Jump to content
  • Checkout
  • Login
  • Get in touch

osCommerce

The e-commerce.

New management and osCommerce v4


Recommended Posts

Yesterday I had a presentation where I was shown the beta in a development environment as well as seeing it in action on a couple of live webshops using google screenshare.
I havent actually used it myself! I purely watched a presentation so I can not really say anything about its usability, its speed, its included features/modules/add-ons etc.

But I liked what I saw so far. A nice, modern and extensive ecommerce software with a very decent looking default theme. The admin panel is very extensive, at times a little confusing due to all options and extra options. I was told they are reworking that to make it all a bit clearer and easier to use.

I applied to be a beta tester for version 4.x and have decided to keep my stores at the current version 2.3.4.1 and wait and see what version 4.x brings. 🙂

Thanks to Vadym for the presentation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 170
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I saw something about a ver. 4 coming. Been a member of this forum since Feb. 2003, bout probably have not been here for 5 years or so.

Developed a lot of carts, with a lot of customization. I stopped maintaining my installations about 8 years age as so much had gone stale, and no serious path forward.

Downloaded the 2.3.4.1. I am surprised to see all the old code. Looking forward to seeing what come out in Ver. 4, as osCommerce was such a strong force for so many years.

GEOTEX from Houston, TX

 

(George)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/1/2021 at 3:20 PM, Krisz1 said:

I stil use the Mario Valdez GUI interface until this day. Great for product maintenance. Sadly, the 'calendar' for products got stuck at December 31, 2020. Guess he didn't think people will still be using his software up to this day!.. 

I started with 2.2MS2, now, using 2.3.4 in my live store. An OsCommerce fan since 2003. Looking forward for a seamless upgrade and being part of this community. 

I have a fix for that. Developed the fix. I'll compile and send the file over.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm an observer. I have done some translations for Portuguese Brazil. I am waiting for this new version so that I can run my best hobby that is doing translation. I await the version  V4

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/19/2021 at 10:08 AM, osCommerce-Official said:

osCommerce is under new management. We thank Harald Ponce de Leon and the historical development team, wholeheartedly, for creating osCommerce and will now work hard to develop it into a modern successful Ecommerce platform.

osCommerce v4 is to be released in 2021!

osCommerce will continue being open source and FREE to use. There will be an opportunity for developers and designers to offer their commercial products (apps) and services in osCommerce Shop.

osCommerce v4 is about: 

  • business growth for shop owners
  • new revenue streams for designers and developers
  • modern, powerful, and secure Ecommerce platform for small, medium, and large B2C and B2B businesses
  • API-based integration with 3rd parties
  • osCommerce that is easy to support, maintain, and upgrade
  • mobile and SEO friendly platform
  • smooth migration from osCommerce 2.x and other Ecommerce solutions
  • Discussions on this release are welcome at the Forums, where a new section for osCommerce v4 has been created. Questions about osCommerce shall be emailed to [email protected] 

Development Partners and Beta Testers are always welcome! Please sign up via our Contact Page. We will notify you when the Beta version becomes available (likely in June 2021). Development Partners - we will make preview versions available to you, please indicate your interest when signing up for the Beta Program.

Thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting for a new release of osCommerce!

I love the part where you mention smooth migration and other eCommerce solutions. Truly amazing to see that osCommerce is still on fire with its new powerful version :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, nedragdnuos said:

Just wondering if we have a release date for this as yet?

If we could edit pages on the fly from admin with wysiwyg ckeditor, have quick stock updater, and sales reports integrated that would be handy.

We are aiming for mid summer for a beta version. 

 

Yes you can edit pages (content and design) from the back end and create multiple design templates. 

You can import and export product data in csv formats. 

There are certain sales reports built in, and if course full integration with Google tag management and analytics. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 3/31/2021 at 5:54 PM, ejsolutions said:

I implore you not to follow anywhere near the Magento bloatware framework. I host a couple of sites for a client (because he was desperate to move from an existing host) and it is the worst bit of coding that I have seen in over 30 years of IT.

