Thread: ML v9 and Multi-Store Status Update

ML v9 is coming along great, with release on 3/8 (next week). It's in final testing now, etc.

Since Multi-Store is based on the v9 code base, we will release an updated Multi-Store Beta 2 next week, with final Multi-Store release to be 2-3 weeks after ML v9.

Things are looking good. Some of the exciting things that we've been working on (for almost a year) in the v9 release:

Master Page Skins

Full support now for asp.net Master Pages. While our skinning engine has been revollutionary, and been around for over 8 years, many developers prefer master page techniques, and we're now supporting that fully, WHILE KEEPING all the cook skinning features that our skinning engine had (e.g. template switching, real-time skin switching, etc). This use of Master Pages we know was a bit overdue, but again, our skinning engine has worked so great, we hated to convert away from it, so we took the necessary time to make sure that our Master Page support kept our cool skinning engine features, which master pages by default don't offer. So we now think we're offering the best of both. Also, AJAX support in v9/master pages is MUCH easier. (Next Item)

AJAX Support and Usage MUCH Improved

With the conversion to Master Page Skins, AJAX support is now almost seamless, and built-in. You'll start to see us using AJAX in various places around the platform, with more to come (e.g. AJAX streamlined checkout) in further releases. To use AJAX now is much simpler than with the prior v2-v8 skinning engine. So developers are thanking us already, as it allows skin and site design and customization to be done even easier.

Multi-Store

Multi-Store is the ability to run mutliple stores (websites) off of a single shared SQL database. This greatly lowers costs, centralizes administration of multiple "brands", and is a feature we've been working on for a while due to the great demand for this. Many (many) businesses online put up multiple sites/brands, testing different product prices, skin designs, layouts, multi-variant testing, or for different divisions/departments within a larger company. Multi-Store fully supports this model. You can also upgrade from v9 "later" to Multi-Store if your business needs grow.

Mobile support

With the nearly 2 BILLION consumers now on mobile devices (smart phones, ipod touch, blackberry, etc), it's paramount to expand your reach to these customers, to provide access to your a) store content and products, and b) allow purchases simply and easily. With the v9 release we are tackling item a), with v9.1 release, we will be doing both a) and b). We'll be posting some of the default/sample Mobile Skins here shortly (all Master Page ready, etc)...

Web Service Automation Interface WSI

While WSI has been a core feature of the platform since v7, many customers don't know about it still, or how to use it, or the power it offers to synchronize AspDotNetStorefront websites/databases with external systems (CRM, ERP, Shipping, Fulfillment, etc)...so we're going to do a MUCH better job discussing WSI, how it works, how to use it, the benefits, and publishing white paper case studies on how several clients have really used it to almost fully automate their other back-office operations with AspDotNetStorefront websites. AspDotNetStorefront drives the orders in as a massive e-commerce order collection site (which we do great hehe), and WSI is used then to pull and synchronize all that information downstream for ongoing business operations. WSI is bi-directional, and very powerful.

ERPS/add-in Provider Model

ERPS (ERP Integration Specification) is an extension to WSI that takes it even further, allowing batch, and near real-time (inline) inventory, price, shipping, and tax synchronization and customization. You can now write add-ins for example that just tweak (or replace) our shipping rules by just dropping in a new module, with defined interface into the website. Very Very cool, and powerful for developers and larger companies doing customization work. Good docs already here: http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com. (the ERPS manual doc is really well done already)

Avalara Tax Provider Integration

It's time to stop maintaining the (almost impossible) state, county, city, zip-code, etc tax rules now required of e-commerce websites. The state tax codes just keep getting RIDICULOUSLY complicated, and we've partnered with one of the best providers our there, seamlessly integrated into the cart (Avalara service requires subscription with them), so that you can finally get OUT of the tax rule maintenance business, and focus on sales and marketing of your own business. Avalara also will provide year-end roll-up and reporting services, etc...Very cool. We're going to use it ourselves also of course. NOTE: Additional tax service providers are also under consideration for integration in v9.1+, using the same ERPS add-in tax provider model that Avalara (and you could) use.

