Starting to Dislike OpenCart

JAY6390 wrote:I don't think any software goes to that length with their change log do they?

Someone has to be the first one

I can easily generate a report of changes per file... we use this great tool in my day job that generates an html file that shows the differences between 2 version of files.

I think maybe we need to teach people to be a little more aware of what is changing so they can track changes better. Or maybe we even make a tool that checks file dates to see what files have changed.

Step 1 run the code once after new install to make a baseline
Step 2 run the code again right before upgrade to see all the files that changed since the initial install.

I actually have this almost done.. meant to be used for security purposes to show in the admin dashboard whenever files have changed. It's "something" at least.

Another thought would be some way to generate diffs into xml for vQmod. Then you could set the "virtualmode=false" for upgrades and it would make the actual changes to the files using vQmod which targets ONLY the individual lines for change. That would take a lot of work I think.

I'm pretty sure SMF does use their script system for upgrades tho so I'll have to see how they do it.. if they just create the script as they go or if they make the bug fixes and generate the xml afterwards

ckonig wrote:I agree with opencartisalright,
vQmod should be mandatory as far as core files are concerned. Because it is possible!
I am working on a big set of extensions which will add a complete new field of functionalities to OpenCart (warehousing, purchasing, etc).
Until now it was always possible for me to NOT touch the core files, but make all changes to them via vQmod.
When I found an extension I found useful, I made a vQmod from it, also that was always possible.

When the update from 1.4.9.3 to 1.4.9.4 came, it took me about 3 hours to fix the vQmod XML files, and I was done.

Of course sometimes it is exhausting, because your IDE doesn't really support you. At night I dream of a program, where you put in the original php file and the modificated one, and the program creates you a vQmod XML file.
So if anybody is good at parsing and has too much time... please build such a program.

But until then I will continue to work with vQmod and I am still very thankful to Qphoria, because my project would be just a big mess without it.

Autoit would be something worth considering if you wish to make a program with simple effort to do what you ask.

Im afraid im abit rusty with Autoit these days, havent used it for years, but its easy enough to write a program which checks two files and merges them together in a vQmod layout im sure.

I used Auto-It almost daily until this past year... It is true that it may be a good option for it. tho I'd likely use vbscript for something trivial

JAY6390 wrote:I found the OP quite funny to be honest - The reason you lost all your changes isn't opencart's fault, it's because you used softaculous to upgrade. Softaculous is made to install a pre-made cart/application into the right folder, on the right domain that you choose, with the right settings. it doens't ever say it will upgrade your software without breaking it. Hell, the whole process softaculous uses is delete everything and write the new stuff, so what do you expect? I think you need to be careful when using these quick fix tools to read exactly how they operate, or face this kind of issue again

You find it funny because you do not comprehend well. Read it again pal.

Now this application is becoming more annoying with the release of 1.5.0.
I do not understand if OpenCart is just a personal project of the developer.
It's like, he will change it according to his mood w/o taking consideration the other user.

The layout of 1.5.0 is completely different and it seems that the old version will soon become vulnerable.
Unless, we redo our old OpenCart to the new version...tsk...tsk...tsk...nice planning (ironically)

I'm sorry to hear your troubles, jin.
Unfortunately I've had to learn the hard way as well... several times over.
Even with some of the commercial carts I was paying hundreds of dollars a year to have access to updates, eventually they made major modifications that simple upgrading couldn't handle and my templates and mods had to be built from scratch again.
That's just the nature of technology.
Things can only be made backwards compatible for so long before any system has to be scrapped.
Best of luck on your project.

Jin wrote:Now this application is becoming more annoying with the release of 1.5.0.
I do not understand if OpenCart is just a personal project of the developer.
It's like, he will change it according to his mood w/o taking consideration the other user.

The layout of 1.5.0 is completely different and it seems that the old version will soon become vulnerable.
Unless, we redo our old OpenCart to the new version...tsk...tsk...tsk...nice planning (ironically)

stop whining. first you were wrong and blamed opencart for Softaculous upgrade process. So it seems to me you don;t have a clue about shopping carts or programming.

you don't need to upgrade on new releases. if you have a store and its running fine and bringing in money don't touch it.

