What do you think: Is PS 1.7 stable now? 1. step to migration from 1.6.1

[Shopify]

Hi

I am new in PS.

This Company has a large web-shop running in PS 1.6.1.13. With a free theme. (The theme is not important, but it is important to find a theme that works and is 

It is proposed to migrate their shop to a supported PS version 1.7.3-  But is 1.7 stable now?

I have searched high and low, but only found old information that all says NO to 1.7.

Maybe it's because of the previous lack of Migration opportunities then.... I guess the Migration modules are tested and more smooth now?

But what do you say that has migrated from PS 1.6 to PS 1.7. - Are you satisfied?

Does the shop work as before? 

Quote

I changed my mind and will go for newer installs.
ps: Of course I have checked that the server is installed with the steps required to run PS 1.7.3- (Apache 2.2+, MariaDB, PHP7.1 +, memory_limit, Max_input_vars etc.)

ps: Of course I have checked that the server is installed with the steps required to run PS 1.7.6+ (Apache 2.4.6+, MariaDB, PHP7.3 +, memory_limit, Max_input_vars etc.)

Thank you for your time and look forward to your reply of your experience (good or bad)

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Shopify
Decided to ask for an update of PHP for a newer PS (see edit history)

[JBW]

Yes 1.7. (by the way latest version is 1.7.6.4., not 1.7.3!) is stable and many shop are running well on this version.
Migration from 1.6. isn't easy as most themes and modules are not compatible due to different architecture.

[Shopify]

16 hours ago, JBW said:

Yes 1.7. (by the way latest version is 1.7.6.4., not 1.7.3!) is stable and many shop are running well on this version.
Migration from 1.6. isn't easy as most themes and modules are not compatible due to different architecture.

Thank you for your answer, JBW.
Why I'm going for 1.7.3 or less on this test server is that the server for now is installed with PHP 7.1.30 and I understand that PS 1.7.4 -> 1.7.6 requires PHP 7.2 and 1.7.7+ PHP 7.3. 

I will try a Migrations from 1.6 to 1.7.x from web-shop to test-server.

Any hints or guidance is very much appreciated. 

Thanks again for your time.

 

[Shopify]

14 hours ago, burbigo1 said:

I will say yes too, the 1.7 version is stable and I hope it'll stay as it is

Thanks - Did you too go from PS 1.6 to 1.7 at some point?
Was it smooth?
Thank you for spending a bit of your time, answering me.

[JBW]

10 hours ago, Shopify said:

Why I'm going for 1.7.3 or less on this test server is that the server for now is installed with PHP 7.1.30

1.7.3 is two years old - for productive usage I would recommend at least 1.7.5 - if your server/hosting can't support PHP 7.2. I would think about changing it

[TillyOak]

It may be stable, but it's far from complete, we had 2 months of trying to upgrade as a test and got pretty much ZERO support from Prestashop or the forums which almost made me quit Prestashop for WooCommerce, in fact we did actually set up a WooCommerce test site and were on the verge of going live when I realised there were a few key elements of WC that I didn't like as opposed to PS.   Even when we finally managed to get a test site of PS1.7 up and running successfully, we pretty much had to tweak just about everything to get it to operate properly, including having to make changes to the templates which didn't display correctly out the box (appreciate it may have been the upgrade causing issues, but even so) and now our Stripe Pro module will not work with Prestashop checkout, the standalone paypal module refuses to work so our only choice is to use PS Checkout for card and paypal payments which isn't ideal, and the main menu looks like a 4 year old designed it.

It's also worth noting that some potential modules or customisations could have been causing some of our issues, but when we then get told after a month of banging our head against a wall that there was a bug with disabling overrides, it beggars belief!. 

All in all, Prestashop is a fine ecommerce system, and I have chosen to stick with it just now but I'm sorry, the lack of attention to detail, the sheer arrogance of some of the forum moderators and the absolute lack of any form of official support on the forums means PS likely won't survive another catastrophic update like 1.6 > 1.7.

Personally, the only reason I stuck with trying to upgrade for so long is probably because I know PS and it was our own site.   If I were having to perform the upgrade on behalf of a client, I'd run a mile.

