Thread: Vortx Acquires AspDotNetStorefront?

http://www.vortx.com/t-20100805_pressrelease.aspx

Anyone have any more information about what form this purchase takes? How will this affect all of our friends in Ohio?

More importantly, any guesses on what this will do to development cycles?

MJG

Interesting news.

Congratulations Vortx. Stay focused on making the product great, keep the prices reasonable (no monthly charges), keep the source code available, listen to the community and you'll do well!

...and if you need any dev help, you know who to ask!

Very interesting.

A little scary, Vortx has a "fee based" mobile solution that is a monthly fee. Hopefully they arent changing the model for ASPDNSF.

Thanks, Michael, for spotting our post and bringing it to the forum. We finally signed on Thursday 5th August and haven't got our bearings yet, so please forgive the fact that we weren't the first to announce ourselves here.

I read the quiet concern posted, and balance it happily with the quiet congratulations.

Are we going to look after our "friends in Ohio"? That's the plan. Please believe that Vortx needs those great people desperately. Although we have a large and happy building full of smart people in Southern Oregon, those people are busy. More than. So ..... Lisa, Scott, Greg, Gretchen, Kathy, Alfred ....... we embrace them all. Cornelius, too.

These last two days have been remarkable, in both Cleveland and Ashland. Dana and I want to thank all the people who have been so truly supportive. They know who they are and I'm sure that, now that the news is breaking, more and more great folks will come out to cheer us on. We adore this product and its whole culture. We have great plans and they don't include hitting you up with fees and cutting back on product investment!

Development cycles, Michael? We need to recruit and induct more developers. We need to stop the haste and bring back quality controls. We need to listen to all of you, and declare our roadmap. One thing I will whisper, ahead of some more formal announcements ........ effective immediately, we are supporting previous versions again. Not just supporting, but returning 8.0.1.2. to the market with it's own future path. New members of our community will be given the choice of version - it will be important for us to market the alternatives intelligently, but we are committed to making it work. There is still enormous value in version 8, plus a fantastic community of products and services. We have been particularly heartened, these last coupla days, by the incredible generosity and intelligence of the DevNet Partners

It's pretty clear to me as I write, that I owe you all a detailed notice of our plans. I really think you will find our news both reassuring and deeply exciting. We need to get our arms around the whole infrastructure for just another day or three, but I'll commit that we will host a webinar before the week is out (recording and posting it for those of you for whom "real time" is unreal!) . We will advertise it by email to our customer base, through this forum, and via the "news" element of the admin panel.

Please feel encouraged to use this thread to tell us of your agenda items. We will listen and do our best to answer. One thing I can promise you - we will be straightforward, energetic and honest.

Thank you.
Jo, speaking for everyone at Vortx, Inc.

Jo,

First, let me say THANKS for popping in with a little reassurance in an uncertain time. I personally greatly appreciate it.

Secondly, let me say THANKS for this comment "We need to stop the haste and bring back quality controls." I was and am a very happy 8.0.1.2 user and was excited to open a new store on 9.x. I was and am deeply disappointed in what turned out to be a very hastened release full of issues. Please don't get me wrong, the ASPDNSF has went above and beyond with helping me through many issues. I have personally worked very closely with these folks to iron out a lot of wrinkles. I am just thrilled to hear you use the words "quality controls". Trust me when I say you have no idea how much those two words mean to me and many other folks.

I also am very excited as to what Vortx can bring to ASPDNSF. I love the work that you have done in the past and the insight and information you have consistently offered the user of this software.

Lastly, I liked that you are bringing back support for 8.x, but id like to ask what the plan is for 9.x? I have personally put in a lot of time into 9.x delaying the launch of my store many months in an effort to get a solid product out .. I feel I now have a workable 9.x product.

I look forward to what you all can and will bring and feel we already have the best shopping cart available (I came from another car that lacked horribly) .... im raising my glass and toasting cheers to a bright future!

Thanks - and to all of you who are reaching out to welcome us.