I absolutely agree!  Please keep the code base clean, well-documented, and as modular as possible! 

Also, if version 4 can mimic the WordPress model for add-ons and updates, it would be a great improvement for thousands of businesses who cannot manually upgrade versions!

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@osCommerce-Official

Hi,

A few questions for you,.. am I addressing Vadym Gurevych? It would be proper to know who I am corresponding with, which is basic business etiquette.

Is it just you or do you have a “dedicated” technical team that will be working on osC? And I do not mean other osC members who volunteer their valuable time and expertise to help develop and support this software.

What is your market strategy to compete with established eCommerce carts that are out there today? In other words, what is your target market for osC and how do you plan to differentiate from other carts? And please don’t say that the osC target market is “the typical store owner,” because the typical store owner is not technical and hence why,.. turn-key-solutions like Shopify, BigCommerce, Shift4Shop, and WooCommerce are crushing the market.

How do you plan to monetize this software?, because regardless of how noble your motives may be,.. giving away your time & energy for free will only last so long before life pulls you in a different direction. The inability to monetize a software causes degradation in quality, innovation, support, and growth of that software.

Is the new version a complete re-write of the software or are we still dealing with an admin section composed of multi-nested tables, deprecated html tags, and empty pixel gifs as spacers?

And just a suggestion,.. osC should not support any Zombie Phoenix addons or forum inquiries & discussions,.. same as it does not support other osC split-off variants such as ZenCart and osCMax. There are enough incompatibility issues with the different versions of osC to have to muddy the water more with yet another variant.

 

 

 

 

 

osCommerce: made for programmers, ...because store owners do not want to be programmers.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=oscommerce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Demitry

Some of these questions have been answered for us already.

3 hours ago, Demitry said:

Is it just you or do you have a “dedicated” technical team that will be working on osC? And I do not mean other osC members who volunteer their valuable time and expertise to help develop and support this software.

See this page:

https://www.oscommerce.com/Us&Team

3 hours ago, Demitry said:

Is the new version a complete re-write of the software or are we still dealing with an admin section composed of multi-nested tables, deprecated html tags, and empty pixel gifs as spacers?

The new version will be a rewrite. Screenshots of them have been posted earlier in this thread and elsewhere on the forum. So the Admin won't look like it has for the history of osCommerce before.

3 hours ago, Demitry said:

And just a suggestion,.. osC should not support any Zombie Phoenix addons or forum inquiries & discussions,.. same as it does not support other osC split-off variants such as ZenCart and osCMax. There are enough incompatibility issues with the different versions of osC to have to muddy the water more with yet another variant.

This has been made clear on the forum. Phoenix won't be allowed to be promoted on this forum. 

I will let osCommerce Official answer your other questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Ashley,

Thank you for responding and for answering that team question via that link. I did read some of the posts on the first page of this thread, though I do not read every post ever posted in these forums. However, I would still like to hear from the new osC admin.

 

Quote

The new version will be a rewrite. Screenshots of them have been posted earlier in this thread and elsewhere on the forum. So the Admin won't look like it has for the history of osCommerce before.

My question has nothing to do with the way it will look, it has to do with the caveman code that the admin section is currently written in. Screenshots of the GUI interface are irrelevant.

 

Quote

This has been made clear on the forum. Phoenix won't be allowed to be promoted on this forum. 

Apparently not! ..because there are still Zombie Phoenix-related addons and addon updates being released via osC marketplace.

Ashley, I'm sure you had the best intentions in trying to address my questions, however, could you please allow the new admin to respond? Thanks.

 

 

osCommerce: made for programmers, ...because store owners do not want to be programmers.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=oscommerce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nobody has seen the code about the new solution. On Github, you can find an old Trueloaded but it seems the code has been rewritten.

During this time there is some demonstration.
We must wait on that.

Regards.


Regards
-----------------------------------------
Loïc

Contact me by skype for business
Contact me @gyakutsuki for an answer on the forum

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Demitry said:

Apparently not! ..because there are still Zombie Phoenix-related addons and addon updates being released via osC marketplace.