In case anyone else is looking to try and migrate from 1.6 > 1.7 I documented my own journey, hopefully it will minimise the hassle others have to go through to get to the point we finally managed to ourselves.

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by TillyOak (see edit history)

[El Patron]

it gets easier the 2nd time to the 2000th time lol

[Shopify]

16 hours ago, JBW said:

1.7.3 is two years old - for productive usage I would recommend at least 1.7.5 - if your server/hosting can't support PHP 7.2. I would think about changing it

Thanks for your kind guidance.

The process of an server upgrade has started.

[dtwfung]

On 3/14/2020 at 10:31 PM, Shopify said:

Hi

I am new in PS.

This Company has a large web-shop running in PS 1.6.1.13. With a free theme. (The theme is not important, but it is important to find a theme that works and is 

It is proposed to migrate their shop to a supported PS version 1.7.3-  But is 1.7 stable now?

I have searched high and low, but only found old information that all says NO to 1.7.

Maybe it's because of the previous lack of Migration opportunities then.... I guess the Migration modules are tested and more smooth now?

But what do you say that has migrated from PS 1.6 to PS 1.7. - Are you satisfied?

Does the shop work as before? 

ps: Of course I have checked that the server is installed with the steps required to run PS 1.7.3- (Apache 2.2+, MariaDB, PHP7.1 +, memory_limit, Max_input_vars etc.)

Thank you for your time and look forward to your reply of your experience (good or bad)

 

Our production system (with about 1,300 products with combination, size...)  was running 1.6.x for few years. Same as you, when we prepared upgrade to 1.,7.x from 1.6.x, (1.7.3 at that time) before expiry of 1.6.x, lot of bad comments about 1.7.x. I tried upgrade to 1.7.3 as testing... killing me. We stopped the migration project.

Few months before (mid 2019), we resumed the project because 1.7.6 seems to have better comment. We tried with "Prestashop Migrator (Free version)" to test. Partial Migration was done as Free version only offer to few core tables (including products, customers) Migration was ok. However, we used default theme. We did not buy any paid module.  If you have, you have check their compatibility.  p.s. We were not sure whether the official 1-click upgrade can do the upgrade from "1.6 to 1.7".

So far, we have put our system (PS 1.7.6.1 & PHP 7.2 ) to production for few months already.. We are satisfied. Also upgrade to 1.7.6.3 and 1.7.6.4 later with 1-click upgrade, the upgrade was smooth too. With same server behind, I felt 1.7.6.x is better in performance VS 1.6.x But, for system with more products data, make sure your server behind support it. Also,  there are LESS free module available.

In addition, if your system requires more currency types+ language translation, check it out first, they are different. Mine is simply using English and Traditional Chinese with USD and HKD.

 

Hope this helps !

 

Cheers

David

[Shopify]

11 hours ago, TillyOak said:

It may be stable, but it's far from complete, we had 2 months of trying to upgrade as a test and got pretty much ZERO support from Prestashop or the forums which almost made me quit Prestashop for WooCommerce, in fact we did actually set up a WooCommerce test site and were on the verge of going live when I realised there were a few key elements of WC that I didn't like as opposed to PS.   Even when we finally managed to get a test site of PS1.7 up and running successfully, we pretty much had to tweak just about everything to get it to operate properly, including having to make changes to the templates which didn't display correctly out the box (appreciate it may have been the upgrade causing issues, but even so) and now our Stripe Pro module will not work with Prestashop checkout, the standalone paypal module refuses to work so our only choice is to use PS Checkout for card and paypal payments which isn't ideal, and the main menu looks like a 4 year old designed it.

It's also worth noting that some potential modules or customisations could have been causing some of our issues, but when we then get told after a month of banging our head against a wall that there was a bug with disabling overrides, it beggars belief!. 

All in all, Prestashop is a fine ecommerce system, and I have chosen to stick with it just now but I'm sorry, the lack of attention to detail, the sheer arrogance of some of the forum moderators and the absolute lack of any form of official support on the forums means PS likely won't survive another catastrophic update like 1.6 > 1.7.

Personally, the only reason I stuck with trying to upgrade for so long is probably because I know PS and it was our own site.   If I were having to perform the upgrade on behalf of a client, I'd run a mile.

