CS-Cart 3 Upgrade FAQ
Hi,
We receive many questions about the upcoming release of CS-Cart 3 and today I would like to cover some of them concerning the upgrade procedure and in particular about Pro-to-Ultimate edition upgrade.
General Questions
Q: After CS-Cart 3 is released, how can I upgrade my CS-Cart to this version?
A: CS-Cart 3 is a major release with many modifications, so the upgrade process will be a bit trickier than it was for previous versions.
Unlike before, it will be impossible to upgrade CS-Cart to version 3 via the Upgrade center in the admin panel. Instead, it will be required to install CS-Cart 3 separately and then transfer the data from CS-Cart 2.2.4 to it.
In order to do it we will provide a special add-on for CS-Cart 2.2.4 that will allow you to pack the whole store database and images into a special archive.
CS-Cart 3 will have a pre-installed Export/Import Stores add-on that will be used for importing store data from such archives.
Also, if both CS-Cart 3 and 2.2.4 are installed on the same server, you will be able to perform data transfer without creating a transition archive: CS-Cart 3 will be able to connect directly to MySQL database of CS-Cart 2.2.4 and gather all data automatically.
Q: My CS-Cart store is older than 2.2.4. Will I be able to upgrade to 3 too?
A: Yes, you will, but it will be required to upgrade your CS-Cart up to version 2.2.4 first, then follow the instructions above.
Q: My current CS-Cart installation is populated with products and other data. Will this data be available in my store after upgrading to CS-Cart 3?
A: Yes, it will. Products, categories, users, etc. will be available after the upgrade just as they were before. No store data will be lost, because the database structure will be just converted to the one of CS-Cart 3. This also applies to upgrading from Professional to Ultimate edition.
Q: Will my storefront design remain the same after the upgrade?
A: CS-Cart 3 introduces a new and more powerful block manager and a whole new approach to page structuring.
The design templates of CS-Cart 2.x will be incompatible with this new structure, but the content of the blocks and their positions will be transferred — they will just look differently.
Initially CS-Cart 3 will have only 1 new storefront skin, and we will include more free ones as soon as possible after the release.
Q: Will my custom add-ons for CS-Cart 2.x work in CS-Cart 3?
A: Custom-made add-ons for version 2.x will need some revisioning to work in CS-Cart 3. We will publish a detailed guide to add-on transferring on our site. UPD: The guide is available in the Developer Documentation section on our site.
Q: Will the new upgrade be available on the date of CS-Cart 3 release?
A: We will do our best, but most probably it will be available some time later.
Upgrading CS-Cart 2.2.4 Professional to CS-Cart 3 Ultimate
Q: I have 4 CS-Cart Professional installations and I want to switch to Ultimate Edition to have the ability to manage all my stores via a common admin panel. What should I do and how will the upgrade work in this case?
A: First of all, it is required to buy the upgrade of 1 Professional license to 1 Ultimate license pack (that includes 1 admin and 2 storefront Ultimate licenses) that will cost $455 after Ultimate Edition release, but at this moment it is available with $100 discount (unfortunately, there is no ability just to exchange Professional licenses to appropriate number of Ultimate ones).
Then, you will have the ability to exchange the rest of your Professional licenses to Ultimate storefront ones at no additional cost via CS-Cart Help Desk. As a result, you will have 1 admin and 5 storefront Ultimate licenses that will give you the right to make 1 Ultimate installation with 5 independent storefronts (the 5th storefront is a bonus).
Then, it will be required to move data from these 4 stores (based on CS-Cart Professional) to one Ultimate installation.
Moving data from CS-Cart 2.2.4 Professional to CS-Cart 3 Ultimate is similar to upgrading it to CS-Cart 3 Pro – make a special store archive and then deploy it in Ultimate or specify a path to a CS-Cart 2.2.4 store (if it resides on the same server).
Q: I want to pre-order an upgrade from Professional to Ultimate, but I won’t need CS-Cart Ultimate right after it is released. Will it be possible to activate the license upgrade later and continue using the Professional license until I am ready to move to Ultimate?
A: Yes, it will be possible to postpone the edition upgrade for not longer than 6 months and use your Professional license during this period.
If there are any questions on the matter of CS-Cart upgrading, please ask here in comments, or use our Twitter, Facebook.