The following are some common questions that we're sure you might have. Please feel free to read through them and contact us if you have any additional questions or concerns.

General

Why is Hotcakes Commerce now open source?

Our primary goal has always been to motivate as many online businesses as possible to use Hotcakes Commerce, and when considering our current options, moving to an open source model appears to be the best way to accomplish that. If you consider the open source roots of our founders and leadership, it was a natural decision as well.

Will Hotcakes ever be closed source again?

Hotcakes Commerce will from this point forward be a free and open source e-commerce CMS solution that focuses on growing and nurturing an online community of e-commerce CMS experts for the world to benefit from.

What makes the open source release merit a major release number?

If Hotcakes Commerce was only going open source, that alone would indeed merit the increase to version 3.0. However, it is also now being rebranded as an e-commerce CMS. When you install and run Hotcakes Commerce, it’s a complete e-commerce CMS solution now, and not just e-commerce.

I still have more questions not covered in these FAQ’s. Where/how can I ask them?

Moving forward, all communications will take place in the Hotcakes Commerce community forums. Please feel free to begin any discussions you wish there.

Open Source

How can I download Hotcakes Commerce?

You can download Hotcakes at any time in the Downloads area of the Hotcakes.org website.

What open source license is Hotcakes Commerce offered under?

As noted already, generating a large amount of adoption for Hotcakes is very important to us. In order to achieve that, we decided that Hotcakes Commerce should be released using the MIT license, as it’s the most permissive license available to encourage growth among all stakeholders.

Where will the source code be managed?

The source code for all Hotcakes open source work will be found on GitHub. GitHub is the leading repository for open source projects due to their strong focus on collaboration tools and integrations that benefit distributed teams.

https://github.com/HotcakesCommerce

Can I get source code for legacy commercial versions?

The source code for prior versions of Hotcakes Commerce will not be made available.

How can I contribute to Hotcakes Commerce moving forward?

We’re adopting a community-oriented process to help foster adoption of Hotcakes by all stakeholders, including technical writers, designers, and developers. This involves creating or taking responsibility for an Issue in the respective GitHub project first. Once you do, you may perform the necessary work and then create a pull request once you’re done. The stewards and other parties responsible for product ownership duties will then review the pull request. As long as the pull request is assigned to an Issue, it doesn’t cause new performance issues, it’s usable, and it meets the needs of the overall community, then it generally will be accepted.

Are there any cases when a pull request won’t be accepted?

Absolutely. Like any open source project, sometimes a contribution doesn’t align with the overall long term vision of the project, or doesn’t offer enough benefit to the community overall. Remember, as an overarching goal, we believe that e-commerce should be easy for EVERYONE.

Customers: Customers are engaged from point A to point BUY, with reliability they can trust.
Merchants: Delivering a product to our clients that anyone in the organization can use.
Designers: Empowering designers to be able to embrace the brand of a client, and not the other way around.
Developers: As much as possible, eliminate the ramp up time so developers can get a client site to market faster, with the features they want.

Upgrade

How can I upgrade to version 3.0 from version 2.0?

Upgrading from version 2.0 to version 3.0 is fairly simple. Since this is an FAQ, we won’t go into extensive detail here. The basic steps will require backing up your current instance of Hotcakes, unzipping the version 3.0 package into the root folder of your current site, and then navigating to any page to initiate the upgrade, or go to the upgrade wizard URL directly.

http://example.com/Install/UpgradeWizard.aspx

Can I upgrade to version 3.0 from version 1.0?

We expect for this upgrade process to be identical to the version 2.0 upgrade scenario. However, there are small chances where you might face unique issues. If you do, please see the FAQ section on support to get more assistance.

Are there any known issues when upgrading from version 1.0 or 2.0?

In short, it really depends on the current architecture of your solution. The packaging model for Hotcakes Commerce has changed so that it is no longer dependent upon your CMS version, and as a result, there may be situations where your upgrade process may be more involved and require assistance from your technical team.

How can I get help if I have issues during the upgrade process?

Please see the support section of the FAQ to learn more about your support options.

Existing Licenses

I can’t upgrade yet and still need to activate my current license. Can I still activate my license?

The licensing engine will continue to be active for the next 3 months after the launch of version 3.0. Please activate your licenses before then.

May I have additional license activations for the legacy commercial versions?

We will not be offering any licenses for legacy commercial versions of Hotcakes.

What happens to my legacy commercial license now?

Version 1.0 licenses were perpetual in nature, so you’re free to continue to use the software for as long as you’d like. Version 2.0 licenses were subscription-based and would require an annual renewal. For these licenses, we’ve changed the renewal period to prevent it from ever expiring.

Do I get a refund for my current license if I’ve never activated it?

The purchase of a software license is not dependent upon the date that the license is physically activated. Your licensed benefits begin on the date of purchase. Therefore, there will be no refunds offered for existing licenses that were never activated.

Support

How can I get support?

Hotcakes Commerce is supported in a few different ways. First, being an open source project, there is community-based support that include using the community forums and the issues feature on GitHub. Hotcakes also has expert partners that are familiar with Hotcakes implementations.

If you require commercial support options, you still can purchase SLA-backed support from an official third party provider.

https://upendoventures.com/Support

How can I submit new issues (report bugs)?

If you’ve experienced a bug in Hotcakes Commerce, please submit it to the respective project in GitHub. Support issues will be triaged and managed there moving forward to give the entire community the ability to have an active voice and participate.

https://github.com/HotcakesCommerce

Will legacy commercial versions still be supported?

Support for legacy commercial versions is available through our official third party provider. You will need to discuss your needs with them to get a definitive answer.

https://upendoventures.com/Support

Cloud

What is happening to the Hotcakes Cloud?

The Hotcakes Cloud is still available through our official third party provider, where you also get the benefit of their full support/SLA expertise.

What is the upgrade process for existing customers of the Hotcakes Cloud?

Hotcakes Cloud customers have always enjoyed the benefits of scheduled upgrades, and this will continue to be the case moving forward. Customers will be contacted to discuss and schedule upgrades.

Version 3.0 FAQ's