I have worked on many sites for big companies that have done 1000's of modifications and there is no way they can do an upgrade.

Daniel wrote:

Jin wrote:Now this application is becoming more annoying with the release of 1.5.0.
I do not understand if OpenCart is just a personal project of the developer.
It's like, he will change it according to his mood w/o taking consideration the other user.

The layout of 1.5.0 is completely different and it seems that the old version will soon become vulnerable.
Unless, we redo our old OpenCart to the new version...tsk...tsk...tsk...nice planning (ironically)

stop whining. first you were wrong and blamed opencart for Softaculous upgrade process. So it seems to me you don;t have a clue about shopping carts or programming.

you don't need to upgrade on new releases. if you have a store and its running fine and bringing in money don't touch it.

I have worked on many sites for big companies that have done 1000's of modifications and there is no way they can do an upgrade.

This is not whining...this is criticism about your work.
The issue about upgrading with the softaculous was already fixed.
But my new concern is your Road Map of development from the 1.4.9.5 to 1.5.0

I do not know if you have a development road map with OpenCart as it seems that you will just jump to some major modification and at the end leave the old version. Read here (http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=33006)

I think of all the users and developers should remember that OpenCart is free and open source software which is published in the GPLv3 license.
The criticism, of course, is often helpful, but people who are coding this software and distribute it for free for everybody to use should be respected.

And Jin, for all respect, feel free to change your shopping cart software if you think this is not suitable to your needs.

I'm just waiting until OpenCart becomes as easy to upgrade as WordPress. That would be pure heaven.

Anttih wrote:I think of all the users and developers should remember that OpenCart is free and open source software which is published in the GPLv3 license.
The criticism, of course, is often helpful, but people who are coding this software and distribute it for free for everybody to use should be respected.

And Jin, for all respect, feel free to change your shopping cart software if you think this is not suitable to your needs.

I think you have comprehension problem about the words Respect and Criticism.
Try to polish that my friend as you are contradicting yourself with your post.

OpenCart is just one of the Shopping Cart script that I'm currently using which unfortunately, I will not be recommending further with my clients. Do you have experience with other shopping cart script or this is your first time to use one? Trust me, OpenCart development roadmap is completely far from other scripts that I used and tweak.

opencartisalright wrote:I'm just waiting until OpenCart becomes as easy to upgrade as WordPress. That would be pure heaven.

Let's wish upon the star or let's wait 10-years or let's wait for another complete makeover of the framework.

Jin wrote:
OpenCart is just one of the Shopping Cart script that I'm currently using which unfortunately, I will not be recommending further with my clients. Do you have experience with other shopping cart script or this is your first time to use one? Trust me, OpenCart development roadmap is completely far from other scripts that I used and tweak.

ok lets look at the other php based open source carts

oscommerce and it's derivatives - no upgrade path at all no template systems so even visual tweaks will break on upgrade, but I guess you could say they have a stable roadmap because it basically hasn't upgraded in about 5 years now. Yes there was an update last year, but the changes were so small it's laughable besides it has basically no features.

magento - When they started they were touting great programming you could change anything and everything expand it in any kind of way and an upgrade would never break anything. They dropped that claim when the first major upgrade came out and broke everything. And as far as I know they are on v1.5.x just like opencart and every major point release has broken many things. I recently had a customer upgrade their magento site and it took a week to get things fixed and working again.

prestashop - I really don't have much experience with this one other than downloading it and playing with it and the coding just didn't give me a good feeling so I didn't pursue it farther, but I've heard bad stories of upgrades there as well.

If you have anything other then a the default template and NO custom coding in your php files upgrading is easy like 1-2-3.

If the upgrade has DB changes and you have a custom template + custom coding there will NEVER EVER be an easy upgrade.

I'm always amazed that people expect that an upgrade should be easy, how the hell can a developer see or know what you have done to his files etc.?