Velaro Live Chat Integration

Maintaining live contact with your site visitors, with SEAMLESS co-browse of their cart contents, etc is now possible with our Velaro live chat integration partner (Velaro subscription service required). This will now be built-in in demo form in v9, with all the hooks needed, so you can just activate the service (and update your Master Page Skin design to bring the live chat out where appropriate on your design). Very cool stuff again.

PA-DSS Certified/PCI Compliant

We're continuing our strong tradition of supporting and enforcing the highest security and payment industry standards in our shopping cart platform, which most other e-commerce shopping carts just ignore. We'll be redoing and updating the PA-DSS/PCI security compliance audit testing and certification for v9 release. This continues our "Visa Approved" tradition.

Advanced URL Rewriting

This feature is specifically designed to even further enhance the ability to use almost arbitrary URL patterns on the site, for SEO and and for customers doing competitive upgrades from other platforms (e.g. storefront.net). This scheme allows you to do things like use path URL separators for sub categories (e.g. yoursite.com/womens/shoes/cool-shoe-from-gucci-here.aspx), or just change how the URL's are written out (even using .htm extensions if you want).


Thanks, and stay tuned. Much more info will be posted on our main site as we update that content with additional material on the v9 and Multi-Store releases.

We'll be posting more phenomenal case-studies also, and starting a monthly Newsletter to help share information about e-commerce, sales trens, and how to really maximize the AspDotNetStorefront platforom to power your online sales growth.

That's great! Does it change how kit products work?
I hope others will post examples of sites running on the new platform.

Kits are unchanged structurally at this time (db fields, ties to inventory, pricing adjustments, kit grouping and items, optional/required, all still there)...

Will it be possible to get a list of the changes/fixes made from the multi store beta 1 to the beta 2?

Is the 7x native tax engine still availabe ? or Is Avalara tax engine replace the old tax engine?

RE: Multi-store release notes: yes, (hint dev, need a list)

RE: tax engine. ALL of our prior supported native tax calculation methods (by country, state, zip) are still fully supported. If your tax requirements are more detailed than that (e.g. by county, region, etc) or if you are tired of maintaining tax tables, then Avalara is an excellent solution.

Thats great news on v9.0! I'm sure this release will be a major milestone for ASPDNSF users. Many of the individual new features are major updates by themselves.

All the new and/or upgraded features sound very exciting.

Will there be any obvious pitfalls in upgrading from v8 to v9? Will the upgrade affect customized XML packages and AppConfigs?

Thanks!

Buying both V9 and Multi Store this month!

Cannot wait to get started on this

Any issues upgrading V7 to V9 so far during your testing process?

sounds great guys, we appreciate all your hard work.

would consider naming my firstborn "ASPDNSF" if we could get a good feed editor (for 1 way feeds like shopzilla) and a feed editor with feed callback for sales notice & inventory management. (i.e. amazon, ebay). we're currently running a second non-aspdnsf web store just to sell on ebay an amazon because we dont' have that functionality in aspdnsf (channel advis. is way too expensive for us). would be life changing if you integrated that functionality.

glad to see you getting up to speed with mobile. that's a day 1 feature in all future carts.

can't wait!

Good point Kat. We are going from 7.1.1.0 to 9 and would be great if it was a smooth upgrade.

The upgrade process is largely the same as it has been before (run DB upgrade script(s) and then replace the site files), so customizations would have to be ported to the new version, yes. The advantage is that once you do that, a lot of your customizations can be recreated as AddIns. The addin system allows for backwards compatibility, so when you upgrade in the future you won't have to redo your work anymore. Upgrade the site then reinstall your addin and off you go.

1. Does it have multiple attributes we can customize that's out of the box, currently only colors and size available.
2. Does it support set up charges easily, before, it required us to reference a required product for set up.

Addins System? This cool and we would like to knwo more about it. Is is something new in v9 so that we cam packege our customization while were porting our changes to v9? This will hugely save our upgrade time.

I thought that I read that the kit functionality was being upgraded, so that, for instance, you could build up a kit out of pre-existing products... did this not make the cut?

Hello
Is this still scheduled for release today?
Thanks

unfortunately we're still a few days out it looks Doing memory and perf testing/tuning now...which is important of course. We're not going to rush the release, but we are working as fast as we can

OK thanks for the update

I thought that I read that the kit functionality was being upgraded, so that, for instance, you could build up a kit out of pre-existing products... did this not make the cut?

