OsCommerce
OsCommerce (styled "osCommerce" - "open source Commerce") is an e-commerce and online store-management software program. It can be used on any web server that has PHP and MySQL installed. It is available as free software under the GNU General Public License.
 | |
| Developer(s) | Harald Ponce de Leon |
|---|---|
| Final release | 2.3.4.1
/ 18 August 2017[1] |
| Preview release | 2.4.2
/ 21 November 2016[1] |
| Repository | osCommerce Repository |
| Written in | PHP |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Webshop |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | oscommerce |
History
OsCommerce was started in March 2000 in Germany by project founder and leader Harald Ponce de Leon as The Exchange Project. In its infancy, OsCommerce was referred to by Ponce de Leon as "a side thing" and "an example research study". By late 2001, a team formed for its development and in the words of HPDL, this was the point the team started taking the project seriously.[2] In 2005, over 2000 websites used OsCommerce,[3] and in 2009 this amount grew to 13,000.[4]
In November 2010 the development of OsCommerce v2.2 was met with another stable release. Version 2.3, as it was branded, takes advantage of the benefits of tableless web design, and includes a number of social networking tools.[5] As of March 2018, OsCommerce reported over 20,000 'live' websites using the program.[6] This number is almost certainly conservative, given the inclusion of OsCommerce in hosting panel application installers such as Fantastico and Softaculous.
The current iteration is version 3.x (in development) and is a major re-write of the program to incorporate an object-oriented backend, a template system to allow easy layout changes, and inclusion of an administration-area username and password definition during installation. The latest development version is 3.0.2, and was released on 6 August 2011.[7][8]
Official Version
There are currently two official releases of OsCommerce. Versions 2.3 (stable) and 3.0 (in development) are developed as two independent programs, and as such do not share code. Apps, the official name for the open-source community developed plugins, are developed for either 2.x or 3.0, and are incompatible with one another.
The Official version has not had any substantive updates for some time. The recognised "current" version is 2.3.4.1.
| Release date | Release name |
|---|---|
| 12 March 2000 | The Exchange Project Preview Release 1.0 |
| 14 May 2000 | The Exchange Project Preview Release 1.1 |
| 2 December 2000 | The Exchange Project Preview Release 2.0 |
| 13 December 2000 | The Exchange Project Preview Release 2.0a |
| 6 March 2001 | The Exchange Project Preview Release 2.1 |
| 17 February 2003 | OsCommerce 2.2 Milestone 1 |
| 7 December 2003 | OsCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 |
| 12 November 2005 | OsCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 Update 051112 |
| 13 November 2005 | OsCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 Update 051113 |
| 17 August 2006 | OsCommerce 2.2 Milestone 2 Update 060817 |
| 3 July 2007 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.2 RC1 |
| 16 January 2008 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.2 RC2 |
| 30 January 2008 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.2 RC2a |
| 12 November 2010 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3 |
| 14 November 2010 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3.1 |
| 31 March 2011 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 3.0 (development) |
| 6 August 2011 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 3.0.2 (development) |
| 18 July 2012 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3.2 |
| 15 August 2012 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3.3 |
| 26 September 2013 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3.3.4 |
| 5 June 2014 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3.4 |
| 18 August 2017 | OsCommerce Online Merchant 2.3.4.1 |
Official Community Version
 | |
| Developer(s) | Gary Burton |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.0.7.7
/ 14 August 2020[9] |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | PHP |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Webshop |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | phoenixcart |
CE Phoenix is the official community-edition of osCommerce and the latest version of osCommerce. Unlike its counterpart, it:
- continues to be supported via regular updates.
- has responsive web design using Bootstrap 4 making it suitable different-size devices such as tablets and smartphones.
- pages are modular, allowing for flexibility in design by choosing which components appear on each screen and in which order.
- supports modular Apps, which can be installed without changes to core code.
- has updated code architecture, which includes hooks.
- supports PHP 7.3.0.
CE Phoenix is supported by members of the Phoenix Club which is hosted on the official oscommerce site. The lead developer is Gary Burton.
| Release date | Release name |
|---|---|
| 4 July 2019 | CE Phoenix 1.0.0.0 |
| 18 July 2019 | CE Phoenix 1.0.1.0 |
| 14 August 2019 | CE Phoenix 1.0.2.0 |
| 25 October 2019 | CE Phoenix 1.0.3.0 |
| 25 November 2019 | CE Phoenix 1.0.4.0 |
| 5 February 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.5.0 |
| 6 May 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.6.0 |
| 19 May 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.6.1 |
| 26 May 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.6.2 |
| 29 May 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.6.3 |
| 29 May 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.0 |
| 30 May 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.1 |
| 6 June 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.2 |
| 13 June 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.3 |
| 24 June 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.4 |
| 4 July 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.5 |
| 29 July 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.6 |
| 14 August 2020 | CE Phoenix 1.0.7.7 |
Branches
Distributed under the GNU General Public License, OsCommerce is one of the earliest PHP based Open Source shopping cart software distributions.[10] Also, it inspired the creation of many other online store platforms, such as Magento[11] and Batavi. As such, it has spawned a number of forks, such as Zen Cart, xt:Commerce, CRE Loaded, Solomono, OSC-CMS, oscMAX, etc.[12][13]
Publicised vulnerabilities
In August 2011 three vulnerabilities in version 2.2 of the OsCommerce system were exploited, allowing the addition of an iframe and JavaScript code to infect visitors to websites. Armorize reports this allowed infected web pages to hit 90,000 in a very short time until it was noticed and increasing further to 4.5 million pages within the space of a week. OsCommerce 2.3 was made available in November 2011 and patched the exploited security holes.[14][15]
References
- "Releases · osCommerce/oscommerce2 · GitHub". Retrieved 9 September 2019.
- "OsCommerce – a brief history and a look at the features". Mays Digital. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- Rich, Jason R. (2005). Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online. Unofficial Guides. 155 (2 ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471792277.
- Kimball, Cheryl (2009). Design and Launch an Online Gift Business in a Week. ClickStart Series. Entrepreneur Press. p. 78. ISBN 9781613081129.
- Ponce de Leon, Harald. "osCommerce Online Merchant v2.3". osCommerce Development Blog. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- "Magento vs. osCommerce". forixcommerce.com. 21 March 2018. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
- "osCommerce Online Merchant v3.0.2". Part of osCommerce news.
- "Releases - osCommerce". GitHub. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- "Releases · CE Phoenix · GitHub". Retrieved 26 August 2020.
- OsCommerce: Copyright Policy
- "Magento eCommerce Review". dwacommerce.com. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- "Magento vs. osCommerce". forixcommerce.com. 21 March 2018. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- "Solomono - osCommerce developers and customizations". Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20131213091459/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Millions-of-osCommerce-stores-hacked-1317410.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20160804035620/http://www.stopthehacker.com/2011/11/07/oscommerce-hacks/