Thinking about v9

[Sally Dickson]

I have been thinking about upgrading to v9.

I have 9 highly customised v8 sites, and was seriously traumatised by the v7 upgrade.

I was somewhat put off by the small print in the upgrade notes that said customised sites can experience problems.

Also looking at the forums there is still 8x more traffic on the v8 forum than the v9 forum, does this suggest that everyone else is sticking with v8.

Its about 18 months since v9 was launched, so can someone sum up the benefits, and potential pitfalls when upgrading customised sites?

Thanks,

[Duncan Rounding]

I would suggest waiting for v904 to be released and then upgrading.

It's much easier upgrading from v8 to v9 than it was from v7 to v8. A log is created of the script changes to work through.

[grantglendinnin]

In a recession I'm not surprised at the lack of v8 to v9 upgrades in the last 18 months - most Actinic sites that I've seen are relatively small businesses, so the upgrade cost isn't worth spending for the advantages offered.

Still, I've stumbled across many old old sites using Actinic which still get by using v4/5/6/7. I wouldn't dream of starting a brand new site (design/data) in anything but v9, simply because of the ease of designing with v9. Sure there are some issues in the park, but a quick read around on the forum will ensure you don't fall into the pits. V8 to v9 upgrade was virtually harmless for me.

[leehack]

As above, V8 to V9 should be very simple and do it once 904 has been released which will be very soon.

[pinbrook]

TBH unless there is a new feature in V9 that you are desparate for i wouldn't bother. I'm not saying this because there is a problem with 9, i'm\saying it because there's nothing wrong with 8 and you could save some hassle by going to 10 when the time comes.

I've followed this path of alternate versions ie i've done 4, 6, 8 with several sites. i don't see the point of upgrading just for the sake of it.

[Mike Hughes]

The big thing for me in V9 is tax inclusive pricing. It means retail customers who add products to the cart will see the same VAT inclusive price that is displayed on the product page rather than the VAT exclusive price that is shown on all previous versions of Actinic. VAT inclusive prices can now be shown right through the checkout and on the receipt.

The VAT inclusive pricing is enough on it's own to persuade me to upgrade, and I've been holding off a long time. (Still on V6).

Actinic payments has also been added which is a much improved integration with the PSP.

There are a number of other improvements in V9 as decribed in the V9 release notes:

2.2 Description of Changes to Actinic Since Version 8
2.2.1 Tax Inclusive Pricing
• You can now change your store into 'Tax Inclusive Mode', which means you can enter your prices including tax and Actinic will separate out the tax online. This is activated from 'Business Settings | Tax'.

2.2.2 'New Order' Form
• Actinic Business, Business Plus and Actinic Designer users (not Actinic Catalog) have a 'New Order' tab, which allows them to enter new orders into the software quickly. This speeds up the process of taking orders over the phone.

2.2.3 Product Options Wizard
• There is now a wizard to step you through setting up a set of basic choice dependent prices, which can be stock monitored. This is activated from the 'Product Options' panel within your products.

2.2.4 Start Here Panel
• When you first start the software, you will see a 'Start Here' panel that links to pages of information about editing content, setting up the store and design. It includes links to relevant help topics and also a 'Design Wizard' to help with store site creation.

2.2.5 Re-written Help System
• The help system is now full of 'How Do I' style help topics, accessed by clicking the new 'How Do I' buttons, which are throughout the software.

2.2.6 Google Analytics
• It is possible to activate Google Analytics tracking of your visitors by going to 'Marketing |Google Analytics' and entering your Google Analytics username.

2.2.7 Design Wizard
• The 'Design Wizard' (accessed via the 'Start Here' panel) is a way of setting up the header areas and sidebars of your designs with the elements you want, appearing how you want, with the colours that you want. It will apply a basic theme customised to suit your requirements.

2.2.8 Design Snapshot
• Designers can now create a snapshot that only contains design elements (library contents, relevant images/files, colour scheme, site options settings) via 'Design | Export Design Snapshot'. This can be imported by going to 'File | Import Design'. Importing this file does not affect contents, Business Settings or orders.

2.2.9 Postcode Lookup
• There is now the ability to link your online Actinic store with a post-code lookup ability powered by 'Postcode Anywhere'. This is accessed via the 'Address Lookup' tab in 'Business Settings'. Business and Business Plus users can also user this ability on the 'New Order' tab when creating new orders.

2.2.10 Design enhancements
• There are now 'Split/Code/Design' buttons on the 'Design' tab to change the arrangement of the panels quickly.
• There is also a 'breadcrumb trail' of layouts to show you the layouts that are 'above' the layout you are looking at in the design

2.2.11 Order Processing Enhancements
• You can rearrange the columns in the 'Orders' tab.
• A 'Next Action Date' field has been added for keeping track of what needs to happen when.

2.2.12 Improved EPOS Link
• The performance of EPOS link has been improved, and it is also possible to transfer details of completed orders to Actinic EPOS for common reporting.

2.2.13 Other Enhancements
• The default arrangement of the panels in Actinic has been changed in order to allow more room for viewing data in 1024x768 resolutions.
• Content dialogues (i.e. products, sections, Site Options etc.) have now had tabs replaced by panels, accessed via a vertical list.
• Error messages in the software have now been re-written to make them easier to understand.

Mike

[jont]

Database wise v9 is very similar to v8 so you will not get the grief you had in v7 to v8. When upgrading some layouts are set back to factory default (as a precaution) but these are often minimal and you can get back up and running pretty quickly again.

It would be worth downloading the 30 day trial - install as a standalone option and running a few of your site ACD's through it and see how they fare - this will give a good indication of what needs doing prior to a go live should you upgrade.

[chris ashdown]

Marketing options are great on V9

[Jan]

I've seen quite a lot of people upgrading to V9 in the last 6 months. I haven't as yet but will probably do so soon.

Regards,

[Sally Dickson]

Thanks everyone.

I will download a free trial and have a play, or I might wait for v10, which will be 2010.

SD