V18.1 Warning

[Buzby]

Having upgraded to V18.1 all was working fine.

Our host (Host-it) then upgraded the Perl on the site which is not compatible with some aspects of Sellerdeck.

Sellerdeck runs on an older version, so unless your server runs old versions of Perl your website may not function correctly.

The problem we are having is that Crypt SSL and Net SSL do not work on later versions of Perl. These are used for some of the payment partners to transfer the order to them.

In our case Sage pay (Opayo) and PayPal have now ceased to work completely.

This is the advice offered from each company.

Sage pay – change shopping cart as Sellerdeck software is outdated.

Host-it – move to an older server awaiting upgrade to buy limited time.

Sellerdeck – move to their server which is running the same outdated Perl

Anyone looking to upgrade to V18.1 you may wish to check with your hosting company that they can run older versions of Perl, or if Host-it ask when they will be upgrading your server.

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Jason,

Presumably the problem you're referring to is not limited to V18.1 as previous versions also rely on the same Perl functionality.

CPAN appear to be suggesting that Crypt::SSLeay and Net:SSL should be deprecated to make it clear that they should no longer be used.

Use of Net::SSL and Crypt::SSLeay is discouraged these days in favor of IO::Socket::SSL, and it usually causes things to break when trying to use modern SSL. The distribution should be marked deprecated to make this clearer to users.

It looks as if Sellerdeck really need to make the required changes to support this.

Mike

[Buzby]

Hi Mike,

Yes thinking about it I'm sure Sage pay would be an issue on previous versions.

I think PayPal may only be an issue on 18.1 as support advised that the new setup requires Crypt SSL and I still have PayPal working on a 18.05 site but failing on a 18.1 site.

Why would they release brand new software on outdated Perl that is not compatible with hosting providers and payment partners

[zgap111]

It all looks worrying... we're with host-it also... but we will be stuck on v18.0.6 - so Paypal Express still works... and we don't use Sage Pay

Since host-it offers a specific Sellerdeck hosting package... I would have thought that the servers dedicated for Sellerdeck hosting should not be updated?

However, if this all fails... and we don't get past v18.0.6... this could be the final boot that kicks us off from using Sellerdeck...

[Buzby]

Since host-it offers a specific Sellerdeck hosting package... I would have thought that the servers dedicated for Sellerdeck hosting should not be updated?

My hosting was Pinbrook that was taken over by Host-it. I am on a multisite package and think over the years this has taken a different evolutionary route with the server that has now become an issue.

One option is to start moving the sites over to what they advertise as Sellerdeck hosting, but awaiting confirmation of the Perl on the site.

Whatever happens though I think it is poor for Sellerdeck to be so behind on the Perl used and do wonder if this presents any security issues.

[zgap111]

re: security issues

Few years ago I did a security scan on all our sites... results showed issues - some "red". We had support at the time and some were resolved

Your Sage Pay's response was kind of funny and sad.

[HOST-IT]

Hi Everyone,

James from Host-it here.

The Perl version in itself has been problematic for older Sellerdeck/Actinic versions for a while now but the issues of Sellerdeck utilising Crypt SSL and Net SSL are a bit more recent as they are modules being pulled from supported Operating Systems. Sellerdeck should be addressing some of these issues within their software as not only does it make sense from a compatibility side of things but also from a security standpoint (it's dealing with payments at the end of the day). Crypt::SSLeay alone is vulnerable to some well-known security issues - https://metacpan.org/pod/Crypt::SSLe...TBLEED-WARNING. Sellerdeck is a great and established piece of software that does need to be kept up to date.

If you are a customer of ours and there's no sign of Sellerdeck resolving these issues in the near future we do maintain a number of servers that do run older versions of Perl and the software involved just incase so please reach out to our support department if you need to.

Our hope is though that the developers step in and release much needed patches to ensure that the software works on up to date systems.

Regards

James

[Mike Hughes]

Thanks James,

That's pretty much how I see it. I'd expect Sellerdeck as a professional organisation to be monitoring things like this that are going to come and bite them in the future and have a workaround plan in place in good time. It's a shame that Sellerdeck isn't showing a particularly proactive stance on this.

Mike

[Buzby]

Many thanks James

I must say Host-it support has been top notch whilst Sellerdeck support has been poor.

With no update from them regarding a question I asked a week ago.

The question was what is the latest version of Perl Sellerdeck will run on? You would think they would know, but a week later the development team are still working on it.

Last message from Sellerdeck was shall I get sales to call you to quote for hosting.

[guccij]

We've been paying for cover for 13 years. Daily, now, as we struggle to get the most basic things fixed and questions answered, we wonder why. Host-It by the way, are the best hosts ever. Cannot fault them.

[Buzby]

Guccij,

We cancelled cover when they had that huge price hike a few years back. Never found support any good and any issues were either resolved by myself or from the help of this forum before Sellerdeck support ever solved it.

This time I had to purchase to get the Swift theme and this is my first encounter with support for years, and it doesn't seem like it has improved.

[zgap111]

We cancelled on similar reasons... we still using SD Payments - it's now the only revenue SD now gets from us...

And host-it are fantastic - helped us switch away from SD 365 with zero downtime.

Not too pleased that a new license is required when it's not even a new release (v19+)...

I never knew of security issues until I did that scan of our sites a few years back... I don't like knowing that there are potential security on the SD sites, that anyone with knowledge can exploit every SD site - goes against all GDPR and PCI DSS compliance

[Mike Hughes]

Hopefully Sellerdeck are now fully aware of the issue and putting a plan together to fix the problem. With a bit of luck we should hear about it soon.

I will add that Sellerdeck is still a great piece of software that produces sites with some big advantages. Google's May update will use Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal and from what I've seen the alternative dynamic ecommerce sites are all going to face a big hurdle getting anywhere near good enough. With Sellerdeck my product pages are now getting around 92-93 on mobile and 99 -100 on desktop. Looking at some of the UK sites using one of the larger ecommerce software solutions they're only getting 15 on mobile and 68 on Desktop and are failing Google's Core Web Vital assessments. The shakeout is going to be interesting and I can't help wondering how far Google will push the poor performing sites down the SERPS as it's objective is for businesses to improve their sites, not to kill them off.

PS. The 'Swift' sites I've looked at are not doing that well on mobile either. It would be good to see Sellerdeck fix this as I'd rather not have to go through it and fix all the problems myself.

Mike

[Buzby]

PS. The 'Swift' sites I've looked at are not doing that well on mobile either. It would be good to see Sellerdeck fix this as I'd rather not have to go through it and fix all the problems myself.

Mike

I must agree, our speeds on Google insights have slipped, however visitor numbers, sales and conversion % is up with the Swift design.

[Mike Hughes]

I must agree, our speeds on Google insights have slipped, however visitor numbers, sales and conversion % is up with the Swift design.

That's good to hear because I don't think it would take much to fix the layouts. It's mostly common sense and a bit of digging into the details.