[quote name=‘johnbol1’ timestamp=‘1361027303’ post=‘155553’]
Wait for 3.1.1 then get your new skin
then start saving up the dough to spend on getting them all fixed again as they may probably bring out another new branch just when you have got it done 
[/quote]
I tend to agree with you … I do believe this is why they, CS-Cart, hasn’t bother upgrading the V2 freebie skins to V3 or have not developed new freebie skins for V3 … as we all know, V2 came with several freebie skins, V3 comes with none.
And simply changing colors, moving some blocks around and changing some fonts on the default V3 skin does not count as a new skin, in my opinion. This is what some of these “Skin guys” are trying to sell.
My V2 skin does come up under V3 … I get the header … I was quoted $300 and a week’s time to get this V2 skin working under V3 … I believe I will be able to hack the fix for far less time and money.
I would like to know how much revenue this poorly executed “transittion” has cost Cs-Cart … I am not going to pay the $85 for the yearly upgrade subscriptions for my V2 Licenses and I am not purchasing any additional CS-Cart Licenses either.
V2 templates are substantially different to V3 skins, in effect, it's virtually creating a skin from scratch. $300 and a week isn't a bad price. You usually get what you pay for after all.
Since I started using the my_changes addon, I don't have any problem with upgrades. All my design changes (what used to be called a skin) are untouched by upgrades. And the few modifications I've had to make to the code are applied as overrides. The original scripts are untouched - with 3 exceptions, all easily addressed in the upgrade/modified files report.
I'm looking forward to v3.1.1. Actually, at this time, I'm still looking forward to v3.0.6.
[quote name='Magpie Don' timestamp='1361119239' post='155610']
I'm looking forward to v3.1.1. Actually, at this time, I'm still looking forward to v3.0.6.
[/quote]
Blink and you'll miss it…very few changes, nothing relevent unless you use Paypal or USPS which have major required fixes.
Also, if you use Ultimate, you should definitely upgrade to 3.0.6 as the Ultimate bug has caught me out a few times. There are no skin changes or core function changes so skins should only need the usual changes from upgrading.
[quote name=‘Torann81’ timestamp=‘1360971722’ post=‘155506’]
What version of Smarty will CS-Cart v3.1.1 be running, version 3 or still 2?
[/quote]
If anyone cares, I found the answer to my question based on an error message I found on the labs server. CS-Cart v3.1.1 will be running Smarty 3. To those who are worried about the error, don’t be, it only lasted until a reloaded the page. I’m sure it had something to do with them updating the code on the demo server 
@tbirnseth - I remember clearly last year the warning you gave to everyone. The advice to everyone was to wait for at least 6 to 12 months before buying more add-ons.
I heed the call for more stability in the product and architecture. Technology will continue to evolve and adapt. in 4 years time there will be something else CS-CART wants to try or change to the code to mould to.
I am still waiting for the out of box solution from them with all completed mods that they said they would do since 2009. I have monitored the community forum and user voice for about 3 years now and the same stuff repeats over and over.
It's a great product - I just wish they could sort out their product development cycle - ensure stability and performance firstly before fancy pancy features which DONT SELL MORE GOODS.
Seeing as though social is big - I would have expected that all their skins be updated to include Pinterest sharing without one of the community members providing the code/fix/hack. I would also exepct that social integration is properly done and not through another 3rd party provider. The social shop and share my cart discount are also important revenue streams. While not a major driver, I have 5 or 6 colleagues who add 10-15% on their sales revenue through sales through Pinterest, Facebook and Conversions from social media.
Have a look at http://www.shareyourcart.com/ and yes - dont be suprised - the only shopping cart missing is CS CART. All my online business friends e-tailing that have used this service say their social media fan pages and are growing at 200% per month. Enquiries double, sales double etc…
I know some people are not fans of selling on facebook and I can understand the argument of having 1 shop, 1 conversion channel - however - reality is that people are getting more and more lazy and want convenience from their mobile devices.
Back to v3.1.xxxx I hope in the new skins promised (in another calm the customer down post) somewhere on these forums - the new skins provided and built into CS CART take into account all the new social media and web 2.0 elements that are already prevalent in the market.
Integration with E-Bay is key as well as other online shopping aggregation. I would also love ot see Integration with Drop shipping services - there are a few out there already integrating with Wordpress , WooCommerce , Magento, Drupal…
Mostly , I would like to see the Mods started and promised from 2009 completed first before any new stuff is done.
The backlog of requests just grows and grows and the old features are losing significance each day that passes. I decided on v2.2.4 as moving up offered no advantage to my shop whatsoever.
CS-CART has promised improvements to the Block Manager as well as new built in skins and templates in v3. Its already v3.0.5 and we dont see any.
I would personally wait until what was promised is fully delivered and until the product is stable. FYI - there are almost 1000 open bugs reported. (Statuses = fixed in next version, confirmed, unconfirmed, Feedback)
1000 bugs for a commercial product sounds heavy to me.
I do love CS-CART and its flexibility - but this flexibility has also come at the cost of innovation and delivering on the community needs. Why ask for our votes if its not going to be acted upon?
Vote: I await for Version 4 to be honest.
I've been using CS-Cart since v1.3.5 and installed every upgrade since then. Each upgrade was an improvement.
I've never found v3 to be “bug-riddled”. According to the stats in the Bug Tracker, there have only been 66 confirmed and fixed bugs in v3 since it launched - some of them rely upon particular configurations you wouldn't use. I've reported a couple that I found, none of them were deal breakers and each was fixed very quickly.
Once you include all your CSS and mods in hooks/my_changes, and keep the CS-Cart code as originally published, upgrades are painless.