Well it has been a while - so much for my resolution of updating the blog daily. I have a valid excuse though - this has been the best year ever for Ryan Design Studio, and I just haven't had the time. In this economy, I am very thankful for the workload. Lots to talk about, let's start with X-Cart itself.
New X-Cart release coming soon!
Rumor has it that the new version, 4.2, will be out in November. Now if this is a typical Qualiteam release, it means it won't be usable for a few months as they use customers as the bug testers, but from what we are hearing it is going to be a major update. It sounds like it will be CSS-based (finally) along with a dimension based shipping system and search engine friendly urls. Sounds very promising.
Whenever a new version comes out, we get flooded with e-mails asking if they should update to the latest version. In this case, it is going to be very expensive, as X-Cart has completely re-done the template system and shipping module, so it isn't just about adding a couple of patch files. Once we do a bit of testing on the new version, we'll report back as to what your options are if you do want to upgrade.
Ryan Design Studio video learning series - coming soon!
One of the things that has been on the long-term radar for a while has been a series of educational videos on the X-Cart system. As we all know, the manual is cumbersome at best, and doesn't really offer a good tutorial on how things work, and where things are in the back-end. We will be starting with a general overview of the administration area, and then we'll focus on specific areas (options, shipping, languages, etc). Look for the first video to be available here in the blog in the next week or so.
Site update
We just finished updating the site, as it was due for both a code and content overhaul. A few things to note:
- We are no longer offering 'static' web design as a service. We've really become e-commerce specialists and that is what we are going to focus on from here on out.
- Have a look at our new SEO page which gives a brief overview on SEO for those of you not familiar with it.
- A major update to the portfolio with 15 new projects listed
What's next?
In the next week, we'll be posting an updated list of recommended X-Cart add-ons, as there has been quite an increase in both vendors selling mods, and new mods from existing vendors. Also look for the videos mentioned above, I think these will prove very helpful to a lot of people.
Check back soon!