These are just the highlights of CS-Cart 4.18.1; you’ll find more changes in the changelog.

As usual, we hand out upgrade packages in limited numbers for the first few weeks after the release. But then we lift that restriction. So if you don’t see this upgrade in your Upgrade Center yet, please check back later. If you use Multi-Vendor No-Code, you don’t need to worry about the upgrade – we will handle it for you.

Revamped Admin Panel

We’re thrilled to introduce the changes made in the admin panel. The last time we updated its appearance was back in 2018, in version 4.8.1. The changes back then weren’t big: we made the admin panel responsive and refreshed its look. This time the changes are bigger, and there are more to come. 

In CS-Cart 4.18.1, we reworked the overall look and feel of the admin panel, changed the navigation, and added some new features for the product list.. In future versions of CS-Cart, we plan to systematically revamp each page. This way, we can gradually enhance the interface, gather feedback, and roll out the improvements as soon as they’re ready.

What has changed:

• The style is more modern and streamlined.
• The product list now has new search filters, They may eventually replace the “Advanced Search” pop-up.
• The menu is now in the left sidebar. Many items have been relocated to the “Settings” section in the lower-left corner.

Enhanced PayPal Checkout

CS-Cart has had many PayPal payment solutions over the years. Some of them got marked as “Legacy” by PayPal in favor of newer solutions. These deprecated solutions still remain in CS-Cart, as part of the PayPal Legacy Payments add-on. It allows you to accept payments via PayPal Express Checkout, PayPal Pro, PayPal Advanced, and Payflow Pro. 

However, we recommend PayPal Checkout instead. It is an up-to-date integration that has everything you might need for your CS-Cart Store Builder, much like PayPal Commerce Platform for a CS-Cart Multi-Vendor. It ensures a seamless checkout experience for your customers, making the payment process faster and more convenient.

What has changed:

• We’ve added alternative payment methods like Venmo, PayPal PayLater, giropay and many more. The payment methods that your customers will see will depend on your location and currency, as well as that of your customers. For example, Venmo works in the United States and requires the Venmo app. 
• You can now customize the style and color of payment buttons which appear on the checkout page. 

Improved Warehouses and Common Products

The  “Common Products for Vendors” and “Warehouses” add-ons contribute their own inventory management logic. “Common Products for Vendors” handle the availability of product offers from various sellers, while the “Warehouses” add-on checks the available quantity of a product based on a customer’s location.

Previously, these add-ons didn’t work very well together, causing issues such as this:

A common product is unavailable for the customer’s location, but it is displayed on the storefront as “In stock”, without the “Add to cart” button.

In CS-Cart 4.18.1, we analyzed the interaction between the add-ons and resolved their incompatibility. Common products are now displayed on the storefront based on the availability of product offers in the customer’s rate area (it is set through Warehouses and rate areas in CS-Cart). 

Increased Performance of Product Variations

Variations are products that are mostly similar to each other, but that differ in color, size, or some other feature. Previously the add-on had performance issues when the “Show all possible feature variants” setting was enabled. We have improved performance, and  now the product page loads faster, even with a high number of variations.

Additionally, we resolved an issue where the variation creation pop-up wouldn’t open if there were too many possible variations. Now, even with a large number of variations, you can still create them, but no editing is possible. It would be inconvenient to edit hundreds of variations manually in a pop-up. 

Several Storefront Issues Fixed

• Now, the current storefront is highlighted correctly in the storefront switcher on the layout page.
• The selected storefront remains unchanged after saving changes on the page. Clicking on the storefront in the bottom panel opens the currently selected storefront.
• Switching from the storefront to the admin panel while being on the product page now leads to the product editing page (as intended) rather than to the admin panel homepage.

SagePay Updated and Renamed to Opayo

For years, CS-Cart has provided SagePay as one of the built-in payment options. A while ago, SagePay was acquired by Elavon and renamed to Opayo. There have also been some technical changes on the Opayo side, which required an update on our end. CS-Cart 4.18.1 renames SagePay to Opayo and ensures that the payment method will continue working as before.

