June '09 Update - Comments

[Benjamin Dyer]

This is the supporting thread for the June '09 News Update.

[pinbrook]

It has also been stated that Express is going to a v2 soon, is there any news of this as it isn't mentioned on the list of major projects.

Can we see a list of stuff to go into 905? Please please please lets not go forward with 10 until all the major bugs are out of 9. (Lets not release 10 with some ofthe v9 bugs reintroduced too) Actinic users have had a torrid time since v8 first came out, my perception is there has always been a major bug that had to be fixed in every patch, BUGS and perception really is doing actinic down at the mo.

I can't remember where the post was where new 10 features were tentativley released so can only recall the clamour for google checkout. Even this seems to be less important as i suspect GC will want their button everywhere in the same way paypal dictate - thus causing customer confusion. Last i saw GC had about 6% of payment transactions.

[Benjamin Dyer]

It has also been stated that Express is going to a v2 soon, is there any news of this as it isn't mentioned on the list of major projects.

Yep, Express v2 launched earlier in the year.

Can we see a list of stuff to go into 905?

Yep, I'll make the contents of the next maintenance release available as soon as its been decided. Its going to be small and targeted, the last two maintenance releases have been big, I want to get into a little and often release cycle. Its good for everyone.

Last i saw GC had about 6% of payment transactions.

Yep, its been falling since the free transactions were ditched. GC is penned in for v10.

[Rich Brady]

I can't remember if it was in here or somewhere else, but Mal at RuralWeb mentioned that Google are going to be using the feedback in GC and include it in their algo sometime in the future.

If this is the case Ben, Actinic users are going to want this even more so.

[grantglendinnin]

The GC story of influencing search rankings is nothing but a myth until Google announce it themselves, though it has been hinted at a few months ago. It'd be a stupid thing to do IMO. GC wouldn't be top of my priority list for v10 but it is rated fairly well.


Enjoy your time off

[guccij]

This is a big plea for the Towers to resolve two minor but irritating problems.

1) Correct the spelling of "automaticaly" on the actinic link page to HSBC. We were promised this would be changed in the next release. It hasn't been.

2) Correct the spelling of "succesful" in the AP MOTO confirmation page title.

These two do not inspire confidence among shoppers. And I can't believe it is such a big job to change them.

[Darren B]

Yep, I'll make the contents of the next maintenance release available as soon as its been decided. Its going to be small and targeted, the last two maintenance releases have been big, I want to get into a little and often release cycle. Its good for everyone.

Hmmm im not so sure as upgrades change script mods, so its a right royal PITA IMHO

[Darren B]

The GC story of influencing search rankings is nothing but a myth until Google announce it themselves, though it has been hinted at a few months ago. It'd be a stupid thing to do IMO. GC wouldn't be top of my priority list for v10 but it is rated fairly well.


Enjoy your time off

Sorry grant if GC aint in V10 then i will no longer using Actinic - FACT

I dont care that i have to pay processing fees, i want another payment method my customers can use that has a brand name that people know. There are a number of reports that show consumers want a choice of PSP's and ecommerce sites that offer a choice tend to have a higher volume of sales.

I would be interested to know what you think should be at the top though?

[pinbrook]

Hmmm im not so sure as upgrades change script mods, so its a right royal PITA IMHO

I came to the conclusion several years ago that mods to actinic were often not worth doing if they required script changes - mainly for this reason.

Thus is often better to not stay up to date ie only upgrade when you really have to - if it aint broke don't fix it.

[grantglendinnin]

Sorry grant if GC aint in V10 then i will no longer using Actinic - FACT

That's a year away - ecommerce is fast times, who knows what will be around in a year. IMO Actinic need to remove the bounce page - I rate that a higher priority than GC. Just my opinion but it is truly horrible, no other shopping cart software takes such a long and confusing path to get to the PSP page. This stage and the Location page being removed from the checkout are what I'd like to see get fixed in v10 before GC. Just my preferences, of course.

I dont care that i have to pay processing fees, i want another payment method my customers can use that has a brand name that people know. There are a number of reports that show consumers want a choice of PSP's and ecommerce sites that offer a choice tend to have a higher volume of sales.

This may or not be true - I suppose the proof is in the pudding. That said, the pudding will be piping hot in v10

I would be interested to know what you think should be at the top though?

At the top...? Maybe this is a misunderstanding - I was making reference to the fact Google have hinted they will give preference to ecommerce sites using Google Checkout. It's like eBay forcing you to use Paypal.

[jont]

Express 2.0 was reviewed (quite favourably) in the last .NET magazine and mentioned it includes Google Checkout. Not quite sure why this was not rolled out with v9.0.4?

