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Ecommerce Templates > How to update your store
The updaters are free for the first 6 months and will then cost an extra $44.95 if you wish to continue or $59.95 for 12 months. There is no obligation to continue using the updaters but they will add extra functionality to your store as well as providing any crucial security fixes. You can always pick up the latest updater here by adding the email address you originally purchased your store with to the field there. Should your email address have changed then please let us know so we can update your records. If you are not sure which version you are currently running then you can check the number on your main admin page. The updaters will not change anything in your design but will update your vsadmin and inc files. If you have made custom changes there, you are advised to make a copy of those files first as they may be overwritten. Updaters are cumulative so it is not necessary to update with each release.
Please follow the instructions very carefully as if you fail to copy over ALL the files in the updater your store is likely to throw up an error or two.
To receive automatic email notification of the latest updater releases, please subscribe to the updater forum where you will also find the list of recent additions.
We recommend that you back up your site and database before running the updater or when making any major changes to your site.
In Version 6.5 we introduced the css based shopping cart and search layout. We also made the forms on the following pages css based, affiliates, client login, donations, gift certificates, orders status and tracking. It means that if you are updating from a previous version you will need the file called ectcart.css which provides all the css formatting for the various checkout steps, the search form and aforementioned pages.
In Version 6.6 we added more css classes to the file ectcart.css and included the file in the updater to streamline the process. We suggest adding the css file to all your store pages as for example the mini-login and captcha forms will need the new classes.
In Version 6.9.3 we moved a lot of the store javascript to an external file. This greatly enhances store performance and aids with SEO. For that reason you will need to upload the file ectcart.js to the js folder and add this line to all your store pages, somewhere before the closing </head> tag
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/ectcart.js"></script>
Please read our forum post before making any changes to the css.
To update your store to the latest version, follow the steps below. We recommend uploading files via a standalone FTP program like Filezilla (free).
Make sure you run updatestore.asp or updatestore.php in your browser. (This can be done several times if necessary with no adverse effects).
Make sure ALL files have been copied from the updater download to the server. You can check yourself by comparing the dates of the files on the server with the date you carried out the update. Do use a FTP program rather than using Expression Web or Dreamweaver to upload the updater files. Also make sure you have your FTP program set to overwrite existing files or notify on overwriting existing files and agree to do so.
Make sure any text changes you have made in the language file have been copied to your includes file (more information).
If you experience errors after updating the most likely reason is because not ALL the files have been copied over from the updater to your server. A simple way to check is to login onto your site via FTP and check the dates on all the files in the vsadmin and inc folders. Updating the store a second or third time will do no harm at all.
Also make sure you have a copy of the two custompayproc files in the vsadmin/inc/ folder.
Make sure you have run updatestore.asp or updatestore.php in your browser.
Make sure that if you have a second vsadmin folder, either on the https connection or as a security precaution, that you have also updated that one as well to the latest version.
If your admin pages are not displaying correctly it may be that the old css file has cached so you can force a refresh using CTRL+Refresh.
If the add to cart pop up or cart page itself is not displaying correctly, make sure you have uploaded the latest version of ectcart.css to the /css/ folder and that all your store pages include the line
<link href="css/ectcart.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
If you are running 6.9.3 or above and the add to cart function does nothing, make sure you have uploaded the file ectcart.js to the /js/ folder and that all your store pages include the line
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/ectcart.js"></script>
This is particularly relevant for users who have made custom modifications to the the vsadmin and inc files and are concerned about the effects of running an updater.
When an updater is released you can see if it's a major or minor update by the format of the update version number. The last digit changes it's a minor version update. For a minor version there are no changes to the database and the changes are normally localized to any one particular script. This means that (although not recommended) you can probably get away with just updating individual scripts if you really need to.
When the second number changes (for instance from v5.1.x to v5.2.x) then it's a major version update. Normally for these major updates there are changes to the database and changes in one file are dependant on changes in other files. So there is no way you are going to get away with just changing a few select files. If you regularly need to update around MODs we can recommend this software http://www.scootersoftware.com/ for making file comparisons.
If for any reason you need to check your version number from the files open incfunctions.asp / incfunctions.php in a text editor and the exact build number will be at the top of the code. The last updated date of the css file ectcart.css is also included in the ectcart file.
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