X-Cart forums

[ambal]

Originally Posted by intel352

Hi Alex, looking at the upgrade pack provided, it bothers me to see that some files are going to be directly overwritten instead of patched via DIFF files, as I'm concerned for possible customizations that would be overwritten.

Is there a reason for this?

I guess you mixed up things (an installation package for pure installation and upgrade pack for your current X-Cart version) a little bit.

Installation package was uploaded in every participant's "File Area" and the installation package is supposed to be installed anew in a clean place so it doesn't have .DIFF files at all.

Participants who mentioned their current X-Cart versions got upgrade packs from their version to 4.1.10rc. Those who didn't mention their X-Cart version got 4.1.9->4.1.10rc upgrade packs in "File Area". The upgrade packs contain .DIFF files only. I want everyone to note that upgrade packs were created for upgrading unmodified X-Cart as it is impossible to create upgrade packs which will be able to upgrade smoothly open source software which can me modified in any way. I hope everyone understand this.

*NOTE:* Again I want to remind everyone that 4.1.10rc is not the final version yet so you shouldn't use it for production web sites.

[ambal]

Originally Posted by intel352

EDIT: additionally, are the changes to the Smarty compiler all Qualiteam changes, or are they changes by the Smarty team? if so, why is the compiler being patched in lieu of upgrading the entire version of Smarty to a current release?
and if not, is this the first time the Smarty compiler has been altered by Qualiteam? I ask, because multiple users in the forums have already mentioned that they've upgraded from 2.6.12 to 2.6.19, so I'm curious about how these missing changes will affect them...

At the moment I cannot tell something more or less particular about whether or Smarty is going to be upgraded to 2.6.19 in 4.1.10rc. We fixed some bugs in Smarty and this is the reason why you can see changes of Smarty related files in 4.1.10rc.

[ambal]

Originally Posted by balinor

Just a request - if you could provide a 'jump patch' from 4.1.8 to 4.1.10 when it comes out that would be very handy, as I have held off on upgrading a lot of my clients due to the issues with 4.1.9

We are going to release such "jump" upgrade packs for every minor version within 4.1.x branch which will let you upgrade right to 4.1.10 from your current 4.1.x version.

[ambal]

Originally Posted by hramani

Alex:
I am in the midst of deciding if I should publish my new website with x-cart 4.1.9, which would be ready with all major custom development in another 3 weeks or so. Now the big question is┘Should I wait for the 4.1.10 release? Looking at your change log, I would think it to be wise to wait, but at the same time I am not sure when you are planning to release the .10 version┘.Any thoughts?
Thanks

I do not know details of your current project situation and etc.
I am not going to recommend waiting or not waiting. It is up to you.

Just take in account that 4.1.10 is in "Release Candidate" state now and you should expect final release quite soon I think.

If you are finished and ready to go live, then go live and start earning some $$. You can upgrade to 4.1.10 on a test server, test everything thoroughly, make sure everything is fine and then switch to 4.1.10 when you are 100% sure.

[intel352]

Originally Posted by ambal

I guess you mixed up things (an installation package for pure installation and upgrade pack for your current X-Cart version) a little bit.
...

The upgrade packs contain .DIFF files only.

Alex, I didn't get anything "mixed up", I work with upgrade packs and new installs all the time, it's easy to tell the difference.

Please see the attached screenshot, it's taken of WinRar viewing the contents of Upgrade_from_4.1.9_to_4.1.10_rc1.tgz

Note that some of the X-Cart folder structure is reflected, along with an "upgrade" folder that is where the DIFF files would reside.

Now, if a *new* file is being distributed with the upgrade, then I of course expect that file to be packed in the upgrade, but if existing files are being modified, then that should solely be DIFF files only, which is not 100% the case here (note: in the screenshot, you can see check_requirements.php and prepare.php, 2 of the files I listed as needing DIFF files)

So again, is there a specific reason why certain files are being overwritten? Are these files that are too important to be patched? And why would files be included that have only had copyright date changes in the license at the top of the file?

Originally Posted by ambal

I want everyone to note that upgrade packs were created for upgrading unmodified X-Cart as it is impossible to create upgrade packs which will be able to upgrade smoothly open source software which can me modified in any way.

While the upgrade packs are created from, and intended for, unmodified versions of X-Cart, the beauty of DIFF files is that they can still patch a highly modified file as long as the surrounding lines of code can be found around each patch section. This is one thing I've always liked about X-Cart, the fact that it essentially encourages customization and that Qualiteam provides patches for updates instead of entire files intended for overwriting.

[ambal]

Originally Posted by intel352

Alex, I didn't get anything "mixed up", I work with upgrade packs and new installs all the time, it's easy to tell the difference.

Please see the attached screenshot, it's taken of WinRar viewing the contents of Upgrade_from_4.1.9_to_4.1.10_rc1.tgz

Note that some of the X-Cart folder structure is reflected, along with an "upgrade" folder that is where the DIFF files would reside.

Oops, my bad. I didn't look into your upgrade pack more carefully. I didn't expect the upgrade packs to contain PHP files.

Originally Posted by intel352

So again, is there a specific reason why certain files are being overwritten? Are these files that are too important to be patched?

I consulted with X-Cart development team. The files which are supposed to be overwritten rather than patched are so named "system" scripts (e.g. prepare.php) which define how the upgrade process goes in X-Cart. Patching them can lead to errors during upgrade and they are supposed to be overwritten.

Also, it is hardly to expect that someone customized them to get some new useful features in their X-Carts. But in case someone did so (i.e. modified those system files somehow) they can create DIFF patches using their backed up and new versions, then apply the DIFFs manually and continue with the upgrade (I guess those who customize X-Cart "system" files should be really good in PHP coding/development and X-Cart so such operation shouldn't cause them troubles).

Originally Posted by intel352

And why would files be included that have only had copyright date changes in the license at the top of the file?

4.1.9 was released in 2007. 4.1.10 is going to be released in 2008. We changed year in X-Cart files, but since this was the only change in lots of files and we have to include every single change in upgrade packs they contain DIFFs for files with the only aforementioned change as well.

That shouldn't be a big problem since such DIFFs are going to applied smoothly due to size of the change in such files.

[intel352]

Hi Alex, thanks for taking the time to look into that. I suspected that was the case, but wasn't sure

Cheers

[NelsonLaRocca]

Alexur company bought both the pro and gold version, with a lot of mods from yours and other companies, SNS enterprise version for sites to be launch in 30 days.As we have a lot of activity, and we would like to get online with the last improvements, we would like to get this version now, to test and to let our people get familiar with it.besides that, we would like to know in advance if mods from magneticOne and Cartmods and I don't remember who else would work with these new version in the inmediate future.I would thank you our company to be considered to test this new release candidate.thanks again.Nelson

[NuAlpha]

Originally Posted by robertswww

Letting us keep our own organizational Image file folders, and descriptive Image file names is important to many X-Cart users who have already voiced their concerns over this issue in these forums.

I am in strong agreement with this. One reason 4.1.x hasn't been upgraded on our end. This would wreak havoc on our setup.

[MBA]

I've got an extra dedicated server ready to go if you want to post us a RC1 client. We'll rip it up!