4.7.1 Stable: new “Light Responsive” skin; Custom Order Statuses, Paypal’s in-context Checkout, revision of AOM and Smarty upgrade to v.3.1.21
Hi, our dear users of X‑Cart 4 Classic!
We announced the start of Beta testing of v4.7.0 about a month ago. So if you have read the previous overview, you may have a feeling of deja vu. Yet I would like to introduce X‑Cart 4.7 x again, since today we will be speaking about the stable release, ready to serve the production stores, and I’m sure that this announcement will gain more attention from the side of both X‑Cart merchants and developers.
The most obvious change is…
…the new free design template included into the X‑Cart 4 package. Beautiful as everything simple, responsive, as all new skins of ours. Open the online demo and play with the browser size to see how the blocks are being rearranged, and the navigation elements are being adjusted for a convenient use of mobile devices.
The next change your customers will appreciate is…
…better checkout workflow. We’ve implemented PayPal’s In‑context Checkout. To quote the motto I saw in PayPal office in Richmond during the X‑Cart Meetup, “People should not spend time to spend money”. See below what it looks like:
What you as an administrator will like is…
…revised and improved order editor aka AOM. If you need to edit orders from time to time (who doesn’t?), you will notice that the following has been done:
- Payment method surcharge is now editable too
- The shipping method name can be modified now too.
- Module re-factoring related to profile fields, taxes, discounts and other features was done.
- The second address line (Address Line 2) could not be removed. It was fixed.
- Discounts and taxes calculation was incorrect in particular circumstances – now rewritten too.
- Email validation on the edit customer information page was added
- And more, see detailed changelog here or inside the distribution package.
Another bonus for the administrator is…
the ability to create custom order statuses. This feature is available within packages “GoldPlus” and “Platinum”, and the module is enabled by default. To manage the custom statuses or add a new one, go to “Settings” – >”Order statuses”.
For users of X-Payments…
…there’s an updated connector, fully compatible with all new great features of PA DSS payment application X-Payments. Read more about it in this article by Alex Mulin. In case you’re not sure what X-Payments is, but want to enable subscriptions and storing credit cards on your website in a PCI compliant way, check it out.
A “Candy” for developers is…
the upgrade of Smarty up to v3.1.21. This version is more flexible, convenient and secure. It should also be faster. There were many requests of this switch, but we were hesitating how to make this less painful for a large number of 3rd party modules which may require deeper revision to become fully compatible with it.
The team of architects developed a tool that you can use to check the templates and find the incompatible code, it’s located right in the admin area of the store: http://YOUR_SHOP/admin/tools.php?start_tpl_syntax_checking=Y. Please find the detailed instruction here or post your questions in this forum thread.
That’s all the new features I wanted to show you today, however the advanced users and developers may want to take a look at the changelog.
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License Agreement changes (for v. v.4.7.0 and higher)
We keep developing and supporting version 4 and are NOT going to stop it. The developing process requires resources so we have to change the license agreement starting from v4.7.x to ensure that we will be able to provide you with the new versions and new features in future.
Every X-Cart store based on version 4.7.0 and higher will get one year access to free upgrade packs within branch 4. After that the upgrade license fee is to be paid to get the upgrade packs.
All the stores based on versions 4.6.6 and earlier can download the upgrade packs free of charge at any time, but once you install a fresh store of version 4.7.x or upgrade your store to v 4.7.x, you automatically agree with the new license agreement.
As usual the license upgrade will be free for all customers who purchase the professional upgrade service with us.
There’s a separate forum thread with the license agreement clarifications. Join the discussion if you have any questions.