Google Checkout

[Benjamin Dyer]

Some interesting comments in this thread.

I think this points to a weakness in the beta testing. After months of waiting, IMHO there is now too much haste to get V10 released. Just because a feature functions on the default site does not mean it going to work in the majority of real world configurations.

v10 has been the most tested release Actinic has undertaken. We kicked off v10 in anger about 15 months ago, while we have been developing the QA team have been testing daily builds at a highly detailed level.

The release first got into customers hands in December, that's three months of external testing. Alongside this we have been testing in house with the numerous snapshots you guys have been sending in for v10 testing. The vast majority of the work we have been doing since the first alpha has been to make sure v10 doesn't just work with the default sites but your real world setups. This also includes testing on numerous hosting, hardware, operating systems, you name it. In a previous life I think we would have probably released the software in early January, its anything but rushed.

I have always tested beta versions as this gives me an insight as to what i am likely to come across when i do upgrade and if no one beta tested then half the bugs would never get spotted. Its an area were a balance needs to be struck although i feel Actinic have not found that balance yet.

I like to think we have made huge strides in getting this balance right, but its always a difficult task. I personally learnt loads with the release of v9.0.3, I would hope you guys and girls have seen a huge improvement in the level of openness and communication regarding our product strategy and releases. Tools such as Get Satisfaction obviously help, but its our philosophy.

The final phase of launching is yet to happen and that for me is them having a team on standby as the software is launched to jump onto any showstoppers and get these solved before enough people even have chance to report them - this is all they have to get right now from my perspective, i really think they have tested well this time, pretty much exactly as i'd have asked them to.

That's the plan! We have cleared as much off our plate so we can be responsive to any issues that may crop up post release. The first maintenance release is always planned to be a few weeks after a major product launch.

Just to reply to the day of launch... I am not a fan of releasing anything towards the end of the week, we certainly haven't had a Friday launch since I have been in this role. The one exception to this is hotfixes, then I really don't think it matters, this weekend for example we issues an EPOS patch. There are many ways to argue it of course, but anything up to a Wednesday is acceptable for me, we need people in the office.

[Darren B]

I like to think we have made huge strides in getting this balance right, but its always a difficult task. I personally learnt loads with the release of v9.0.3, I would hope you guys and girls have seen a huge improvement in the level of openness and communication regarding our product strategy and releases. Tools such as Get Satisfaction obviously help, but its our philosophy.

If yu have been testing for 15 months then i take back the comment about striking the balance, as i said the beta seemed short to me, but then if you have been testing for all that time then the beta is only going to bring up a small amount of bugs, well thats the idea i guess.

As for the get satisfaction site, i think this is probably one of the best tools you guys started using. It sort of brings a real time feel to feed back and Q&A's the best part is i can look at things others have found and see if i can reproduce it and also allows me to look in other areas without spending alot of time on something already reported. Before i had no idea what someone else had reported so could of just been less productive

I look forward to V10, maybe it does not address some of the areas i had hoped it would but it has three key features that bring Actinic forward IMHO. Lets hope they all work as intended in the big wide world.

[TraceyHand]

Indeed i couldnt give a monkeys what day of the week v10 is released. If you upgrade in a considered manner and test prior to going live, then you wouldnt expect to see any show stoppers within a few hours regardless of it being a monday or a friday

I completely agree (and I won't be upgrading any sites imminently anyway) but you just KNOW that some people will chomp at the bit to upgrade ASAP and then the forum will be flooded with issues (ok, if V10 is perfect, it won't be, of course ) that no one is around to deal with

Fair enough, I suppose you can say that's the fault of the merchant upgrading in haste, in which case, I don't give a monkeys either

[Darren B]

so if no one upgrades until two or three releases in what happens?

[leehack]

No problems would be reported/experienced i guess.

[Darren B]

LOL thats exactly what i thought.

Now upgrading for some could be a need to basis, so there will always be people who need the new release and will be chomping at the bit. V10 does carry a number of bug fixes and the nature of adding features will generate more.

Lets keep our fingers crossed that anything is a minor problem.

As i have said before GC is a not just a PSP for me its also a review/rating tool, i have ratings with base and GC will add to these so i dont need feefo at this moment in time, the other reason is my competitors are using it so i need to level the playing field a little

[pinbrook]

I completely agree (and I won't be upgrading any sites imminently anyway) but you just KNOW that some people will chomp at the bit to upgrade ASAP and then the forum will be flooded with issues (ok, if V10 is perfect, it won't be, of course ) that no one is around to deal with

indeed this is my point, it's the way some people upgrade without testing that always suprises me.

[pinbrook]

so if no one upgrades until two or three releases in what happens?

I agree it's a selfish attitude but having gone through upgrading to new versions as the guinea pig I simply won't do it again. It costs money and time that is not recoverable

[Darren B]

I agree it's a selfish attitude but having gone through upgrading to new versions as the guinea pig I simply won't do it again. It costs money and time that is not recoverable

LOL i was not meaning its selfish as i do tend to agree with you Jo and in reality there will always be people going to upgrade, and unfortunately i am going to probably be one of them, all be it once i have done plenty of testing, but then i have already on one site so have a good idea whats around the corner.

I am hoping that Actinic keep the get satisfaction site for the V10 release and not just the beta, then its a central place for all bug reporting.

[pinbrook]

As i have said before GC is a not just a PSP for me its also a review/rating tool, i have ratings with base and GC will add to these so i dont need feefo at this moment in time, the other reason is my competitors are using it so i need to level the playing field a little

Blimey i didnt know that...

have you got a page on your test site with GC reveiws Darren?

[Darren B]

Blimey i didnt know that...

have you got a page on your test site with GC reveiws Darren?

Sorry Jo i ment reviews with google base, google also includes feedback for people using GC. currently i have buy ratings from shopzilla which are shown against my listing under google base and any GC reviews will also be shown aswell.

I currently have product ratings on my site so business ratings are shown in base and handled externally, i can not edit them or change them only respond to them. This is why i wanted a decent product review system built into actinic. There seems to be some confusion over product reviews and shop / company reviews, to me feefo is the latter. We need built in product reviews IMHO

*coughs - have dropped the ball an my listings have expired on base* when they are live again i'll post a link showing you what i mean

eventually i believe google will allow you to show customer reviews on your site, i have suggested the feature and guess if enough do then it might become a reality

[Darren B]

ok here your see what i mean http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=...=next&start=10 your find the kites r us site with ratings, if you look at others your see they include a mix of ratings from various other sources. (i will add i have yet to see one containing feefo results)

Hope this helps explain a little clearer, i dont doubt i could probably extract this data and include it on my site, how long google would allow me to is another matter though

[Benjamin Dyer]

Google reviews also appear in the main search pages, these are called "Rich Snippets". FeeFo also has this enabled, but not yet live (last time I checked), Bill has an interesting article on his blog: http://www.feefoblog.com/?p=524

[Darren B]

yep read that blogg this page is a good place for those new to this or just those that want to understand a bit more about it http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...-snippets.html

[bentleybloke]

I've got GC working live, however it's not using the Actinic shipping tables. It just shows "Default Shipping £10.00" is this correct behaviour? It's pretty pointless if it doesn't calculate shipping properly.

Thanks to Darren Langley at Actinic Support I have the answer to the above and thought I would post it. He says that GC will only fetch the Actinic shipping table values and options if you are running your checkout with SSL. It is a requirement of GC that the checkout is SSL, not something Actinic can do anything about - which may upset a few folk.