Additional Character for OpenCart 3.0.3.8 Maintenance Release Version

Hi All,

I'd like to propose a small but potentially beneficial change to the way we label the maintenance release version of OpenCart, specifically referring to version 3.0.3.8 or 3.0.x.x maintenance release as some know it as.

From a user's perspective, when they see "3.0.3.8" displayed in the admin footer (index.php) or else where, they know they are using version 3.0.3.8. However, when it comes to offering or seeking assistance, the context can sometimes be unclear, especially for developers and forum users as it could be the maintenance release.

To address this, I suggest considering the addition of an extra character/s at the end of the version number on the github download, specifically, "3.0.3.8_MR." This would help both users and developers to easily identify that they are dealing with the maintenance release version of OpenCart 3.0.3.8, avoiding any potential confusion.

As we know 3.0.3.8 doesnt support 8.2
but 3.0.3.8 maintenance release does, but only 3.0.3.8 is displayed in the footer of the admin area

The benefits of this change would include:

Clarity: Users will immediately recognise the maintenance release, reducing ambiguity in support and development discussions.

Efficiency: Faster identification of the version being discussed can lead to quicker problem-solving and support.

Consistency: Aligning version naming conventions helps maintain a clear and organised development environment.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. If you agree or disagree, or if you have alternative suggestions, please share them here.
Maybe as a collective we can get this small change.

It could be helpful to save some confusion. 3.0.3.9_dev would be more correct given the way version_compare() works, but that would likely be confused with the other repository on GitHub.

A good suggestion, and hopefully this gets integrated into the next release.

Yes, I too agree that OpenCart should stick to consistent an proper version numbers for OC3 longer term support for PHP 8 etc.

If there is a version of 3 that supports PHP 8 then it should be something like 3.1.0.0 because according to this link it would be:

A MINOR is when there are significant changes that affect core structures. This increment would likely break some 3rd party modules.

That should then be incremented with each release.

I'm not sure who's in charge of this maintenance branch but I'm not sure why they've abandoned proper versioning?

A version number should be a snapshot of the codebase at a point in time. If changes are then made, you increment the version number.

Please, let's not let the codebase and versioning get messy.

paulfeakins wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 29, 2023 7:31 pm

I'm not sure who's in charge of this maintenance branch but I'm not sure why they've abandoned proper versioning?

From another thread : Answer

JNeuhoff wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:10 pm

The 3.0.x.x_Maintenance branch is maintained by several developers and/or contributors, including Daniel, AddCreative, myself, and others. It's the most up-to-date 3.0.3.8-based release with added PHP 8 support and various bugfixes.

I brought up the issue of proper version numbering ages ago, see e.g. this github discussion.

Unfortunately, the opencart-3 respository uses the 3.0.3.9 instead of a more sensible 3.1.x.x as the version number in its index.php. Hence we can't use 3.0.3.9 for the 3.0.x.x_Maintenance release.

Because of this, I can only see 2 solutions:

• Use 3.0.3.8.x (5 digit version numbers), or
• Change {{ text_version }} in admin/view/common/footer.twig to something like {{ text_version~' (Maintenance)' }}

thank you for getting back to us, and something is better than nothing.

Use 3.0.3.8.x (5 digit version numbers), or
Change {{ text_version }} in admin/view/common/footer.twig to something like {{ text_version~' (Maintenance)' }}

You could use the term "Service Pack" to indicate maintenance releases.
For instance, if your regular release is version 3.0.3.8, you could label a maintenance release as "Service Pack 1" or "SP1." This convention is often used in enterprise software. = just a thought.