My plan for CoCart v3 is to introduce a major re-write of the cart system that the current API is relying on. Sounds big and your right, it is going to be a major achievement.

While the API it’s self will not change much, the core of the API will have a new backbone rather than relying on the cart in the core of WooCommerce. Meaning that the majority of WooCommerce functions used will be in the core of CoCart with the necessary adjustments required.

This also insures that any changes made in the future to the cart in WooCommerce does not effect how CoCart functions in the long run.

Why the change?

In short, WooCommerce’s handle on sessions is not designed well for a REST API. Which is why I will be working on creating a new cart system that is designed for the REST API.

• Better session control – will include the ability to switch between customers when authenticating. No more merged carts without clearing it first.
• Additional fees support – will no longer run as an independent API.
• Processing orders – cart is converted to an order ready to be paid so less coding and using WooCommerce’s REST API to do it.
• and possibly more.

What about v2.1?

CoCart v2.1 is near, development was put on hold since December 2019 mostly for personal and technical reasons but I am back on track and making progress for beta 5.

While the cart improvements may not be perfect due to the session control system currently used, it is in the right direction and will provide a number of requested improvements.

CoCart v3 will include all the changes made in v2.1 and be improved upon.

Community and Feature Requests

The CoCart community has been great and a big help from the community has been the feedback. Without you, CoCart would not be possible.

There have also been many feature requests coming in. While I have started working on some of these features, they are not currently worth my time finishing and releasing until the core of CoCart is more stable and supportive of those features.

These features will of course be added as part of CoCart Pro or as an additional add-on depending on the support required for those features.

My hope is that with the new cart system, these features will be easier to provide and more open opportunities for developers will be available.

Some stats… everybody loves stats

CoCart currently has just over 900 active installs and 35.7% of them are still using version 1. On a surprising note, CoCart has been around for almost 2 years already since version 1 was released on WordPress.org on 26th February, 2018. That’s 20 days away from it’s 3rd birthday.

Version 2 was released on 3rd July, 2019 and the last release was 4 months ago so it’s been slow progress with the releases.

My hope is to increase the active installs and plan to release updates in shorter cycles. Right now there is too much of a gap.

How can you help

CoCart is currently developed in my free time, it’s not a full time gig yet. While I am making sales with CoCart Pro, the sales are slow coming and that’s to be expected I think due to the core of CoCart still needs addressing with the session issue.

At the moment I am still working freelance which takes my time away from developing CoCart. So I have come up with an idea that I think for those who like and use CoCart will appreciate and that is to become a founder.

As a founder you will be allowing me to work on CoCart more frequently, get a copy of CoCart Pro, all the add-ons and best of all unlimited site usage.

Your company logo will also be linked and displayed on a special page including the GitHub repository as a thank you.

You can if you wish still just purchase CoCart Pro. It’s up to you.

A big thank you for the customers I have had so far and all those using CoCart.

If you have any questions about this post or the founders edition, feel free to contact me or have an open discussion with me via Slack next Monday at 4PM GMT+1.

Thank you.