In case anyone else is looking to try and migrate from 1.6 > 1.7 I documented my own journey, hopefully it will minimise the hassle others have to go through to get to the point we finally managed to ourselves.

 

Thanks for your honesty - I will have it on my mind. I'm sorry for all your trouble!

We are using MigrationPro. Before I arrived a colleque bought and tried to migrate from webshop to a dev-server. The migration stopped before it was finished - and he contacted the MigrationPro team and they did the process for him - They failed in telling him how they did it, though.

That dev- site is working fine - but you are right the menu looks like crap. 

One of the things I am confused about/not sure of is, which of the installed and enabled modules are coming from installing the Prestashop 1.6 - and which is added later. Which of them is important and which is for style only. I'm not sure yet what is needed or which is nice to have in the eye of the firm I'm working for

I do now (or maybe it was there all the time) have some problems in the PS 1.7.6.1 BO. I get some Unknown errors like:

Quote

..../classes/PhpEncryptionLegacyEngine.php
[8192] Function mcrypt_get_iv_size() is deprecated. 

- when I try to change hooks on some modules. My guess is that it is due to version mismatch that my PHP version is too old for the newer PS.

So I will try a new migration - hopefully with out the need of MigrationPro-team - but it is nice to know they are there, and that they will tweak the migration-module to our needs if any issue.

My insecure lies in: 

• will the big webshop perform better or worse? 
• Is it stable? 
• With the new engine is the performance really better?
• I see a diffrence in DB-tables - will that be an issue?
• Will the new PS 1.7.6+ force us to buy modules and themes to have a great looking webshop again?
• and properbly much more....

When my learning-buff is bigger I will surely give my 10-cents of experience for ppl to learn from or as guidance.

Thanks

[Shopify]

6 minutes ago, dtwfung said:

Our production system (with about 1,300 products with combination, size...)  was running 1.6.x for few years. Same as you, when we prepared upgrade to 1.,7.x from 1.6.x, (1.7.3 at that time) before expiry of 1.6.x, lot of bad comments about 1.7.x. I tried upgrade to 1.7.3 as testing... killing me. We stopped the migration project.

Few months before (mid 2019), we resumed the project because 1.7.6 seems to have better comment. We tried with "Prestashop Migrator (Free version)" to test. Partial Migration was done as Free version only offer to few core tables (including products, customers) Migration was ok. However, we used default theme. We did not buy any paid module.  If you have, you have check their compatibility.  p.s. We were not sure whether the official 1-click upgrade can do the upgrade from "1.6 to 1.7".

So far, we have put our system (PS 1.7.6.1 & PHP 7.2 ) to production for few months already.. We are satisfied. Also upgrade to 1.7.6.3 and 1.7.6.4 later with 1-click upgrade, the upgrade was smooth too. With same server behind, I felt 1.7.6.x is better in performance VS 1.6.x But, for system with more products data, make sure your server behind support it. Also,  there are LESS free module available.

In addition, if your system requires more currency types+ language translation, check it out first, they are different. Mine is simply using English and Traditional Chinese with USD and HKD.

 

Hope this helps !

 

Cheers

David

Hi David

Thank you for your story - we have bought the MigrationPro that takes apparently everything.

Nice to know that you feel better performance and thanks for mentioning the currency types, which seems not to be an issue. 

I presume I will get the the newest PHP and PS for the ride. 

I am sad that there are less free modules available - but I guess that is normal for a new engine. Development takes time.

So I guess I will need to find out what PS 1.6 modules are needed and how I can get similar modules in 1.7+

Thanks again for your time.

[dtwfung]

3 hours ago, Shopify said:

Hi David

Thank you for your story - we have bought the MigrationPro that takes apparently everything.

Nice to know that you feel better performance and thanks for mentioning the currency types, which seems not to be an issue. 

I presume I will get the the newest PHP and PS for the ride. 

I am sad that there are less free modules available - but I guess that is normal for a new engine. Development takes time.

So I guess I will need to find out what PS 1.6 modules are needed and how I can get similar modules in 1.7+

Thanks again for your time.

You are welcome. Have fun !