This made it. You can create "read-only" and "required" groups, with items being tied to product variants (through a cool select list mind you, not hand typing variant IDs) and use the variant info as price deltas, etc. This allows you to build a kit that has all options pre-populated, selected, and set to read-only so they can't be changed, allowing you to build a bundle.

1. Does it have multiple attributes we can customize that's out of the box, currently only colors and size available.
2. Does it support set up charges easily, before, it required us to reference a required product for set up.

1. Attributes are still limited to size and colors. You can use kits for multiple attributes, and the kit functionality is much advanced.

2. Set-up charges are an excellent example of what a "read-only" kit option would cover.

would consider naming my firstborn "ASPDNSF" if we could get a good feed editor (for 1 way feeds like shopzilla) and a feed editor with feed callback for sales notice & inventory management. (i.e. amazon, ebay). we're currently running a second non-aspdnsf web store just to sell on ebay an amazon because we dont' have that functionality in aspdnsf (channel advis. is way too expensive for us). would be life changing if you integrated that functionality.

I wrote a generic export tool that can take any object list (eg. a list of product objects) and dump them into a flat file. I don't see any reason why this couldn't be extended to allow building custom export maps. This won't make it for V9 however.

Any issues upgrading V7 to V9 so far during your testing process?

So far, no. Actually I was able to get a site loading on a 4.3 DB (though there was a lot of data cleanup). V7 sites will run the Upgrade to 8.x script, and then upgrade to 9 from there. That is the easy part. You have to keep in mind however that skins as you know them are gone, and are now replaced with ASP.NET master pages. Converting from a skin to a masterpage is not difficult, but does require more effort than prior upgrades. For the most part, it is changing a few lines in your existing skin and updating the parser token format to the new .NET expression builder format. The folder structure is also a bit different now, so your skin will need to be moved from skins/skin_# to App_Templates/skin_# and App_Themes/Skin_# (for images and stylesheets).

Addins System? This cool and we would like to knwo more about it. Is is something new in v9 so that we cam packege our customization while were porting our changes to v9? This will hugely save our upgrade time

That is pretty much the idea... We have exposed contracts for common customization points such as shipping, pricing, taxes, and order processing. You can write a module against a contract and plug it in, and thats it. The module would be fully self contaned, so it would have its own config file, etc. and doesn't need to know anything about AspDotNetStorefront really.

Hello
Is this still scheduled for release today?
Thanks

We are in the final stages, and our dev team has been working around the clock to get things ready. Due to the large amount of architectural level changes in this build versus prior versions, we have put a lot more effort into QA and performance testing/tuning in this release. The finish line is very close however, and we are all extremely excited about the production build.

Is amazon checkout included in version 9?

Any word on how we can get our hands on the new multi-store beta?

Is amazon checkout included in version 9?

Not quite yet I'm afraid, however a lot of the work for it has been done, so it should be coming soon.

Any word on how we can get our hands on the new multi-store beta?

Like Dan mentioned things are a little delayed due to wrapping up everything in the ML9 release. As soon as that's done we'll move on to getting that updated beta release out. It's coming.

I'm trying to get a head start on Master Pages since I have never used them before. Currently I am reviewing the Asp.Net website for more information.

Are there any other sites that you would recommend based on the v9 implementation?

Thanks,
Rob

RE: Master pages. they are very simple, our updated manual will show how our Master Page Skins work

We are still calling these "Master Page Skins" because we've had to extend Master Pages (.net) to really do the skinning we think is required, and which our old skinning engine already did, so we've extended them a bit, and also made sure AJAX is dirt simple (provided) to add when doing customizations...very cool stuff really.

RE: release date...

i'm hearing next monday from Dev now (sorry for the week delay, but we just have to do perf and memory testing before any release, especially one this major)...and getting this look back from Dev also

This image cracked me up ... I think i've given that same look quite a lot!

v9 release build confirmed for tomorrow (3/15). Thanks everyone...

Nice one ... Cant wait ..

Thanks for the update. Nice image though. Hope you we need this only once..

I was at a restaurant having a late super when I received the email notice on my phone...the good news made the bill that much more bearable...definitely put a wide grin on my face!

the time difference is killing me ..

Has the ML v9 been released today?

