V1.11.0 is ready!

OpenCart™ Overclocked Edition v1.11.0 is finally here!

Nearly eight months since the last release and more than 430 commits making this version the most advanced to date. The main changes in v1.11.0 are based around four key objectives: code validation, new essential features, latest web standards and the GDPR legislation coming into play on the 25th of May 2018.

Code validation:
As the OpenCart™ Overclocked Edition grows, the online world around it grows even faster. Speed is more than ever the essence as mobile shopping is becoming more popular. A clean validated code is the quickest way to make shop pages load faster, which is quite important when ordering online using a phone or tablet. It also insures that all browsers will be displaying content in a similar way. Overclocked Edition was previously relying only on SensioLabsInsight to do this job but from the beginning, the objective for v1.11.0 was to push the code quality checks much further. This is where Codacy comes into play. Codacy uses multiple code checkers (8 in the case of Overclocked Edition) to validate PHP, CSS, SQL, JS, Json and Html. With all this deep checking going on, you can imagine how the first few scans did look like! Initially more than 2500 code irregularities suddenly came about! One by one, every single one of them was corrected, straight-away making v1.11.0 the most bug-fixed version to date!

New essential features:
From the beginning, OpenCart™ lacked some essential features other shopping cart had by default, relying strongly on the community to provide answers through free or commercial add-on extensions. However it became quite clear to many users that these features were so important that they should be part of the core code. OpenCart™ Overclocked Edition already had many of these features integrated (vQmod, One Page Checkout, ...) but this latest release has even more! These include: a new Admin User Log, a new Abandoned Cart report (with follow-up email and order recovery form), a new Customer Wishlist report, a new Admin Notification drop-down and a new Search by Colour module!

Latest Web Standards:
Mostly Javascript and jQuery dependencies. The most noticeable changes have to be the use of the latest jQuery v3.3.1 and the latest CKEditor v4.9.2. The main objective here again was to improve overall speed and page loading times so secondary scripts are now being called in the footer instead of the header as before. Also more features now share the same jQuery plugin, among them the Slideshow module and the Banner module now both use jQuery FlexSlider2 plugin. This helps greatly with loading times and improves responsiveness as FlexSlider2 is pretty awesome! Almost all other Javascript, jQuery and PHP libraries (like DomPDF and PHPExcel) have been updated or improved.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
This new EU regulation is the most important change for online business this year. If you haven't yet heard about GDPR then you should be concerned because it will affect every single one of us. It is basically protecting the individual personal data by classing it as personal property, with all that this implies. It is far stricter than the already old EU Cookie Law and has far more consequences if compliance is not achieved.
Among the main points, customers data such as the obvious Name, Address, Telephone, Age, Gender, and so on ... and the less obvious ones like IP Address and Geographic Location, should be fully available to view, print or download at anytime. Also customers must now have the ability to Delete their account if they wish to do so.
Also if your web pages are accessing some remote content, such as Google map, Youtube videos or any other remote iframe, customers must be presented with some kind of clear warning so they can be made aware of the external content, the possible safety risks and the fact that the store owner does not have full control over the content.
OpenCart™ Overclocked Edition v1.11.0 addresses all these requirements and should be fully compliant with GDPR.

All in all, this latest version has to be the safest, cleanest, fastest and the easiest version published to date!
One more thing! There is one person out there that deserves a big thank you. This person has been scrutinizing my coding since Christmas, making some wise suggestions and reporting every imperfections in the last five months. This person has been pushing my coding skills to their limits and challenged me to come-up with answers. So thank you Tangol, great work, this version is as much yours than it is mine.

OpenCart™ Overclocked Edition v1.11.0 is now available to download. Enjoy!
 

15/05/2018