X-Cart forums

[minorgod]

Greetings everyone. I used to use x-cart back in the days of version 3.x and early 4.x versions and did a lot of custom development using those versions but haven't done any significant x-cart work for a loooong time now -- I was doing all custom Kohana-based projects for the past 4-5 years and really didn't pay much attention to where x-cart has been headed. So now I'm about to begin rebuilding a very old x-cart 3.x based site using version 4.6.1 Gold Plus, but I'm not sure which skin would be the best to start with. I see the new default skins are called "Ideal Comfort" and "Ideal Responsive". I noticed the sticky at the top of this forum says that the templating system in version 4.5.x is much different than in previous versions. So, my main questions are:

1. In what way is the template system in versions 4.5.x and higher different than in previous versions.
2. Which skin offers the cleanest and most bug-free implementation to use as a starting point for customization, preferably HTML5, but XHTML is okay too.
3. Which skin works best with jQuery or was implemented with jQuery from the start rather than having it tacked on?
4. Are any skins other than the responsive skin optimized for mobile -- and how good is the "Ideal Responsive" skin for mobile? Will it be worth the aggravation of a typical "responsive" design or should I stick with one of the regular non-responsive skins if I want to get this project done quick?

Sorry if these questions have been answered before or if they seem overly subjective, but I've been away from x-cart for a long time and I need to make good time on this project so I don't have a lot of time to do research before I jump in and start coding. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.

[totaltec]

Brett Brewer! Welcome back man. I learned a lot from your posts when I was first getting started with XC.

I am biased toward the responsive skin. I spent weeks/months testing it, and I am sure it is 99% bug free. Ideal comfort is not a bad choice either. Of course if you want the most control possible, just work in the 3-columns skin. It certainly will be the most familiar, and it has the lightest payload in terms of code and file size.

I usually either start with ideal responsive, or 3-columns. It depends on how custom the job is. If I want something quick I use ideal comfort, since responsive design always takes more time. If I want something quick and optimized for mobile I use ideal responsive. If I want something truly custom, I start with 3-columns.

Formal answers to your questions:
1. Not sure. The major difference between when you were around and now is the template system itself.
2. Bug free? Probably 3-columns. None of the skins are HTML5.
3. I'd say Ideal Comfort / Ideal Responsive.
4. No other default skins are truly optimized for mobile, I think ideal responsive is pretty good in that department.

There are also some nice looking 3rd party templates out there, but most of them are bloated in my opinion. That's my two cents, hopefully we'll get some more feedback from the rest of the guys. Good to hear from you.
-Mike

[minorgod]

Originally Posted by totaltec

Brett Brewer! Welcome back man. I learned a lot from your posts when I was first getting started with XC.

I am biased toward the responsive skin. I spent weeks/months testing it, and I am sure it is 99% bug free. Ideal comfort is not a bad choice either. Of course if you want the most control possible, just work in the 3-columns skin. It certainly will be the most familiar, and it has the lightest payload in terms of code and file size.

I usually either start with ideal responsive, or 3-columns. It depends on how custom the job is. If I want something quick I use ideal comfort, since responsive design always takes more time. If I want something quick and optimized for mobile I use ideal responsive. If I want something truly custom, I start with 3-columns.

Formal answers to your questions:
1. Not sure. The major difference between when you were around and now is the template system itself.
2. Bug free? Probably 3-columns. None of the skins are HTML5.
3. I'd say Ideal Comfort / Ideal Responsive.
4. No other default skins are truly optimized for mobile, I think ideal responsive is pretty good in that department.

There are also some nice looking 3rd party templates out there, but most of them are bloated in my opinion. That's my two cents, hopefully we'll get some more feedback from the rest of the guys. Good to hear from you.
-Mike

Thanks so much for your thoughtful post and kind words. I've missed the great x-cart developer community -- I'm glad people are still as friendly and helpful around here as I remember. I'm definitely leaning toward the "Ideal" skins. I'll probably play around with both and see which one is easiest for me to customize. Do you know if the Ideal Responsive skin uses a lot of media queries in the css or is it just straight old-school css and javascript with different skin files for different device sizes? I kinda prefer my css/js straight up with separate templates for mobile/desktop. Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways, but I don't like being forced to use the same document structure for mobile as for desktop since it seems clients always want a significantly different layout for something on mobile or desktop that is way harder to achieve without altering the underlying html structure and using different css/js for each. So I'm a little wary of responsive templates for that reason. Any thoughts on that?

[totaltec]

My original design for the responsive template used separate style sheets for the different device widths. Since then it has been replaced with media queries as you suspect. There are separate sections in altskin.css for 1200, 960, 700, and mobile width. You can find the sections clearly marked in the file.

Of course, it is not too hard to get the same result with media queries rather than separate style sheets, you just have a very long CSS file, but the effect is essentially the same. The html templates are shared. I like responsive design due to the full website being available on mobile, rather than a stripped down version. It offers the best user experience in my opinion, they know what to expect and how to find things whether they are at home on the laptop or on the road with their phone.

There is also a mobile mod for X-cart that separates the skin files. I don't have much experience with that yet, I usually convince my clients to go responsive.

[carpeperdiem]

Brett,

Take a look at the TXS templates...
With a little effort, you can make Xtreme Gear rock!
TXS also makes a must-have menu system (xMenus)

XG + xMenus is pretty amazing.

There are other threads on this topic, but I am not a fan of responsive for all stores -- I elected to go with xMobile template + xTreme for tablet/desktop and using the Vary header in apache -- serving dynamic content based on screen resolution.

I have posted more than my share about this -- see the xtreme gear and xmenus threads.

PS -- checkout is still a mess. I would invest in AlteredCart Checkout_One.

J