Hello
 
This is excellent news :)
 
I was very pleased to see the email newsletter from Viart pointing to the Beta release of long awaiting Viart 4.
 
 
Excellent work Viart Team

Good News..
 
However I'm a little confused...
 
...are Viart 4.0 and the long awaited 3.7 the same thing?
 
Has 3.7 been upgraded (in name) to 4.0.... or is this beta release a testing ground for the next release after 3.7??
 

Viart 4 is a completely revamped version, built on 100% XHTML compaint, i hope.
 
Its a Major Release.

I must commend Viart team for releasing a Beta version for those who wish to test out the system and report any bugs before the official stable release.
 

woot! I told you I would be back! Congrats Viart Team!!!

Well, at least I am pleased that Viart is now the good guy again.

Hi all,
 
Since the new ViArt version is quite different from its predecessors, we've decided to call it ViArt 4.0 instead of 3.7.
 
Hope you guys like this new Avatar!!
 

 
Best regards,
Ravs
ViArt Support

Hi ViArt Support,
 
Can you provide an indication as to the effort that will be required to convert current shop templates for use in v4?
 
Will they be up-converted in some way during upgrade of the application, or do we all need to upgrade our templates by taking them back to our template providers for additional customising and associated costs?

I applaud the move to a div based layout, but why are they being called frames? We all shook our heads in disbelief when we read something about 4.0 using frames, but were elated to find it wasn't true.

how can i download it to test?

Here is the link for testing only, not recommended for updating your site yet:
 
http://www.viart.com/viart_4_0_beta_is_now_available_for_download.html

Very disappointed ..there is no new template V4 ..!
 
the new template for admin panel is very good looks Web 2.0.
 
We need new default template for end users too.

I'm impressed with v4 and so far the beta seems pretty robust. It's nice to see the back end has been tidied up, that should enable more functionality for non-developer users.
 
Suggestions:
The front end templates still look like they were done by techies, not by skilled user interface designers. A reasonable solution would be to copy a basic clean, simple, and well designed theme that could be extended and configured. I think Opencart has once of the best clean designs around, I'm sure it's been copied by many carts (Interspire, Magento, Summer come to mind). I thinks it's close to ViArt default, probably the best basic theme to duplicate.
 
Also the front end templates should be tested on 800x500 and up screen sizes. Many textboxes don't don't fit the left and right columns.
 
Bugs:
Haven't seen many - that's great!
 
1) Canada Post Shipping module does not work out of the box. I seem to remember this was a problem in prior versions, tech support was able to fix it, perhaps the fix did not make it into the final.
 
2) Admin login loses track of the user just after the first admin login. It asks you to login again, then it's fine.

Have you reported these bugs to support? If so could you add them to
http://www.viart.com/beta_v4_bugs_already_reported.html
please.

I am reported 1 bug to the support
 
Do you want me to report the bugs ?

If you could log reports to support on
http://www.viart.com/beta_v4_bugs_already_reported.html
it means we dont duplicate support tickets if we come across the same bug.
Many thanks.

hmm, but i think the viart team mentioned on the beta release news:
 
--------------
Any feedback on the latest changes or suggestions to improve the software can be sent at https://www.viart.com/support
---------------
 
That is why i didnt post it on the forum, but sent the bug report directly to them.

I posted this earlier, but thought I would repeat the question because an answer is important for those of us considering migrating up from 3.6 to v4. And we have to know the time, technical, and cost requirements to do this upgrade. So here goes again...
 
----------------------------------------------------
 
Hi ViArt Support,
 
Can you provide an indication as to the effort that will be required to convert current shop templates for use in v4?
 
Will they be up-converted in some way during upgrade of the application, or do we all need to upgrade our templates by taking them back to our template providers for additional customising and associated costs?

Five5, have you also put that as a support ticket to Viart? No doubt you will post their answer as, quite right, this is a key concern.
 
Also I am interested to know from those who are able to test whether css files are easier to use with v4?
 
Chris

Five5, do open a support ticket, i posted 2 bugs and they were fixed, though 1 was due to the limitation as the full implementation is still left.
 
 
 
I am trying to port the exact theme of OpenCart to Viart v4.
 
Working with CSS is the same as before, its quite easy.
 
I dont know if they were difficult to work with before ?

Hi Guys.
 
I thought since Ravs from Viart popped into join the thread, we could have a public conversation about it here for all to read.
 
I will open the ticket instead I guess, and report any info I get.

Here is part of the response from ViArt Support.
 
For customers who didn't change any files and used one of the default ViArt's layouts the upgrade will be easy and won't cause any problems. Those who have their own individual design will have to convert the design onto the div structure... ViArt offered to do this at a cost.
 
And those who have programming changes will have to transfer them on the new version for additional fee which would be estimated separately per client depending on the kind of changes he has.
 
The good news is there won't be such costly upgrades anymore because the main global changes are already done and the new CMS system allows easier blocks management. Please note, we are going to release an article soon with recommendations about how to change templates, styles and blocks. By following our advise starting from version 4.0 all your next upgrades will consist simply from uploading the new files and clicking the upgrade database button.

Thanks for posting the reply , Five5

Ibn,
 
I had a brief look over the css for the default template, I think an opencart clone could be made by altering the white stylesheets from that theme.
 
If you need help testing or otherwise, let us know.
 
We're going to look at doing a simple smart/iphone theme too.

Excellent feature release for v4.0.1
http://www.viart.com/viart_4_0_1_beta_is_available_for_download.html
 
 
I really love both the new features which were implemented:
 
1). Zoom In feature
2). Ajax to add products
 
 
to the Viart Team.

I have testing both the new features in 4.0.1 and confirm that they are working fine.