I would not encourage Admin to do anything about this, for fear of content being removed. The Addon section is a huge resource to us shopowners. In fact, osCommerce is unusable without the Addons. Many of the older Addons were later updated for Frozen and then Phoenix versions. If Admin were to start moderating these Addons, the whole Addon thread may well be deleted.

Phoenix has already been removed from the official download page and it will just be a matter of time before people realize that this forum is not the place for Phoenix discussion and/or development.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope that osCommerce V4 will be a long-term project and not that the designers develop the templates for free.That would also be extremely useful for everyone who wants to use osCommerce or who contribute to improving templates.I e.g.  Would like to use osCommerce before 4 as an e-commerce platform and a friend of mine would like to.Program new templates or designs.  It would be a shame if this time were useless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 In fact, osCommerce is unusable without the Addons. 

Congratulations! You have inadvertently stumbled upon one of the main reasons why osC flat-lined.

The osC Marketplace is saturated with old & expired addons that are poorly coded with little to no conformity to any osC coding standards. Then there are the Zombie Phoenix addons and addon updates that support a spin-off eComm software. And now, it is no longer monitored so we have spammers posting garbage like the two screenshots below. Additionally, the search feature stopped working in Firefox for some reason, though it still works in Chrome. And you want to keep this? Really?? smh

marketplace-screenshot.jpg.f6643f45837cfe60e28ff4fb763b1e2d.jpg

 

I think that all addons for version 2.2.x should be removed. If you have osC v 2.2 on PHP5.x, you have gravely neglected your store and you are not doing any justice for your customers.

All addons for osC v2.3.x should have a 12 to 24-month end-of-life time-line starting with the release date of osCv4. This gives everyone time to either download the addons they still have not for their legacy version, or switch over to v4 if they chose to do so. osCv4 addons should be completely separate, tested, and monitored for quality, code conformity & consistency, and relevance/usefulness.

However, if osCv4 is going to adopt the same failed business model as its predecessor, then by all means, keep the Marketplace as is, ..and all the issues and store-owner dependencies that come with it. Applying the same methodologies of a software that flat-lined, to a software refresh is the definition of insanity. That's a reference to an Albert Einstein quote.

Personally, I have a lot of time & effort invested in all the addons that I contributed to osCommerce over the years. Regardless, I have no attachments to them and would gladly let them all go just to see osCommerce start fresh with a new slate and a better market & business strategy.

 

 

 

osCommerce: made for programmers, ...because store owners do not want to be programmers.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=oscommerce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, it would be nice to see the spam cleaned up and daily reports on the current status of osCv4. How about a firm release date? Why hasn't the code been shared with developers that signed up early? The sooner the code is made available the sooner the community can help get it up to speed. Seems like someone is asleep at the wheel at the moment.

The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Demitry said:

@osCommerce-Official

Hi,

A few questions for you,.. am I addressing Vadym Gurevych? It would be proper to know who I am corresponding with, which is basic business etiquette.

Hi Demitry! Yes, indeed, Vadym's here. Nice to e-meet you!

 

On 5/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Demitry said:

Is it just you or do you have a “dedicated” technical team that will be working on osC? And I do not mean other osC members who volunteer their valuable time and expertise to help develop and support this software.

I'm afraid my days of programming a long gone (well, never say never!) but we are a decent size team of engineers who are looking forward to re-establishing osCommerce as a mainstream, "cool" Ecommerce platform. There are two reasons why we do it: 

- we want to make it a successful business for ourselves, and for the members of this community 

- this is what osCommerce as a brand, and members of this community fully deserve - to see it grow again after years of not being developed  

 

On 5/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Demitry said:

 

What is your market strategy to compete with established eCommerce carts that are out there today? In other words, what is your target market for osC and how do you plan to differentiate from other carts? And please don’t say that the osC target market is “the typical store owner,” because the typical store owner is not technical and hence why,.. turn-key-solutions like Shopify, BigCommerce, Shift4Shop, and WooCommerce are crushing the market.

