Download Zen Cart 1.3.9a here
(if you need help installing please contact our Zen Cart developer)

What’s New in Zen Cart v1.3.9?
Many improvements and bugfixes are included in v1.3.9 since v1.3.8, including the following:

• PHP 5.3.x compatibility
• PCI scan improvements to prevent commonly-reported false-positives
• SSL-detection improvements
• Session Handling improvements for shared-SSL configurations to deal with IE-specific quirks
• Session-Handler improvements: closing when done, removed redundant start, etc
• Search improvements
• Hack-attempt detection improvements
• Add .htaccess for /images/ folder, and security updates to many others as well
• Canonical URL support added for product pages and product listings. See /includes/init_includes/init_canonical.php
• Developer Toolkit Improvements (smarter searches, case-sensitive options, etc)
• USPS module updated to RateV3 API and includes all updates posted to April 2010
• PayPal UK - 3D-Secure support added
• PayPal micropayments support added
• Added CURL processing for PayPal IPN handling in case fsockopen() is disabled or failing
• Various updates to PayPal, Linkpoint (now renamed to FirstData) and Authnet Payment modules
• Split tax line support integrated
• Added per-EZ-page stylesheet support
• Fix ISO country/currency errors in default SQL file (old countries removed, etc)
• Fixes/updates/additions of various notifier calls
• MySQL 6-alpha preliminary compatibility
• Updates to spiders.txt file for stronger efficiency and more up-to-date data
• Improvements to configure.php file read-only detection (automatically sets to read-only if found writable, and permissions allow it)
• Various performance improvements, including freeing up wasted memory to make things run more lean
• PHP error logging automatically enabled by default, since errors are not displayed to the browser (for security reasons) (Log cleanup can be done from admin side via Store Manager)
• Turn off autocomplete on cc-number fields so browsers don’t store/retrieve that information
• Spam slamming via tell-a-friend is now throttled
• Admin-login-slamming protection - added delays to prevent brute-force password attacks

There have been some exciting things happening in the Zen Cart community; among them:

• Add Items to Cart (using Ajax, no page refresh)
  This enhancement brings Zen Cart up to speed with the other open source e-commerce platforms
• Edit Items in Shopping Cart (including attributes)
  One of the major downfalls of Zen Cart is that your customers couldn’t edit the items with attributes in their shopping cart; they would have to delete the item and add it again. That is no longer the case (thanks to Alex Branning).

The Branning Group has just released a module that will really help store owners, and something that has been notably lacking from previous Zen Cart installations: saving the credit card information of your customers.

This new module “records all credit card information passed through the Authorize.NET payment modules” and includes an administrative section that allows the store owner to “search for credit card information by credit card number, name on card, security code and Zen Cart customer ID.”

This screenshot was included in the promotion material the Branning Group sent us:

You can learn more and purchase the module here: http://www.branninggroup.com/zen-cart-log-authorizenet-credit-card.php

Alex Branning just posted a new entry about a Zen Cart store that uses credits as currency for customers to buy and use on-site. Here’s  an excerpt:

I recently published LetterheadStudios.com a web site selling professional clipart using on-site credits as the currency to purchase the art. I wanted to walk you through the steps I took, the problems I encountered and what you need to know to make credits work for your Zen Cart store.

Alex goes through the five steps he took to make this happen; it’s a great read if you’re looking to use credits on your Zen Cart store.