V8 wishlist

[newshopbloke]

Hi all,

Its been a long time since posting and just as long since using the actinic software.

Im about to go online with a lot of christmas stock and was hoping that the new version of catalog would offer the following :

More templates ?
Online stock control facility ?
Ability to import pictures from desktop into shop pages, then resize / edit / auto thumbnail in the shop building mode with actinic saving the images automatically in the site 1 folder ?
Email that works 100% ?

Ive had a quick look at the demo and I think the answer to all of the above is "no, not yet".

Unless im mistaken ?

Cheers

[Krithika]

Hello Mick

Hope to answer some of your queries, though in a different order...

1.

Online stock control facility ?

A. Dynamic price or stock control would need an online database. Actinic does not implement this feature mainly for security reasons. For the time being, a periodical download/upload will have to be the way to go for now.

2.

Ability to import pictures from desktop into shop pages, then resize / edit / auto thumbnail in the shop building mode with actinic saving the images automatically in the site 1 folder ?

A. There is a workaround in the Advanced Users Guide for rescaling the images on Page 27. You can download the latest version (1.1) from here.

However, the option of Actinic automatically saving the images in the Site 1 folder may not please all customers as most of them might wish to keep them in a separate folder.

3.

More templates ?

A. I will add this to the wishlist for you.

4.

Email that works 100% ?

A. Sorry, I do not understand. Are you having problems receiving/sending emails with V8? Is this on the desktop, i.e, order processing emails or on the site?

[newshopbloke]

Thanks for your reply.

I will have a look at the workaround but I doubt it will give me full 'wysiwyg' picture editing and placement etc in the way I want.

Stock control has always been a big issue for me with Actinic and I wish it was an online db shop, looks like I will have to rely on the infamous shop mole to do it for me

More templates - yes please. I was quite surprised to find only a couple more in the v8 demo.

Email - More options, multiple address sending and more server friendly.

I have many more 'wishlist' items but will leave it as is for now.

Cheers

[los_design]

A nice feature that would be a good addition IMHO is the auto creation of a thumbnail when you add a product image. This would be a great help to all those working with spreadsheets/db imports.

We are working on something currently (not unlike the php workaround) but it would be aweet to see this as a basic feature in the store options.

Regards

[RuralWeb]

auto creation of a thumbnail when you add a product image

This is already on the wish list with Actinic - I put it forward last year. The only problem with it is that it can produce some poor results - check out some of the competitors to Actinic who use it.

[granthams]

I would also really like to see Actinic venture down the online DB route.

I know they have their reasons and it gives fantastic unrivalled SEO benefits but I think they can only push the desktop app so far.

Perhaps they can develop this along side the desktop version and aim it at people who are in a position to work with a product that is not as 'out of the box'?

Of course this would reflect on price but it would be great if there was a more 'enterprise' size solution available.

[wfl]

A realy neat feature of online stock dbs is that you can go to competitors web sites and see their stock holding levels. You simply place a large qty in your basket and it will usually tell you what is available.

Alistair

[RuralWeb]

I would also really like to see Actinic venture down the online DB route.

I think this is planned BUT with an option to remain with static pages for those who wish to stay with the current system.

There was a thread about this recently.

[jont]

More templates

Actinic seem to have circumvented this by aiming v8 more towards designers wanting to create a design from scratch and integrating Actinic into their design.

The new CSS based layouts are on the whole a great starting point to hack and modify but means you do require some XHTML / CSS knowledge.

[wjcampbe]

Jont - but means you do require some XHTML / CSS knowledge.

I find the css layouts provide the perfect platform and incentive for learning css/xhtml

[pinbrook]

I find the css layouts provide the perfect platform and incentive for learning css/xhtml

i thought that too, but now I am a gibbering wreck..

[los_design]

i thought that too, but now I am a gibbering wreck..

I know that feeling too well....but it is worth it when you get there (so I have been told)

[EaglesNest]

Hello Mick

Hope to answer some of your queries, though in a different order...

1.
A. Dynamic price or stock control would need an online database. Actinic does not implement this feature mainly for security reasons. For the time being, a periodical download/upload will have to be the way to go for now...

Hello Krithika,

Please explain the security issues with having an online database, and Actinics reasoning for not allowing an either desktop or online choice.

Additionally, with v8 has the ability to put the images into a different folder on the server been implemented? Prior versions kept everything in the acatalog folder on the server and things could get real messy on the server side.

Thanks
Eagle

[cdicken]

Please explain the security issues with having an online database, and Actinics reasoning for not allowing an either desktop or online choice.

It's not that we could have put the database online, and have chosen not to. It is a huge development to completely change the way Actinic works, which would be a great thing to do, but we simply don't have the resources to make the change at the moment. There are some security issues (once people get into the database, they could potentially steal loads of credit card details) but if we decided to invest the time and money into developing an online database solution, we would look to address these.

In fact - Actinic Express is based around an online database, so it is a technology we like and have developed in.

Additionally, with v8 has the ability to put the images into a different folder on the server been implemented? Prior versions kept everything in the acatalog folder on the server and things could get real messy on the server side.

There is no change in v8 with regards to the online file structure I'm afraid, so everything is still in the 'acatalog' folder.