A couple of questions for those to have moved from 3x to 4x.
CS Cart said there is an performance improvement with 4x. Have you noticed an improvement in both the backend and front end?
I've not found information about migrating a 3x template to 4x. I suspect the template has to be re-created but I just want to confirm.
Thanks.
Templates are not compatible and will need to be ported if you've done any customization. Addons are completely incompatible and require significant vendor investment to make V4 versions.
Performance improvement comes from few areas (primarily).
- gzip of output is now standard (but you could do that yourself before)
- css/js is now compiled into single files and compressed (1st load benefit but no benefit after the first page view).
- Use of sprites for some graphic imagery.
However, there are some architectural changes which may benefit individuals in the future (but mostly benefit cs-cart).
- Almost all storage is now object oriented (supports different storage methods such as clouds, local file systems, CDN, etc.). This will allow them to host cs-cart as a SaaS product and distribute the store via CDN in the long run.
- Bootstrap architecture (industry standard css compilation using “less” style compiler and css-classes/properties).
- Possibly useful API, but other vendors are going to have to see a demand for cs-cart to motivate them to use it or provide it as an integration point in their product offerings. Maybe 3rd parties will step up to the plate, but there really isn't a lot of volume with cs-cart to motivate them or for the work to be profitable.
- New “themes” will allow for more people to develop custom themes for cs-cart. The combination of theme + layout == site design.
Thanks Tony.