Ability to Limit File Size for Uploaded Images

You can now limit the file size for uploaded images. This can help you save up drive space and improve performance. To find the new setting called “Image file size”, go to Settings > General and switch to the Thumbnails tab. When someone tries to upload an image larger than the specified limit, they’ll receive a notification about exceeding it. 

This feature is especially useful for marketplaces, because not all sellers pay attention to image size. It also comes in handy for single-seller stores which have multiple admins and/or content managers.

• Added a new UPS integration to replace the old one
• Introduced the Onboarding section for our new users
• Enhanced the password recovery functionality 

Read about the rest of the improvements in the changelog.

As usual, we hand out upgrade packages in limited numbers for the first few weeks after the release. But then we lift that restriction. So if you don’t see this upgrade in your Upgrade Center yet, please check back later. If you use Multi-Vendor No-Code, you don’t need to worry about the upgrade – we will handle it for you.

Shipping Methods: New UPS Integration

UPS, or United Parcel Service, is a global package delivery and 3PL logistics provider. Starting from June 5, 2023, UPS no longer issues API access keys. It means that new CS-Cart users couldn’t set up a UPS integration. Older API keys will stop working next year, on June 4, 2024.

CS-Cart 4.17.2 brings a new UPS integration with OAuth support. It will allow anyone to set up and use a UPS shipping method. New CS-Cart users can now offer UPS, and existing users can easily upgrade their stores to version 4.17.2 and set up the new  UPS integration well in advance. 

Onboarding Section for New Admins

Our primary goal is to help our customers launch their businesses swiftly. The sooner you launch, the sooner you can validate your business idea, and the less money you’ll spend on it. That’s why we’ve added the Onboarding section to the admin panel. You can find it right on the Dashboard. 

The Onboarding section contains several steps that guide a new root admin through the basic functions of CS-Cart. These steps also give a list—albeit non-exhaustive—of what you might want to do before launch.

Password Recovery Improvements

We’ve made multiple enhancements to the password recovery process:

• You can now add Google reCAPTCHA to the password recovery page to protect against bots. 

• The password recovery email now contains the recovery link that will work for 15 minutes. 

Smaller Improvements and Bug Fixes

• Form Builder: We’ve fixed an issue that allowed adding variants for fields that shouldn’t have them (like “Text area”).
• Landing Pages from Tilda: Some specific blocks on Tilda pages no longer cause entire Tilda pages to be displayed incorrectly on the CS-Cart side. 
• Maps and Geolocation: Product pages now show the correct number of pickup points.

• PayPal: Now payments work correctly when the taxes are configured as “not included in price”.
• Stripe: The Stripe fee on the “Accounting” page in currencies without decimals (like Japanese yen) will be displayed correctly from now on.
• Order Fulfillment: We have fixed an issue when all vendors used fulfillment, the marketplace’s pickup points were not displayed on the list.
• Vendor-to-Admin Payments: Marketplace fees are now displayed correctly on the vendor panel.
• Privileges and Orders: Administrators can now add products to orders even when order creation is restricted by a user group.

• Mobile App:

• The features that you select for products on the product editing page now depend on the product’s category.

• When an Android app is launched for the first time, a permission for push notification is now prompted.

These are just the highlights of the improvements and bug fixes included in CS-Cart 4.17.2. Read more about the improvements in the changelog.

As usual, we hand out upgrade packages in limited numbers for the first few weeks after the release. But then we lift that restriction. So if you don’t see this upgrade in your Upgrade Center yet, please check the update page later. If you use Multi-Vendor No-Code, you don’t need to worry about the upgrade – we will handle it for you.

Let’s delve into the key points of this new version:

Integration with United States Postal Service updated

Recently USPS have merged some of their services into a single service called Ground Advantage. CS-Cart used to offer one of these merged services: USPS First-Class Package International Service. The shipping methods using this service have stopped working and need to be updated.

