[cscartrocks]

Is there an updated ETA on the import tool?

It will come out during September.

[ThomH]

Yes, this bug will be fixed in 4.0.2

Thank you.

[StellarBytes]

When will V4 guides be posted within the KB? Even simple things which seem to have been fairly intuitive in V3, a client whom wanted to test the waters of V4 struggled to complete even the most basic of tasks in V4. There's even a few things I have looked for in V4 which are in fact there (some were not at all) which are hidden by drop down menus or icons, far from user friendly imo.

Tried to set up the Amazon S3 storage, for no other reason than it's new and sounds fun, yet I don't seem to find anything different appearing in neither the front nor backend. What exactly does it do? My belief was that it was in effect a CDN, however, the site source code (even after clearing caches) does not reflect this belief.

Update: The Amazon S3 issue appears to be in the Bug Tracker here and here.

[Galactica]

When will V4 guides be posted within the KB? Even simple things which seem to have been fairly intuitive in V3, a client whom wanted to test the waters of V4 struggled to complete in V4. There's even a few things I have looked for in V4 which are in fact there (some were not at all) which are hidden by drop down menus or icons, far from use friendly imo.

Tried to set up the Amazon S3 storage, for no other reason than it's new and sounds fun, yet I don't seem to find anything different appearing in neither the front nor backend. What exactly does it do? My belief was that it was in effect a CDN, however, the site source code (even after clearing caches) does not reflect this belief.

Couldn't agree more... The lack of documentation is rather horrifying and what documentation there is either doesn't apply or is very abstract and poorly written. I sent a client to the docs/KB the other day and they were beyond confused. Most of the cart features have little or no description on how they should work or what they should do, makes handing off a cart to a client VERY challenging, not to mention customizing one.

[imac]

When will V4 guides be posted within the KB? Even simple things which seem to have been fairly intuitive in V3, a client whom wanted to test the waters of V4 struggled to complete even the most basic of tasks in V4. There's even a few things I have looked for in V4 which are in fact there (some were not at all) which are hidden by drop down menus or icons, far from user friendly imo.

Tried to set up the Amazon S3 storage, for no other reason than it's new and sounds fun, yet I don't seem to find anything different appearing in neither the front nor backend. What exactly does it do? My belief was that it was in effect a CDN, however, the site source code (even after clearing caches) does not reflect this belief.

Update: The Amazon S3 issue appears to be in the Bug Tracker here and here.

Couldn't agree more... The lack of documentation is rather horrifying and what documentation there is either doesn't apply or is very abstract and poorly written. I sent a client to the docs/KB the other day and they were beyond confused. Most of the cart features have little or no description on how they should work or what they should do, makes handing off a cart to a client VERY challenging, not to mention customizing one.

Dear StellarBytes, Galactica

We are working on updating our docs to suit CS-Cart 4. We've finished half the work and are going on with it. Your suggestions and report about missing docs are very appreciated. You can even post them as bug reports to guarantee that a certain article is added to the docs.

As for the S3 Amazon storage, there is no how-to at the moment, because the S3 Storage is a transitional step on the way to the Amazon CDN support, which is going to be released in v4.0.2. After the release, there will be a detailed instruction on how to configure it in your store.

[scooterlord]

Is there anywhere a list of features that are missing and/or are about to be implemented soon?

[Ed Newman]

Any update on 4.02? We are going to upgrade to 4.x so we can use the API for our POS but I don't want to roll out 4.01, make all the cart customizations and then have to do an upgrade. I'd rather get the box fixes and import tools up front.

[brandonvd]

They keep saying September, so hopefully soon.

Thanks,

Brandon

[vidan]

hello when this 4.0.2 come out? its september thanks

[Darius]

Yea September and it is going to be called Cart-CS 5.01 (will require additional fee)

PS

I check for updates once in a while and all I find another partial not stable product. CS-Cart had discontinued even Ultimate name so at time there is absolutly no stable product in their shelves.

Personally I feel developers are hiding something from us. They are hiding what they are exactly working at the moment. To my knowlege they are expanding to web based cart solution (not self hosted).

[ThomH]

I suppose the developers are fixing the bugs... and we can go on with the ad-ons development.

[Darius]

Hosted cart idea came to me when I saw this
https://www.cs-cart....sonal-demo.html

It would be very unfair if developer work on secret project when they got incomplete tasks like import tool from earlier version.

[kingsleypress]

Hosted cart idea came to me when I saw this
http://www.cs-cart.c...sonal-demo.html

It would be very unfair if developer work on secret project when they got incomplete tasks like import tool from earlier version.

How did you find that link?

I don't know if this is good news or bad news. Maybe it will generate more income and they can hire more developers to fix all the problems.

[NairdaCart]

Talk about paranoia.

How about the more likely explanation that a lot of people would like to try out the software without the hassle and complication of installing it on a server?

Not everyone who is getting into ecommerce already has a server plan or the one they have might not be suitable for CS-Cart and they don't want to commit to change until they've tried it.

[StellarBytes]

Paranoia? It's a well known fact this is what shopping cart software providers do.

Magento>Magento Go...Interspire>BigCommerce...etc.

What will cost less to support and maintain - several versions ranging from V1.X to V4.X or one single platform? Cut costs = increase profits.

It's only a matter of time before CS offer a hosted version, but the most important factor is ensuring they continue to offer (and maintain, provide continual updates and support) a package product like we already have.

If CS were to announce tomorrow that they are planning a hosted version and they will continue to provide the "DIY" package, I'd jump ship. As soon as the hosted version is deployed and revenue is being generated, they will soon see that hosted is more profitable than what is currently on offer and we can all say goodbye to CS-Cart as we know it.

[NairdaCart]

The personal demo has been around for ages though. Just seemed a very biased way of interpreting what it's meant for to me.

There are always plenty of people with hidden agendas on forums.....

[kingsleypress]

There are always plenty of people with hidden agendas on forums.....

That may be so, but Darius isn't one of them. He's a long time CS-Cart user and forum member who, like most of the rest of us, have a significant level of investment in the product and a certain amount of dependency on it for the welfare of our businesses. He and Stellar have both expressed legitimate concerns about whether CS-Cart plans to offer a hosted solution. The track record of those who have taken that route raises concerns for those of us who want to self-host our shopping carts.

[jegesmaci]

Interesting discussion. I would like to see CS-Cart stay in business because for the most part they provide a great product. If that means hosted then so be it. That process doesn't happen overnight. We will have plenty of notice. I have also seen CS-Cart be very open as of late with their strategy so I would expect some information from them if and when they move towards that.

The demo link has been around for a long time. I wouldn't get too bent out of shape because of it.

[vanderex]

Are you out of your mind ?

f that means hosted then so be it.

We all need HEAVILY modded controllers, core functions etc for this to work.. i use "includes" and another system to cache, i use my owN CDN, my own compression and i rewrote the search to find products based on uri if not found.. i wrote 10 addons for my cart, payment systems etc AND you do know none of these would work on hosted... you would need to pay 1000 per addon minimum and let everyone out there use it, they call it private code funding for public open source to enjoy.. like most things here anyhow.

im about to go to TO GO if you can ready my toughts... ive been developping on cs-cart since v2 and trying to keep along im at 3.0.3 since 2 days, and now i got to restart to V4.... im tired, this is nonsense, nothing works right on 3.x , 4 is a new thing, like others will have more bugs,

the reason you see core changes in a company project is lead developers leaving, and new ones coming with new tool sets..this shows that there is no project management and lead dev's decide on core functions and how to implement.. this also means that you see weird stuff in the admin as most never sold a pair of sock online.

this usually breaks or makes, look at microsoft products when they buy a company , it's half decent half hellish code and they usually get client base and move on.

so hosted = more stability,
hosted = people will have to upgrade..
hosted = more code to do (templating) when they do..
not sure youl be able to satay on old versions as this is simply to hard to manage for them, (costly)

[admin]

Hi guys!

Let me share some details about the forthcoming evolution of CS-Cart. I'm seeing it's a good time for doing so

Indeed, we are planning to launch the hosted version of CS-Cart very soon. And as Darius has correctly supposed, the personal demo option we offer now at our website is the first step towards the hosted CS-Cart.

And I want to make it very clear that we do NOT have any plans to discontinue the open-source downloadable version of CS-Cart. We are adding MORE options, no cutting. And that is the main idea.

Moreover, our strategic goal is to make CS-Cart a complete ecommerce platform that can fulfill needs of any merchant. Those who want full control over the code and server's stuff get the downloadable version of CS-Cart as they do now. And there will be a true out-of-the-box hosted solution for the merchants who need a robust webstore without a hassle.

There will be also a third option introduced as a beta along with the 4.0.2 release - the so-called Widget mode. With the Widget mode any CS-Cart store(hosted or downloadable) can be completely embedded into any existent website just as easy as to copy and paste a single line of the JavaScript code. Your CS-Cart store with all its features works right inside the WordPress blog, Joomla or Drupal site, Facebook, or literally any other website or HTML page that you can add the CS-Cart widget code to. Layout, blocks and theme can be customized separately for the main store and its widget mode, so the store can look and feel smoothly inside the existent design.

We are very excited about these amazing options coming soon to CS-Cart users.

Just in 1-2 weeks we will publish extra details about the hosted project and its pricing structure. So, stay tuned!