Product-to-market strategy can not be disclosed on a public forum, however there are indeed some points that can:

- osCommerce v4 will be an "on premises" solution to start with. Next year we will consider SaaS option as well. As an "on premises" Ecommerce platform it will not be competing with the likes of Shopify directly, but rather with Magento and similar 

- osCommerce v4 will come fully SEO and mobile optimised, supporting design templates, with built in CMS and design editor, a number of great features - all free. 

- osCommerce v4 will come ready for a number of osCommerce-created add-ons and, eventually - for add-ons created by the members of this community 

- it is going to be a relatively low-code platform, that will allow not just designers and developers, but also pro-users like consultants, Ecommerce and marketing managers, etc using it to customise customer experience 

It may not have sense to compare it to WooCommerce though, as Woo is less a specialist Ecommerce platform than osCommerce and is perhaps not as suitable to solve customer problems that osCommerce can resolve.

 

On 5/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Demitry said:

How do you plan to monetize this software?, because regardless of how noble your motives may be,.. giving away your time & energy for free will only last so long before life pulls you in a different direction. The inability to monetize a software causes degradation in quality, innovation, support, and growth of that software.

Feeling noble indeed, but we are in business, and have been for quite a few years. It makes no sense to run osCommerce for the sake of it. It shall work and bring profit. 

 

The strategy is to achieve success not just through sales of our own services, but by allowing members of this community offering their solutions and services too. We want osCommerce is to become a business engine, available to everyone who is interested in it, able to use it, and happy to play by the rules.   

 

On 5/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Demitry said:

Is the new version a complete re-write of the software or are we still dealing with an admin section composed of multi-nested tables, deprecated html tags, and empty pixel gifs as spacers?

It is a complete re-write indeed.

 

On 5/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Demitry said:

And just a suggestion,.. osC should not support any Zombie Phoenix addons or forum inquiries & discussions,.. same as it does not support other osC split-off variants such as ZenCart and osCMax. There are enough incompatibility issues with the different versions of osC to have to muddy the water more with yet another variant.

 

 

Not to worry, it will not. Since it is a complete re-write, it will not be able to support any 3rd party plugins as such. We will be publishing guides on how to create new add-ons, new design themes (templates), new widgets, and new modules (like payment, shipping, order total, etc). There's definitely a learning curve there, but eventually it will be well worth it, for everyone!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Hi Demitry! Yes, indeed, Vadym's here. Nice to e-meet you!

Привет Вадим, спасибо за ответ.

 

Quote

we are a decent size team of engineers who are looking forward to re-establishing osCommerce

Yes, I saw that a day or so back, on the Team page. Two things about that page. There are duplicate entries for Kate Dyachenko and Serhii Gakhov. And, the osC profiles are not set up for your team members, though I only checked a couple of them. This is not of great importance at this time, but does go to credibility as you move forward and,.. if you plan to keep the forums.

Having a dedicated team of Ukrainians and Russians is indeed Very promising!

 

Quote

- osCommerce v4 will be an "on premises" solution to start with. Next year we will consider SaaS option as well. As an "on premises" Ecommerce platform it will not be competing with the likes of Shopify directly, but rather with Magento and similar 

So as an “on premises" solution (and especially when you move to SaaS), ..does that mean that this will no longer be an open-source software that can be downloaded and installed locally? Because the “os” in osCommerce does stand for “open source.” And, if that’s the case, then this is quite different than Magento, and actually more like Shopify.

By the way, I am not a fan of Shopify or BigCommerce. I mentioned them because today’s eComm-cart popularity has direct correlation to the fact that the majority of store owners are not technical and do not want to be. That’s one of the main directives pursued by the prior unmentionable, who is directly responsible for the mismanagement and the dismantling of osC and its brand equity.

I’m talking about the blatant ignorance and stupidity.. such as,.. releasing new osC versions that store-owners could not update their stores to. And, the inability of osC software to be updated to new PHP versions. Other crucial mismanagement issues like,.. Excluding the integration of common-place & basic eCommerce features such as Order Tracking, SEO, MVS, product attribute management, site and form security, shipping calculators, RMA system, and many, Many others! These are all standard features offered with every eComm cart out there today, but of course, not with osCommerce.

