Top3 most useful features

[jxm28788]

ok, I'm soon going to be embarking on a number of new websites, and I'm wondering if it's worth me upgrading from v6 developer to v7 developer (bearing in mind I'd have to upgrade my existing sites...)

I've had a trawl through the v6/7 differences and there look like a few useful things in there - but it depends on how well they've been implemented as to whether they're worth the effort or not.

So, what do you think are the 3 most useful features of v7 that aren't available in v6?

Are they worth it? Have any of them made a difference to your business? or am I better off sticking with v6?

[RuralWeb]

You should be looking at V8 now.

[jxm28788]

When's it released and what does it do?

and if the answers not 'pretty damn soon' and 'lots and lots' then I still want to know about v7...

[RuralWeb]

When's it released and what does it do?

Thats what we all want to know - pretty soon hopefully

[jxm28788]

checked another thread and it said "definately some time this year"... that doesn't sound like any time soon

So I think I'll stick with the v6/v7 debate for now...

[pinbrook]

what are the additions that interest you? you may get some replies then...

I would still wait for v8 though

[jxm28788]

coupons
better account handling
telephone orders

they all sound useful (indeed they were the features I felt were most missing from v6), so are they any good?

and are there more e-mail options now? (ie. order dispatched)

is there an online tracking option?

[jxm28788]

oh yeah, and did they get rid of the \acatalog\ directory yet, or do I have to do that annoying workaround again...?

[Duncan Rounding]

oh yeah, and did they get rid of the \acatalog\ directory yet, or do I have to do that annoying workaround again...?

Still the same in V7.

[jxm28788]

oh, and is the checkout process shortened now? and is there an upsell feature in the checkout process?

[Dave Fisher]

John,

The short answers to those questions are No and No.

I know Norman has an upsell feature available at
http://www.drillpine.biz/

Do not know much about it but may be worth checking it out

[jxm28788]

That seems to be more of a 'people also purchased' on the product page, rather than a proper checkout upsell.

so what I'm hearing so far is:

1) All the annoying/bad stuff from v6 is still in v7
2) There are no really great features in v7 that make it worth the bother of upgrading

[Jan]

The top 3 features for V7 for me are

Product duplicates
Discounts
The inclusion of Sage/Quickbooks link for free

... other good ones are :
Digital download is included
New look interface (including inline preview)
Offline ordering (although no offline credit card handling)
Faster upload (I think!)
Froogle export

I would recommend buying cover for developer then you will get V7 and also (I think) any other major versions released in the next year, so you can move forward but don't have to pay to upgrade any within the year.

My V6 - V7 upgrade was fairly simple, took less that a day for both sites, I would suggest installing a trial version and having a play so that you can see how your sites upgrade.

Regards,

[jxm28788]

I seem to remember a big problem in v6 with customers not being able to register on the site, and they had to be created by hand - did that change in v7?

I'm just looking on my test site and there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to register which isn't a good sign...

[Duncan Rounding]

No - V67 doesn't support online registration. And I don't believe V8 will either. There is no online database for Actinic.
See:
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=9626