This developer-oriented release primarily focuses on openness and simpler customization
Over the past few months we've worked hard on a major restructuring of the underlying code, and the result of our efforts is the new 1.3 release.
Kartris now features a small lightweight compiled core to provide underlying functionality, while the pages, controls, masterpages and BLL are now provided in full source code form. This opens up Kartris to developers in a way that was not possible before. Best of all, source code is available with all versions including the free one.
We've not stopped there though. We've restructured the skin system so that each skin is self-contained with a masterpage and the various CSS and image files all within a single parent folder for each skin. We've also introduced simple support for having an alternative masterpage for the home page, and a more advanced system in the shape of the 'Skin.config' file that lets you specify alternative masterpages for certain categories, products, customers (when logged in) and customer groups, as well as for any page itself. So for example, if you want to lose a side menu on the product page and have the product full width, it is now simple to do by simply setting an alternative masterpage (and CSS) for it.
Another major underlying change is the ability to edit orders from the back end. If a customer changes their mind, or a particular item is returned, you can edit the content of the order, effectively creating a new order, cancelling the old one and linking the two for audit trail purposes. Kartris will also track the customer balance that results - overpayments if an item is removed, underpayments that need to be offset if an item is added or upgraded. This functionality is presently 'beta' but we hope to refine it further with customer feedback.
There are a host of other bug fixes and minor improvements, as well as some database tweaks to improve speed and performance.