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Table of Contents

Updating ProductCart: synchronizing files

Overview

When you update ProductCart to a new version, there might be files that overwrite existing files. In some cases, those might be files that you have edited. For example, new text strings might be introduced for new or updated features. Those strings will be added or edited in the file “includes/languages.asp”, which is a file that you might have customized (e.g. to change some of the text shown in the storefront).

Graphical interface

A ProductCart update never includes header.asp and footer.asp (the files that hold most of your store interface). However, in some cases an update might include pcStorefront.css, the Cascading Style Sheet that is used to style much of the storefront, or other CSS documents (e.g. if we discover a problem in the CSS code).

Do you need to do this?

If you have not changed any of the source code, but rather only edited header.asp and footer.asp (or replaced them entirely with your versions), then you do not need to synchronize any files.

One file that you might need to edit - as it is sometimes included in an ProductCart update - is include-metatags.asp in the pc folder. It contains the default Meta Tags. You can simply open it in Notepad to edit it. Learn more about editing the default Meta Tags.

How to Synchronize

There are file and directory comparison tools that can help you compare folders to see which files are different, and then compare the files that have changed at the line-item level to see what's different, so that you can merge the changes. Among these applications:

Backing up

Make sure you create a back-up copy before you perform any synchronization, so you can revert back to the original file, if needed. Some of the above-mentioned utilities allow for a way to automatically back-up a file if it is edited.

List of Overwritten Files

Each ProductCart Update User Guide includes a section that lists files that are being overwritten by the updated file set and that are often customized by ProductCart users. Make sure to pay attention to that section to see if you have edited any of those files. If so:

  • Download the same files from your live Web store
  • Back up the files in the updated file set
  • Compare the files in the updated file set to the downloaded files
  • Update the files in the updated file set to include your changes

Once you've done this, the files that you will upload to the Web store when you are ready to update ProductCart will include your changes (e.g. text strings in includes/languages.asp that you had changed).