As flexible and powerful as the Ecommerce Templates shopping cart software is, inevitably some people are going to make custom edits to their code. This often means that they avoid updating so that they don't lose those custom edits and this can mean you miss out on important bug, security and other fixes and enhancements.

But updating a store with custom edits for minor releases can be a simple thing which should take a matter of minutes and this is how I do it. Firstly, you will need a copy of a File / Directory Compare utility. There are lots out there but I use "Beyond Compare" as it is just excellent. It is available here...
http://www.scootersoftware.com/

Once you've installed that, download the latest updater and copy that to a directory somewhere (but not to your local website directory).

Now, right click the updater folder in Windows Explorer and choose "Select Left Folder for Compare" from the menu. (Beyond compare creates this option in the Windows Explorer context menu when you install it.)

Now right click on the local copy of your store and choose "Compare to (Updater Folder Name)"

In this image below I've circled the menu where you can select the different comparison types. In this I choose "Show Differences but No Orphans" so you only get changed files, but not your local folder only files. Then highlight all files (<Ctrl>+A) and right click and choose "Compare Contents" and then "Start". You should then see just the files that have changed.



Double click on each one of the files in turn and review the change. If it's one of ours click the arrow to copy the selection to the right. If it's one of yours, don't.

That's it really. It certainly helps if you comment any changes you make in the code so that you can spot your changes easier but the whole process should really only take a few minutes.

To clarify a point or two, a minor release is where the last number changes like for instance from v6.1.1 to v6.1.5 but a major release is where any other number changes like from v6.1.0 to v6.2.0. This process is quite easy on a minor release as the changes do not normally span more than one file and there are simply less changes. Major releases are those that introduce new functionality however so the changes are more extensive and can cross files. It's still possible to use this system for major releases but I would personally do it the other way around and merge your changes into the new major release.

As with all software it's important to keep up to date. Don't miss out on important security, bug and efficiency updates just for a few changes in your scripts !

Vince

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Hi,

And for all you fellow Mac users out there I personally use TextWrangler from http://www.barebones.com/ to compare all my files during updates.

I also keep all custom edits listed in a text file and also comment them so they are easily identified.

Once I am happy with my edits I update my demo store first to test all is well before updating my live site.

Regards,

David

Hi David

I have been using Text Wrangler to edit my files with my new Mac also, similar to Notepad in Windows. I really do need to update, but I'm scared to lose my site since we've changed over to Macs in January. However, I don't see where you can compare files using it. Have I missed something or do I need to get comparison software from barebones.com?



~ Judy

Hi Judy,

If you click on 'Search' along the top menu you will see 'Find Differences...'
towards the bottom.
If you click on this it will bring up a window with two "Other' buttons next to Old and New. This is where you can select your two inccart.php files for example.

Once you have located these click the compare button in the bottom right and in the third window that should appear at the bottom it will show the lines with differences.

If you click on these lines it will highlight them in the two windows above so you can see the changes.

The other way is to select 'Compare two front Documents' which is under "Find Differences...' and this will compare the two documents you have already opened that are at the front on your monitor.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

David

Thank you so much. I've never even looked at all of that so I wasn't aware that I could do so much with this little program!



~ Judy

Hi Judy,

Not a problem.

To be honest I only use Text Wrangler for file comparisons.
If you want a good html editor for Mac you might want to give Taco HTML Edit a try
http://tacosw.com/

I use this when writing/editing code. The version I have doesn't do file comparison or have a lot of the features of Text Wrangler has but it's a good application if you only need the basic features.

They also have a 30-Day free trial.

Regards,

David

Hi David, I understand the comparison programs. Do you prefer using these to a program like Dreamweaver? If so why or what's better?

Michael

Thanks Vince, downloaded that great program. Just one question. Do you usually remove unnecessary code from updates, possibly such as this one in vsadmin/shipservice.php:

mysql_free_result($result);

The above bit of code is in my current version 6.2.1, and is not in the 6.2.5 update.

Should i just leave it in there or remove it?

www.voltahealth.com

Hi Rybred
To tell the truth there were a whole lot of updates in the vsadmin/shipservice.php script between those 2 versions so I would just update the whole script.

Vince

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will do, thanks