AspDotNetStorefront ML Version 9.0 will be available today (for those with current updates on your license, it should reflect having access to ML v9.0 shortly)! Anyone considering upgrading please go to your downloads page to purchase it, or contact our sales department at (602) 490-0243 x: 2 for more information/ to purchase by phone!

Will the new multi-store beta be available today as well?

Wahey! Downloading 9.0.1.0 as we speak- great job!

Congrats to the aspdnsf team for shipping this major release!!

Off to play now!

Do you guys have a service (for a fee) where you will do the skin to masterpages conversion?

We could, but we're not going to have time for a month until multi-store is fully released and our layout engine is done...but there are any number of our DevNet partners (many post here also) that could help you do this...assuming it's just a simple HTML skin (no custom code mods) would not be very hard to do at all (changing a few lines here and there mostly). I think (hope) our manual will be updated with this info also

I cant see a vb.net version 9 only c# where do I find it?

The VB.Net version should be available within a week or two! It takes a bit to get everything converted into VB.Net version.

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront

Since Multi-Store is based on the v9 code base, we will release an updated Multi-Store Beta 2 next week, with final Multi-Store release to be 2-3 weeks after ML v9.

I am sure you guys are getting tons of questions about this but when is the Multi-Store Beta 2 going to be released? When is the final version set to be released?

Chaz.

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront

We could, but we're not going to have time for a month until multi-store is fully released and our layout engine is done...but there are any number of our DevNet partners (many post here also) that could help you do this...assuming it's just a simple HTML skin (no custom code mods) would not be very hard to do at all (changing a few lines here and there mostly). I think (hope) our manual will be updated with this info also

can anyone quote a price for converting a simple html skin to a master page? the skin has 2 templates one for the home page and one for the rest.

See also: http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/t-devnet.aspx

Will each store be able to use its own XML packages? For example Product1 in Store1 would use XMLPackage1, but Product1 in Store2 would need to use XMLPackage2.

Make sense?

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront

I think (hope) our manual will be updated with this info also

I know you guys hate to hear this question, but any idea when we'll see the manual updates? Some of us really do use the manuals, as a starting point, anyway...As always, thanks for a great job!

The ML9 manual's already up, it was posted yesterday morning - http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.co...ersion-9x.aspx

Is there something you're after you're not seeing?

We've already started updating the manual for the 9.x version. Also, included in the download is a PDF guide to converting your skin to a Master Page skin.

The manual is already up! Wow, ask and ye shall receive; very cool! Thanks.

Quick question for support...the initial release yesterday was v9.0.1.0 and later in the evening I saw v9.0.1.1. Was there any main differences between the builds or just the inclusion of the Release Notes PDF?

Thanks!
Sean

There were some updates/fixes included, make sure you're installing 9.0.1.1 :-)

Congratulation on the the release.
We are using VB.net . So we cannot do anything until VB code is released. Can we request storefront consider making vb code available early insted of two week..Just a request

We try, but we have to run everything through a conversion tool and do some manual cleanup (we all code in C# here) that the tool can't handle, so the lag time between the two is just because we have to sit down and make the conversion, then run through our QA processes to make sure it's good to go

And thanks for the congratulations. We're all really excited about this one and hope that everyone else is as well

LOVE LOVE LOVE the new System Log functionality!!!

You can start moving to v9 without VB. just update source later. For those of you with mods, yes, you'll have to wait til the VB source is done. we really try to compress this delay as much as humanly possible, but it takes us about 4 man days to make each VB build, and therefore we "try" to make sure the release is clean before doing that, which (especially in the case of such a MAJOR rev like v9) can take us 1-2 weeks...so hang in there. sorry, but we just can't do it any faster, or I honestly assure you we would

I see almost a hundred V9 related threads/posts/questions/issues coming in per DAY now already, so that's great, keep them coming...we'll fix as many things as fast as possible. This really was our biggest "update" release of all time, so we expected a couple wrinkles, but will almost make a build/day to get them addressed...thanks.

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront

I see almost a hundred V9 related threads/posts/questions/issues coming in per DAY now already, so that's great, keep them coming...we'll fix as many things as fast as possible. This really was our biggest "update" release of all time, so we expected a couple wrinkles, but will almost make a build/day to get them addressed...thanks.

