This post on the Zen Cart forums about Zen Cart 2.0 has me both excited and crapping my pants a little. Excited because lots of the listed improvements are things I’ve been harping on since I first started using the software. In particular, the improvements to the template system have the potential to save me hours and hours of work in the future (assuming they do it right, that is). Long have I struggled with the table-based layout and the ubiquitous, hellishly ugly inline PHP. If the development team delivers on half the promises they’ve made, I’ll be a happy developer.
Of course, all that work on the part of the ZC developers means a whole lot more work for those of us that write software for us. By completely gutting a lot of their systems, he ZC team has put third-party developers in the uncomfortable position of re-writing a significant portion of their own work. The teams has already announced that all templates will need to be completely re-implemented for Zen Cart 2.0. I have no doubt that Snap Affiliates will need similar attention.
Of course, I don’t mind too much. After all the time I’ve invested in it, I’m dedicated to the platform. Now that some of the bigger problems are being addressed, I can actually start to believe in it too. As long as the database layout doesn’t change, the transition shouldn’t be difficult. I look forward to the eventual release.
