AbanteCart 1.4.3
17 October 2025
AbanteCart version 1.4.3 is now available.
Upgrading to AbanteCart 1.4.3
AbanteCart 1.4.3 can be upgraded to (or installed) using any of Installatron's products. Use Installatron's optional Automatic Update feature to automatically apply AbanteCart updates as new versions are released, or use Installatron's Clone feature to duplicate an existing AbanteCart install to test the 1.4.3 upgrade prior to applying it live. Get started managing your AbanteCart installations with Installatron
What's New in AbanteCart 1.4.3
Broad Windows compatibility and a major move to Form Manager, enabling merchants to edit forms, add new fields, group fields, customize field icons, apply restrictions, and control validation messages. Customer registration, customer details, address, and guest checkout forms now load from the database (AForm).
Security
- XSS hardening in the PageBuilder storefront preview page.
- Safer email validation and form regex handling in AForm/AHtml.
- Added passwordHash() to standardize hashing in PHP code.
- Storefront access — new setting “Allow returning customers to browse.” When enabled, unauthenticated returning visitors can browse products, add items to the cart, and use the wishlist without signing in.
Highlights
- Form Manager everywhere (merchant-editable). Most customer, account, and checkout forms now come from the database and are managed via the AbanteCart Form Manager—edit/add fields, group them, customize field icons/tooltips, set restrictions, and tailor validation/error messages.
- Windows compatibility. Large refactor and many targeted fixes across the core, controllers, extensions, and the installer.
- Large cart performance update. Faster cart updates and improved robustness for very large carts.
- Payment restrictions by customer group. You can now restrict which payment methods are available per customer group—applies to all payment extensions. Sponsored by Mikko.
- Tax. AvaTax SDK updated with full PHP 8 support; shipping taxation behavior fixed.
- Option value: require_shipping. (Sponsored by Mikko.) New require_shipping toggle on product option values so options can explicitly force shipping when selected.
- Libraries upgraded: Font Awesome 7.0.0; Bootstrap 5.3.7.
- Internationalization: Languages moved to a dedicated repo: abantecart/abantecart-languages. The admin can load 20+ languages directly from that Git repository.
- UPS extension updated to the latest PHP SDK; adds shipment & label creation.
- PayPal Commerce: New card fields UI with billing address for AVS, clearer validation/errors, webhook update fixes, and totals alignment.
- Installer/Upgrader: Download credentials on finish; CLI pre-install of extensions; sample data improvements.
- Database changes: Default MySQL character set/collation switched to utf8mb4 for full-Unicode support.
Developer Notes
- New/updated hooks: product_before_tabs; added hooks in order_details.tpl.
- Deprecated setting: phone number regex pattern (use the customerFrm telephone pattern).
- DB-driven forms for customer/guest flows—check customizations against AForm changes.
- AController page parameter now type-cast.
- Import APIs refactored to typed parameters.
- Added AHtml property zone_only for zones element; AForm::getFormElements() to enumerate form elements.
- New Git language workflow: fetch/update language packs from abantecart/abantecart-languages.