Quick question, when I post something V9 issue related last night I was told not to and that I should submit it to support? Which is correct? Seems most have been posting issues here but for some reason I guess I wasnt suppose to?

If it needs submitted to support I would be more likely to just compile a list over a period of time and submit it at once.

Quick question, when I post something V9 issue related last night I was told not to and that I should submit it to support? Which is correct? Seems most have been posting issues here but for some reason I guess I wasnt suppose to?

If it needs submitted to support I would be more likely to just compile a list over a period of time and submit it at once.

You're more than welcome to post them here on the forums, but depending on the nature of the issue we may ask them to be submitted to support as well to be looked into. Should you have a list compiled, you can submit that over to support for them to review as well! Thanks!

Where can I download maintenance releases when they become available?

Thanks!

They'll be on the main My Licenses page. Each new build just replaces the old one that was available there.

So they are not numbered differently. Is there a way to know which files have changed so that I don't overwrite any customization?

Thanks, Scott!

OK my V9 is installed at Appliedi.net, ummm how do I log into the admin interface?
If it's the same as V8 using ....admin/signin.aspx it is not working for me.
I looked in the V9 manual and I see no reference.

So they are not numbered differently

They are numbered differently, yes. Your 'Download 9.0.1.1' link will be replaced by 'Download 9.0.1.2' (or whatever the number ends up being)

If it's the same as V8 using ....admin/signin.aspx it is not working for me

That didn't change, accessing the admin site works just like it did before (provided you haven't changed your admindir - which you should). If you haven't, contact support and we'll take a look!

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront Staff - Scott

They are numbered differently, yes. Your 'Download 9.0.1.1' link will be replaced by 'Download 9.0.1.2' (or whatever the number ends up being)



That didn't change, accessing the admin site works just like it did before (provided you haven't changed your admindir - which you should). If you haven't, contact support and we'll take a look!

Complete fresh install of V9 on the server. <<< i'm logged-in. I remembered the default settings... etc.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS?>>>: Also when we create a production key, it asks for a domain, what happens if we change the domain name of the site in the future? For example www.bathroomwarehouse.com to www.homesupplieswarehouse.com, is the key still good with the first domain name? Basically the site is on the same server, we are only changing the Domain Name, the previous domain will not be used.

If you have to change the URL in the future, you'll have to contact support and they can work with you to get that done. Note that licenses aren't transferable so you can change the domain, but it has to be the same site/company. We can go over all of that if/when the time comes if necessary.

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront Staff - Scott

If you have to change the URL in the future, you'll have to contact support and they can work with you to get that done. Note that licenses aren't transferable so you can change the domain, but it has to be the same site/company. We can go over all of that if/when the time comes if necessary.

Understandable.

See image below... LOL Just had to update this...

our Developers are now huddled around a campfilre in silent prayer, healing, and "ooohhhmmmmm" Yoga meditation now that v9 is released.

Note the rice kernel stuck to his ear (oops, er... read that as a bug in v9) and on we go...fixing them...

thanks everyone. Just a bit of humor...(prob not funny to our dev team)

They look very very serious also

Just a quick update... Version 9.0.1.2 will be posted tonight, which resolves any issues we have come across to date

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront - Dan

Just a quick update... Version 9.0.1.2 will be posted tonight, which resolves any issues we have come across to date

I see 9.0.1.2 is available now.
If we have 9.0.1.1 already installed, can you tell me exactly what I need to replace? I know I ask the noobiest of questions but I had Appliedi do my initial V9 9.0.1.1 install, so I want to know what I need to do to apply the new version myself. I'm sure it's not the last version update anyways.

We touched quite a few files. It is probably best to replace all of the files on the site with the exception of your web.config file (make sure to back everything up first). There were no database changes (unless you were upgrading from a previous version) so the DB scripts do no need to be run on this build.

The latest update to the AspDotNetStorefront ML 9.0 and ML/64 9.0 platforms have been posted. Customers can access these from their MyLicenses page.

Thanks!

Is there going to be a downloadable demo of V9?


TTFN

BFG

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront - Dan

We touched quite a few files. It is probably best to replace all of the files on the site with the exception of your web.config file (make sure to back everything up first). There were no database changes (unless you were upgrading from a previous version) so the DB scripts do no need to be run on this build.

