I moved back to CS-Cart from Shopify a year ago. Ever since then I had been unable to use my cart without it ‘hanging’ whenever I did stuff like ‘deleting’ or ‘editing’ product files. The shopfront was also very slow. CS-Cart support and Fastcomet both did their best to fix things but I remained stuck with a shop that I wasn’t performing well enough so I didn’t feel right inviting customers.
Fastcomet had an article in a recent newsletter.
How to Optimize Your CS-Cart e-Commerce Website.
One aspect was to do with Cache.
If you have access to the store’s root directory, you should also check if the local_conf.php file has the following line:
$config[‘tweaks’][‘disable_block_cache’] = true;
CS-Cart caches blocks to reduce page loading time. Because of this, we suggest you leave it as it is above. If it is set to false, simply change it back to true.
Mine was set to False so I changed it to True.
BINGO!!
My store admin and front end are now running like a dream.
Not sure why Fastcomet and CS-Cart support didn’t suggest this in the past.
Glad you figured it out but do you mean config.local.php? local_conf.php is not part of the default install and is added for development/debugging purposes.
Also, the default setting in config.local.php is:
'disable_block_cache' => false, // used to disable block cache
I copied and pasted so I guess it was a fastcomet typo and my eyes settled on the closest file by name 
I am thinking now…
Was this a totally bizarre coincidence or did the edit ( changing ‘false’ to ‘true’ ) in the config.local.php actually help me ?
Mine
// Tweaks
$config[‘tweaks’] = array (
// Whether to remove any javascript code from description and name of product, category, etc.
// Auto - false for ULT, true for MVE.
‘sanitize_user_html’ => ‘auto’,
‘anti_csrf’ => true, // protect forms from CSRF attacks
‘disable_block_cache’ => false, // used to disable block cache
‘disable_localizations’ => true, // Disable Localizations functionality
‘disable_dhtml’ => false, // Disable Ajax-based pagination and Ajax-based “Add to cart” button
‘dev_js’ => false, // set to true to disable js files compilation
‘redirect_to_cart’ => false, // Redirect customer to the cart contents page. Used with the “disable_dhtml” setting.
‘api_https_only’ => false, // Allows the use the API functionality only by the HTTPS protocol
‘api_allow_customer’ => false, // Allow open API for unauthorized customers
‘lazy_thumbnails’ => false, // generate image thumbnails on the fly
‘backup_db_mysqldump’ => true,
‘image_resize_lib’ => ‘auto’, // library to resize images - “auto”, “gd” or “imagick”
‘products_found_rows_no_cache_limit’ => 100, // Max count of SQL found rows without saving to cache
‘allow_global_individual_settings’ => true, // Allow global individual settings (Track inventory, Options type, Zero price action etc.)
);
This is mine now. Not sure why my list is longer than yours.
// Tweaks
$config[‘tweaks’] = array (
// Whether to remove any javascript code from description and name of product, category, etc.
// Auto - false for ULT, true for MVE.
‘sanitize_user_html’ => ‘auto’,
‘anti_csrf’ => true, // protect forms from CSRF attacks
‘disable_block_cache’ => false, // used to disable block cache
‘disable_localizations’ => true, // Disable Localizations functionality
‘disable_dhtml’ => false, // Disable Ajax-based pagination and Ajax-based “Add to cart” button
‘do_not_apply_promotions_on_order_update’ => true, // If true, the promotions that applied to the order won’t be changed when editing the order. New promotions won’t be applied to the order.
‘dev_js’ => false, // set to true to disable js files compilation
‘redirect_to_cart’ => false, // Redirect customer to the cart contents page. Used with the “disable_dhtml” setting.
‘api_https_only’ => false, // Allows the use the API functionality only by the HTTPS protocol
‘api_allow_customer’ => false, // Allow open API for unauthorized customers
‘lazy_thumbnails’ => false, // generate image thumbnails on the fly
‘image_resize_lib’ => ‘imagick’, // library to resize images - “auto”, “gd” or “imagick”
‘products_found_rows_no_cache_limit’ => 100, // Max count of SQL found rows without saving to cache
‘show_database_changes’ => false, // Show database changes in View changes tool
‘backup_db_mysqldump’ => false, // Backup database using mysqldump when available
‘allow_product_filters_to_create_temporary_table’ => true, // Allows product filters to create temporary table for products query
‘request_errors_threshold’ => 30, // Threshold for the number of errors when an email realtime delivery error notification is triggered
‘profile_field_max_upload_filesize’ => ‘10M’, //Limit max upload file size for profile fields
‘validate_menu’ => true, // Disable option to add any new element to top and central admin panel menu and to Add-ons top menu element.
‘secure_cookies’ => true, // Allow to set “Secure” flag to cookies, if your store works with HTTPS. P.S. All users will be log out, also, all abandoned carts will lost.
‘cors_allowlist’ => , // CORS enabled domains, e.g. [‘domain1.com’, ‘domain2.com’]
‘csp_frame_ancestors’ => , // The HTTP Content-Security-Policy (CSP) frame-ancestors directive specifies valid parents that may embed a page using ,
Hello,I would like to ask you as you know cs-cart system and moved back from Shopify.What is your experience comparing both systems,what was main reason you migrated back ? I was considering to move to Shopify.Just after years I wanted to avoid having to manage hosting,upgrade issues,etc.What is your experience ? Best regards David
Shopify has a different category structure ( unlike any others ) but all bugs are taken care of by the host. My CS-Cart store has been just sitting on my server for over a year because I couldn’t see the value of the upgrade package plus the support packages are just too expensive. Gone are the days of the CS-Cart support team ‘quoting’ for jobs.
Currently just selling on eBay.
The features that CS-Cart has out of the box are all paid monthly Shopify add ons so you would need to determine the monthly cost of running a Shopify store.
CS-Cart +
Feature rich out of the box
CS-Cart-
The horrendous minimum pricing of support packages.
Shopify+
They take care of functionality.
Shopify-
Expensive monthly add ons for matching CS-Cart’s but it depends on
the add ons you require.
Hi,thanks for reply and info,we have to cs-cart shops and exactly what you say,expensive support and all other aspects regarding upgrade problems force us to consider what else to use in future.I already checked lot of other platforms,but can not really decide,where to go.
I figured Shopify can be solution,but did not expect that lot of simple things need either paid app or solve by difficult ways.I also think that cs-cart has not good karma …
I am going to try with Shopify at least for our one shop,use as less possible paid apps,maybe it can work.For us eBay is dead since stop of de-minimis to USA,we had most of buyers just from USA,now it is gone.Anyway,thanks for your information and wish you good luck !
Don’t forget to mail Mr Trump something nice.
From memory we didn’t need many paid apps. CS-Carts Reward system is hard to beat and only very expensive Shopify apps come close.
We also needed an app to hide out of stock items but that may not be a problem for you. We sold unique items and didn’t want many ‘when will you get more’ requests.
Exporting your products and images from CS-Cart to Shopify is not too difficult. You just need to edit your exported CS-Cart file.
Wishing you well.