I'll just quickly jump in to reassure you about version 9. We are not removing it, and I'm guessing that is your fear? No, it has inherent value and already has too big a following to be stopped. This particular train just needs to be put back on the rails. We have to put it in the siding for a moment while we fix it up, so we won't be picking up any more passengers for a short while, but when it comes back onto the mainline it'll be running much more efficiently. Is that enough of that particular analogy for everyone on a Sunday morning?? <g>

I think we have some good ideas about how to manage both the engineering and the marketing. Please support us as we go, and use any method you want to, to nudge us if you see us making mistakes. I can promise you that we will blunder sometimes, and will just pick ourselves up and try harder the next time.

I hope this isn't going to delay the ML and Multi-Store 9.0.1.4 releases. I was told last week it should be released this week. Hope that's still the case.

All in all Vortx buying the platform means some really great things for the platform and, more importantly, the community of merchants and developers that support/use it.

We're quite excited about the future of this platform

Jo,

This is great news you guys have acquired aspdnsf. I remember talking with you last 2 weeks or so regarding mobile commerce and the challenges with working with the xml package system.

Simrun has with v9 a total transferformation of the aspdnsf that uses ONLY Master Pages and Asp.net componenets no xml packages are used any where. Please contact me and lets see if we can get this into the v9 version along with our S.E.E. code base into v9 that includes all of the enchancements listed here:

http://www.simrun.com/AspDotNetStoreFront.aspx

Looking forward to discussing future possibilites

Nothing personal Alkaline, but I preferred the XmlPackages over Master Pages. Seems XmlPackages were way more flexible, minimized the need for source and allowed an easy deploy. With Master Pages in V9 I had so much difficulty getting things to work that I had to hire a developer to help me with much of it. Even the developers I spoke with agreed V9 with master pages was a nightmare.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the upside of master pages and understand ASPDNSF is going with them for good but the XmlPackage concept was a great one.

Master pages was the best thing that happened to ASPDNSF. Now they just need to replace all the xmlpackages with .net user controls (aka .ascx pages)

ssgumby,

we have developed the most advance controls on xml packages, from any storefront developer including complicated ajax controls built manually without using asp.net ajax using the update panel,

check these sites:
nutrasupply.com / allinkosher.com (v8 websites)

So we understand xml packages very WELL. They are NOTHING compared to standard asp.net controls as you have 1000x more options with standard asp.net controls. In v9, we decided to replace the entire front end and USE ONLY asp.net and master pages with .ascx user controls.

I understand you are more comfortable with xml packages, and anyone working with aspdnsf from v8 and below would respond the same, however, their is a reason aspdsnf wanted to push master page support for v9 and up and that’s because that is what the industry uses.

For v9, we have done a COMPLETE re-write of the front-end all pages are master pages, and in the admin you have a drop down for each entity and product page to select your master page theme (the same way you can select xml packages). Their are NO XML packages any where

This makes it very easy for .net developers to work with because they can fire up the page in visual studio and edit as needed. VS studio is the preferred method of almost 99% of asp.net developers and I can promise you if you have worked on xml packages you will love asp.net standard support.

Now, with Vortx Acquiring aspdnsf, if we could leverage our development into v9, it would really take this platform to new heights.

But, rest assured as Vortx is planning on continuing support for v8 you can still make xml packages for it .

Alkaline,

I agree you did some amazing things with XmlPackages, I looked at some of your sites when I first came to ASPDNSF and was quite impressed.

I am a Java developer by trade, I understand Xml/Xslt extensively and was/is why I like XmlPackages .... I could do literally anything to the presentation with no source changes.

With Master pages it seems anything you want to change requires source code and a build.

Alas, I understand Master Pages is the industry standard and hence XmlPackages will retire at some point. I just believe they worked nicely.

Master pages have nothing to do with XmlPackages. Master pages replaced the skinning engine(template.ascx changed to template.master). XmlPackages dictate how the information is formatted within the template/master page "skin".