Understood, thanks.

Funny. I remmber once I have the same situation to see a similar picture with one of my production move. I am watching the patch version releases. Don't forget VB source also for the releases...

There will be a downloadable demo of 9, yes We are a bit backlogged with the new release however. First priority is to get the VB builds done.

Any ETA on the Beta 2 and then production release?

We are currently live with Beta 1 and anxiously waiting for the production release.

Thanks,
Pratt

We are looking at production on or about April 15th

Any ETA on wneh VB source will be available?

Any update? I'm itching to get started!

Are you after ML9? That's out :-) You can purchase the upgrade on our site! We're working hard on Multistore and will get an update out for it as soon as possible.

This we are refering to ML9 VB builds. Is this out already? If it is already out should I see in under mylicensces page as a download ? Please advise.

Has anyone gone live with version 9 yet?

As soon as I can get into my account I would like to download the new updater.

All the new features and added bonus' are brilliant work IMHO. I could not think of any other e-commerce that matches ASPDNSF.

Great work guys

Tamela

As soon as I can get into my account I would like to download the new updater.

All the new features and added bonus' are brilliant work IMHO. I could not think of any other e-commerce that matches ASPDNSF.

Great work guys

Tamela

Tamela,

First, thanks! We love to hear stuff like that (that's what keeps us going)! As far as getting access to your account, please see your other post here if you have not already.

Again we greatly appreciate the praise! We, too, are very happy with our ML v9.0 release!

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront Staff - Mike

Tamela,

First, thanks! We love to hear stuff like that (that's what keeps us going)! As far as getting access to your account, please see your other post here if you have not already.

Again we greatly appreciate the praise! We, too, are very happy with our ML v9.0 release!

Hi Mike

yes I did see it and just replied. I will contact customer service.

When I was searching for e-commerce I spent over six months investigating all of them out there, what they offered that I needed for my business', their security and everything. I choose ASPDNStoreFront because it was, and remains, the best there is.
Although, I miss the gallery feature because that is a very important part of my business, but hands down ASPDNStoreFront is the best available e-commerce. In addition, the newest updater is going to make every owner reach millions of more customers and the multi version offered is as well going to help many business' because as stated many business owners run several e-commerce and if you had to buy for each e-commerce site it would be way to expensive, especially with the economy. Many suffer being able to offer these features due to pricing. However, each e-commerce needs to offer security first and far-most, not just for themselves and their business' but for their customers as well.

Keep up the fantastic work.

And Happy Easter.

Tamela

Any ETA on when VB builds be ready for ML version 9?

Any update on release date for production version of Multi Store?

We've been working with the beta code for Multi Store and just waiting for the production version to be released. Can't wait!

Spoke to the team on Friday and they say VB of 9 should be out this week and Multi Store either end or beginning of next week.

Has anyone done a straight upgrade from 7.1.1.0 to 9 on C#

Thanks for the update. We are planning 7.0.0.7 to 9x. Ours is having lot of customizations. Once VB code is released we are going to hit the road. We are targetting mid June for go live on 9x.

K. we're doing 9013 release. George is managing. Right after, we'll do VB conv. We're having issues with a VB conv tool we use, and apologize, but we ABSOLUTELY recognize and reaffirm our support for VB devs...Monday ETA (if things go well).

Thanks everyone!!

What about Multi-Store? The last release date we had on that, was today the 15th. The beta 2 was never released. We need to go live asap. Will we be getting the production or beta 2 release this week?

That's what also I heard last time with 9012. Now you are releasing 9013 not taking VB clients in to consideration at all. I am confused now. Did we made a mistake by selecting VB as our standad..Please advise. ETA for 9013 VB build is Monday? Is that correct? Thanks

Originally Posted by jerm324

What about Multi-Store? The last release date we had on that, was today the 15th. The beta 2 was never released. We need to go live asap. Will we be getting the production or beta 2 release this week?

Yes, they should have released the MultiStore Beta 2 to us two-three weeks ago. I understand their reasoning, but cordially disagree with it. While they may be 'right', they aren't especially humane.

Given that they aren't specifically commenting on the MS release today, I am going to assume it IS included with this release (It's just v9 with some extra trimmings). But I'm also entertaining nuclear disaster (released halfway through next week at the very earliest). Always expect the worst. Especially with software.

