It has now been a couple of months since Zen Cart 1.5.4 was released and we have now handled enough upgrades to the new version to provide our insights on whether it is time to upgrade Zen Cart 1.5.4.
Let’s start with what is new in Zen Cart 1.5.4. The new version doesn’t include any major changes. Instead it includes bug fixes, minor improvements, and security improvements. You can find the full list of changes in the release announcement.
The only issue we have found so far during upgrades is that many addon modules don’t officially support Zen Cart 1.5.4 yet. For some modules they may not need any changes and their maintainer just hasn’t bumped the Zen Cart version supported. Others that modify core Zen Cart files will need to have updated versions of those files included, until they do that you can use those with 1.5.4 if you apply the changes they make to those files to the versions of the file include with 1.5.4. The lack of official support is more of an issue if the modules don’t yet support at least Zen Cart 1.5.3 since that version made some changes that can have significant impact for modules.
With the basics set out, below we provide on advice on whether it is time to upgrade depending on your current situation:
Running Zen 1.3.9, 1.3.8, or older
If you are still running Zen Cart 1.3.9, 1.3.8, or and even older version you are overdue for an upgrade at this point so you should probably go ahead with the upgrade now. While issues with modules and 1.5.4 could cause some issues, you are going to probably run into module issues that will have to be dealt during testing when upgrading from those versions to any version of Zen Cart 1.5.
Need to Be Using a PA-DSS Certified Version of Zen Cart
Prior to Zen Cart 1.5.4 the only version of Zen Cart to be PA-DSS certified was 1.5.0, so you were stuck on that version if you needed PA-DSS certified software for PCI compliance. That wasn’t ideal obviously, but now you can now upgrade and you might need to since the “certification spec expired at the end of 2013″ for 1.5.0.
Web Hosting Account Switching to PHP 5.4, 5.5, or 5.6
The number one reason we are hired do Zen Cart upgrades is that version currently being used is not compatible the version of PHP that the web server the website hosted on is being upgraded to. With the support for PHP 5.3 ending back in August web hosts should be moving to at least PHP 5.4 soon (though many web host are only now transitioning off of PHP 5.2 despite support ending in January of 2011). Zen Cart 1.5.4 is the second release to support PHP 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6 so anyone who is not using Zen Cart 1.5.3 and is moving to those versions of PHP should upgrade.
Running 1.5.0, 1.5.1, or 1.5.3
If you don’t need to upgrade for the new versions of PHP, don’t have an urgent need for an of the bug fixes or improvements, and use a lot of modules you may to want hold off until more modules are updated for Zen Cart 1.5.4. Otherwise, it would be a good idea to do upgrade now.