Question posted in 
Is OSCommerce outdated?
I recently started working for a web development company that uses it a lot and I noticed the code base is really messy and has a lot of older php code in there. Being used to something nice like cakePHP or drupal I wasn’t too impressed with it.
Is it worth using any more?
Is there a decent port of OSC that is updated and easy to transfer existing stores to? bonus points if it has a plug in system that isn’t a hack fest.
Right now I’m looking at Zen-cart, Ubercart and Magento as alternatives. Would you recommend anything else?
ThankYou
6
Answers
OSCommerce is older than simmons… AND SIMMONS IS OLD!
Avoid it like the plague.
Magento and Cube Cart are decent. Would go for Symfony if you’re looking for and upgrade from cake or drupal. 🙂
That depends on how you would define outdated. If you are using a v1.0, then yes. But osCommerce is still actively maintained and developed. The current development version is osCommerce 3.0 Alpha 5.
I am sure you can find prettier architectures. I looked at the source code briefly and can confirm there is a number of things considered code smells nowadays, like lots of defined constants, global keywords and such. The codebase is old-fashioned compared to today’s standards, but that’s the way it is with long running systems that have evolved over many years. Old fashioned doesnt necessarily mean outdated though.
osCommerce is a mature product. And like said in the beginning, it is actively maintained. You shouldnt base the application’s worth on the codebase alone. WordPress would be worthless then. And CakePHP isnt exactly famous for it’s codebase either. A client you will install ocCommerce for is rarely interested in the codebase, but rather in if the system can satisfy his or her requirements to a shop system.
There is also xtCommerce which forked from osCommerce a few years ago. This is not meant as recommendation though. I find it hard to recommend a shop system from the vast amount of systems out there without knowing any requirements.
On a sidenote: if you want to collect software metrics about osCommerce, head over to phpqatools.org and run some tools over, gather statistics and compare it to some other shop systems.
Short answer: Yes
I can not tell you anything about the version 3 (alpha items on their roadmap) but if you are using a 2.x you are basicly stuck in 2006, compared to other shopping solutions like magento (which I like to call ‘the diva’ because everything comes with a price).
Not Yet, You can work on Version 3. Oscommerce has good community rather than others. and most important things Oscommerce is complete GUI License with huge code library. Like other e-commerce has many restriction and limitation and most are paid.
Thats why we can’t say that oscommerce is outdated right now but in future we say anythings,
osCommerce 2.x is built on technology from 2001-2002 (The Exchange Project). Over the years they have added som patches and paint to make it stand. So yeah it’s pretty outdated. Always has been.
The last version 2.3.1 is the biggest rewrite so far (not counting 3.0). I would say there is still work to be done on this one as well.
osCommerce 3.0 is just a framework. It has no features for adding products or categories yet. It’s just for developers who want to contribute to the next generation osCommerce.
osCommerce 2.x.x is bit outdated for following reasons:
No MVC concept. This makes maintenance a real difficult and when one error is fixed another might pop in.
Architecture is from 2001. With advancement in concept architecture has become very important. So benefits of newer design concepts not used.
Security issue : Lots of plugins that are not secured as they are not updated. osCommerce out of box is secured for its latest version.