and needed to restore from backups. Since then, we've just kept up with the latest release of XC4 every single time an update has been released and it has been great: bugs keep getting fixed every time, new features are added, new versions of PayPal and security updates and it also means we got to enable PHP7.1 and now PHP7.2, with the accompanying speed improvements (which are very good compared to PHP5.6!).

Definitely worth it, at least if your cart isn't heaviliy modified. Ours isn't, which is why we're able to keep up quite well.

tomujain 02-23-2018 02:47 PM

So I'm thinking of upgrading to X5...
 
So far I like the look and feel of X-cart 5, it is for sure a huge improvement over 4 -- but I am unsure if it is worth the upgrade or not, and was hoping you guys could give me some advice...

Firstly, I have several mods on classic which I would need to buy again on X-cart 5; plus the $300 license exchange fee... If I were to move, it would be a very costly upgrade.

Considering we have solid software on the market like ecommerce -- which is free to boot, is it justified to spend that much money to migrate to 5? I run a full time store and fear classic may become somewhat redundent in the future which is why I'm looking into this now.

Your thoughts? Stick with classic, or upgrade to 5?

anandat 02-24-2018 05:22 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
XC 4 is easy to understand, edit & customize due to smarty.
The pain is there when it comes to upgrade, if your site is heavily modified.
If your site is not heavily modified & you don't want to upgrade it frequently then I will advise you to stick with XC4. As QT is going to support for next 2-3 years for sure unless some drastic decision comes.

XC 5's main goal is flawless upgrade feature but I guess it's still not working it that way for many users. But QT working on it & it future it's going to work more efficiently. But I still think that it's around 60% of XC4.

If new modules will stopped for XC4 & upgrade will stop releasing then we all need to move to XC5 or other solution.

I love XC4 & I am going to remain with XC4 till it alive due to it's simplicity. Even though I am using XC4 since last 15 years but it will take me much time to understand how XC5 works as it's totally differently coded than XC5 !

My advise is to stick with XC4 till you are getting upgrades/patches/support as I can see QT is still releasing important modules for XC4.

Best of luck :)

cflsystems 02-24-2018 08:36 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by anandat
XC 4 is easy to understand, edit & customize due to smarty.


Same us valid for XC5. XC4 uses Smarty, XC5 uses Twig. They both are PHP template engines. They both have their own code. Whether one is easier to learn than the other is more of a personal question and coding experience.

XC4 uses procedural PHP and it is easier to follow and debug.

XC5 is easier to modify without affecting the core.

Jon 02-24-2018 02:51 PM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
You can modify your existing store on 4.6.1 for PHP 7 support.

xim 02-26-2018 12:38 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
@DanUK, what is your business purpose to upgrade your X-Cart? Mobile ready, HTTPS only mode, PHP7 Support, some important integrations?

So the first is the business goal, technical stuff is in the second queue.

You can easily try to migrate your data to X-Cart 5 using this addon:
https://market.x-cart.com/addons/migration-wizard.html

it is under the active beta testing and we are going to release it in public in 3-4 weeks.

DanUK 02-26-2018 12:43 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Thanks for all the advice.

Unfortunately it is heavily modified and whilst I could (relatively) easily get it to work with PHP7 whose EOL comes this year, I think it is quite different getting it to work with 7.1 and 7.2 to the point where I think XC5 is really the only way forward for longevity and ease of updating. I guess I need to aquaint myself with XC5's 'flawless upgrade feature' to see if it really is very different to what XC4 offers.

Dan

BCSE 02-27-2018 11:45 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Upgrading from 4.6.x to 4.7.x is pretty simple compared to other version jumps. You can also patch 4.6.x to work on php 7. Feel free to email us if you want to discuss further.

Carrie

Cut Price Racing 02-28-2019 07:07 PM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Does anyone offer a x-configurator / product configurator / product wizard plugin for XC5?

qualiteam 03-02-2019 10:56 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cut Price Racing
Does anyone offer a x-configurator / product configurator / product wizard plugin for XC5?



This has similar functionality.
* https://market.x-cart.com/addons/bundle-products.html

Cut Price Racing 03-02-2019 03:47 PM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Thanks Alex,
That module does not allow the customer to configure, just allows them to buy a group of product.
It's a shame that there are no modules for configurator, that means nobody with xcart 4 that uses x-configurator can move to xcart 5.
-Paul

qualiteam 03-12-2019 12:07 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cut Price Racing
Thanks Alex,
That module does not allow the customer to configure, just allows them to buy a group of product.
It's a shame that there are no modules for configurator, that means nobody with xcart 4 that uses x-configurator can move to xcart 5.
-Paul



You are right, it just allows to buy a bunch of products.
Frankly speaking, Product Configurator isn't a very popular module, which is mostly why something as complex hasn't been developed for X-Cart 5 at this time.

kevinrm 03-13-2019 05:04 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
I was an early adopter of XC5 and I hated it at first. The first 2 years the automatic update would get stuck at least 50% of the time. Sometimes really bad, I'd be down for days. However, I don't think I've had any lock up during an update in the last year or two, so I do believe that part of it is working great, at least it is for me. Updating is a breeze now.

Product Configurator - I was a big user of that in XC4, that was a sad disappointment and I lost a lot of sales because of the lack of it. They made it sound like I was the only user of it, apparently not.

Just my opinion - I don't know how it is now but migrating from XC4 to XC5 was my worst nightmare. If I had to do it again, I would just start building a fresh version of XC5 in another directory and start from scratch there instead of migrating. Then perhaps you might be able to migrate some stuff like products or customer data or orders, but I doubt it will be completely smooth. Trying to migrate was HELL! A lot less work to start fresh really.

costanza 06-06-2019 04:36 PM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinrm

Product Configurator - I was a big user of that in XC4, that was a sad disappointment and I lost a lot of sales because of the lack of it. They made it sound like I was the only user of it, apparently not.



Do you mean product options? (I use this all the time in X-cart 4!!) or do you mean Product Wizard or something else?

Thanks, I'm considering the big upgrade.

cflsystems 06-07-2019 04:40 AM

Re: Xcart 5 benefits over Classic
 
Product Configurator = Product Wizard
Same module just different name, name depends on the XC4 version.


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