X-Cart Pro is an advanced edition of X-Cart Gold software designed to be operated in multi-vendor mode (though it has the ability to operate in single-vendor mode as well). X-Cart Pro allows multiple product providers (vendors) to share a single store for selling their products. Each provider manages his own products, orders, taxes, etc and is able to set their own shipping rates for pre-defined shipping methods independently of other providers. However the store has a joint catalog and a common checkout point, so the customer needs to place only one order. Customers see it like a single shop with different products, and they can purchase products from different providers at a time, and will get a notification from each provider they've bought products from. Respectively, each provider will get orders for his products only.

In summary X-Cart Pro extends features of X-Cart Gold by adding specific functionalities:

• Unlimited number of isolated provider/seller accounts
• Sellers/providers can edit only products belonging to them
• Different providers/sellers can set their own shipping rates for pre-defined shipping methods
• Admin account is separated from provider/seller accounts
• Independent tax settings for providers/sellers

1. Setup and Support

• No programming required
• Web-based installation wizard
• Complete store-builder package
• Easy-to-use web interface
• Export of X-Cart store data: config data, states, users, categories, products, destination zones, taxes, shipping rates, orders, membership levels, etc.
• Import of X-Cart store data: config data, states, users, categories, products, destination zones, taxes, shipping rates, membership levels, etc.
• Out-of-the-box storefront system
• Customizable localization: multi-language, configurable currency symbol and weight/dimension measurement units, configurable list of states/provinces
• Free access to all future releases

2. Design and Layout

• 18 skin templates available for free
• 100% template-based design with separate template sets for the storefront and back end
• Fully customizable CSS-based design & layout
• W3C XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant code
• Intuitive navigation
• CKEditor, TinyMCE, and InnovaStudio WYSIWYG editors for product/category/manufacturer descriptions, language variables and static pages
• Automated product thumbnails generation with a sharpness filter
• Category thumbnail images
• AJAX-powered "mini-cart" visible on all pages
• Flyout and expanding Categories menu
• Build-in template editor: preview, edit and restore templates
• WYSIWYG text editor (webmaster mode)
• Debug console: displays a tree of templates for all pages
• The possibility to find, create and modify static HTML pages
• Customizable heading tabs
• HTML emails

3. Customer Care

• All orders stored in MySQL database
• Customers can search & browse personal order history
• Integrated configurable store product search
• Real time order tracking
• Customer can choose between account registration and express checkout
• Fast Lane Checkout module for quick and intuitive checkout
• The possibility to disable checkout without registering
• Password reminder for customers
• Customizable e-mail notifications/invoices
• Wish list
• "Send to friend" section
• Ability to save the customer's cart
• Newsletter management for multiple lists, edit/import/export of subscribers, news archive for customers
• Printable versions of pages
• Multiple customer types w/unique pricing for every customer type
• Memberships and special pricing
• "Clear cart" button
• Edit product options in cart/wishlist/Gift registry wishlist
• Printable invoices
• Configurable contact form
• Second address line for user profiles
• Ability to change the order of products on the customer side

4. Product Catalog

• Unlimited number of products
• Unlimited number of categories
• Unlimited category nesting
• Products can be assigned to unlimited number of categories
• Ability to modify multiple products simultaneously
• Members-only categories
• "Featured Products" box
• Automated display of bestsellers
• Related products, up selling and cross selling
• 1-click enable/disable switch for products and categories
• Support for up to two different currencies in the products catalog (NOTE: payment processing is possible in one currency only!)
• Automatical currency conversion
• Configurable search by title, description, category, SKU, price and weight
• "Stop words filter" for product search facility (a special filter ensures that service and link words occurring in the search pattern are ignored when search by individual words is performed - available for English language only)

5. Product Details

• Unlimited product options/variants/properties w/optional price modifiers
• Unlimited custom input fields for products
• Customer-defined prices
• HTML-enriched product descriptions
• Unlimited number of product images
• Storing images in DB or on a file system
• List a product in several categories
• Manufacturers module
• Ability to display product detailed images in popup windows

6. Merchandising and Inventory

• Discount coupon codes and gift certificates
• Full inventory control
• "Out of Stock" Messages
• Quantity discounts
• Retail and wholesale price
• Limit minimal order amount

Minimal system requirements

Below requirements are given for latest X-Cart v4.3.0. For older versions please refer to the README file in the distribution package.

