How to build a cost effective X-Cart site in 12 hours using using XCartMods Ultra Template

In August we were asked by a client to build to rebuild their online store as quickly and as cost effectively as possible. Their current site was built using a shopping cart application that had become unsupported about 3-4 years ago. The site was about 7-8 years old and although the skin was modern the backend was getting behind the times. Security was a big concern as both PHP 5.3 and the version of mysql they were on were now both unsupported.

As we build all our sites in X-Cart 4 this was naturally my first choice. However, to build the store they wanted, plus 10 years of customisation into the backend and also be the right tools to go forward, it would usually take about 9-15 months to complete such a task.

I had been looking at xcartmods.co.uk Ultra theme which is based on Bootstrap 4 and is mobile responsive ready. It allowed me to save weeks of development of integrating bootstrap 4 into every page and widget on xcart 4 within a few hours. The theme code has been implemented really well, if not better than the default xcart 4 files. Especially the dreaded product.tpl page which had been broken down into multiple smarty tpl files to allow for easy management.

I managed to migrate the store and theme across within 12 hours and went live within a day. Like I said without the Ultra theme this would never have been possible. Of course there was still a lot to do. But it allowed the business to continue operating while I had time to migrate over all the backend functionality like Royal Mail DMO functionality and customised reporting.

I would thoroughly recommend the Ultra Theme along side X-Carts Refine Products Module for any new X-Cart 4 site build. Works on PHP 7 with MariaDB.