OXID eShop Core Edition

Starting with OXID eShop 6.5, a Core Edition is available as an alternative to the standard compilation. It contains the shop core and all its dependencies, but without bundled modules or their dependencies. This gives you full control over which modules to install and update.

Why Core Edition?

The standard OXID eShop compilation ships as a tested snapshot: the shop core and all included modules are pinned to exact versions that have been verified together. This ensures stability, but it also means that updating a single module requires a new compilation release.

OXID eShop 6.5 is in legacy support status. While the shop core continues to receive critical security fixes, the compilation as a whole does not receive new releases. This can create situations where individual modules need updates — security patches, compatibility fixes, or replacements — but the compilation’s pinned dependencies prevent you from installing them independently.

The Core Edition solves this by separating the shop core from the modules:

  • Shop core: Continues to receive critical security updates on a best-effort basis.

  • Modules: You manage them individually via Composer — install, update, replace, or remove as needed.

Note

We recommend updating to the current OXID eShop version (7.x) for full support, active maintenance, and access to the latest features and security improvements.

OXID eShop 7.x runs on current PHP versions (8.3–8.5), MySQL 8.0/8.4, and MariaDB 11. It includes improved security measures and an architecture where module code is no longer directly accessible from the web.

The Core Edition for 6.5 is intended for shops that cannot migrate to 7.x immediately but need to maintain or update individual modules.

For information about updating to the current version, see the update guide.

What is included

The Core Edition contains the shop core and infrastructure packages — everything needed to run OXID eShop without bundled modules:

  • OXID eShop core (same version as in the standard compilation)

  • Themes (Flow, Wave)

  • Composer plugin, database views generator, migration wrapper

  • All required Symfony and PHP dependencies

What is not included

The following modules and their dependencies from the standard CE compilation are not included in the Core Edition metapackage:

  • WYSIWYG Editor + Mediathek (ddoe/wysiwyg-editor-module)

  • Klarna (fatchip-gmbh/oxid-klarna-6)

  • Makaira (makaira/oxid-connect-essential)

  • GDPR Opt-In (oxid-esales/gdpr-optin-module)

  • PayPal (oxid-esales/paypal-module)

  • Cookie Management powered by Usercentrics (oxid-professional-services/usercentrics)

  • PAYONE (payone-gmbh/oxid-6)

Warning

When you switch the metapackage and run composer update, Composer will remove any package that is no longer required — directly or transitively — by the new dependency tree. This includes active, running modules — not just deactivated ones.

This affects the modules and their dependencies that were bundled with the standard compilation metapackage. Modules that you or your agency installed separately are already explicit requirements in your composer.json and will remain installed.

Before switching, identify which of the compilation’s bundled modules your shop actually uses. The migration guide in the developer documentation provides detailed instructions for this.

Note

PE and EE compilations include additional modules (e.g. Visual CMS for PE/EE, Unzer Payment for EE). The same principle applies — the Core Edition for each edition contains only the shop core and its dependencies. All modules must be explicitly required.

Editions

The Core Edition is available for all three OXID eShop editions:

  • CE: oxid-esales/metapackage-ce-core

  • PE: oxid-esales/metapackage-pe-core

  • EE: oxid-esales/metapackage-ee-core

Migrating to Core Edition

Important

This is a critical change to your shop’s dependency structure. Always perform the migration on a development or staging environment first. Verify that the shop works correctly — including all modules, payment methods, and checkout flows — before applying the change to your production system.

The migration requires two things in a single step: replacing the metapackage and explicitly requiring every module your shop currently has installed — even modules you eventually want to remove. Do not run composer update after only swapping the metapackage — this will remove your modules. Once the migration is complete, drop unwanted modules cleanly with composer remove (see “Managing modules after migration” below).

Overview

  1. Backup your shop — database, files, and composer.json.

  2. Save your composer.lock — it is the complete record of all currently installed packages and their exact versions.

  3. Edit composer.json: replace the standard metapackage with the Core Edition metapackage, and add every module currently installed in your shop as an explicit requirement with its current version — even modules you eventually want to remove. You can drop those cleanly with composer remove after the migration is complete.

  4. Run composer update on your development or staging system.

  5. Verify that all expected packages are still present in the expected versions and the shop functions correctly.

  6. Test the shop thoroughly — frontend, checkout, payment, admin — before deploying to production.

The detailed step-by-step procedure with exact Composer commands is described in the developer documentation.

Managing modules after migration

After switching to the Core Edition, modules are no longer locked by the compilation metapackage. You can manage them individually:

Updating a module:

composer update vendor/module-name

Removing a module:

composer remove vendor/module-name

Installing a replacement module:

composer require vendor/new-module-name

Important

After any module change, clear the shop cache and regenerate views:

vendor/bin/oe-console oe:cache:clear
vendor/bin/oe-console oe:module:activate module-id
vendor/bin/oe-console oe:database:generateviews