Unpacking the New Features in nopCommerce 4.60
Open source ecommerce solution.
nopCommerce is a modern, highly acclaimed open-source e-commerce platform built on the ASP.NET CORE framework. Renowned for its flexibility and scalability, nopCommerce can effectively manage large product catalogs while maintaining optimal performance. Its core strength is versatility, offering multi-store and multi-vendor functionality, a wide array of themes and plugins, and a clean, well-structured source code that promotes developer-friendly customization.
Leveraging the benefits of ASP.NET Core, nopCommerce is cross platform, provides superior performance, easy scalability, and seamless integration with popular software and applications, including various payment gateways and shipping carriers. Its robust security features, such as two-factor authentication and GDPR compliance tools, are regularly updated to meet the latest security standards and ecommerce trends.
NopCommerce community
What sets nopCommerce apart is its active and supportive community of developers and users who contribute to its continuous improvement. This community-driven approach, coupled with the platform's comprehensive feature set and the openness that comes with being open-source, solidifies nopCommerce as an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes seeking to build or enhance their online presence.
NopCommerce team
The nopCommerce team is a dynamic and highly skilled group of professionals dedicated to continually improving and refining the nopCommerce platform. Comprised of expert developers, the team is committed to delivering a robust, flexible, and user-friendly eCommerce solution. Their dedication is evident in the platform's regular updates, innovative features, and seamless performance.
NopCommerce 4.60 launched
Version 4.60 was realesed at the end of 2022 and is the most recent version of the open-source eCommerce platform. Although this version does not introduce any major features, its focus on architecture improvements, source code refactoring, bug fixes, and other enhancements warrant a deep dive into our favorite ecommerce platform. In this article, we unpack the novelties in nopCommerce 4.60 and how they relate to nopCommerce themes, nopcommerce plugins and nopCommerce development in general.
1. NopCommerce now runs on .NET 7
This feature is surely going to be appreciated by the nopCommerce community. nopCommerce 4.60 marks the platform's migration to .NET 7, the most recent version of the .NET platform making it the only open source ecommerce solution that runs on .NET 7. This pivotal upgrade reflects the platform's commitment to staying abreast of the latest technologies and facilitating smoother, faster, and more efficient online operations for ecommerce businesses and developers alike.
It's important to note that nopCommerce 4.60 requires Visual Studio 2022 (17.4.0) or above, .NET 7 SDK (7.0.101), and ASP.NET Core Runtime (v7.0.1) to operate seamlessly.
2. NopCommerce Integrations
nopCommerce 4.60 has brought forward several new integrations, including PayPal Zettle and Cybersource, enabling businesses to provide diverse, secure, and user-friendly payment options on their online store.
3. NopCommerce Features: A Rundown of Improvements
This new version has improved upon several nopCommerce features making it easier to customize nopCommerce websites. For instance, new support for video on product pages enables businesses to provide a richer, more interactive experience for shoppers.
Further, nopCommerce has added an 'IsActive' property to enable/disable discounts, expanding the promotional opportunities for store owners.
The introduction of customer language attribute for the Sendinblue plugin and the expansion of WidgetZones are some of the additional improvements.
Also, added functionality for importing orders from Excel and the capacity to upload multiple product images simultaneously promise to simplify administrative tasks for store owners.
4. Boosted Ecommerce Platform Capabilities
nopCommerce 4.60 has significantly enhanced catalog capabilities. This includes displaying all pictures on catalog pages, supporting product searches by manufacturers' names and categories' names, and showing product short descriptions on catalog pages. These improvements make for a more intuitive and enriched shopping experience for customers.
5. Greater Control for Store Owners
nopCommerce 4.60 provides greater control to store owners. For instance, merchants can now edit the robots.txt file directly from the admin area.
They can also add custom HTML to the header and footer from the admin area, handle data deletion requests through the Facebook authentication plugin, and even ignore cancelled orders for discounts with N-Time use.
6. Additional WidgetZones for Login, Register, Wishlist and More
The addition of more WidgetZones for areas such as Login, Register, Wishlist, and others offers increased customization possibilities. Store owners can now better tailor and customize these areas to meet their unique business needs and the preferences of their customers.