That's what also I heard last time with 9012. Now you are releasing 9013 not taking VB clients in to consideration at all. I am confused now. Did we made a mistake by selecting VB as our standad..Please advise. ETA for 9013 VB build is Monday? Is that correct? Thanks

That's what we are shooting for, and we are wholly taking VB clients into consideration. We're releasing 9.0.1.3 C# and 9.0.1.3 VB at the same tame. It doesn't make any sense to release 9.0.1.2 VB when 9.0.1.3 C# is around the corner (it doesn't make sense to release a version with things that we know are fixed in the C# version we're ready to release) and a lot (I do mean a lot) of effort goes into converting these. IMHO, you should go with C#, and not because it's what I like to code in

As much as the development community likes to tell themselves that VB isn't going anywhere (ok...technically it probably won't) C# is consistently leaving VB further and further behind (in terms of functionality and community following) and there are numerous studies, polls, and straight-out accusations that support this. In fact, there are chunks of logic in our core in C# that don't even have an equivalent in VB (Microsoft didn't create them in VB (whether it was not possible or they felt it not important is another discussion completely))...so in order to convert to VB portions of C# have to be rewritten in such a way that the logic can be ported...hence the delay. Hopefully we'll have everything with VB worked out by next week

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront Staff - George

As much as the development community likes to tell themselves that VB isn't going anywhere (ok...technically it probably won't) C# is consistently leaving VB further and further behind (in terms of functionality and community following) and there are numerous studies, polls, and straight-out accusations that support this.

Listen to George. I can't think of any good reason to begin a project with VB in 2010. For what it's worth (I'm a c# developer), out of necessity, I picked up VB in about a day, and finished a very large commerce project (custom MSCS) with no problems. Largely the same concepts as c#; about .004% of the support and community. If it's an issue with your developers, they can totally handle moving to c#. Very little down time, if any.

If you stick with VB, this sort of thing will keep happening to you. You should switch to the c# version right now and be done with it.

Why cant we get any news on the Multi-Store? I don't understand whats holding up a beta 2 release? Surely anything you can put together now will be more functional than the 6 month old Beta 1 we all have now? Why does this keep getting pushed back?

The answer to that is similar to what George said for the VB conversion - "it doesn't make sense to release a version with things that we know are fixed in the C# version we're ready to release." Since Multi-Store is built on the ML codebase, every issue fixed in one is one less existing in the other. Since we know we're about to put in a bunch of fixes, it doesn't make much sense to release a different build right beforehand. We'll get some stuff fixed in ML, then switch to Multi-Store and get the beta 2 release of that out. It's coming, just bear with us.

I'm just going to sit and wait. I'd rather have a fully working Shelby than a half finished Lotus.

Originally Posted by tpmorgsls

Listen to George. I can't think of any good reason to begin a project with VB in 2010. For what it's worth (I'm a c# developer), out of necessity, I picked up VB in about a day, and finished a very large commerce project (custom MSCS) with no problems. Largely the same concepts as c#; about .004% of the support and community. If it's an issue with your developers, they can totally handle moving to c#. Very little down time, if any.

If you stick with VB, this sort of thing will keep happening to you. You should switch to the c# version right now and be done with it.

If you like VB, stick with VB. It's not going anywhere. Additionally, MS has stated that they intend to parallel any new functionality between VB/C# in new releases. You can see the shift starting to happen with VS2010. The situation you're in now having to wait for VB code to be converted from the C# code is not your norm. Most projects won't be using 3rd party code that you're having to wait on. Most projects will be originated by yourself. For me, I can't think of any good reason to start a project in C#. I can't think of one single function it does that VB doesn't do that I just can't live without or can't replicate some other way using VB.

On the plus side, having to wait for your VB code means you get a product with less bugs than the guy that started with 9.0.0.0 in C#.

The multi-store beta may be a half finished lotus but I'd rather drive a half finished lotus than a rusted out 63 ford ranchero with a busted transmission. Every day we can't go live costs $$$$ and my job security. If the beta 2 is stable and clean enough for me to run the main site out of our four sites, I'll be a happy man. So next week alongside the 9013 release would be awesome.

multi-store is coming along fine...we had a few more bugs in v9 (honestly) than we anticipated, so we must fix those first, get the VB version out for hundreds of v9 users, and v9 also is the basis for multi-store, so it's all good progress.

Multi-store is our next major release initiative...for sure.

Originally Posted by AspDotNetStorefront Staff - George

That's what we are shooting for, and we are wholly taking VB clients into consideration. We're releasing 9.0.1.3 C# and 9.0.1.3 VB at the same tame. It doesn't make any sense to release 9.0.1.2 VB when 9.0.1.3 C# is around the corner (it doesn't make sense to release a version with things that we know are fixed in the C# version we're ready to release) and a lot (I do mean a lot) of effort goes into converting these. IMHO, you should go with C#, and not because it's what I like to code in

As much as the development community likes to tell themselves that VB isn't going anywhere (ok...technically it probably won't) C# is consistently leaving VB further and further behind (in terms of functionality and community following) and there are numerous studies, polls, and straight-out accusations that support this. In fact, there are chunks of logic in our core in C# that don't even have an equivalent in VB (Microsoft didn't create them in VB (whether it was not possible or they felt it not important is another discussion completely))...so in order to convert to VB portions of C# have to be rewritten in such a way that the logic can be ported...hence the delay. Hopefully we'll have everything with VB worked out by next week

Hi George? How are thing going with with 9.0.1.3 release and VB builds?

When are we getting Beta 2 at least for Multi-store V.9? It's been "next week" for awhile now. We are getting a lot of pressure here...

I used to code exclusively in VB because I started programming ASP(without the .net ) websites, but the vast majority of the time I did web searches to figure out ways to do things there were always Many more answers in C# on the forums etc. Half the time I found myself converting the solutions I found into VB. One day I decided to pick up the original version of C# In A Nutshell to learn the syntax differences between VB and C#. After a week or two of stumbling on the differences, it became natural and I've never looked back.

This is not by any means a flame on the VB language as it is very capable and I would be willing to bet that it will outlive many other programming languages out there. ASPDNSF has remained very committed to keeping a VB version available and most of the time the delay is minimal except after major revision (understandably).

Armed with the knowledge that:
1. This product (and alot of others that offer both) are first coded in C# then converted.
2. This software is a core piece of your business (I'm guessing).

It might be worth some serious thought.

I know that C# is the new black etc but for many, like me, it's a corporate decision to stick to VB no matter how much persuading we do.

I'm happy to wait for VB 9.0.1.3 and I know that people are just as anxious about it as I am. C or VB StoreFront is a great E-Commerce platform and I think the fact that so many of us are waiting rather than trying something new defines this

do we know when 9.0.1.3 will be released we are stuck waiting to see if it fixes some of the bugs we have been fighting

Any word on 9.0.1.3? This week? Next week?

Any updates on VB builds on 9.0.1.3 ?

*ping*

Also waiting on the VB v9... I'll happily assume the reason there's been no status updates is because everyone is busily working away at the fixes/release.

:o)

Is there a change log for 9.01.3? The text file included in the C# download only listed the changes for 9.0.1.2

Would like to receive a change log as well for v9.0.1.3.

Is there any update on the Multi-store release now that 9.0.1.3 has been out? Thanks

Yes, finally some good news. George will be driving out the multi-store release on Monday next week...

Thanks!

That's great! Can't wait to see the new release for Multi-store

Originally Posted by Sean

Would like to receive a change log as well for v9.0.1.3.

Has any been provided?

update. good progress on MS release, but not quite done yet...but it's our top priority for sure...I think we have 50 customers waiting on it now... (is that good or bad)? LOL

The production version of the Multi Store has been released; yet no mention of it on the forums?

Now can we get a changelog for 9.0.1.3?

Is 9013 stable now 100% or are there still a few bugs being worked out?

There are always going to be a few bugs to work out unfortunately. That's the nature of software.

9.0.1.3 is a good release, we've got plenty of customers using it on production sites, and we're using 9.x on our site as well. If you upgrade and run into any issues, let us know and we'll take a look.

Hoping to see a upgrade from 9013 to 9.0.1.4 to fix some bugs. Any news on how soon it might be offered.

i'm hoping too!

AspDotNetStorefront Releases 9.0.1.3 Admin Service Pack