After a long time waiting, Zencart team will release the new Zen Cart v2.0.0. It was originally planned to be released at the end of 2008 but they will most likely to release the upcoming Zencart 2.0 release early this year. The following will cover what you can expect from new Zencart 2.0.0, which is a summary of what I got from Zencart forum (Comming soon Zencart 2.0.0).

Speed
An emphasis has been placed on improving performance by various methods, especially reducing the number of database queries required for processing pages.

Code
For the programmers, you’ll be happy to know that the code has been largely converted to a much more efficient OOP structure, which will ultimately end up making future growth much simpler.

Templating
Templating is much simpler, in that the complicated PHP blocks that used to make them so hard to read or follow or customize have been removed. Stylesheets are leaner. And there are some very easy-to-use admin-side layout controls to make setting your desired layouts *much* simpler.

Overrides
The same override system exists for templates and language files, meaning that those already familiar with that part of the directory structure will find it easy to continue using.

Languages
UTF-8 support is now native, and the more complicated language files have been simplified and split off into their own for easier management.

Written for PHP 5
Zen Cart 2.0 takes advantage of features specific to PHP 5.2 and MySQL 4.1, thus, those are the new minimum requirements for your hosting service to provide in order to run it. CURL is also highly recommended.

And Many More…

It’s time to move our system from Zencart 1.3.8 to Zencart 2.0.0 and for those who are planning to customize Zencart system, I would just recommend you to postpone it. So that you can implement the changes in Zencart 2.0.0 directly to reduce overhead cost.

Bookmark & Share:

If you are trying to install SQL Server 2005 Express edition in Windows SP3 environment, it will most likely fail unless Microsoft has done something to fix this. Read through this blog to find how to get around with this issue.

Symptoms include SQL Server Express edition installation return error and the error log mentioned MSXML 6 Service Pack 2 (KB954459) — Configuration failed. I am not really sure what the root cause is, but it looks like Windows XP SP3 or MSXML 6 Service Pack 2 protects the MSXML 6 configuration file from update and changes. As a result, the setup fail to continue.

There are some ways to solve this, including

• Uninstall Service Pack 3, install Microsoft SQL Server Express edition, and reinstall SP3.
• Disable the File system protection temporarily using regedit.

But, in my opinion the best way is

• Uninstall MSXML6 SP2, by using Windows Installer Cleanup Utility which can be downloaded from http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe. Then install SQL Server Express edition just like usual.

Hope this post may help more people. I have received much gratitude from visitors all around the world regarding this post. Please continue to spread this post and share the good via bookmark. Cheers

Bookmark & Share:

If you have just bought new computer or reinstall your old machine and want to replicate your Microsoft Outlook profiles to the new system, this blog can answer your questions. This guide is based on my experience on Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

First of all, there is no easy way to do this. I am amazed that Outlook 2007 does not provide account setting export tools. Thus, I believe that this is the simplest way to migrate your outlook to new system. Please be aware that you have to backup your old Microsoft Outlook before removing it and use this guide at your own risk.

1. Backup your data from your old Outlook. There are several settings and data that you can export from your Outlook. I would recommend to copy your PST files and Outlook settings files. Guides to do this is available from Microsoft website http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q196492
2. Install Microsoft Outlook in the new system
3. Open Outlook and setup your email accounts as in your old system (yes you have to reenter every username, password, or even setup SMTP URL and port for advanced settings)
4. By now you should already have the same account settings and Mail folders structure in your Outlook
5. Finally, you can import your PST files from old system to your new Outlook. Select File > Import and export. Go through the wizard by opting to import PST files and in the final step choose the same folders for Import Items location

Please leave a comment if you need further guides or just to say thank you.

Bookmark & Share:

For the last 2 days in my Christmas holiday, I have struggled to accomplish one of my ambition that is having three operating systems dwell inside my new laptop. XP, Vista, and Ubuntu that was the most ideal installation sequence if you want turn your PC into triple boot device, but that is not an option in my case. My laptop come preinstalled with Vista and the stupid product recovery discs will erase all partitions, turn it back into Vista brick. At one point, I face this blank black screen with a message “No Bootable Partition In Table” when I try to boot the laptop.

How to fix this “No Bootable Partition Table” ? If your PC produce this kind of weird message, big chance you have modified your Master Boot Record (MBR) or your PC can’t find one. You don’t need to understand what is this, but it is record on your hard drive that contains boot instruction. These are options that you can do to fix this.

Have a look if you get the right device to boot. New Computers today are capable to boot from numerous devices including CD/DVD drive and Flash Drive/USB devices apart from HDD. if your computer try to boot from flash drive / disc without any master boot record, it will throw this error message. Try to remove any USB devices and CD/DVD from your PC. Try to make sure the boot sequence point to your HDD first in BIOS setting.

If the first step does not solve any problem, you have to recover, restore, or create new MBR by using your operating system disc. This task can be daunting for some people, you may want to get IT Savvy to get this done for you.
Windows Vista installation DVD can be used to fix master boot record of your Vista installation. Other option is installing other boot manager such as GRUB which is used by Linux Ubuntu. You can google “Fix master boot record” to get into detail of this.

Bookmark & Share:

I have been using Linux especially Ultimate Ubuntu (really cool Ubuntu distribution) for a while and I think I will share this basic tutorial series on Linux shell commands.

One of the crucial functions that we need on every system is how to search and find. To Locate file in Linux my favourite command is “Locate” which can be run via terminal (some sort of command prompt in Linux). Open your terminal (in Ubuntu it will be Applications → Accessories → Terminal) and type in the following commands.

1
2

sudo updatedb
locate FILE_NAME_PATTERN

Updatedb creates or updates a database used by locate. If the
database already exists, its data is reused to avoid rereading directories that have not changed. Locate will find files which match your pattern and display the list (for example: locate libflashplayer.so, locate *.mp3, locate lib*, etc.).

You should not execute “updatedb” everytime you need to find file, but if you have just installed, or added new files to your system then you will need “updatedb” to includes these files on your search.

To get more information, read the manual of Locate and Updatedb by executing “man COMMAND_NAME”. For examples:

1
2

man updatedb
man locate

(use arrows to scroll and type ‘q’ to exit)

Bookmark & Share: