Post by sherriw » Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:33 am

Hello,

I'm looking for the perspective of any fellow experienced PHP developers on OpenCart. I have one project built on 3.0.3.6 and the client is looking to build another one from a copy of the first. So far I've been pretty surprised at the state of OpenCart.

- Are the 1.x and 2.x versions really still actively used/maintained?

Our current project includes a little bit of minor customizations to core files. Are we now utterly out of luck for upgrading to the new versions? The docs don't even have any upgrade instructions for current versions. All I can find regarding upgrading is "copy the entire new version over top of your files and run the upgrade script". What on earth is this? This is some 15 year old PHP development practices happening here, and even that is undocumented.

I was hoping to upgrade the vanilla master branch then rebase in Git my customized branch... but this is a mess.

I thought WordPress got a lot of criticism from a modern php development perspective... but this is mindblowing.

- Are developers who use OpenCart in anything but a vanilla manner... really just sitting on whatever version they started with and then re-building their entire sites from scratch onto a new version after a few years?

We installed a very limited number of paid plugins and one theme... and from what I can gather... these things customized files ALL OVER the application. Plugin code doesn't seem to be isolated in any way - so I guess there are no application wide hooks for plugins and instead plugins just overwrite core code?

I'm trying to figure out if using OpenCart if you plan to do a little bit of customizing... is just a trap. I compared versions 3.0.3.6 to 3.0.3.8 and I'm flabbergasted at how much has changed in these seemingly very minor version # releases. I'm guessing there will be DB changes which I'd have no way to figure out. The official documentation doesn't even mention upgrading for 3.x up.

- All this leads me to believe that developers rarely if ever attempt to keep a customized version of OpenCart up to date. Am I missing something?

Thanks kindly!

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Post by ADD Creative » Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:05 am

Versions 1.x and 2.x are no longer maintained. I would also say the 3.x isn't properly maintained. The version numbering in the README.md is rarely followed. The master (4.x) branch on GitHub can't be considered stable.

The extension documentation mainly relates to 2.x. You will find more, if incomplete, information in the GitHub Wiki. The event system in intended for modifications.
https://github.com/opencart/opencart/wiki/Events-System

Or OCMOD (likely to be removed in 4.x).
https://github.com/opencart/opencart/wi ... ion-System

Extension are usually upload in zip files through the admin that can be uninstalled, but the files of the extension are not stored together.

The upgraded script is often best avoided for major versions updates. Exporting you data and them importing into a newer version is often recommended.

www.add-creative.co.uk


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Post by sherriw » Tue Jan 11, 2022 10:32 pm

ADD Creative wrote:
Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:05 am
Versions 1.x and 2.x are no longer maintained. I would also say the 3.x isn't properly maintained. The version numbering in the README.md is rarely followed. The master (4.x) branch on GitHub can't be considered stable.

The extension documentation mainly relates to 2.x. You will find more, if incomplete, information in the GitHub Wiki. The event system in intended for modifications.
https://github.com/opencart/opencart/wiki/Events-System

Or OCMOD (likely to be removed in 4.x).
https://github.com/opencart/opencart/wi ... ion-System

Extension are usually upload in zip files through the admin that can be uninstalled, but the files of the extension are not stored together.

The upgraded script is often best avoided for major versions updates. Exporting you data and them importing into a newer version is often recommended.
Hooo boy... sounds like a mess. :choke:

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