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What's the road map for the next 6-12 months of Prestashop?


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I just spent a few weeks upgrading from 1.2.5 to 1.3.1.

1.3.1 was called "Finale" so I figured I would be safe until 1.4 was released...but I just realised 1.3.2 has been released, and it looks great! So many improvements....but I don't think I have the time or energy to do another upgrade:)

So I'm wondering, are there any more v1.3.x releases due out before 1.4?

Secondly, what's the rough timescale for 1.4? And what about an estimate for 1.4.1? (I will probably wait for 1.4.1 because I want a more stable release).

Is there a rough roadmap that I can refer to?

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I don't think there will be any more v1.3.x releases, unless a critical bug is found. It seems the PrestaShop team is focused on developing v1.4 now. They didn't fix any of the reported bugs last week like they usually do, but I can see many exciting features being added to v1.4 on SVN. Unfortunately, the PrestaShop team doesn't provide release dates any more, so you will just have to wait until it is done. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by some of the new features.

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Thanks Rocky!

Does a new 1.X release (e.g. 1.2 --> 1.3 --> 1.4 --> 1.5) indicate a much larger, more fundamental set of changes, and therefore potentially more unstable?

I'm just trying to plan ahead - I'm wondering if I should wait for 1.4.1? What have past "big" releases been like in terms of stability, module compatibility etc?

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The thing I'm most curious about is if they have streamlined the upgrade where there won't be any headaches.
I've said before that there are lots of open source tools out there that they could be using to help in this process.


I think whenever you do any custom work it will always be a headache!

But I know what you mean...upgrading in something like WordPress is amazing.
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The theme of v1.4 seems to be performance. It is now possible to put images, Javascript and CSS on a separate server and there is a new Performance tab that lets you set Smarty caching and code minification from the Back Office. The Back Office UI has been completely redone and lets you change themes. The subtabs are displayed using Javascript, so you can now go from one subtab from one tab to another subtab in a different tab without clicking the top tab first.

There are many new features being added too. The new Customer Service tab lets you manage all messages from customers and assign them to employees. You can now create categories of CMS pages and repositioning them from the Back Office. Products now have per-unit pricing, per-product minimum quantity and per-product shipping. You can print invoices per-status. The currencies and tax rates for all countries and by default only the tax rate of the country selected in the installer is enabled. The PayPal module has been recreated to include PayPal Standard, PayPal API and Paypal Express. There is a new Ogone module. Categories can now be excluded from generating loyalty points. There is a new Information tab that lets you view your server configuration information and check whether your shop passes all the requirements. A new AJAX file manager has also been added to TinyMCE in PrestaShop. There is a new "Date of delivery" module that lets customers specify when they want their order delivered and a new "European VAT number" module that allows online validation of VAT numbers.

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A couple of other things I forgot to mention. It is now possible to have one carrier that is "according to price" and another that is "according to weight" instead of both needing to be one or the other. Countries now have call prefixes and the option to define the postcode format, or have no postcode at all. There are also more zones including Africa, Asia, Central America/Antille, Europe, Europe (out E.U.), North America and Oceania and South America. There is also new "All" row when editing carrier prices that lets you change them all in one go.

Not much has changed in the Front Office. I noticed that now you must enter either a "Home phone" or "Mobile phone" when registering. It is optional in PrestaShop v1.3. It now says "Vat Number" after "Company" field instead of having it in a separate section. I can't see anything different in the checkout steps, only that the PayPal and Moneybookers payment options are improved now. One last thing, I noticed that instead of having one huge global.css, there is now a separate small CSS file for each file (addresses.css, authentication.css, etc). These are then automatically combined, compressed and cached into a single CSS file.

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One last thing, I noticed that instead of having one huge global.css, there is now a separate small CSS file for each file (addresses.css, authentication.css, etc). These are then automatically combined, compressed and cached into a single CSS file


Does that mean that themes for previous versions arent going to work to well in 1.4 or has here been some backward compatibility options added?
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One last thing, I noticed that instead of having one huge global.css, there is now a separate small CSS file for each file (addresses.css, authentication.css, etc). These are then automatically combined, compressed and cached into a single CSS file


Does that mean that themes for previous versions arent going to work to well in 1.4 or has here been some backward compatibility options added?


Yeah, I was going to mention that in a feature request. It is a pain in the butt when you want to change something for one block but it is also in another block. I wanted to remove the lines in the tree for the categories block but keep them on the sitemap page. Had to create a new selector for the category block tree.