When you upgrade to CS-Cart 4.17.1, we’ll automatically change First-Class Package to Ground Advantage where applicable. If you can not upgrade to version 4.17.1 soon enough, our Customer Care can help you as part of their services.

P.S. Note that USPS First-Class Mail is not affected by this change, because USPS haven’t merged it into Ground Advantage. Only USPS First-Class Package is affected.

Seller data is now translatable

When your marketplace has customers from different countries, there may be a need to display vendor names and addresses in different languages. Previously, the vendor’s name and address were always in one language, while the description was not. It was unclear which fields could or could not be translated.

To address this issue, we improved multilingual support in CS-Cart 4.17.1. Now, when using multiple languages, it is clear which fields can be translated. We have marked them with this icon: .

Currently, these indicators have been added to the vendor’s page (in CS-Cart Multi-Vendor), as well as on product and category pages. We plan to extend this indication to all pages in the future.

Additionally, there is now the option to translate the vendor’s name, address, and city into other languages. These translations are only used for displaying to customers (for example, on the product page, in the shopping cart, or in documents). However, for automatic shipping cost calculation or in certain areas of the admin panel, the information is still taken from the language set for the vendor.

Multiple issues fixed in Stripe and Stripe Connect

Stripe and Stripe Connect are services that allow you to accept payments. Stripe works for transactions where one party gives the money, and one other party receives it. Stripe Connect is a multi-party payment system for marketplaces. In version 4.17.1, we’ve fixed multiple issues related to Stripe. Here are the issues that will no longer occur: 

• After a refund through Stripe Connect, CS-Cart Multi-Vendor will not consider that a seller still owes that money to the marketplace.

• When you configure Stripe Connect to transfer funds to vendors with a delay, payment methods like SEPA, Sofort, etc. will be able to transfer funds to vendors automatically at the right time.

• Stripe now receives an accurate order total for orders with zero-decimal currencies.

• After processing a refund for an order with promotions through Stripe, vendor balance will be accurately updated.

• Customers will no longer lose their cart contents if they enter their card’s CVC code incorrectly.

• Orders with issues during payment will now correctly end up with the “Failed” status, rather than “Open”.

Multiple improvements to Common Products

Common Products for Vendors is an add-on that allows you to create a single product base for your marketplace. Vendors simply choose which products they sell, and set the prices; and customers can easily compare offers from different vendors for the same product. Here are the improvements to Common Products we’ve made in version 4.17.1:

• The minimum price displayed next to a common product now considers catalog promotions that may be applied to some of the offers. If there’s a discount, you’ll also see the previous price. The discount is also correctly shown on the “On Sale” page now.
• In the Quick View window of a product, the displayed quantity of common product variations will be correct.

• Common products are now displayed correctly everywhere: on the category pages, when using filters (including filters by vendor’s location), and in vendors’ microstores. Price filter won’t break after adding a common product to cart.

• Previously, admins could turn a product into a common product while it was in moderation; this led to the product disappearing from all the lists. Now a vendor’s product can be made common only after moderation.

Entering the phone number has become more convenient for the customer

Now, when you enter the phone number, the country code is automatically filled in. This eliminates the need to manually enter the country code. If the number is entered incorrectly (e.g., an incomplete number), a warning will appear for numbers that don’t match the format.

In the new installations of CS-Cart 4.17.1, the new phone mask is used by default. However, if you upgrade from an older version, you’ll have to turn it on manually. To do this, go to “Settings > Appearance” and set the “Allowed phone numbers” to “Phone number with country selection”.

Google Fonts can now be hosted locally for GDPR compliance

In January 2022, a court in Munich, Germany, ruled that the use of Google Fonts violates the GDPR if fonts are pulled from Google servers. That way, Google could potentially learn who visited what site, even when people didn’t use their search engine to get there. 

This ruling has led to a curious side effect: apart from people genuinely concerned for their privacy, scammers are now looking for sites that don’t store Google Fonts locally. Some of our clients have already received demands for money (and threats to go to court otherwise) because of this.