[leehack]

Thus is often better to not stay up to date ie only upgrade when you really have to - if it aint broke don't fix it.

I agree with this sentiment, however as a designer I have to pretty much force clients to upgrade if they want me to do anything on their sites. Most of them seem to take it as a 'ooh free upgrade' kind of affair so not so bad in reality.

The fact remains though that 9.0.4 is the first stable release of V9 and is in fact the release we'd all like to have seen as the initial V9 release. 9.0.5 will be the first genuine update where you have a choice whether to use it or not, all predecessors have simply forced the issue and made it almost mandatory IMO. Last 2 releases have fixed circa 250 bugs, suffer script change woes or keep 250 bugs - no contest in my book.

[fergusw]

Ben, great to see the commitment to proactive communication continuing.
A few thoughts on this interesting thread....

I want to get into a little and often release cycle. Its good for everyone.

Are there plans afoot for some form of in-software updates/upgrades a'la windows or other software vendors e.g. open Actinic, prompts for update, then downloads and installs?
I appreciate the issues with certain types of updates within the software and the possible knock-on effects of an update breaking things, however in the same breath does this same reason also not negate the benefit of the "little and often" approach?
Perhaps the more frequent, smaller (less breakable) updates could be more pro-actively released directly, thus ensuring a complete up-to-date Actinic version user base and thus negating a LARGE amount of issues that can occur, especially for Actinic partners,when dealing with multi-faceted variations and versions of Actinic.

Yep, its been falling since the free transactions were ditched. GC is penned in for v10.

This reminds me of an issue I've raised before about the possibility of an open API development platform for third party development for Actinic. There is a HUGE potential within the Actinic community and user base (Jan @ Mole End, Norman, Gabriel to name a few) who would have willingly helped extend, develop and push Actinic into whole new feature-rich areas with API development instead of being restricted to working directly with the access database. GC is an example of something that I am convinced a third party would have developed for you if an API was available.

I came to the conclusion several years ago that mods to actinic were often not worth doing if they required script changes - mainly for this reason.

Jo, I agree with your sentiment and one of the reasons we have turned from Perl changes to delivering mods using only AJAX and/or PHP that are "outside" the scope of updates and upgrades. This does not negate the power behind the perl changes and many mods cannot be realised in another way. It does, however, raise another issue about why, when updating the perl, can there not be some form of inheritance with perl mods as per the object orientated model in programming i.e. you create your own custom perl file which "inherits/overrides" the required functions from the basic perl. Upgrades could then simply inform you of changes to functions you are overriding, prompting you to the changes and the appropriate course of action...

just some thought for food!

[Darren B]

I came to the conclusion several years ago that mods to actinic were often not worth doing if they required script changes - mainly for this reason.

Thus is often better to not stay up to date ie only upgrade when you really have to - if it aint broke don't fix it.

I do tend to adopt this attitude but recently the upgrade is required to fix ongoing problems v7 was probably the last time i skipped a number of upgrades and went to v8 and unfortunately it has been down hill since then.

[Darren B]

That's a year away - ecommerce is fast times, who knows what will be around in a year. IMO Actinic need to remove the bounce page - I rate that a higher priority than GC. Just my opinion but it is truly horrible, no other shopping cart software takes such a long and confusing path to get to the PSP page. This stage and the Location page being removed from the checkout are what I'd like to see get fixed in v10 before GC. Just my preferences, of course.

the checkout path is a nightmare and i dont think anyone here thinks otherwise (i could be wrong though)

GC has been on the cards for over 2 years and i actually feel actinic have not done as much as they could in this area. I already use GC through other sites and love em or hate them google is linking all its products together and from this i draw only one conclusion, your either in or out and if your out then it is going to effect your site in someway or other.

One of the big pluses is i dont have to ask to put the money in my bank, again i let paypal slip and had over 2k sitting in the paypal account and i know i was not the one earning the interest

Ben has already stated the checkout is going to be sexed up, i am intrigued to know what this means, but i understand 1 page will be removed i had hoped the option to decide on how many pages you want would be better but it seems not likely.

The likes of Fergus, Gabe, Norman e.t.c have proved things are possible but again i struggle with the fact Actinic either does not have the skilled people inplace or certainly does not want to put them inplace, i personaly believe its the later. As mentioned about API's who knows whats around the corner but i think this would be a good step.

One question i would like to ask.

V10 so far i see GC and the removal of a checkout step is anything else on the cards ( i dont expect details ) if not then i would hardly call it a new version this is as always MHO