Upgrading from Actinic 7

[elfinp]

OK... Having spent the last year having issues with various payment providers not working properly with Actinic Catalog V7, I really think its time to look into upgrading.

I need to know which product I should be looking at upgrading to (I don't need any particular features so we're looking at cost and - crucially - ease of upgrading)

There are some - not a huge amount but certainly a number of customised bits to my website. I have no idea where they are or how I did them - I look up things when I need to and don't remember them.

So I need to switch versions with an absolute minimum of time invested if possible. And I don't know how to tell how much time I'll need to put into it.

Advice is appreciated.

website in question is http://www.stardustandsparkles.co.uk

[leehack]

I would stick with v7 if I were you, you're looking at an upgrade as a hassle, rather than a fantastic chance to relaunch and improve your site. You won't upgrade from v7 easy, from a design perspective, it just won't happen. Design needs to start afresh, all you should be looking for the upgrade to do is get your sections, products and other info into v10. You have a chance if you use a standard v10 theme, but the reality is that you're looking at things from the wrong angle imo.

When you're ready to redesign, relaunch and improve the site, no matter what the time or cost may be, within the realms of sensibility of course, then go for an upgrade.

If you are still using v7, your website is way behind the 8 ball I'd imagine and if you use versions for that long, I think you'd be wise to think of your next step as one for the next 5-10 years and thus investment both in time and money should be somewhat irrelevant.

[elfinp]

Thanks for taking the time to read

I can't stay with V7 if I can't get any payment providers consistantly working. And I can't. I ditched Sage Pay after months of trying and failing to fix it (It used to work fine) and Paypal has developed the same error now as well (which also worked absolutely fine until recently). I cannot have customers sent to an error page after payment, it looks incredibly unprofessional and dubious - I need customer confidence for my business to work.

I don't have the skills or knowledge to fix the errors and nothing that has been posted on these boards helps - I trawled everything trying to fix the SagePay one and nothing worked, and have looked at similar problems posted on here with Paypal - none of the suggestions help having worked through them all.

So... change to a more reliable version of the software looks like my only option. Or switch to entirely new software which sounds like even more work. Or ditch selling from the website and stick to offline, ebay store, amazon marketplace, all of which work.

That might be my best plan actually. At least as an interim measure. But I don't like it :/

[elfinp]

You're right in the time/money:length of use ratio. I'm not saying it wouldn't be worthwhile - just that now is not a time of year when I have time unless its quick. And to be perfectly honest for a massive improvement and redesign, I'd need to pass it over to a designer - which is more cost that I can't take at the minute.

[leehack]

That's in between a rock and a hard place Steph. You won't upgrade easily, unless you are prepared to accept using a standard actinic theme or possibly the design wizard. If you had a few hundred pound to spend, you could perhaps look at buying a preset template from a template shop such as peblaco.co.uk, that would be a halfway house, with new software, payments working, albeit perhaps not quite with the look you may want.

Alternatively look for a designer to try and fix your issues in V7 maybe and then perhaps look at upgrading in the new year after the rush etc.

[Duncan Rounding]

You could buy the upgrade now and aim to upgrade (switch over) in the new year. That would give you time to learn and develop v10 without affecting Xmas sales in v7. By that time you might have earned enough money to get some design assistance as well.

[elfinp]

My current design is just a modified basic preset, I just have no idea how I did it ^_^. I realise I sound incredibly moronic here.

Buying nowish and actually working on it next year also has the advantage of avoiding the VAt increase - I'm not VAT registered (any more) so it matters.

Trouble is 2010 sales are already going to be affected. I don't think I can keep it as a live sales site unless everything works properly. Jewellery is particularly reliant on customer confidence. And while I'd quite happily pay to have it fixed what puts me off is knowing whether someone knows what they're doing. I rather suspect for the right person with the right knowledge it will take 30 minutes. Equally I know it could take me days of fruitless experimenting. I need to know not just that someone can make pretty websites - thats irrelevant to fixing mine - but that they know how things WORK which is a hell of a lot more difficult to quantify.

Open to offers though.

[Goz]

I think you would be better off spending a bit of money with a developer getting your V7 PSP sorted. The site is working and taking orders - it's just a payment issue which I'm sure can be fixed.

Then, in the background, prepare to use v10 (or V11?).

[elfinp]

That sounds like a plan and drounding and olderscot are very kindly (and patiently ) helping me fix it. Is there a V11 imminent?

[Duncan Rounding]

I would expect v11 will be some time yet. v10 came out not too long ago.