Latest version of CS CART , why bother?

My tech people installed a test site for the latest version of CS CART , with multi-store.



My staff and I have been into the admin >> BLOCKS in an attempt to change content,images,links on the dummy site and CS CART gives NO ability to change the website. Why bother with CS CART if the only thing we can change on our websites is the position of the block? You can change the ‘about us’ page and other such things , but EVERYTHING else cannot be edited in the admin which makes the latest CS CART fundamentally useless to us.



We paid decent money for this but it seems CS CART is the most non user friendly platform that I have come across.



Very disappointing , I would advise any business owner who needs a quality website which can be modified within the admin to NOT use CS CART.

It's obvious that you're doing something wrong or your installation was done improper.



We run 2 shops (soon 3), with close to 50 orders a day, and it has been a godsent for us compared to other platforms out there.



To take out your frustrations and make wild statements like “CS-Cart is the most non user friendly platform” shows very poor taste. If you've done your homework and compared other shopping carts, installed the software properly, and maybe even filed a ticket with support, you might rethink your opinion.



The fact of the matter is, CS-Cart is a great platform to run your business on. It's not perfect, but it's nowhere near as bad as you just made it out to be.

Hello,

I feel the exact opposite. I find the blocks to be amazing for a non technical person, such as myself, to make changes using all the different types of blocks and the many ways to configure and place them. Not too long ago, it would be impossible with other carts to make these kinds of changes that you can do with blocks. Just to change anything you would need some type of html editor or complex program.

By adding 3rd party addons, there is even more flexibility in design.

CS-cart, at least prior to 3.0, has enough templates to get started to design a store. Version 3.0 is starting to add templates.

I would like to know what other cart in the same price range as cs-cart has the ability to totally design a complex website from within the admin exclusively.

Its very user friendly, as least as compared to the 10-12 other carts I have reviewed over the last 5 years.

Bob

Bbannete,



I couldn't agree more with you.



Globalsoundtrade you are obvious doing something very wrong!



Cs-cart is the only cart out there with the drag n drop capability as a native design function since the last 3 or 4 years!



I have a great design experience with it and never had a problem designing whatever I wanted.



So you should defently review your install procedure and as said before open a ticket for the problems you have, although is not clear 100% to me what is all about…



Fotis

[quote name=‘globalsoundtrade’ timestamp=‘1338709121’ post=‘137945’]

My tech people installed a test site for the latest version of CS CART , with multi-store.



My staff and I have been into the admin >> BLOCKS in an attempt to change content,images,links on the dummy site and CS CART gives NO ability to change the website. Why bother with CS CART if the only thing we can change on our websites is the position of the block? You can change the ‘about us’ page and other such things , but EVERYTHING else cannot be edited in the admin which makes the latest CS CART fundamentally useless to us.



We paid decent money for this but it seems CS CART is the most non user friendly platform that I have come across.



Very disappointing , I would advise any business owner who needs a quality website which can be modified within the admin to NOT use CS CART.

[/quote]



WRONG! :confused:

[quote name=‘globalsoundtrade’ timestamp=‘1338709121’ post=‘137945’]

My tech people installed a test site for the latest version of CS CART , with multi-store.



My staff and I have been into the admin >> BLOCKS in an attempt to change content,images,links on the dummy site and CS CART gives NO ability to change the website. Why bother with CS CART if the only thing we can change on our websites is the position of the block? You can change the ‘about us’ page and other such things , but EVERYTHING else cannot be edited in the admin which makes the latest CS CART fundamentally useless to us.



We paid decent money for this but it seems CS CART is the most non user friendly platform that I have come across.



Very disappointing , I would advise any business owner who needs a quality website which can be modified within the admin to NOT use CS CART.

[/quote]



??? How much time did you actually spend trying cs-cart? Can’t have been more then 5 minutes?

Good luck with your shop ;)

[quote name='globalsoundtrade' timestamp='1338709121' post='137945']

We paid decent money for this but it seems CS CART is the most non user friendly platform that I have come across.



Very disappointing , I would advise any business owner who needs a quality website which can be modified within the admin to NOT use CS CART.

[/quote]

So why did you buy it? Even if your assertions were correct (which they aren't) you could have found out everything you needed to know without spending any money by using the trial version.



Sounds like you need to get some better staff because yours don't know what they're doing. Spending more than five minutes with the software (or looking at the documentation even!) would have led you to the correct admin pages to change what you wanted.

I think the original post was referring to the latest version of Cs Cart. I can't speak for version 3.0 but earlier versions are absolutely fantastic. I am running several multi-million dollar operations on CS Cart and it is simply awesome.

i seem to be running an installation frought with instability. The hardcode reverts back when changes are made , seemingly random. Working on it , CS CART is good - blocks are manageable - I would recommend it though I'm particularly at odds with it.

If you are running version 2.2.4 or 2.2.5 then the problem is likely to be related to your particular installation / server (or reasons mentioned below) as these versions are the current versions in wide use today e.g. your host could be caching pages for faster load times.



If you are using the latest 3.0.1 version then the next version will be out shortly (I believe early next week) and includes a number of bug fixes (as version 3.0.1 was the first of a new major release).



You refer to the fact that it “reverts back when changes are made”. If your changes are not showing instantly then you may need to clear the cache of your browser and CS Cart. To clear the cart cache you add ?cc to the end of your admin filename - i.e. admin.php?cc (clear cache) - although you should have renamed admin.php to another name after installation - just add ?cc to the end of your admin URL.



To see immediate results of some changes you also need to be in development mode (e.g. if changing templates) - see the permanent link at the bottom right of all admin pages “Development Mode”.



Hope that helps.

No ability to change? I would fire your tech guys and hire some new ones.

As someone who has spent two years using Prestashop - which is a very good cart app - I can say that in most areas including the way you position content, CS Cart wins out easily. The first time I saw blocks in CS Cart (v3) I had to take a step back in awww.



I'm at that position were I am thinking of using CS Cart for the majority of my projects.