I made some tests on a free hosting with the new version and 1.4.8.2, both of them were out of the box. Here is what i got from the internal speed report (average times):

Prestashop 1.4.9

• Load time: 157ms
• Hook Processing: 110ms
• memory peak Usage: 11.32 Mb
• SQL Queries: 123 queries
• Size of included files: 1.28 Mb

Prestashop 1.4.8.2

• Load time: 195ms
• Hook Processing: 140ms
• Memory peak usage: 9.76 Mb
• SQL Queries: 115 queries (Same query time anyway)
• Size of included files: 1.04 Mb

So, Since these versions were, as i said, out-of-the-box, there was not much data to compare. The results refer to the actual load speed of the home page, on the average visit (so, no first-time calls). First time calls have indeed been boosted since they also upgraded Smarty to 3.1.11. As you can see, even with those few products, the homepage loads a bit faster. So yes, there definitely is a small improvement in performance, but 321% times is a bit too much.

However, some users in the forums noticed a major improvement in their shop’s performance where those shops were bigger. So, it seems the Prestashop team has focused on making the application faster for bigger stores. I guess that’s why the speed improvement is almost not noticeble in small shops.

The Biggest news, however, is the upgrade of jQuery, from the old 1.4.4 to 1.7.2. F I N A L L Y

I’m so glad of that, since that 1.4.4 version was published on November 11th, 2010. That’s 2 years Prestashop Team! Of course, this means all we developers should better leave behind the live() function if we ever used it in our modules, since it’s derecated in the new JQuery.

So sad that, in the meantime, jQuery 1.8 was released. We’re always one step behind, but at least we’ll deal with a better version from now on.

Changes on Modules

For this new version, they introduced a couple of new modules, most of which useless:

• Jirafe: Statistics module. Not installing on my WAMP as out-of-the-box
• Allied Wallet: Payment Module
• WexPay: Another Payment Gateway
• Prestashop Assurance: Some weird French assurance thing
• Merchant Warehouse: Another Payment Gateway

I Suppose most of these are just parthnership modules.

In any case, they also changed the Paypal Module, which is now 3.0.9. This module has been changed a lot. The interface is totally different, and, as a side not, for some weird reason you have to click “register” everytime you access the module, in order to configure it. I haven’t tested the functionality yet.

Bugs till now

An old bug re-surfaced, and so now you cannot use live edit anymore, since it just spawns a fatal error.

Conclusion – is the new Prestashop worth upgrading?

I’ve not tested the new version extensively, but it definitely is a bit better than the previous one. However, upgrading Prestashop is always a dice roll, so:

If you have a fairly large shop and are experiencing slowdowns: You should definitely upgrade.

If you have a relatively small store, with 1.8.2, and it’s very customized: You should think twice (or more), since the new stuff might not be worth the hassle of updating your custom code.

EDIT: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using paypal as a payment option, it has several critical bugs that, in the average case, are not allowing you to receive any kind of payment. See more info here:

• Prestashop Paypal not redirecting back to my website
• Paypal Wrong Address Format

With all this said, I’ll be updating this post as I dive deep into it, so stay tuned!

Resources

• Download the latest Prestashop (1.4.9)
• Prestashop 1.4.9 Changelog

The post New Prestashop 1.4.9 released! appeared first on NemoPS.