We have addressed this issue by adapting our default themes, and providing guidelines for developers. In new CS-Cart 4.17.1 installations, Google Fonts will be stored locally in our default themes. And when you upgrade to version 4.17.1, CS-Cart will offer you to store the Google Fonts locally as well. We know for a fact that Unitheme 2, one of the most popular third-party themes for CS-Cart, already does that. If you use any other third-party theme, please contact the developers to find out if the theme is GDPR-compliant.

Logic of order placement changed

Previously, multiple failed attempts to place an order (for example, when the customer left the payment page and then returned) used the same order ID. Essentially, an order could be overwritten, but was listed in the log as deleted.

Now, every attempt to place an order doesn’t overwrite it, but rather leads to a new order with the “Failed” status. This keeps all the attempts to place an order visible to administrators.

Orders with the “Incomplete” status (assigned until the payment is confirmed by the payment processor) are now also searchable by their ID in the admin panel.

Adding products to orders in the admin panel has become easier

Sometimes, customers place orders over the phone, and administrators create the orders on the go in the admin panel. Now, when adding a product to an order, you can immediately see its availability and quantity. For common products, vendors are visible as well. All of this will make it easier to process orders placed over the phone.

Changes to the Upgrade Center

We have made several improvements to the Upgrade Center. You will likely notice many of them only when you decide to update to version 4.17.1.

Navigating the Upgrade Center has become more convenient. All updates are now uniformly named (title + new version number) and arranged correctly (first CS-Cart itself, then active add-ons, and then disabled add-ons). Every upgrade now has its own icon;filters by developer and add-ons status now appear in the right sidebar .

Information about your add-ons’ compatibility with the upcoming new version is now pulled from our Marketplace. This will help you plan your future updates. We have also enhanced the notification mechanism for available upgrades. Administrators who can install upgrades will see the info on the dashboard, and multiple bell notifications about upgrades will no longer accumulate.

PHP 8.1 support added

By the end of 2023, PHP 8.0 will reach its end of life. It will no longer receive security patches, potentially leaving its users vulnerable to various exploits. Eventually, newer versions of PHP replace older ones; CS-Cart has to follow suit, if only to work with the majority of modern web hosting services out of the box.

That’s why CS-Cart 4.17.1 supports PHP 8.1. To achieve this, we had to bump the minimum required PHP version from 7.1.0 to 7.2.5.

PayPal Commerce Platform is now easier to set up

PayPal Commerce Platform is one of the few multi-party payment systems, designed specifically for marketplaces. Customers make a single payment for their order, and the sum is split automatically between the marketplace and all the sellers involved. 

In CS-Cart Multi-Vendor 4.17.1, we’ve made it easier to start using PayPal Commerce Platform. Previously, you had to contact our Customer Care, and they would contact PayPal. Now there is a way to contact PayPal directly. You’ll see the instructions when you’re setting up the payment method.

Regional storefronts with automatic redirects are now indexed properly

The Ultimate edition of CS-Cart allows you to use “storefronts”—essentially, you can have a store or marketplace on multiple domains, with different content. This comes useful when you set up a regional version of the site (for example, like eBay does with ebay.com and ebay.de).

You can redirect customers to the storefront of their region, or let them select the preferred regional version. Previously, when you redirected customers by IP automatically, the non-default storefronts might not get indexed by Google. This problem has been fixed in version 4.17.1.

Now you can quickly find out the customer’s rate area

Rate areas are derived from parts of a customer’s address (such as region, city, postal code, etc.). Thanks to rate areas, you can set different shipping costs and delivery times based on the customer’s location. You can also disable certain shipping methods for specific locations.

The settings of a shipping method In the admin panel have a tab called “Test rate calculation”. Now, this tab includes information about the rate area associated with the entered address. This will help understand why certain delivery options are available or unavailable for specific customers.

These are just the highlights of the many improvements and bug fixes included in CS-Cart 4.17.1. Read more about the improvements in our changelog.