1. PHP

Web server must support PHP 4.1.0 or better. PHP 5 is also supported.
Make sure the configuration file php.ini meets the following requirements:

• safe_mode must be disabled
• file_uploads must be enabled
• allow_url_fopen must be enabled
• magic_quotes_sybase must be disabled
• sql.safe_mode must be disabled
• PCRE extension must be enabled
• ini_set function must not be disabled
• memory_limit >= 16M

2. MySQL

The web server must have support for MySQL databases. X-Cart is compatible with MySQL versions from 3.23 to 5.x.

You will need to have access to a MySQL database, so make sure you have the following information: your MySQL server name, your database name, your username and password for MySQL access.

3. Hosting space

A fresh installation of X-Cart 4.3.0 uses 30 megabytes of disk space at least. In addition to that, some disk space will be needed for X-Cart's cache data, image files (if you choose to store them on the file system) and files that might be added in connection with X-Cart customizations. The database space used by X-Cart depends on the number of products, customers and orders stored in it. Accordingly, database space requirements may vary from as little as 5 megabyte for small shops to over 500 megabytes for large stores.

Advanced requirements and recommended settings

Certain parts of X-Cart's functionality rely on using external files. Accordingly, your web server must be allowed to run external executable files (like Perl) and to make outgoing connections to the Internet (that is required for online payments). Loopback connections must be allowed by server firewall (required for HTML catalog feature).

The following components may be required:

• An HTTPS module (like Net::SSLeay perl module, CURL executable, OpenSSL executable or libCURL PHP extension) for some of the online credit card processing modules and for shipping modules.
• xml/Expat extension for PHP for Intershipper, UPS or USPS shipping modules.
• GDLib 2.0 or higher for X-Magnifier addon, for automatic generation of product thumbnails from product images, for the 'Image Verification' module and for cache generation in the 'Detailed Product Images' module. GDLib must be compiled with libjpeg and libpng (ensure that PHP is configured with the options --with-jpeg-dir=<DIR_libjpeg> and --with-png-dir=<DIR_libpng>, where <DIR_libjpeg> is the directory where libjpeg is installed, <DIR_libpng> is the directory where libpng is installed).
• PHP function "mail()" for sending emails from your store (email notifications, news messages, etc).
• External mail program, such as qmail or postfix (available on Unix systems only) instead of PHP function "mail()".
• SMTP server for sending emails from your store using SMTP Authentication instead of PHP function "mail()".

Make sure the functions "exec", "popen", "pclose" and "ini_set" are not included in the disabled functions list in php.ini:

• PHP function "exec()" must be allowed for the correct functioning of most of the CC payment processing modules used with X-Cart (CyberCash, CyberPac (LaCaixa), PayFlow Pro, PayBox, CyberSource, PaySystems Client, VaultX), HTTPS modules (Net::SSLeay, CURL, OpenSSL, https_cli), GnuPG/PGP, X-Carts Patch/Upgrade functionality.
• PHP functions "popen()" & "pclose()" must be allowed for the correct functioning of some HTTPS modules (CURL, Net::SSLeay), payment modules(Saferpay, CyberSource, iDeb), shipping modules (DHL/Airborne, Canada Post, UPS Online Tools, Intershipper, AntiFraud module.
• PHP function "ini_set()" is used for the session mechanism and enhances security.

Restrictions and dependences:

• 'HSBC Secure E-Payment Service' payment gateway works with Windows and Linux operating systems only.

An SSL certificate is highly recommended to ensure security of online transactions at your store. You can obtain an SSL certificate by contacting a company from the list in X-Cart Marketplace.