questions - changes from 0.7.8 to 1.0 (or 0.8)

been looking at 0.7.8 (great work hm2k), but before i get my hands dirty and start modding it - how great are the changes going to be between 0.7.8 and 1.0? is it worth doing anything with opencart yet, or best to hang on? will there be a 0.8 release before 1.0?

i have 2 projects i'd like to use opencart for, but not keen on making modules that could become entirely redundant in the near future.

btw, this is great news:

Daniel wrote: I have also added some documentation to the coding. I'm going to put a link up on the front of the site so people can see the API of the core files for OpenCart.

well commented code makes all the difference.

I too have been attempting to start modding with OpenCart.. What I see so far is a great, easy to work with framework, but it's not quite perfected. Especially when it comes to modding.

The main area I hope that I can help in, is to get some official, standardized override system in place to avoid having to manually edit and merge contributions whenever there is a new official opencart update or new version of a contrib. If contribs were designed to use the override, then core changes would be virtually transparent.

I haven't gotten any official reaction from any hm2k or daniel pertaining to this idea, but I hope that perhaps a proof of concept demo will make a big impact.

But I have forgone any further modding until that is in place as I fear the maintenance of multiple contribs would be insane and discouraging. I don't know if anything like this is planned for 0.8 or 1.0, or ever. In my mind, contribs should be self contained files and maybe a sql patch file.. There should be little or no manual code modifications needed by the end user, and contribs should never change the core files.

would be nice..  so i guess you don't play with oscom at all

this is where the roots of opencart came from  and yes i would like to see it go there

Jonathon

There should be little or no manual code modifications needed by the end user, and contribs should never change the core files.

To a degree this is already possible with OpenCart 0.7.8.
When I wrote an Australia Post shipping module I didn't have to change any core file at all, it was just a matter of adding some files into the appropriate directories.

However, I agree with you about the need of introducinbg a clearly defined extension API, including the option to extend existing classes so as to modify their behavior in a true object-oriented fashion.

Luvz2drv wrote: would be nice..  so i guess you don't play with oscom at all

this is where the roots of opencart came from  and yes i would like to see it go there

Jonathon

osCommerce? I don't see it.

Well I come from 5 years of working with Zen-Cart, which was spawned off of osCommerce, which is its main downfall IMO. But I dont see this type of db and file abstract design that opencart uses in osC or Zen-cart. Zen-cart did 1up osC with their override system and after using that, I'm quite hooked It just makes so much more sense, and from what I've got working on my store, it appears to be pretty easy to implement into OpenCart as well.

But looking at OpenCart's framework and styling method doesn't even look anything near osC... OpenCart looks 10x better and cleaner.

osC is mostly table based, Zencart went 90% div based... but still uses a table as their main structure.

I have to say I am excited about working with OpenCart because it is nothing like osCommerce, so I'm sure what roots you are referring to. The further away from osC it is, the better.

JNeuhoff wrote:
When I wrote an Australia Post shipping module I didn't have to change any core file at all, it was just a matter of adding some files into the appropriate directories.

I based my comment loosely on the few contribs that I peeked at... including the Export/Import contrib. Basically whenever i upload a bunch of files and my ftp asks "would you like to replace this file with this file?" ... then it's already dead to me except in a special circumstances where I'm modifying a file that I already have a custom override for.. but that is to be expected. If there was a clear cut rule that "no core file shall be overwritten" then that would set the bar for all contribs, assuming there was a proper override system in place.