Prestashop 1.7 Overview

Today, we write a blog about overview of Prestashop 1.7

When does Ps 1.7 ready?

The first Beta version was released in 2nd June 2016, the second version on 18th July and the latest version was released in 1st August 2016.  There is not specific date to release the stable one however it will be available when it is ready.

What will be included in Prestashop 1.7?

The latest version 1.7 is the next major release of Prestashop, it is quite different from the 1.6.x. The creation of a shop and product page are aimed at simplifying to facilitate the pay to trade. It consists of 4 main projects:

-Improve to create and maintain a theme.

+) New Default theme is created with new version more classy and efficient.

+) Starter theme will help designer save time to create a template than prestashop 1.6 

-Better key user journeys in the back office.

+) New onboarding for beginners.

+) A simplified product-creation work follow.

+) Install and no-installed module easily found.

-Build up administration interface menu structure, focused on getting the most common task done faster.

-New Architecture based on the Symfony2 framework.

Should develop wait for PrestaShop 1.7 to create new stores or create it now with version 1.6?

To compare a little between Ps 1.6 and Ps 1.7, 1.6 did not have news features as 1.7 however it has the stability of the old version. About the release of new version, until now we do not have the specific day and it still has some issues not stable. Thus, Leo suggest you that you should choose the stable one to set up your online store to have stable store for customer and not be delayed for the business.

Will it be easy to upgrade into the latest version 1.7?

Of course NOT. It is not easy for anyone. But you CAN upgrade, however you need to prepare to have to adapt or replace many of your widget (theme and module).

Prestashop 1.7 is a major version not only because it packs a lot of significant changes, but it is also major in the semver sense of the term: it breaks some of the backward compatibility. If it didn’t, we probably would have called it 1.6.2.0.

For starters, 1.6 theme will not work on 1.7. We rewrote the way themes are made, and theme designers will be delighted to find in the new Starter Theme a solid foundation for their own themes. With this foundation, new themes can be created in half the time it took you to create a 1.6 theme.

Now, about modules. All well-written 1.6 modules should work with little to no changes in 1.7, except:

Those which target the theme/front office – because we rewrote the way themes are written.

Those which target the Product page – because the DOM of this page has changed.

Those which target the Modules page – again, because the DOM of this page has changed.

What this means for any upgrade is that in order for a PS 1.6 to migrate to PS 1.7, you (or your agency) will have to:

Rewrite the theme, ideally using the Starter Theme or the default theme.

Adapt the Product page modules (CSS and JavaScript).

Adapt the Modules page modules (CSS and JavaScript).

Test all the other modules – as you would for any new release.

In any case, we advise you to make sure that your module does work in PrestaShop 1.7.

We are currently thinking up ways to ease the upgrade path – for instance, a tool to take the 1.6 store, import all of its data and images into 1.7, and end up with a default store (default 1.7 theme, default 1.7 native modules) with the 1.6 data and settings. This is still a project more than actual working source code, but you get the idea.