Larry2k

osCommerce 4.11 has been released.
Download your own or use "Host with osCommerce" to have it installed on one of our servers for you.
We have implemented a great deal of fixes and improvements there!
New features, changes, and fixes are described in osCommerce Wiki: 
https://wiki.oscommerce.com/index.php?title=Change_Log
To upgrade from osCommerce 4.x proceed with the following:
1. Connect to the App Shop:
https://wiki.oscommerce.com/index.php?title=Connecting_to_App_Shop
2. Choose the "System Update" tab of the App Shop menu 
3. Press the "Update now" button to initiate the update 
A great deal of changes, and new features comes with this release. 
We truly appreciate help and support from the members of osCommerce community. Your feedback helps us build a better osCommerce!

Menu is a totally new concept in osCommerce v4 that comes built in and "out of the box". 
Instead of website menu being effectively a copy of the category tree in previous versions of osCommerce, in version 4 we have created a totally separate entity for menus, which can be embedded into any part of any page. 
And so, Menus are managed from a special section of the back end:

You can switch between different menus existing in the system or create a new one.

It is possible to export and import menus, to move them between websites.
A menu is a list of a tree of choices. Each menu item can have its own name, link (if not predefined link to one of the website's pages), and style class:

So, it is possible to rename categories as they get added to the menu, or even have the same category more than once in the menu. 
Besides categories and brands, It is also possible to add links to website's pages (like Shopping cart, Contact, etc), to the content pages (like About, Privacy policy, etc), or to a completely random URL (custom link).  
 

osCommerce v4 comes fully prepared with modern on-site SEO features.
1. Page properties 
Every entity like product, category, landing page, website pages have editable page URL, title, description, H tags, image alts, and so on. 

 

It is possible to set templates for each type of page in the SEO settings in the back end. And it is also possible to override those settings to make granular changes to, for example, product catalog.

2. Rich text snippets describe pages in a better way for Google and other search engines 
3. Pre-integration with Google tools (Analytics, Tag manager, various Trackers), where only the account code needs to be specified in the back end to complete the integration
 
4. osCommerce v4 allows for redirects (301) to be set for particular entities (like products, etc) or through the whole website (SEO redirects functionality)
5. XML site maps are generated automatically by the website

6. Page load speed has been optimised to pass Google Page Speed test successfully 
SEO functionality comes "out of the box" and will be included into osCommerce v4 FREE and open source version. 
Watch this space, more updates to follow!
 

osCommerce v4 is coming with support for Multiple Design Templates and built in Template Builder. 
Template management doesn't require any PHP coding, and is done via the back end of the website. 
It is possible to create, import, and export multiple design templates. This opens ways for professional designers and developers to offer their osCommerce templates for sale in the future App Marketplace - announcements to follow.
Design templates are managed and modified via the back end of osCommerce, using a special built in Designer.
It is possible to edit template settings in several ways (visual editor and CSS editor).
It is possible to add, move, and delete various widgets from any page of the osCommerce website. 
Additionally, all documents (invoices, packing slips, emails) can be edited if required.
It is also possible to create copies of the existing pages. For example, there can be 2 or more product pages, and different products can be assigned different designs of the product page.
Support for Responsive design is implemented, as well as an additional optional Mobile view for each template.
The system allows both professional designers and end users (i.e. shop owners) change the look and feel of the osCommerce online store without going deep into the code or even without HTML knowledge. Of course designers and developers are able to modify widgets or create new widgets to extend functionality of osCommerce v4
Have any comments or questions? - please feel free to post them here.
Interested in becoming a Beta tester - sign up via the Contact Us form on osCommerce.com website to be added to the list, get notified about the releases quicker, and get access to the Beta version as soon as it becomes available.
Would you like to learn how to create beautiful osCommerce templates and offer them on this website to shop owners? Sign up via our Contact page. Watch this space!