So Vadym, the point of this is that I hope that you choose not to pursue any part of that same “I live in my mom’s basement while I pretend to manage an eCommerce software” strategy, otherwise, you’re just setting yourself, your team, and the new software release for failure.

 

Quote

Feeling noble indeed, but we are in business, and have been for quite a few years. It makes no sense to run osCommerce for the sake of it. It shall work and bring profit.

The strategy is to achieve success not just through sales of our own services, but by allowing members of this community offering their solutions and services too. We want osCommerce is to become a business engine, available to everyone who is interested in it, able to use it, and happy to play by the rules. 

Ok, so I am happy to hear that this is not some philanthropic endeavor to give away your time & energy. That certainly gives more value to the software, its potential future, and perceived longevity.

However, your initiative to monetize is not very clear from your response. If you plan to in-house the new osC, and charge for account access, support, and addons/customization,.. that’s one thing. On the other hand, if your services include store-owner ordered customization and development, then this is a conflict of interest.

Actually, I am not very clear on how you plan to monetize this software. I am willing to invest in something new that I believe will provide a viable long-term solution for my needs as a store-owner, but not if it is anything like what that unmentionable predecessor did,.. or I should say, ..did nothing with.

 

Quote

Not to worry, it will not. Since it is a complete re-write, it will not be able to support any 3rd party plugins as such. We will be publishing guides on how to create new add-ons, new design themes (templates), new widgets, and new modules (like payment, shipping, order total, etc). There's definitely a learning curve there, but eventually it will be well worth it, for everyone!

Good! I’m glad to hear that!

Additionally, I recommend removing any and all references to Zombie Phoenix. That includes the news articles related to it. There are about 22 articles on the https://www.oscommerce.com/Us&News page. This is confusing to anyone who is new to osC because this software is no longer an osC product. The same goes for Zombie Phoenix addons and addon-updates that are part of non-Zombie Phoenix addons,.. including those of my own. As well as, any and all forum topics, discussions, and posts related to that “other” cart software. Let it all be gone like a fart in the wind!

 

 

osCommerce: made for programmers, ...because store owners do not want to be programmers.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=oscommerce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Just wondering when the new version will be released and how difficult it will be to upgrade my old 2.2 site?

I've lost a lot of functionality due to the mods I installed not being supported anymore due to version releases and other web improvements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We expected a new release in June, but soon August ...

Support forum for osCommerce in russian language - from Ashkelon. Support since 2002.

Best regards,

Fredi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Demitry,

Quote

osCommerce: made for programmers, ...because store owners do not want to be programmers.

Many of today's programmers for OsComm were born in this forum over the past 20 years. Most of the clones and versions of e-commerce were born here too.

Thousands of store owners have learned the basics of programming right here.

Today's concept for most e-commerce products is commerce. Money.
For this reason, we see very frequent (necessary or unnecessary) changes to the code, which are primarily aimed at stopping the previous version and receiving orders for updating (modification, modernization, improvement, security, etc.).

I understand that permanent jobs and high wages are needed. This is also correct.

Hundreds of thousands of stores can be provided commercially. Owners will not program.
But there is a small number of people, perhaps 1 thousand, for whom this is interesting and who can dig into the code themselves.
What are these people to do?

🐻  :rolleyes:  :ph34r:

Support forum for osCommerce in russian language - from Ashkelon. Support since 2002.

Best regards,

Fredi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Fredi said:

We expected a new release in June, but soon August ...

Is that an official date or just a guess? It is very worrisome that the new owners have totally disappeared from this site. Not even bothering to answer questions posted to them.  Their lack of presence here does not say much for their future support and is definitely not helping the brand.  @osCommerce-Official hasn't even visited the forum since June???

Support Links:

For Hire: Contact me for anything you need help with for your shop: upgrading, hosting, repairs, code written, etc.

Get the latest versions of my addons

Recommended SEO Addons

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...