New Release Out — OpenCart 3.0.5.0

The OpenCart team has officially unveiled the 3.0.5.0 release, which contains a substantial bundle of fixes, code cleanup, and improved compatibility with modern PHP versions. This release replaces the previous 3.0.4.1.

The new version brings no radical changes or new features — the main focus of this update is ensuring compatibility with new PHP versions and fixing critical security bugs. A kind of "security patch." The most important addition in version 3.0.5.0 is full support for PHP 8.4 and initial support for the new PHP 8.5. The development team has updated several system components to ensure this compatibility.

Key changes in OpenCart 3.0.5.0:

• Full PHP 8.4 compatibility and initial PHP 8.5 support thanks to a series of updates to the core, Twig, and system classes.
• A large number of bug fixes — issues fixed in the cart, returns, addresses, payments, product model, Google Base, PayPal Checkout, address validation, and more.
• Strengthened security — XSS protection added in modules and improved handling of input data.
• Installer and upgrade procedure updates — a significant number of fixes in upgrade steps, SQL scripts, robots.txt, and installer styles.
• New APCu cache driver, with support for storing native values without manual serialization.
• Database encoding — utf8mb4, with support for emoji and other multibyte characters.
• Updates to third-party libraries and Cardinity Payment.
• Code cleanup and minor optimizations: syntax fixes, typo corrections, country name updates, improved Twig messages, etc.
• Removed modules: UPS Shipping, Squareup.
• Romania added to the Google Shopping configuration.