9.0.3 Beta 2. I feel the urge to share!

[TraceyHand]

I'll be the first to admit I've had HUGE doubts about V9. I've upgraded 'minor' sites to it but our main sites have stuck firmly on 8.5.3 and I had no intention of moving them any time soon.

I took part in all the V9 beta testing and nothing convinced me. I took part in the initial 9.0.3 beta testing thinking this could be the one. I didn't upgrade to V8 until 8.5.1. You know how it is. There's always a specific version 'patch' that is THE one to upgrade to, if you're waiting.
Well, I hoped 9.0.3 would be it....til I tested the initial Beta...and Budget Bumps would NOT upload for love nor money (nor threats nor swearing!)
I tried different hosts, different timeout configurations and, once in a while I would get a successful upload but it'd be after numerous timeout warnings, if at all.
I probably managed 2 successful full site (note, full site refreshes, NOT updates) uploads out of at LEAST 50 attempts.

I'd resigned myself to the fact that 9.0.3, with it's fancy new upload method, just wouldn't be 'the one'....till I tested the Beta 2 release.

I don't know what they've done in this Beta 2 release that was different from the first but can I just say WOW and OMG!?

V 8.5.3, full site refresh takes anything from 40 minutes to over an hour, depending on connection (my office connection is erratic and my home one is just slow!)

V 9.0.3 Beta 2. At work today, a full site refresh took 8, yes EIGHT minutes!
At home, it's longer, somewhere between 10 and 15 but, when I'm used to losing control for somewhere around an hour, that's a mind-blowing change!

I was reluctant to upgrade to 9.0.3 because of a few other minor issues (well, in the grand scheme of things, minor although for me (stock related) they were fairly significant) but I'm actually starting to think that this massive time improvement might be worthwhile upgrading for.

I'm still not 100% happy with the lack of 'what I'm doing right now' information that seems to be associated with the 'multi-threading' aspect of 9.0.3....but...well, I may just be swayed...

Time will tell...I'll look forwards to the release now though instead of just writing it off as another one to let pass

Just thought I'd share

[dave_finlayson]

Got to agree Tracey, I have held off upgrading our 8.5.2 main site but 9.0.3 might just be the release to change my mind. Using v8 depresses me these days as it is so slow but 9.0.3 seems to be much better and the upload is speed is fantastic (a packet size of 6192 seems to work fastest for me).

It won't be until after christmas but it looks like we will be making the jump in January, barring any huge bugs being found!

[RuralWeb]

I'm just getting ready to upgrade my last three sites then it's goodbye v8. These last ones are multiuser so they have been waiting for this update.

[guccij]

Positive feedback from us too

I'm pretty much a beta testing virgin, so it was with trepidation that I installed the first release of 9.03. After all, with 9.02 going great guns (as had 8.52 etc before that), the risk was that the update would break the whole thing and we would have to start again.

So I was surprised and pleased to find that both the first and second releases of 9.03 have gone well: the faster upload is great, and the single page upload a real enhancement.

So much so that we have treated ourselves, that is Snorestore, to an early Christmas present. Yes, we are no longer in the Catalog kindergarten but have moved up to big school Business. Let's hope the recession doesn't make fools out of us yet.

[leehack]

Oooh it feels like Walton's mountain tonight on here.

[guccij]

Night John boy.

[leehack]

Night Grizzly bear.

[malbro]

Sorry to put a downer on the thread but upgrading various sites to V9.0.3, in one case I lost a page during upload, which I recovered with a site refresh. Also I am not noticing significant speed up of uploading, but as the sites do not have large numbers of pages I guess that is to be expected. I have been using V9.0.2 with few problems so this upgrade is not a great step for me although I have one site still on V8.5.3 which I expect to upgrade after the Xmas period after all V9.0.3 is a Beta.

[RuralWeb]

The smaller the site the less significant the speed changes.

[malbro]

The smaller the site the less significant the speed changes.

My one concern is whether the multithreading actually slows down smaller sites. I can't judge at the moment as my test machine is fairly old Compaq whilst my normal machine is a modern Dell core 2 duo with significantly more memory so comparisons are currently unfair. Though this does prove that Actinic can work successfully even with only 256Mb of ram.

[RuralWeb]

iirc the early posts of CB yes it can slow small sites

[Kate (newbie)]

Hi Tracey,

Great thread, thanks for info - I'm quite new and have a site up on V9.02 should I upgrade to V9.03 then?

By the way I have never been able to get Multi user working despite long hours with ACTINIC SUPPORT

[Darren B]

To be honest upgrading is really down to your own decision, if your current site works and you are not effected by the bugs then you might as well wait for your quieter time rather than before xmas.

Some of my sites will stay on 9.0.1 until after xmas others will upgrade and some i already have.

I have a couple of issues already with 9.0.3 but im waiting for these to be confirmed with actinic.

As for speed, when the private beta came out i can honestly say i was impressed with the upload on a large site. Reduced the time to do a full refresh by about 65% a huge jump. As for smaller sites i have actually noticed very little difference, neither slower or faster but then i can honestly say i have not really taken much notice of the time on these.

[RuralWeb]

9.0.3 is currently beta software and you should not upgrade a love site until the final release.

[guccij]

Oops just found a bug. Will send details to Actinic - it involves an order with same number as a much earlier one.