Help, I can't open Actinic

[pinkequine]

Havent touched the database - advice definitely taken

Hi Lee,

I havent touched the database, but I have looked at it (I compared it with an older version I had just to see if there were any glaring differences)

To be honest I cannot see anything that shouts out at me, no funny characters, or long numbers, it doesn't really look much different than the last one.

I am now waiting for the Reseller to contact me, obviously if I have done something to corrupt the file, then of course I would pay to have it fixed, but I can't see what I could have done, because all I did was log out and try and log back in again.

It has been playing me up though since I did a major re-structure of the products on the site, as I said above, I had problems with tax, shipping, and uploading, I had to keep compacting the database.

I have only just found out where the dmp files are, (I was looking for a folder with them in), so I will send them to Actinic.

However, I did nothing that Actinic does not allow you to do as part of the program, nothing at all.

[cbarling]

Denise,

you can get free email support through the form that has already been posted on this thread so I suggest that you take advantage of that.

Are you on the latest version, 8.5.2? There are a lot of improvements to stability in that version.

I agree that Actinic version 8 has crashed and corrupted more than it should. Hopefully, with the latest version, those problems are mostly behind us. And of course maintenance releases are free of charge.

Chris

[leehack]

However, I did nothing that Actinic does not allow you to do as part of the program, nothing at all.

I don't know what to say then to be honest, you have certainly had your share of problems that's for sure. I find and have found V8 stable for quite some time now. Maybe it's specific to your machine rather than actinic - this is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Just 2 days ago, there was a guy complaining about snapshot times (9 mins they were taking him) on my machine it took 90 seconds.

[RuralWeb]

I agree that Actinic version 8 has crashed and corrupted more than it should

In the early versions yes I would agree but as lee says V8 has been stable as far as I am concerned since mid last year. I have developed many sites and not had any real problems since then. I think most of the problems that we are seeing at the moment are due to people being on older versions. It the new year and many are upgrading, they are I expect dusting off thier old V8 CDs and using versions full of bugs from 2006!

Perhaps it would be better if Actinic did not send out disks at all and users had to download direct.

[leehack]

Those bloody patches are half the problem IMO, i am astonished to see that Actinic still offer them, how much negative feedback is required on that area of the business before we see something done about it.

The other half is like you say a mix of 8.00 and 8.02ers plus Commodore 64's running their sites IMO.

[pinkequine]

Please don't think I am against paying fair, thats fine by me, but all I wanted was someone to say they would help.

If there was a caviat that if it turned out I had C***d things up by pushing the system (or fumbling , then I had to pay, absolutely 100% fine with that. As you say, my fault then it would be tough.

My only quibble is that if you buy a piece of software that has functionality that allows you to change aspects, it should be programmed to allow you to do so, it even has a reset button if you need it, on many areas.

I do understand that any new software is liable to change, I spent a year developing (with IT) a Direct Debit and Credit management system and despite 5 day a week testing there were always bugs to iron out after tweaks. However, you should expect at least a good level of stability and I do object to having to pay for it if there isnt.

This is the first time, since I installed the software that I have made any major changes to the system and it has not liked anything I have done one bit! I had all sorts of problems, hidden products where I had linked for stock, dissapeared when I split the products up (even though I was very careful to copy the entire options and only delete those that did not relate to a single colour/size option), complete crashes when I changed the shipping zones and when trying to enter the new products in an offline order, VAT not applying correctly on delivery address, but working correctly if i used invoice address to calculate tax... there are more, but to be honest I just got on with things, re-compacted the databases, purged all the files until it sorted itself out.

My point is that this program allows you to change all these things, and dictates to you, via the options at the top of the program, how you do so, if this doesn't work and causes problems, surely Actinic should take some responsibility for that. Even if only one free support call, or critical support only.

[leehack]

Denise maybe you are just cursed. It could be like the Egg adverts, for every stable actinic owner, there has to be someone getting shafted to balance it out. I would like to hereby declare my utter gratitude for you balancing out my stable version. I can honestly say that if i was on the end of what you have been the past few months, i'd have been forced to replace a few laptops, that's for sure.

[pinkequine]

Thank you for bringing a smile to my face..

[RuralWeb]

Actinic should take some responsibility for that

They have and still are in some respects.

[leehack]

Thank you for bringing a smile to my face..

Smiling during times of trouble helps us get through and also saves the world population of laptops. Vodka works bloody well too.

However bad it gets Denise, just be grateful 8.00 was something you never tasted, now that was a testing time for everyone. I had my tombstone carved ready.

[RuralWeb]

now that was a testing time for everyone

Yes we were all ready to jump ship then - lets hope that V9 is a bit better!

[pinkequine]

Maybe I had better get the support just to get V9! The first version I purchased was 8.5.1 I downloaded it online and trialed it, worked great! There were a few "I wishes..." but I actually thought it was really good, certainly worth my £800.

I had a bit of trouble with some of the layouts when I first upgraded to 8.5.2 but that was ok too.

The walls started crumbling when I made some hefty changes to the way my products were set out (I only wanted to make things more aesthetically pleaseing for the customers) agghhh !!!

Now I am sitting on this forum, wondering which change was the final nail in the coffin! I cannot for the life of me see any alien-esque digits in the catalogue file, I had hoped I'd at least be able to find a few ***!!!@@@ and then I would know I had found a potential answer... nothing!

I only have a few hundred product variations (including the hidden ones for stock) so I can only imagine the problems others might have in bigger stores.. <<< heading for that vodka>>>

I am somehow praying for that Eureka moment, sadly though I think it won't come unless I cough up the dosh..

[RuralWeb]

casting my mind back there was some problems when dragging and dropping products in the content tree - each time they were moved they added/removed digits from the product reference which caused similar problems. If you have a snapshot from before that time you could go back to that and start from there

[TraceyHand]

I did ask once but, were you making duplicate products when the error message game up?

Is this 852's new way of saying THIS ?

[leehack]

£800 i presume you're on Business then and can't open through command prompt? Have you a snapshot of before you started making new layouts? If so, i'd get back to where you were and start again. Have a you a second system you can try it on?