Another Day - Another BUG!

[Rich Brady]

It would be in addition to the test days Actinic hold and would be an opportunity for people who can't take too many days out away from their business.

[Rich Brady]

assuming it will happen again this year

I have it on good authority it will

[grantglendinnin]

I would half expect Actinic to invite all those who have found at least one bug in the software to join the next Beta test. If you test the area you found the bug and find the Beta release to be bug-free, great. If you find the bug still exists, report it, and the bug is still in the release version, then you can continue to moan.

There's only so many beta testers Actinic can pay to test the software before the process no longer becomes cost effective.

In reality, any software which is 100% bug free (ie. 0.0 bugs) would go bust shortly afterwards. The software industry thrives on new releases - if bugs are never found, short of adding a couple of new features, what is the point in upgrading?

Paul Murphy from Actinic Support has solved a long standing issue with our live site - I don't have to wait ages every time I make a change to a product, it's back to v7 speed (This includes turning all aesthetic appeal of XP off and letting support work with my database). I'm happy

[cbarling]

If anyone is experiencing very poor performance of their v9 installation, please email Paul at pmsupport (at) actinic.co.uk.

I can't make a guarantee, but I believe that we've managed to pretty much sort out every serious problem reported so far.

Chris

[Darren B]

The problem with releasing the betas as "version" is that the programming would have to be altered again to then make the beta and upgrade, which could in turn throw up a whole host of new bugs.

Actually i think the opposite, the problem here is the functionality of the software, so changing the way it is installed / upgraded is likely to introduce alot less bugs than the current method IMHO. I agree the programming is altered but onyl actinic would know how this effect the functionality.

The scenario would be

a) release a non standard version
b) bug fix and release another
c) change the package to release a beta maintanence release
d) bug fix if required
e) new beta
f) release final version

Now think about these steps and now look at how many steps we have to get to v9.0.4 surely more beta testing would reduce the amount of bugs in releases. Making these version installs would allow more people to test. Not many people have the luxury of more than one computer.

A once the year test day is not really ideal IMHO

[plantsforshade]

I may be missing something here, but I had just tried to replicate this bug on four orders on my test machine, Catalog 9-0-4/vista, as I am sure I did this when private beta testing. No problems no crashing nothing. May be more specific than a general bug. The thread has changed greatly I know but.

Best

Nigel

[grantglendinnin]

I agree Nigel - as I said somewhere in the thread, there are so many testing scenarios it's almost impossible to test everything. What may work fine in the default site and my site, may not work in yours - simply because somewhere, somehow, at some point, something has produced an unexpected piece of data in the database.

What could have lay dormant in my database since v8, may not have come to my attention until v9 because of the way the database data is manipulated through various processes. It's the same for all software at the end of the day.

I think the main problem with Actinic and its users is the fact Actinic is such a large program - there are a lot of uses of the software, different scenarios and frankly, it all comes down to how you manage your business at the end of the day. Sage integration is there, but I don't use it. Others do. So for all I know I could stumble across a problem if I ever try to use the Sage integration.

IMHO, I don't think all of the issues we've seen directly stem from v9, I found 'bugs' in the v9.0.4 beta using my live site snapshot, but couldn't replicate the problem using the default data (ie. the data that exists when you install Actinic for the first time).

Every business, to some extent, keeps an eye on quality control and adjusts procedures dependent on their findings - I can now see Actinic are working towards increasing the quality of the software but - you could argue either way - as it is such a large program with limited test case data, finding, replicating and confirming an unexpected process as a bug is a very time consuming process.

Sometimes using Actinic can be infuriating. But sometimes, like today (for me, anyway), Actinic is fun to use.

[Rich Brady]

A once the year test day is not really ideal IMHO

LOL I really wasn't suggesting that one test day per year was the way forward. Sorry if that's how it came across.

I just thought that there may be a number of users at the conference that never get the chance to attend a test day. Having a bank of computers with the latest beta on, would give another group of user a chance to test. Granted it would be for very long, but if they could test a specific problem that they have with actinic developers around it may prove useful.

I won't mention it again...

[Darren B]

I won't mention it again...

Now Now Rich dont you start getting upset like some others around here

OK this is a message for Chris B were do we report / check that a bug has been reported.

For a number of versions the bug with order shipped email not having a completed subject when you use the complete button is still there.

Hence my question about reporting, i know some will say its like hanging your washing out in public but it would help avoid confusion IMHO

[grantglendinnin]

Holy ****, please ensure you remove the # key on your keyboard before using 9.0.4...I've killed it three times in the last day by accidentally hitting # and Return at the same time...Either poor typing skills or....?

[Benjamin Dyer]

OK this is a message for Chris B were do we report / check that a bug has been reported.

Hi Darren,

For now the best place to report issues is to v9.beta@actinic.co.uk.

Ben

[TraceyHand]

Holy ****, please ensure you remove the # key on your keyboard before using 9.0.4...I've killed it three times in the last day by accidentally hitting # and Return at the same time...Either poor typing skills or....?

*coughs* fat fingers *coughs*


Actually, I do this too

[leehack]

Hi Darren,

For now the best place to report issues is to v9.beta@actinic.co.uk.

Ben

Hi Beppe's Bro'

I think the point is that back to email is the dark dingey past, people don't want to spend half hour reporting a problem already documented, they'd rather add to existing as per the system that worked so well on the beta.

[pinbrook]

Hi Beppe's Bro'

I think the point is that back to email is the dark dingey past, people don't want to spend half hour reporting a problem already documented, they'd rather add to existing as per the system that worked so well on the beta.

yes indeed the getSatisfaction got our satisfaction, please lets not return to poxy email and the black hole of West byfleet

[leehack]

LOL Croccy, you could have said:

The black hole of west byfleet, is the place many an email did meet.

Are you not playing?