OpenCart 4.0.2.3 Released. The Return of OCMOD Is Near!

Yesterday, September 16, 2023, a new OpenCart 4.0.2.3 release came out. We had been waiting for this version for two months from the moment the previous 4.0.2.2 was released. It's worth saying that this is already a build close to stable for branch 4. Even language switching works without any fixes, "out of the box" as they say, for the first time since version 4 was released. There is also a noticeable speed-up in CMS performance - modules install faster than before.

Of course, there are problems too - the unfinished subscriptions system and the "clunky" SEO URL behavior, which does not allow getting rid of the language prefix for the main language, even when there is only one language in the system. While subscriptions are a very specific feature needed only for certain types of stores and used extremely rarely, something does have to be done about SEO URLs and duplicates.

Also, OpenCart developer Daniel Kerr announced the development of an integrated blog - in this build we only saw its unfinished dev version. Meanwhile, here you can already find many compatible OpenCart 4.0.2.3 modules.

The full changelog of the new OpenCart 4.0.2.3 version can be seen here. As you can see, @ocdev.pro also took an active part in fixing and resolving some issues.

So, v4.0.2.3 is the first fully usable build for developing a simple online store, without the subscriptions system. If it weren't for one "but"! Three days before this release Daniel Kerr announced that he will bring the OCMOD modification system back to the fourth version of OpenCart. So it's quite likely that the next release will already come with OCMOD, plus a full integrated blog and a finished subscriptions system. This announcement is no coincidence, since the author noticed a decline in interest from users and developers in his brainchild. Due to the complications of extension development - which since version 4.0.0.0 is only possible based on Events - many developers stopped developing and adapting their extensions for the new OpenCart branch. The author obviously noticed this and ran a poll about bringing OCMOD back, where the majority of users voted "for".

The return of OCMOD will revive the development of new modules and the adaptation of old extensions, and may give second wind to the OpenCart 4.x.x.x branch. And right now you can start developing a site on version 4.0.2.3. After all, now there is the ability to upgrade to a new version in a few clicks. True, how this feature will work and whether there will be no module compatibility issues is still unknown.