This article applies to X-Cart 5 below v5.4.0.0.
Your store’s functionality will mainly depend on the add-ons you install from the X-Cart App Store or deploy using the Upload add-on feature. Since add-ons may come from different sources and not constantly be tested for mutual compatibility, you should expect that at some point, your store may experience problems or even completely stop working after you enable an add-on that does not work well with the rest of your store’s configuration. Some problems caused by adding a new add-on or enabling a new feature may not manifest until later, so it may be challenging to say which one of the recent configuration changes prevents your store from operating correctly.
To pinpoint the bad add-on, you may try running X-Cart in safe mode.
This mode helps you disable your store’s recently installed add-ons using a Soft reset or Hard reset link, after which you can re-enable the add-ons one by one by doing the necessary testing to see which of the add-ons is causing the problem.
There is, however, a feature that can work as an ultimate time-saver for you in this case. That feature is Snapshots, introduced in X-Cart version 5.2.5.
The Snapshots feature allows X-Cart to automatically take a snapshot of your X-Cart system every time the list of your store's active add-ons changes and write this information to files/service/.modules.migrations.php.
A typical snapshot looks something like the following:
<?php
return array (
'2015_06_22_10_50_27' =>
array (
'date' => '2015_06_22_10_50_27',
'current' =>
array (
4 => 'CDev\\GoSocial',
5 => 'CDev\\FedEx',
7 => 'CDev\\GoogleAnalytics',
8 => 'CDev\\SimpleCMS',
10 => 'CDev\\Paypal',
11 => 'CDev\\XPaymentsConnector',
12 => 'CDev\\UserPermissions',
13 => 'CDev\\VAT',
14 => 'CDev\\TwoCheckout',
16 => 'CDev\\SalesTax',
17 => 'CDev\\Bestsellers',
18 => 'CDev\\Egoods',
19 => 'CDev\\Moneybookers',
21 => 'CDev\\Sale',
22 => 'CDev\\Test',
23 => 'CDev\\Quantum',
26 => 'CDev\\FileAttachments',
27 => 'CDev\\AustraliaPost',
28 => 'CDev\\ContactUs',
30 => 'CDev\\DeTranslation',
31 => 'CDev\\RuTranslation',
32 => 'CDev\\SocialLogin',
33 => 'CDev\\XMLSitemap',
35 => 'CDev\\MarketPrice',
36 => 'CDev\\AmazonS3Images',
37 => 'CDev\\Coupons',
38 => 'CDev\\ProductAdvisor',
39 => 'CDev\\PINCodes',
40 => 'CDev\\FrTranslation',
41 => 'CDev\\VolumeDiscounts',
42 => 'CDev\\AuthorizeNet',
43 => 'CDev\\FeaturedProducts',
45 => 'XC\\VirtualMerchant',
46 => 'XC\\ColorSchemes',
47 => 'XC\\EBSIndia',
48 => 'XC\\WebmasterKit',
49 => 'XC\\Webmoney',
50 => 'XC\\FreeShipping',
51 => 'XC\\NextPreviousProduct',
52 => 'XC\\PayUIndia',
53 => 'XC\\ProductComparison',
54 => 'XC\\ProductVariants',
55 => 'XC\\YandexMoney',
56 => 'XC\\ESelectHPP',
57 => 'XC\\SofortBanking',
58 => 'XC\\CustomProductTabs',
59 => 'XC\\ThemeTweaker',
61 => 'XC\\IdealPayments',
62 => 'XC\\Robokassa',
63 => 'XC\\MultiVendor',
64 => 'XC\\Development',
67 => 'XC\\Sitemap',
70 => 'XC\\NlTranslation',
71 => 'XC\\GbTranslation',
72 => 'XC\\Stripe',
73 => 'XC\\Qiwi',
75 => 'XC\\Upselling',
76 => 'XC\\CustomerAttachments',
77 => 'XC\\CanadaPost',
78 => 'XC\\ProductFilter',
79 => 'XC\\InternetSecure',
80 => 'XC\\Reviews',
81 => 'XC\\NetbanxHostedPayment',
82 => 'XC\\RESTAPI',
83 => 'XC\\TwoFactorAuthentication',
84 => 'XC\\DisqusComments',
85 => 'XC\\UPS',
86 => 'XC\\Add2CartPopup',
87 => 'XC\\MightyCallReact',
88 => 'XC\\Olark',
89 => 'XC\\EMS',
90 => 'XC\\Akismet',
91 => 'XC\\SagePay',
92 => 'XC\\PoliPayment',
94 => 'XC\\VKComments',
95 => 'XC\\OgoneEcommerce',
96 => 'XC\\EPDQ',
97 => 'XC\\SimplifyCommerce',
98 => 'XC\\Beanstream',
326 => 'XC\\AuctionInc',
341 => 'XC\\MultiCurrency',
342 => 'CDev\\TinyMCE',
343 => 'CDev\\Wholesale',
344 => 'XC\\News',
345 => 'CDev\\USPS',
),
'enabled' =>
array (
69 => 'XC\\CustomSkin',
),
'disabled' =>
array (
50 => 'XC\\FreeShipping',
),
'deleted' =>
array (
0 => 'CDev\\GoSocial',
),
'installed' =>
array (
),
),
);
A separate snapshot is created for each change, so you may find that your files/service/.modules.migrations.php file already contains more than one snapshot.
By studying a snapshot for a specific change in your store's configuration, you can get the following information:
date: Date of snapshot creation (date when the configuration change took place);
current: Add-ons that were active before the configuration change;
enabled: Add-ons that became active after the configuration change;
disabled: Add-ons that were deactivated after the configuration change;
deleted: Add-ons that were deleted;
installed: Add-ons that were installed.
The Snapshots feature not only helps you to keep track of any changes to your store's configuration, allowing you to look up the events that might have caused your store's malfunction. It also allows you to revert to a particular snapshot bringing your system back to a specific state in the past.
To revert to a particular snapshot, enter the following link in your web browser address bar:
http://<shop_domain>/admin.php?target=main&safe_mode=1&access_key=<shop_key>&date=<restore_date>
Be sure to replace <shop_domain> with the actual address of your store, <shop_key> with your Safe Mode access key, and <restore_date> with the date of the snapshot you wish to restore. You can copy the Safe Mode access key from the var/data/.safeModeAccessKey file in your X-Cart installation folder or from any of the two reset links sent to your site administrator mailbox after X-Cart installation. The message subject reads "Soft and Hard reset links for your store!"; for X-Cart versions 5.1.8 and earlier, the subject was "New safe mode access key has been generated!".
Reverting to a snapshot will cause your store to be re-deployed with an add-on set matching the one reflected by the snapshot. Note that your store will not remove any add-ons installed after the snapshot's date - all it will do is disable any such add-ons. Neither will it re-install any add-ons that were active when the snapshot was taken but were removed later on.
After a snapshot restoration, a new snapshot will be written to the snapshot file. The format of this snapshot should be similar to the following:
'2015_06_22_10_56_56' =>
array (
'date' => '2015_06_22_10_56_56',
'restoredTo' => '2015_06_22_10_50_27',
),
This new snapshot will provide the following information:
date: Date when the restoration took place.
restoredTo: Date of the snapshot to which the system was reverted.
Such a snapshot serves a purely informational purpose and cannot be used for restoration.
Related pages: