What’s New in Zen Cart v1.3.9?
Many improvements and bugfixes are included in v1.3.9 since v1.3.8, including the following:

• PHP 5.3.x compatibility
• PCI scan improvements to prevent commonly-reported false-positives
• SSL-detection improvements
• Session Handling improvements for shared-SSL configurations to deal with IE-specific quirks
• Session-Handler improvements: closing when done, removed redundant start, etc
• Search improvements
• Hack-attempt detection improvements
• Add .htaccess for /images/ folder, and security updates to many others as well
• Canonical URL support added for product pages and product listings. See /includes/init_includes/init_canonical.php
• Developer Toolkit Improvements (smarter searches, case-sensitive options, etc)
• USPS module updated to RateV3 API and includes all updates posted to April 2010
• PayPal UK - 3D-Secure support added
• PayPal micropayments support added
• Added CURL processing for PayPal IPN handling in case fsockopen() is disabled or failing
• Various updates to PayPal, Linkpoint (now renamed to FirstData) and Authnet Payment modules
• Split tax line support integrated
• Added per-EZ-page stylesheet support
• Fix ISO country/currency errors in default SQL file (old countries removed, etc)
• Fixes/updates/additions of various notifier calls
• MySQL 6-alpha preliminary compatibility
• Updates to spiders.txt file for stronger efficiency and more up-to-date data
• Improvements to configure.php file read-only detection (automatically sets to read-only if found writable, and permissions allow it)
• Various performance improvements, including freeing up wasted memory to make things run more lean
• PHP error logging automatically enabled by default, since errors are not displayed to the browser (for security reasons) (Log cleanup can be done from admin side via Store Manager)
• Turn off autocomplete on cc-number fields so browsers don’t store/retrieve that information
• Spam slamming via tell-a-friend is now throttled
• Admin-login-slamming protection - added delays to prevent brute-force password attacks

• Add Items to Cart (using Ajax, no page refresh)
  This enhancement brings Zen Cart up to speed with the other open source e-commerce platforms
• Edit Items in Shopping Cart (including attributes)
  One of the major downfalls of Zen Cart is that your customers couldn’t edit the items with attributes in their shopping cart; they would have to delete the item and add it again. That is no longer the case (thanks to Alex Branning).

This new module “records all credit card information passed through the Authorize.NET payment modules” and includes an administrative section that allows the store owner to “search for credit card information by credit card number, name on card, security code and Zen Cart customer ID.”

This screenshot was included in the promotion material the Branning Group sent us:

You can learn more and purchase the module here: http://www.branninggroup.com/zen-cart-log-authorizenet-credit-card.php

I recently published LetterheadStudios.com a web site selling professional clipart using on-site credits as the currency to purchase the art. I wanted to walk you through the steps I took, the problems I encountered and what you need to know to make credits work for your Zen Cart store.

Alex goes through the five steps he took to make this happen; it’s a great read if you’re looking to use credits on your Zen Cart store.

Dear Zen Cart Users and Supporters

We would like to apologize for the lack of updates regarding the progress of V2.0 and of course the delay in releasing the Beta.

While refactoring and testing the changes to core code we decided that there were some fundamental flaws in the legacy code, especially related to how tax calculations were carried out in various places but especially in the Shopping Cart class.

The shopping cart class was scheduled for a rewrite in a future release (Checkout rewrite) however it was felt that these flaws in the legacy code really needed to be addressed before the beta release.

This has obviously meant a delay in the release, but we hope you will find the improvements worthwhile, especially those people struggling with niggling rounding problems, tax calculation discrepancies etc.

We don’t have a revised release date yet.

From BranningGroup.com: We have been working with Zen Cart for three years and have modified every piece of the Zen Cart platform at one time or another. We have been modified the ordering process, implementing templates, integrating stores with external suppliers/order fulfillment, installing modules and writing custom code. We are proud to announce that the combined gross of the all the Zen Cart stores we developed this year was $4,000,000 last month (April 2009 at the time of this posting) — proving that the Branning Group knows what it takes to succeed in these tough times.
The Branning Group is located in Southern California

Branning Group Custom Modules:

	Zen Cart Gift Registry The Branning Group has developed a gift registry (wish list) plug-in for the Zen Cart shopping system. This registry isn’t hosted off-site, all of the data and code is on YOUR server under YOUR control!
	Zen Cart Google Optimization It’s very difficult to get all of your products indexed in Google because of the Zen Cart paging structure and their linking system. We have come up with a clever solution to make sure all of your products and categories are indexed.
	Zen Cart Mobile Using this module all users accessing your web site from a mobile phone will see a mobile-compatible web page. This page is easily editable using the Define Pages editor, and may save you a customer!
	Social Networking Distribution Tool This plug-in gives your visitors a one-click option for sharing your products with their friends. Clients have seen a large number of unique visitors after installation
	Store Locator (International) This module gives your visitors all the locations of your store(s) within a certain radius, and includes an approximate distance of travel and a link to directions from Google Maps.
	Clinch the Deal This module allows you to make a personalized sales pitch to a visitor viewing a product page with a coupon that encourages them to save “XX%” by acting in the next “XX minutes”. This module does the selling for you, it’s a great tool!
	Autoresponder This module was built to do the selling for you; it provides automatic up-sell, after sales service, sends surveys and makes recommendations based on previous purchases!
	Custom Code Do you want functionality for your store that you haven’t seen anywhere else? Request a free quote for your project, we’ll get back to you by the next business day.

Basic Features of the Zen Cart Gift Registry:

1. User creates registry (account tied to Zen Cart Customers table)
2. User can edit registry information
3. Visitors can search for registries to purchase from
4. Add products to your registry with one click
5. Desired product attributes are saved in registry
6. “Print” button on registry detail page for an easy shopping listInstallation, customization of look and feel, and custom programming is available.

Order Tracking From Registries:

1. Desired quantity decreased
2. Track who bought what
3. Timestamp of purchases
4. Customer can see purchased items
5. Customer can note what items were purchased offline

Administration:

1. Search for registries
2. List all registries
3. Delete registry
4. View registry detail
5. Edit individual registries

You can learn more about this Zen Cart gift registry module at http://www.zencartregistry.com

05/27/2009 - UPDATE DIRECTLY FROM THE ZEN CART TEAM

If you have moved your store over from another platform to Zen Cart 2.0.0 and you’d like to share your experience, please leave a comment at the end of this post.

Note: A successful upgrade is achieved by copying as much of your current site to the new platform as possible. If you had to start from scratch then you didn’t upgrade your site, you started over! We want to avoid that at all costs!