eShop PRO XL5 & eShop Ultra XL5 – Under Development

[webnetics]

We are currently working on a new version of eShop PRO and eShop Ultra, these new versions will only work on php5 and not on php4. The new versions will be called eShop PRO XL5 and eShop Ultra XL5.

The performance of the framework eShop PRO & eShop Ultra will improve by removing the php4 compatibility layer and by taking advantage of the new features php5 provides such as SimpleXML, DateTime, Iterators, and new core functions. The design and security of the Object Oriented framework will also improve by utilising the new features of the php5 Object Model.

Our new support policy for the XL5 series is to publish a release with new features every 6 months and to support each published release for 2 years. Removing the php4 compatibility layer now for the XL5 series allows us to focus only on php5 without the need to spend resources on php4 compatibility past its end of life cycle.

Because eShop PRO XL5 & eShop Ultra XL5 will be a substantial development effort, its progress will be broken into unique, defined stages. No time will be allotted to these stages because this is only to group different phases of development. We are hopping to have a new version out by the end of this year / January 2009.

Phase 1: php4 & MySQL 4 Conversion

• Upgrade the infrastructure of eShop to use php5 & MySQLi 5
• Remove php4 framework
• Incorporate new speed routines
• Remove unused php routines
• Speed up MySQL statements, with new indexing

Phase 2: System Structure

• Template Structure
• Ordering System
• Booking System (Ultra)
• Checkout System
• Add new features

Phase 3: Interface Redesign

• Redesign interfaces:
• Admin Control Panel
• Front-end
• AJAX where possible

Phase 4: Testing

• Beta Testing
• Release Candidates
• Final Release