Is it possible to upgrade from Designer to Developer?

Hi,

Just one quick question. If I buy the $99 Designer version, install it, and find that I can't customize it as much as I'd like... can I pay the $100 difference to easily upgrade to the Developer version and unlock the additional files?

I *think* the designer version sounds like what I need but can't be certain until I try it.

Thanks!

[Lhotch +]

Yep, you can upgrade. I cant recall the price however. it may be a tad more than just the difference.

[Eric Barnes +]

Yes the price is currently $125 to upgrade:
Designer to Developer Price Increase

Thank you for the replies. I'd rather not pay the extra $25 to upgrade if my "guess" that the Designer version will suit me turns out to be incorrect.

So I know various versions of this have been asked before but I'm still not quite sure if I need the Developer version. I understand the difference (developer = all PHP files are editable), but I guess I don't know WHY I'd need them all to be editable.

This will be a classified section within an existing site, not an actual classifieds site. So I have my php header, footer, menu, etc, which are all called by PHP Includes. So I need to edit the classifieds to fit within my existing page structure (via including my header/footer/menu/etc, or by copying and pasting those into a template for this script). And there's a good chance I'll want to edit various CSS styles, images, etc to truly customize the look of the classifieds.

But I won't need to change any of the classifieds' functionality -- I won't be building any new functions, new checkout routines, modules, add-ons, etc.

So I guess what I'm asking is, in what situation(s) would you need the developer version? In other words, what are some examples of things people would edit the PHP for? Based on my situation as described above, is there anything there that CAN'T be done in the designer version, where it sounds like I'd need access to the PHP files to get what I need?

Sorry for the long post, and I appreciate the replies very much.

[Eric Barnes +]

I can't think of an example of the top of my head. However lets say you one day want to add another item to the searchresults. Maybe a field that isn't included in the original query. With the Developer edition you could then add the field to the query.

I am sure there are better examples than this but this is all I could think off.

Ok, thanks. So given my setup:

This will be a classified section within an existing site, not an actual classifieds site. So I have my php header, footer, menu, etc, which are all called by PHP Includes. So I need to edit the classifieds to fit within my existing page structure (via including my header/footer/menu/etc, or by copying and pasting those into a template for this script). And there's a good chance I'll want to edit various CSS styles, images, etc to truly customize the look of the classifieds.

... is there anything there that CAN'T be done in the designer version, where it sounds like I'd need access to the PHP files to get what I need? Or can I edit the look and integrate the classifieds within my existing site design (template/header/footer) with the designer version?

Thanks much!

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by Chris

Ok, thanks. So given my setup:



... is there anything there that CAN'T be done in the designer version, where it sounds like I'd need access to the PHP files to get what I need? Or can I edit the look and integrate the classifieds within my existing site design (template/header/footer) with the designer version?

Thanks much!

68c uses smarty templates so its probably not quite as easy as taking existing php headers and footers and slapping them onto 68C.

Smarty, for the most part handles the look and feel of the site and the template files are by and large just plain HTML. They do however have special smarty variables within the HTML. These variables are surronded by curly brackets.....ie

{$imasmartyvariable}

The layout of the classifieds is generally handle by 2 templates at any given time. layout.tpl which is the template file that contains the header, navigation and footer. Then within this template is a {$body} variable which actually holds the second template and its generated content and is diplayed "inside" layout.tpl whih is the body of the page (ie search results, an ad etc).

I recommend you check out the following links, it will give you a good idea about how the template system works.

Modifying the default template in v4.

Template design tutorial!

Now having said that, if you have played around with the live demo, both front and back end, and the site displays things you want and how you want them, then you should be fine with the designer version. However, if you want to add additional features you wil need the designer version and some php know how.