I need to confirm that my theme will be compatible with future PrestaShop upgrades, so I used PrestaShop’s Theme Validator: http://validator.prestashop.com/
Upgrade preparations, I need to understand the differences in options between the two versions.. By installing both versions, I can simultaneously test & troubleshoot.
My understanding of PrestaShop v1.4 is that it has a very simple and basic Smarty setting preference that doesn’t require much thought in configuring. However, PrestaShop v1.5 has more intense features that require some consideration. Also, thus far from testing v1.5, is that its got some bugs and I’m not sure why they pushed it out so fast.. V1.4, still never fully resolved with CSV import bug, so why would they move onto a next version?
PrestaShop v1.4.4.1
Back Office >> Preferences
Use Smarty 2 instead of 3 = NO
Enable if your theme is incompatible with Smarty 3 (you should update your them, since Smarty 2 will be unsupported from PrestaShop v1.5)
I don’t understand, why my theme was not compatible with v1.5, since my store’s version, I have the selection set to “No”; yet when I installed v1.5.2.0 my theme broke..
PrestaShop v1.5.2.0
Back Office >> Advanced Parameters > Performance
Smarty
Template Cache = Recompile templates if the files have been updated
Optional Features
Some features can be disabled in order to improve performance.. Combinations & Features.
Combinations = These features will be disabled (Combinations tab on product page, Value, Attribute) = enabled
Features = These features will be disabled (Features tab on product page, Feature, Feature value) = enabled
CCC (Combine, Compress and Cache)
CCC allows you to reduce the loading time of your page. With these settings you will gain performance without even touching the code of your theme. Make sure, however, that your theme is compatible with PrestaShop 1.4+. Otherwise, CCC will cause problems.
Smart cache for CSS = Keep CSS as original
Smart cache for JavaScript = Keep JavaScript as original
Minify HTML = Keep HTML as original
Compress inline JavaScript in HTML = Keep inline JavaScript in HTML as original
High risk HTML compression = Keep W3C validation
Apache optimization = Disabled
This will add directives to your .htaccess file which should improve caching and compression.
Media servers (use only with CCC) = none
You must enter another domain or subdomain in order to use cookieless static content.
Ciphering
Mcrypt is faster than PrestaShop’s custom BlowFish class, but requires the PHP extension “mcrypt”. If you change this configuration, all cookies will be reset.
Algorithm = Use Rijndael with mcrypt lib.
Caching
Caching systems are used to speed up your store by caching data into the servers memory, avoiding the exhausting task of querying the database.
Use cache = disable (enable or disable caching system).
Caching system: Select from the following and Add Server (Memcached, APC, Xcache & File System). My server requies the APC & Xcache extensions installed.
CloudCache
CloudCache supercharges your site in minutes through its state-of-the-art content delivery network.
This is subscription based and requires module installation. This feature is not enabled.