BCSE Articles
X-cart Speed Booster Mod FAQ
The most exciting X-cart module out there! Speed up your site and optimize for SEO all in the same module! Also works with CDSEO!
Buy the Speed Booster mod Now!
With this module you can see page load time increases of up to 1,000 times faster or more! The more products and categories you have the more benefit this module is!
View Demo with over 100,000 products!
View Demo with 180 products!
How is this different from the old HTML catalog?
It’s quite different in that you can have dynamic pieces in the cache (see holepunching below). This makes it much more flexible to work with your needs by combining static and dynamic pieces. It’s methods in creating these cache pages is totally different from the HTML catalog. You do not use the files directly like you do with the HTML catalog.
It’s also different in that you can use things like CDSEO or it’s own SEO friendly URL’s without using the HTML catalog way which isn’t ideal. You can even set the URL’s for even more ideal SEO.
What is ‘holepunching’? And how does it benefit me?
Our caching module has the ability to ‘holepunch’ certain parts of the cache to make only those pieces dynamic. For example, you may have a minicart that you want to keep dynamic (you want it to update when products are added to the cart). This X-cart Speed Booster module allows this! All you have to do is follow the holepunching instructions when installing the module and it will know to keep that part dynamic and always updated. Your site will still be faster though because the categories, products, and other data will be cached.
How much extra time does ‘holepunching’ add?
It takes about 150 milliseconds to initialize X-cart. So you would add that much time plus what ever query you need. If it’s something like asking for the current inventory amount for a product, that time is pretty negligible as it’s a simple query to the database. So to holepunch the inventory would only add around 150 milliseconds.
What does the module actually cache? Doesn’t X-cart already do template caching?
The module takes a compiled ‘snap shot’ of your pages when it runs. What this means is that there is little to no processing needed to be done when displaying your website. It’s like viewing an HTML website. X-cart’s template caching just caches the compiled templates. There is still a lot of processing done at this point. The Demo links above show this speed increase pretty clearly.
What if I have inventory that changes frequently?
You have currently three options if you have inventory that changes frequently. You can have the cron run more frequently to update your cache more often, you can ‘holepunch’ the inventory or our best option is you can do a few optional install steps for Automatic Page updates! Even if you run out of stock on an item, if someone tries to add it to their cart, X-cart will check before adding it to their cart and will not allow them if you are out of stock. See the cron section below for more details.
What is the Auto Page Updates?
The Auto Page updates is a few extra install steps you can do when installing to make the cache update when needed. For example, if you modify a product in the admin, these optional install steps will refresh that product’s cache as well as any category pages that product shows up on with no interaction from you required! There are options for having auto updates for products, categories, manufacturers and static pages! These optional install steps are also run as a background task so you won’t see any slowdown by adding it in.
What kind of server is the demo site running on?
What is the difference between the cached demo and non-cached demo?
I’m using a ‘Responsive’ Template, will the Responsive template still work?
Yes a Responsive template will still operate normally. Think of it this way, X-cart gives you an HTML page in the end after it does all it’s processing and calculations. What this module does is store that HTML page for quick retrieval. No processing involved (or minimal if you holepunch). So the HTML result is the same, it’s just a snapshot and all the processing is done when you run the cache to generate these snap shot pages.
What if I currently use X-cart’s built in Clean URL’s?
Not a problem. We have an import script to import the information into our module (URL’s and meta data). From then on you can use our module to manage your URL’s. You should find it easier and a more centralized place to manage URL’s
What if I use CDSEO?
Not a problem. We also support CDSEO. CDSEO will operate as it normally does and our module picks that up for you for the caching!
Does your X-cart Speed Booster support multi-languages?
What options are available for the Cron ?
- You can have the cron update all pages.
- Update the home page only
- Update Products only
- Update Categories only
- Update Manufacturers only
- Update Static Pages only
- OR any combination of the above!
What are the page limits?
The page limit options are the number of pages the module will cache. The more products and categories you have, the more beneficial this module is! Just view the demo with 100k products to see how much faster the cached vs non-cached pages are on a small VM server!
What happens if I run over my purchased Page limit?
Not a problem if you run over your page limit! The module will keep working. It just won’t cache any extra pages past your limit but your site will still function like nothing happened!
Can I purchase more page limits later?
Yes! You can always upgrade your page limit. We’ll create a link soon for that upgrade option. You’ll pay only the difference between what you purchased and the new page limit you need!
Buy the Speed Booster mod Now!
Authorize.net DPM vs Authorize.net CIM
BCS Engineering offers 2 great mods for simplifying PCI compliance with X-cart
Authorize.net DPM | Authorize.net CIM |
Which Authorize.net Module is Right for Me?
Both modules provide a path to simpler PCI compliance forms to be filled out. Depending on the features you want will determine which one is best for you. Some customers use both modules! This is great if you want to give the customer the option to store Credit Cards or not.
Authorize.net DPM Features | Authorize.net CIM Features |
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Common Features
Both Authorize.net DPM and Authorize.net CIM modules for X-cart include the following features:
- Sensitive Card information is never stored or transmitted on your server or in X-cart’s software
- Simple to install and configure!
- Customers stay on your site for checkout!
With both Authorize.net DPM and Authorize.net CIM modules, Customers should request to be a ‘Redirect’ merchant type when conversing with PCI compliance auditors and scanners.
Authorize.net DPM | Authorize.net CIM |
X-cart Mod Contest Results
After over 100 votes and 20 mod submissions, the winning module is:
Product Option Weights!
The winning contestant was Kevin Bentz - Jeeperz Creeperz, Inc.
Congrats to Kevin! He will get a free copy of the module!
We’re expecting to release the module late November. Thanks for the great idea Kevin!
Voting open for X-Cart Mod Contest!!
We asked our customers to submit new module ideas to us and they delivered!!
Log in to vote for your favorite mod idea. Deadline to vote is 11:00 PM EDT November 9th! Winner will be announced November 13th!
BCSE will be celebrating our 10th anniversary in November and would like to celebrate with our loyal customers. The customer with the winning idea will receive the mod for free! 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive their choice of 25% off the winning mod or 150 reward points added to their accounts.
You can vote once per Person/login and can vote for multiple mods. Please don’t create or use additional accounts to spam the system!
Anyone caught spamming the voting system will have their votes deducted from the totals. If you have made the module suggestion and we find that you are spamming the voting system, we reserve the right to pull your mod from the contest!
X-cart Mod Contest Update
Due to the large number of last minute entries, we’re going to need a few more days to prepare for the contest. We should be starting the voting on Wednesday, Oct 17. Thanks for all the great ideas! We’re excited to see who wins!
X-Cart Mod Contest!
We are asking our customers to submit new module ideas to us. We will then ask our customers to vote on which mod they would most like to see developed.
The customer with the winning idea will receive the mod for free! 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive their choice of 25% off the winning mod or 150 reward points added to their accounts.
Contest Rules
* Submit your mod idea via our support system no later than October 10th.
* Please be as specific as possible. The more information and detail you provide the better your chance of winning.
* This is your chance to pick something from your “ecommerce wish list”
* Beginning October 15th, visit http://www.bcsengineering.com to vote for your favorite mod idea.
* Deadline to vote is November 9th.
* Winner will be announced November 13th!
Business Tip - Gift Cards!
Offer Gift Cards! When gift cards are used, normally more is spent than the amount on the gift card. It also helps spread the word about your business and can generate new customers!
Excellent Tool for Showcasing Product Options
This color configurator provides almost 100 Million variations just for this one design! Check out this feature. If you’d like us to quote something like this for your site, please contact us.
Google Shopping to become Pay-to-play
We have many clients that depend on Google Shopping (formerly known as Froogle). We have been helping clients since the early days of Froogle connect their X-cart sites to Google Shopping. We learned today from several articles that Google plans to have a pay-to-play model in by Fall 2012. While we can see that this could potentially help keep their results cleaner and more relevant, however we are concerned for the small businesses that may not have a budget for this.
Read more at the Google Shopping becomes pay-to-play article on searchengineland.com
X-Cart Security Patch Released Today
All X-Cart customers should have received a security patch update today, 4/11/2012 from Qualiteam that affects all 4.1.x through 4.4.x X-carts. While X-Cart has categorized this as a “minor” threat, we feel that there is potential for a larger threat if this patch is not applied. If you are a BCSE hosted customer we will automatically apply this patch. If you are not a hosted customer and are not able to apply your patch, please contact us and we will help you. Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Speed up your X-cart site!
Many X-cart sites that have been around a while start to get slower and slower. This is especially true if you have the Advanced Statistics module on. This module is required to be on for the bestsellers module to work. The good news is, there’s usually a really easy quick fix for speeding up your X-cart site! We have a free module that you can upload and either run manually or set it up as a cron (ask your host how to do this if you don’t know how). We’ve been using this free module for years for all of our hosted customers that need extra speed. Check out our FREE Clean Stats mod for X-cart!
The module simply cleans out the xcart_stats tables that you don’t need for bestsellers to work. Many people do not use the data in these because they have better analytics when using Google Analytics or something similar. For larger or order sites, these tables just keep getting bigger and bigger, eventually getting millions of rows of data in them. When a user browses the site, a new row is entered. In simple terms, if you have too many rows then this will slow down the site to insert a new row.
Some sites need more work to speed them up than this but many times this is all that is needed! Contact Us if you need more X-cart Speed help!
Authorize.net DPM now available in the Point of Sale!
We just released today an update to our ever popular Point of Sale system. The Authorize.net DPM solution is now available in the Point of Sale system if you have the DPM module installed!
If you already have the Point of Sale system and would like to update your software to include the DPM support, drop us an email and we’ll see if you qualify for a free upgrade.
The Authorize.net DPM module is a very popular payment gateway choice that runs on top of your existing Authorize.net AIM solution. It helps get you closer to PCI compliance than using regular Authorize.net. It has been the choice of many X-cart clients with the new PCI standards that came out in July of 2010.
X-cart 4.4.5 released!
On Jan 25th, X-cart released the latest version of the 4.4.x branch. 4.4.5 is now available for download. If you downloaded it prior to January 30th, you will want to re-download it as they found a bug and updated the version with the fix for it. You can view more details and a change log on this X-cart Forum thread.
Many clients are taking advantage of the latest release and are upgrading their old X-cart stores. Feel free to use our Free Quote form to send us an upgrade request. We’ve been performing X-cart upgrades since 2004 and have upgraded from simple to very complex and very customized X-cart sites.
The Importance of Making Your Site Mobile
We recently attended the X.Commerce conference in San Francisco and a key takeaway was the importance of websites being fully accessible by mobile devices. The line between retail and ecommerce sales is blurring by way of mobile devices. For example, a customer may be in the store shopping and will research the item online to see if they can find a better deal elsewhere before buying in person. If they find it, they will likely purchase the item via their mobile device foregoing the offer that is right in front of them.
We have had a great deal of success in converting existing websites to a mobile version. We no longer offer a mod for this due to the variances between devices and the intricacies within each site. However, we have found we can achieve this goal through custom work at a very reasonable and fair price. If you want assistance with making your site mobile, please feel free to contact us! View Details and Example Mobile Site(s)