[TillyOak]

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

you are right the menu looks like crap. 

They do, and even having tried to using a module from the once very active "vekia" on these forums, it appears the alignments, etc, are all off too but with the likes of that guy and many others having abandoned these forums it's literally like a ghost town here now in regards to getting any form of support, even for the moderately simple things.

We did manage to install the module and move it's position in "Design > Positions" from the bottom of "DisplayTop" to the top of "DisplayTop" and it looks as though it's aligned a little better now, it sits beside the logo and pushes the search box underneath but still looks kinda clumsy but we'll work on it and hopefully get it looking a little better.   The topic for this menu mod is here:

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

One of the things I am confused about/not sure of is, which of the installed and enabled modules are coming from installing the Prestashop 1.6 - and which is added later.

Good luck with that too, we literally had to go through the modules one by one, and noticed that many of them conflicted with the "updated" versions coming from prestashop, even the modules on offer now in the modules catalogue don't specify which module is suitable for which version, and trying to install some of the modules simply tells us it's incompatible for the version we are running, so that's the only clue to what mod works with 1.7+

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

I do now (or maybe it was there all the time) have some problems in the PS 1.7.6.1 BO. I get some Unknown errors

Yep, it could be PHP version, if not it's anyone's guess, you could try posting a thread on the forums but I wouldn't hold your breath

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

will the big webshop perform better or worse?

Not really noticed any different to be honest, thankfully it doesn't seem to be any worse so at least that's one thing

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

Is it stable? 

Well so far it appears to be, but for me "stable" isn't the same as "working as expected"

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

I see a diffrence in DB-tables - will that be an issue?

Most probably, just how much will likely depend on whether you made heavy modifications to the shop/dbase from 1.6 I guess.

4 hours ago, Shopify said:

Will the new PS 1.7.6+ force us to buy modules and themes to have a great looking webshop again?

Initially, I did get the impression that this was the case, but realistically, I don't think that is the case, all of the functionality we had in 1.6 is here in 1.7, but then we like to keep things simple, again, if you heavily modified the shop with changes or modules then it's likely you will see a lot of other differences or errors that we didn't.  It's more the basic stuff like templates that seem to to have miffed me the most, we struggled through the update and eventually got a workable system but then had to make alterations to the default theme to get things even up to a standard level and the menu is completely unforgiveable and something we're still trying to work on.

As I say, Prestashop is a fine ecommerce system, and I wouldn't have been as hacked off about the whole ordeal if the support was there, but it simply isn't, and not to take anything away from the people who are still here trying their best, but I just don't feel it's enough to sustain a long term relationship with the system, I've seen countless threads of veteran users saying they're migrating to WooCommerce and even more threads with people trying to get a start with the system who can't get the support they need too, so with that kind of abandonment it's only to be expected that the input on the forums will be sparse.

Good luck however with your adventure, I will keep an eye on this thread in case I can chip in with some help but we're still very much a work in progress ourselves as we fumble our own way through our shop to get things right

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by TillyOak (see edit history)

[dtwfung]

32 minutes ago, TillyOak said:

They do, and even having tried to using a module from the once very active "vekia" on these forums, it appears the alignments, etc, are all off too but with the likes of that guy and many others having abandoned these forums it's literally like a ghost town here now in regards to getting any form of support, even for the moderately simple things.

We did manage to install the module and move it's position in "Design > Positions" from the bottom of "DisplayTop" to the top of "DisplayTop" and it looks as though it's aligned a little better now, it sits beside the logo and pushes the search box underneath but still looks kinda clumsy but we'll work on it and hopefully get it looking a little better.   The topic for this menu mod is here:

Good luck with that too, we literally had to go through the modules one by one, and noticed that many of them conflicted with the "updated" versions coming from prestashop, even the modules on offer now in the modules catalogue don't specify which module is suitable for which version, and trying to install some of the modules simply tells us it's incompatible for the version we are running, so that's the only clue to what mod works with 1.7+

Yep, it could be PHP version, if not it's anyone's guess, you could try posting a thread on the forums but I wouldn't hold your breath

Not really noticed any different to be honest, thankfully it doesn't seem to be any worse so at least that's one thing

Well so far it appears to be, but for me "stable" isn't the same as "working as expected"

Most probably, just how much will likely depend on whether you made heavy modifications to the shop/dbase from 1.6 I guess.

Initially, I did get the impression that this was the case, but realistically, I don't think that is the case, all of the functionality we had in 1.6 is here in 1.7, but then we like to keep things simple, again, if you heavily modified the shop with changes or modules then it's likely you will see a lot of other differences or errors that we didn't.  It's more the basic stuff like templates that seem to to have miffed me the most, we struggled through the update and eventually got a workable system but then had to make alterations to the default theme to get things even up to a standard level and the menu is completely unforgiveable and something we're still trying to work on.

As I say, Prestashop is a fine ecommerce system, and I wouldn't have been as hacked off about the whole ordeal if the support was there, but it simply isn't, and not to take anything away from the people who are still here trying their best, but I just don't feel it's enough to sustain a long term relationship with the system, I've seen countless threads of veteran users saying they're migrating to WooCommerce and even more threads with people trying to get a start with the system who can't get the support they need too, so with that kind of abandonment it's only to be expected that the input on the forums will be sparse.

Good luck however with your adventure, I will keep an eye on this thread in case I can chip in with some help but we're still very much a work in progress ourselves as we fumble our own way through our shop to get things right

 

This is one of the concerns I have about purchasing paid module, in particular Support... Keep it simple will be my advise, cause you don't know how long 1.7.6.x will stay before going to 1.7.7.x

[TillyOak]

4 hours ago, dtwfung said:

This is one of the concerns I have about purchasing paid module, in particular Support... Keep it simple will be my advise, cause you don't know how long 1.7.6.x will stay before going to 1.7.7.x

I did have another rant about prestashop checkout update breaking the Klarna payment option but I take it back because I was doing a test checkout from a non UK country and presumably I chose a non supported country that Klarna doesn't like and so the option to pay by Klarna disappeared, set it back to UK and it's back again

Edited March 17, 2020 by TillyOak (see edit history)

[El Patron]

15 minutes ago, TillyOak said:

I did have another rant about prestashop checkout update breaking the Klarna payment option but I take it back because I was doing a test checkout from a non UK country and presumably I chose a non supported country that Klarna doesn't like and so the option to pay by Klarna disappeared, set it back to UK and it's back again

did you link klarna to display only for the country(s) that it works in?

now that you have tilly catalog and mostly stable your next effort should be on significantly improved visitor experience,  i.e. kick ass high quality paid theme.  big rocks little rocks.

[TillyOak]

10 minutes ago, El Patron said:

did you link klarna to display only for the country(s) that it works in?

now that you have tilly catalog and mostly stable your next effort should be on significantly improved visitor experience,  i.e. kick ass high quality paid theme.  big rocks little rocks.

We do need to look at the Klarna options a lot closer but for now we are happy to just go with the defaults as we haven't had a sale from Klarna yet, so once we do as be we can be sure it's working from the UK we will look at expanding the reach internationally 

As for themes, etc, we've always steered clear of them, and the upgrade fiasco has made us even more cautious tbh, but it's something we may consider if we are reassured that PS are back on the ball and we find a theme that can be supported well enough, but for now as far as I'm concerned slow but steady wins the race lol

[El Patron]

3 minutes ago, TillyOak said:

We do need to look at the Klarna options a lot closer but for now we are happy to just go with the defaults as we haven't had a sale from Klarna yet, so once we do as be we can be sure it's working from the UK we will look at expanding the reach internationally 

As for themes, etc, we've always steered clear of them, and the upgrade fiasco has made us even more cautious tbh, but it's something we may consider if we are reassured that PS are back on the ball and we find a theme that can be supported well enough, but for now as far as I'm concerned slow but steady wins the race lol

some have issues with upgrade many do not....it's really all about process...

my advice to 'everyone' is to build a catalog using default, get cart working etc. before considering design, logo etc.

in the end its all about visitor experience and finding that kick ass front end, else all that other work (learnings) is kinda a waste.

we like leo/apollo themes but there are others, so in future simply create a running copy and install/configure your theme there.  So either get busy on front end or your shop will never take off the way you hoped.

happy selling, 

el