• Posted by Melanie
• 17 March 2009
• Store Development

Building Zen Carts is the bulk of what we do at PRO-Webs, so knowing them well and testing configurations and modules is a big part of what we do. Today I will give you a list of 5 things to make your Zen Cart faster and better performing.

1. The number one thing to do is this list of tweaks and trick to speed up your Zen Cart supplied by Zen-Cart.com. I suggest you follow this great list of Zen Cart configurations closely to make a big difference in your Zen Cart performance.
2. Images are a problem for most store owners... We want them and they slow down our stores. So, I suggest a few tips on images for your Zen Cart: Use images only as big as you really need; reduce the number of colors in images to reduce their file size.... and install Image Handler2 for Zen Cart to cache, compress and re size images easily and efficiently.
3. SQL queries can be a real problem for Zen Cart, your store generates a huge amount of queries for most functions. Reducing the number of queries can be very quickly done using the Query Cache Module from Data Diggers. This module is lite, easy to install and will cache queries for your admin and catalog sections of Zen Cart... In most cases this will drop about 30% off of your query load time.
4. Caching images and queries is great... But add the ability to cache pages and control the cached time is a real load time saver for your Zen Cart. I recommend this Zen Cart performance module from MagneticOne.
5. Lastly, and this one is the easiest of all.... Backup your database weekly and then under Tools in your Zen Cart administration section, select the Store Manager and do these 2 things weekly to help maintain the performance level of your store and database. First, the very top button for Empty Admin Activity Log table from the database: Click reset; Then the last selection on the page is Optimize Database:  Click Confirm... Do this is a non peak period.

There you have it... Quick easy and very inexpensively make your Zen Cart Cook!

We are not affiliated with MagneticOne in any way and make this recommendation based on our experience with the module and its ability to cache and speed your Zen Cart up. We have received no compensation for this recommendation from MagneticOne or anyone else to say this... It is of our own free will and choice.

• Posted by Melanie
• 20 February 2009
• Store Development

Notice to all Zen Cart owner's who ARE or plan to process credit cards in
their stores:

In pursuance of the PCI Security Standards Council's current license agreement (10/2008), SSL Version 2.0 with previously noted vulnerabilities will no longer be supported by credit card gateways.

Authorize.net, has specifically decided to drop all legacy support for SSL V. 2.0 during the week of March 16 - 20, 2009. If you plan to accept credit cards you will need to be certain your web hosting is not only designed for your
Zen Cart, but also that the web host is PCI compliant with V. 3.0 SSL as well as the other PCI standards required & recommended.

Authorize.net has clearly noted the following in a recent email alert.

Failure to upgrade their applications or integrations may result in a lost
ability to successfully process transactions via the Authorize.Net Payment
Gateway.

You are advised to contact your web host and/or web developer immediately to secure proper SSL 3.0 if your web host has not already upgraded. The upgrade should yield little or no downtime or disturbance.
Please note that this is no mistake and if you do not have SSL 3.0 compliant hosting, you will not be able to continue to process credit cards, as the gateway communications MUST be transmitted via SSL 3.0. SSL 2.0 is no longer supported under the compliance requirements. For additional support please contact your credit card processing provider.