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Jan 16th by Neil under Opencart, Product, Reviews, Web Design
Tags: Ecommerce, Opencart, Shopping Cart, Web Design
Opencart v1.4.0 has been released and is available to download here.
First off lets review the store front. This continues to improve and has definitely done so with this new release, it is probably now the prettiest cart out of the box! For those without the skills or time to change the template it offers a good look to simply start selling…it hardly needs any setting up and is simply thebest option for any online selling noobs out there. It does however give a wealth of functionality and flexibility for the more expert user but i digress. Being a ‘designer’ (perhaps not a very good one) the overall look is a bit young and cartoony for me, I dont like all the little icons and never have, these are easy to get rid of if you want to however. On the plus side the new drop down boxes for currency and language are cool and a nice improvement. Overall its very neat and tidy; a great platform to sell from.
OK lets review the admin side (user: demo password: demo). This is the area that has seen the most change. It now spans your screen instead of being fixed width and has a much more professional look. The menu bar is very nice with its see through dropdown list although it sometime does take a few mouse hovers to get the dropdown to actually drop (I noticed this in previous versions too and may be an Internet Explorer thing). The functionality has been improved and my quick whiz through the admin screens shows me a higher level of control to the administrator and the improved layout makes it so much easier and intuitive to work with. The admin really is a marked improvement from the previous version and as usual has great out of the box functionality, with Google Base, Sitemap and Talk all ready to blast off! Oh yeh and there is a neat new advanced search feature, plus the initial search allows users to search via category…..awesome!!
Code and database wise Im not sure what has changed as yet, I havent had a chance to delve that deeply, however as far as Ive seen people have upgraded and reuploaded their database without any problems.
I think Opencart is fantastic and will be huge like Magento (eventually). The one area that has to be improved upon to capture more users is the upgrade/module system. If there could be a more Wordpress-like automatic upgrade of core files, database and modules that would just be incredible and Im sure Opencart would take over the world and become a leader in its field! For now though Im just happy to be a small part of it and shall contribute anyway I can. As should you, if you download this free software why not contribute something to the cause, donate some money, write a review, link to the site and moan at your host to setup an auto install feature for Opencart.
Please let me know what you think of the new Opencart v1.4.0 below:
I understand your enthousiasm about OpenCart, for I am too. But nice software is not always enough. Biggest lack on OpenCart is the documentation. It is poor, too few and from a marketing point-of-view it will scare people of, seeing that OpenCart is a serious competitor in open source shopping cart software. But your editorial is nice.
Hi Johan,
Yes there is a lack of documentation, and a lack of community structure. However I think steps are being made to change this. There are definitely improvements to be made but atleast the community starts from a good base…the software.
I still stand by it as the best open source shopping cart system and the easiest for designers and coders to get to grips with. Its also the easiest for complete noobs with no design or programming skills to sell straight out the box.
Im glad you like OC though and are supporting it. I think we all have to lend Daniel a hand as after all he is just one guy and cant do everything. So perhaps we should write the documentation for him.