Public Beta Testing of X-Cart 5 Announced

Hello, folks!

Several years ago we announced the developing of X-Cart 5. Our team has done a great job to create a completely new platform: with X-Cart 5 you will enjoy quick and easy upgrades, flexibility in customization and modern UI.

It was a very long road. Initially released as LiteCommerce 3, with a new core and basic ecommerce functionality, it was sufficient to launch a simple online store, but it was not very rich of features at that time. We were open to comments and suggestions of the users which helped to make it better. Further it was released as a cloud solution (aka X-Cart Next) – to collect the feedback from real merchants – and we kept improving it. Another leap forward (we created a powerful tool to add attributes and new modern variants model, adapted the mobile skin and made the editing process as easy as it can be), and the platform is now mature enough to be introduced as X-Cart 5 Beta – Downloadable.

Tester’s Guide, or Pay Special Attention To

X-Cart 5 is an e-commerce solution, which means that you may want to test basic ecommerce functionality: user registration, adding products to cart, checkout procedure, shipping and payment integrations, managing the products. But these are the features which you will easily find without our hints, so I won’t waste your time on them now, Instead, let me please show the features we’re especially proud of.

• Mobile skin out of the box
• Modern UI
• Powerful attributes
• Four Color Schemes
• REST API
• Easy upgrades
• Integration with Drupal and WordPress
• Support of X-Cart 4

Mobile skin out of the box

Modern UI

We pay attention to detail. For the sake of better customer experience we implemented drag-n-drop adding to cart and SocialLogin; another tiny but pleasant feature is changing the quantity with a mouse scroll. Store administrator will like inline editing. And they both will for sure appreciate Instant search.

Powerful attributes

Allowed to implement such ‘hot’ features as product variants, products comparison and filters. Global and Class-specific attributes can also serve as ‘Extra fields’ (term is taken from X-Cart 4 glossary) for particular groups of products.

Four Color Schemes

Free “Color schemes” module adds 3 themes to the base X-Cart 5 design, so the admin can opt between Fashion, Digital, Noblesse and Default.

Seeing is believing

If you’re getting tired of all this milk-and-water (press-release is a boring reading!), it’s time to act. Take a look at Demo or visit Marketplace to see available extensions…Or, if you aren’t falling asleep so far, read further. 🙂 There will be no screenshots, you will find some technical details and a FAQ section instead.

REST API

This module should be especially interesting for those developers who need to integrate X-Cart 5 with 3rd party systems.

Due to the REST API module you will be able to securely work with the store data without direct access to the server. It accepts HTTP requests and returns responses in XML and JSON format, as well as JSONP for JavaScript applications. In addition to the module itself we provide the library which will speed up the creation of PHP applications using REST API.

Easy upgrades

OOP, modular architecture, Doctrine 2 ORM, MVC – these words mean paradise for a developer and low maintenance cost for a merchant. And what we’re especially happy to report, the upgrades will be as easy and quick as never before. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy – yes, this is about upgrades which used to be such a headache in old good X-Cart 4, given it’s heavily customized.

Integration with Drupal and WordPress

Who doesn’t know Drupal? True CMS, we like it, we work with it and we give you a convenient tool to use it, too.

Drupal integration gives you access not only to this Content Management System, but also to tons of extensions and add-on modules for it: forums and blogs, newsletters and comments, WYSIWYG, Google Analytics and more! Single customers base, ability to manage X-Cart blocks with Drupal tools are among the benefits of this module, available in all packages.

Integration with WordPress is another huge step forward. Content is the king (read 3:1 in favour of blogging!), and the blog is comfy a palace for this king. You no longer need to look for the Best WordPress Shopping Cart plugin, as we have just rolled it out ;).

$15K to encourage your participation!

So, welcome to public beta testing of X-Cart 5. We are looking forward to your feedback, comments and bug reports. Developer or merchant, we’re equally interested in your participation, and hope you also want to contribute into making the product better.

We are VERY interested in thorough and productive testing. Loyal and experienced or young and ambitious, X-Cart Community leader or a developer who is just discovering X-Cart, everyone is welcome. That’s why we have a special $15K fund to encourage you : 30 most active beta-testers will be awarded with X-Cart licenses!