7. Added Support for SVG Images
Support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) images has been added in nopCommerce 4.60, allowing for sharper, more scalable, and flexible graphics. SVGs are resolution-independent, making them ideal for responsive web design. This feature can be highly advantageous for store owners, providing the ability to display high-quality visuals when customizing their nopCommerce websites.
8. Revamped Checkout Process
The checkout process has seen significant improvements in our favorite ecommerce platform. New features have been added to nopCommerce to enhance the user experience and streamline the process of checking out.
Now, VAT numbers can be entered during guest checkout, reCAPTCHA has been added to the guest checkout to enhance security, and customers have the ability to edit their billing and shipping addresses during checkout. These improvements collectively make the checkout process more secure, user-friendly, and efficient.
9. Streamlined Customer Management
In 4.60 the nopCommerce team has made significant strides in improving customer management. Customer related fields have been moved from the 'GenericAttribute' table to the 'Customer' table, streamlining database management. This migration can take some time for databases with numerous 'Customer' records. To assist with this, scripts have been prepared to update the database swiftly.
Furthermore, store owners can now search customers by last activity and registration dates, and delete inactive customers and their personal data. This better organizes customer information and ensures efficient and effective customer management.
10. Improved Product Display
Product display has also been enhanced with the addition of a product thumbnail on the order details page, and support for creating product URLs with a category in path.
Catalog pages now display 'From' prices for products with attributes with price adjustments. The 'From' price provides an immediate understanding of the pricing range, aiding customers in making quick decisions.
Additionally, an automated feature has been added to scroll the page up on product load, improving the shopping experience.
11. Localized Export/Import for Products, Manufacturers, and Categories
Localization support for exporting and importing products, manufacturers, and categories has been implemented in nopCommerce 4.60. This feature is especially beneficial for businesses operating in multiple regions or languages, enabling them to manage localized content with ease.
12. Order Import from Excel Functionality Added
The addition of the order import from Excel functionality significantly streamlines the process of updating and managing orders in nopCommerce. Store owners can now import a spreadsheet of order data directly into the nopCommerce platform, saving time and reducing the potential for human error.
13. Enhanced Administration and Reporting
Store administration has been significantly boosted with the introduction of the ability to edit the robots.txt file from the admin area, the addition of new activity log types, and the ability to enable/disable discounts through the IsActive property.
Moreover, sorting and filtering by date in the sales summary report have been fixed, and a UI filter by vendor for the Sales summary report has been added. This provides an enhanced and user-friendly administration experience and improves business reporting.
14. Enhanced SEO and Social Media Capabilities
nopCommerce 4.60 offers new SEO and social media enhancements. Instagram has been added to default social media links, enabling businesses to leverage this popular platform. Also, the ability for a store owner to edit the robots.txt file in the admin area has been added. The robots.txt file is crucial for SEO, as it guides search engine bots on how to crawl and index a website's pages.
15. Security Enhancements
Security has been bolstered in nopCommerce 4.60. The platform now requires customers to re-login on all devices after changing their password, enhancing account security. Multi-factor authentication has also been introduced, providing an added layer of protection for accounts.
16. NopCommerce Plugin Updates and Removals
nopCommerce 4.60 has seen several changes in its plugin offerings. Notably, the PayPal Standard and ShipStation plugins have been removed, and the EasyPost shipping plugin has been phased out. It's crucial for businesses to review these changes and update their operations accordingly.
17. nopCommerce GitHub Updates
All these updates, along with numerous bug fixes and further improvements, are available on the nopCommerce GitHub repository. There developers can download the nopCommerce source code and follow changes and updated to the current 4.60 release of the platform. Please note that although nopCommerce is an open source project, the source code can only be used commercially with a copyright mention of nopCommerce.
18. nopCommerce Demo: Get a Feel of the New Features
To fully appreciate the improvements brought about by nopCommerce 4.60, you can explore the nopCommerce demo available on the official website. The demo showcases the platform's features and capabilities, allowing you to see firsthand how these updates can boost your eCommerce operation.
Summary
nopCommerce 4.60, although not introducing major new features, brings substantial enhancements and improvements that streamline operations, boost user experience, and facilitate better control for store owners. It's clear that this latest version further solidifies nopCommerce's position as a top-notch eCommerce platform.