Also, they should think about using sprite technology on a lot of the template images. See www.spriteme.org, really cool stuff.
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I feel that the one caveat of Prestashop is the lack of ease to upgrade. I hope that the devs also would please focus on developing PS so that is it a simple upgrade, rather than having to manually copy all your products across.
I know that the devs main concern is that if a client is running a modified shop and then tried to upgrade, a lot of their modules might not work and then the devs will be flooded by users complaining that the PS upgrade broke their cart when in fact it was the modules that were not compatible with the new PS version.
Is there not a module that can be written to run a check on your site that would tell you what features/modules/customizations would not be compatible with the latest PS ver ?
Changing the look of your site is not a big deal, it’s rather the transferring of the products that is the major pain.

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Well, I have not personally had to upgrade. When I found Prestashop, ver 1.2.5 was already released. So if I intimated that I personally thought there were issues with regards to upgrading PS, then please forgive me. What I meant was that I have definitely seen many other people trying to upgrade, who have issues, be it for whatever reason.
What I guess I am asking is if there is a better way to upgrade or if the current upgrade system is fine? If so I will copy one of my shops and try upgrade to test for myself and if it's a cinch, I will gladly eat humble pie :)

P.S. Is it going to be possible to upgrade from PS 1.2.5 to 1.4 ?

Regards,

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Well, I have not personally had to upgrade. When I found Prestashop, ver 1.2.5 was already released. So if I intimated that I personally thought there were issues with regards to upgrading PS, then please forgive me. What I meant was that I have definitely seen many other people trying to upgrade, who have issues, be it for whatever reason.
What I guess I am asking is if there is a better way to upgrade or if the current upgrade system is fine? If so I will copy one of my shops and try upgrade to test for myself and if it's a cinch, I will gladly eat humble pie :)

P.S. Is it going to be possible to upgrade from PS 1.2.5 to 1.4 ?

Regards,


It depends on how much work you've done on your site. I made hundreds of changes so it takes me a solid week to do a full upgrade.
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there is no turn-key e-commerce shop and developers always build something new. the issue is, how painless the upgrades are going to be. my xperience with magento showed that the more developers try to "automate" the update process, the more it becomes a pain in the head.

so, come praise prestashop!

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The thing I'm most curious about is if they have streamlined the upgrade where there won't be any headaches.
I've said before that there are lots of open source tools out there that they could be using to help in this process.


I think whenever you do any custom work it will always be a headache!

But I know what you mean...upgrading in something like WordPress is amazing.


You said it. Upgrading WordPress is a snap. That is what Prestashop needs to be. I just went through my first upgrade and it wasn't all that fun. I suppose it will be easier next time, but I don't have much in my shops yet to get screwed up. I'm not looking forward to upgrading this way with substantial shops, lots of modules, changes to the code, etc.

I'm using the Thesis theme in WordPress and they have a very nice way of keeping changes separated by using custom.css and custom.php files. It's a pretty nice way to go.

Curt Donohue
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The thing I'm most curious about is if they have streamlined the upgrade where there won't be any headaches.
I've said before that there are lots of open source tools out there that they could be using to help in this process.


I think whenever you do any custom work it will always be a headache!

But I know what you mean...upgrading in something like WordPress is amazing.


You said it. Upgrading WordPress is a snap. That is what Prestashop needs to be. I just went through my first upgrade and it wasn't all that fun. I suppose it will be easier next time, but I don't have much in my shops yet to get screwed up. I'm not looking forward to upgrading this way with substantial shops, lots of modules, changes to the code, etc.

I'm using the Thesis theme in WordPress and they have a very nice way of keeping changes separated by using custom.css and custom.php files. It's a pretty nice way to go.

Curt Donohue


I think WP is the greatest thing ever! But the reality is, there's no ecommerce CMS system out there that even compares as far as i'm aware. I can't

So if you take WP out of the equation I think Prestashop holds up quite nicely.
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Here's an update on what's been added to PrestaShop v1.4 recently: InnoDB is now used by default instead of MySAM to improve performance (though MySAM can still be chosen), arrows can now be used to change the order of categories instead of prefixes, the option to choose whether to display the add to cart button and price on a per-product basis, the option to display the price on the "cross selling" and "in the same category" modules, the option to hide the add to cart button on products with attributes, product price comparison, automatic translations using "Google Translate" and an instant search option that displays search results as you type like Google does.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I´m also really interested to know if there is a chance/plan that Prestashop 1.4 will be realeased before this years ends. We are about to launch a new site and it would be great to know if we should wait or go for the 1.3 version.

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