You are welcome to share your feedback in our forum

Support of X-Cart 4

All these news do not mean that we are going to discontinue X-Cart 4 after X-Cart 5 release. We know that you guys love it, use it for many projects and we are happy to supply you with old good X-Cart 4.

We will continue to support it and release new versions of X-Cart 4 for at least 5 years and X-Cart 4.6.1 release will be shipped shortly.

FAQ

• Where can I download X-Cart 5 and play with DEMO?
• Where should I leave feedback or send bug-report?
• When will the official release be announced?
• What will happen to X-Cart 4?
• What is the pricing model of X-Cart 5?
• How can I upgrade my X-Cart 4 to X-Cart 5?
• How much does license upgrade cost?
• Should I upgrade to X-Cart 5 straight away after the official release?
• What about possible license exchange for the users of LiteCommerce 3?
• Do you have v4 vs v5 comparision chart?
• Where is the documentation for X-Cart 5?
• Does X-Cart 5 have API?
• What are the conditions for developers and web-studios?

Where can I download X-Cart 5 and play with DEMO?

You can download the distributional package here. Use “xc5beta” license key to activate it for the beta-testing period.

Also, you can try the online Demo located at https://www.x-cart.com/internal/demo.html

Where should I leave feedback or send bug-report?

Please post your bug reports and ideas on our forum.

When will the official release be announced?

It depends on the results of beta testing, your activity, ideas and issues reported. But we expect that it happens in a couple of months.

What will happen to X-Cart 4?

We will continue to support it and release new versions of X-Cart 4 for at least 5 years. There are a lot of fans of this platform and developers who use it for their business, that’s why we are NOT going to discontinue it after the release of X-Cart 5.

The nearest release of X-Cart 4, version 4.6.1 is going to be on time.

What is the pricing model of X-Cart 5?

A basic package will cost $99.00 per license.

An advanced one will cost $495.00 per license.

With the first one you can start selling, with the second you will have full set of tools which help to promote and increase sales (coupons, discounts, etc). And both of them will have Mobile skin out the box. You will be able to study these packages – and features they include – a bit later, so far we should focus on beta-testing.

The price includes a lifetime license and one year of free upgrades. After the 1st year, If you want to keep receiving the upgrades, you will need to pay the annual subscription fee, $99.95.

How can I upgrade my X-Cart 4 to X-Cart 5?

We’re currently developing a basic data migration script (It should be finished by the stable release of X-Cart 5). However because of totally different architecture your custom design and custom features will need to be transferred manually.

How much does license upgrade cost?

Below are the rules of license exchange:

• from X-Cart Gold v4 to X-Cart 5 – $299.95
• from X-Cart GoldPlus/Pro v4 to X-Cart 5 – $99.95
• from X-Cart Platinum v4 to X-Cart 5 – for free. But as long as X-Cart 5 doesn’t have multi-vendor functionality we recommend that you stay with v4. Once we release the multivendor feature, we will notify you additionally.

All those customers who order migration by our team will get the license exchange for free.

Should I upgrade to X-Cart 5 straight away after the official release?

It’s up to you. I recommend that you focus on business goals, not technical ones. If you have a successful online store, and want some minor changes, it’s better just to implement a couple of little tweaks and keep an eye on security – I mean applying the security patches in timely manner.

However, if you decide to make complete redesign, improve customers’ experience or get some unique features of the new platform – it’s time to upgrade.

What about possible license exchange for the users of LiteCommerce 3?

We love all our LC3 customers. In appreciation of their merits ( they really helped us!) we give a free license upgrade to those who contact us and request it.

Do you have v4 vs v5 comparision chart?

Yes, we do. Here is what you’re looking for.

Where is the documentation for X-Cart 5?

The help portal (English), developers documentation (English) and YouTube channel with examples (Russian) should answer most of your questions. But if not, please ask via the forum, our technicians will be happy to help.

Does X-Cart 5 have API?

Yes, there are API for PHP developers and REST API module.

What are the conditions for developers and web-studios?

We are looking for solution partners who will use the new platform for their projects and glad to share the license fee. Stay tuned for details!