Tis here – tis released into the wild.

Upgrade or no? As usual for me I won’t be upgrading to 1.5.8 anytime soon. 1.5.7 d came out in Feb of this year. It’s stable. Why should you upgrade? If you are on a server that requires anything below PHP version 7., you’re fine. Version 1.5.8 settles in at max 8.3. So if your hosting moves to dump below 8, you will have to.

PHP version changes are driving updates/upgrades in most programs. But most hosting companies don’t dare restrict the level of PHP at the highest – they would lose customers.

So is there anything to recommend 1.5.8? About us page is included. Code fixes and improved checkout (looks like my recommendations were incorporated. I’ve removed the template pages from my Readytogo template), a Brands page and other minor changes that you can read here: https://docs.zen-cart.com/release/whatsnew_1.5.8.html

One irritation, the ability to have sideboxes in the header has been removed. Anyone who uses the search in the header? It’s gone. Sorry, guys. I wasn’t involved in this version recently and wasn’t aware. I would have fought against this change. Weirdly enough, this change is minor – all the plumbing is still there. It just doesn’t display the header boxes.

I do have my Zen Cart template ready for 1.5.8 – just have to add the header boxes in. I may create a mod for this – or wait for someone else to do it.

The biggest problem is the plugins as usual. The ones that are being maintained (and there are few) may well be PHP 8 compatible. Too many of the old plugins won’t be.

I was able to remove a number of template pages, still have no core changes. and it all works fine. I have yet to test it on a PHP 8 installation. I can’t do that yet on my server but if someone is determined to go to Zen Cart version 1.5.8, contact me and I’ll give you a discount to let me play.