CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.3.1 Released

The final CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.3.1 is released!

CS-Cart 4.3.1 is faster and more feature-rich than any other CS-Cart version.

Speed Boost

CS-Cart 4.3.1 is fast:

• SQL query optimization speeds up product search and filtering.
• Optimized caching makes the search faster, if you call the same search twice. Storefront pages also load faster on the second visit because CS-Cart 4.3.1 caches the content during the first visit.
• CS-Cart 4.3.1 supports Alternative PHP Cache. This technology speeds up PHP scripts on your server. Even well-optimized websites load with a delay because it takes time to execute PHP scripts. APC cache shortens this delay.
• JavaScript code was moved to the bottom of pages so that the code doesn’t slow down page loading. Store pages now load faster on the first visit.

Functionality Improvements

Thanks to the community feedback during the beta testing, we’ve fixed nearly 150 bugs. Check out thechangelog for all improvements and fixes.

Multi-Vendor: Fully Featured Vendor Storefronts

In Multi-Vendor 4.3.1, vendors make their own fully functional storefronts with categories, filters, search by vendor products, and more. Vendor pages in previous Multi-Vendor versions lacked most of these functions.

A vendor page in Multi-Vendor 4.3.1 looks like a vendor page on eBay or Amazon:

New Blog Add-on

The Blog add-on lets you create a fully functional blog inside your store. Keep your customers informed by posting news and special offers in your blog.

Upgrade Center Refinements

The Upgrade center in CS-Cart 4.3.1 has become more user-friendly. The Upgrade center will guide you through the upgrade process, showing the process in detail.

We improved backup and restore. If something goes wrong during the upgrade, you’ll be able to roll back safely.

Export and Import Enhancements

In CS-Cart 4.3.1 we’ve introduced a long-awaited feature—export and import of option variants, option combinations, and option exceptions. This feature simplifies catalog updating and stock accounting.

For example, you sell a T-shirt model that comes in different colors and sizes. You need to track the exact number of blue T-shirts of size M at your warehouse. These T-shirts have a combination of two options: blue color and M size.

Export product data with option variants and option combinations from your store. Then, import this data to the stock accounting software. You can now track the actual number of blue, medium-size T-shirts at the warehouse.

Bestsellers & On-Sale Products Add-on Expanded

New functionality allows you to show similar products on a product details page. We’ve also added an ability to create pages with all bestsellers, on-sale, new, and final sale products.

Other Enhancements

CS-Cart 4.3.1 has a bunch of smaller enhancements, including:

• Faster checkout
• Easier navigation
• Custom layout
• Your own logo and favicon for each style
• Displaying products immediately after choosing a filter
• Ability to define a user group for a user via API
• Improved protection from CSRF attacks
• API 2.0 by default

How to Get 4.3.1

Download the CS-Cart or Multi-Vendor installation package.

Purchase a commercial license to get all features and support. Before purchasing a license, you can try CS-Cart or Multi-Vendor for free for 30 days. You can use CS-Cart for free even after the trial, but you’ll only have access to a limited set of features.

If you already have a license and an active upgrade subscription, download your personal installation package from the File Area in your Help Desk account.

Upgrade

Important: The upgrade will be available from the next week. We will be limiting the number of upgrade package downloads within the first few days to avoid server overload.

License owners with active upgrade subscriptions have two options for upgrading from 4.0.1 and higher to 4.3.1:

• Upgrade center. Go to your admin panel, Administration → Upgrade center, and click Download.
• Store Import. To upgrade from CS-Cart 3.0.6 and earlier (except the Community edition) to the current version install CS-Cart 4.3.1 and import your store.