Opencart-4: What’s New?
Opencart is one of the most popular open-source ecommerce CMS which is used by merchants to sell their products online. It uses PHP and follows the MVC(Model-View-Controller) structure.
On 24th May 2022, opencart version-4 was released. It majorly seems like opencart-3 but some major changes are introduced within this release which are listed as below:
1) Opencart-4 Requirement Changes:
- PHP version: Opencart-4 supports the PHP version 8.0+.
- PHP extensions: Required PHP extensions for opencart-4 are: Database, GD, cURL, OpenSSL, ZLIB, ZIP
2) Opencart-4 Admin Changes:
- Toggled checkboxes & radio buttons: In opencart-4 checkboxes & radio buttons are toggled which looks more beautiful in comparison to earlier versions.
- Brighter Icons & Buttons: Icons & Buttons are more clear & bright in opencart-4 in comparison to previous versions.
- “admin” directory rename option: “admin” directory rename option is available in the latest version(4) of opencart. It provides more security to your opencart instance.
- Availability of “CKeditor”: Ckeditor is again available in the opencart-4.
- Cron Jobs: Cron jobs feature is available in opencart-4 version. You can create cron jobs for scheduling tasks.
- More organized store settings: In opencart-4 store settings have the collapsible view and this collapsible view makes store settings more neat & clean in comparison to the previous versions.
- Variant Product: Opencart-4 provides the new feature “variant product” by which you can create new child products based on a parent product and also you can link their stock quantities. Child/Variant products can use the parent product information or hold their own information.
3) Code Changes:
- Separate folder for 3rd party extensions: In opencart-4 all the 3rd party extensions existed in a separate folder “extension”.
- AJAX forms: In opencart-4 all forms are using AJAX.
- Namespace for controllers and models: We have to define the namespace in controller and model file to tell at which path the controller and model classes exist.
- Route Changes: In opencart previous versions controller functions are accessed through backslash(“/”) while in opencart-4 controller function can be accessed by pipe(“|”) separator.
- Bootstrap version-5: To design the opencart view bootstrap-5 classes are used within the opencart-4 view files.
- OCMOD removed: Opencart-4 doesn’t support the OCMOD. The changes done by OCMOD in opencart previous versions can be done by opencart-4 events.