Asp.net User Controls would be a replacement to XmlPackages and Skin Tokens. Version 9 just barely scratches the surface with what should be changed over to User Controls. With ASPDNSF too much of the page formatting is locked away in the source code. For example...if you want to change the way the cart looks you have to go into the source code to change html that's embedded. If it was changed over to asp.net User Controls you would just change the html in the User Control with no need to edit source code and recompile.

With Master pages it seems anything you want to change requires source code and a build.

This is not the fault of master pages...this is because of the way the ASPDNSF cart is structured. I have no problem with the XmlPackages, but if implemented correctly asp.net User Controls would give just as many...if not more choices on how to format your pages.

jjdunkle hit the nail on the head,

With v9, since we redid everything on the front-end, you can have full control over how the page is rendered including changing the look and feel of all user controls wihtout needing the source code!, The code is entirely different from the builtin controls that have "chunks" of html embeded in them (they are still present but you don't have to "call" them in your app.

With Vortx now owning storefront; it would be great if we could add this to the v9 core so everyone could use this ability to desing their sites.

Ok I'll throw in my two cents.

The combination of master pages and XML/XSLT is great! Just look at other successful content management systems like Umbraco (www.umbraco.org). They also developed a similar XSLT system and very perfectly implemented master pages AND .net User controls WITH the XSLT stuff. You are 100% free to pick and choose your favorite technologies...

This is the model I'd be pushing for if I get to cast a vote into the pot.
Best Regards,

Ben-LynxSI,

I would have to agree with you that Umbraco does a pretty good job of making all these options available to display content.

Fabulous discussion here. I just wanted to add a couple of things, please:

1) Someone in that thread rightly pointed out that indeed, we are consciously going to make sure that we please as many people as we can, and will be supporting the XML of Version 8 and the Master Pages of Version 9. Both have inherent value (and yes, gotta love umbraco)

2) There was a thread from Jerm324 and I want to reply before it gets lost in the noise. I don't ever want to feel like we didn't face up to our challenges. Jerm324 asks if 9.0.1.4 is still imminent. Ack. No, it really isn't. Not because we have walked in through the door and stopped progress. But rather, because we have inherited a version that deserves more patient care and attention than it has been given. We simply refuse to prolong a tradition of rolling out a point rev to satisfy the needs of A even though it is clear that B and C are still very much broken. Each flawed release causes cost and heartache to developers and storeowners and we can do better than that. We will get it out the very minute it is ready, but not the very minute before. I urge you all to give us, please, a small gap to figure everything out and set coding standards and integration practices in place. We are not pausing our efforts to fix the last release, and once quality is assured, we will be rolling it out with full urgency.

Jo,

This statement has me concerned ( "Jerm324 asks if 9.0.1.4 is still imminent. Ack. No, it really isn't. ). I have no history with ASPDNSF 8.0. Just nearly 6 months of broken promises and frustration. We purchased Multistore (and the source code) through Aydus Consulting after much research and soul searching on whether to move away from the SAAS model (Volusion), to one developer centric. I have been handcuffed for the past several years by a closed platform and took the leap of faith to have the freedom to customize. If it wasn't for the awesome tandem of Matt and Chris over at Aydus, I would have run for the hills long ago. Matt has been slaying bug after bug (at their expense!) to get one of our stores into production. I have been impressed and ultimately thankful for his diligence and knowledge of the software to plow through the myriad of hurdles. We again, were promised a patch last week to fix some of these glaring bugs before we move our flagship store over, but again are put on hold. We cannot risk the lost sales and showstopper bugs that plagued our first migration. We have spent countless man hours and money (double hosting fees, lost revenue opportunities to Dev. freezes, SEO double submissions due to bugs etc...)

We don't have the luxury of time to fix what was already broken when we spent nearly 5k on flawed release in March! At this time, we are too deep into this to turn back. As new owners, I know you have a duty to your core and faithful customers, but the new customers need to get the assurance that we will be serviced as well and will be given what was promised and what I PAID for. My negative first impressions can be changed with the assurance of what was sold to me in good faith will be fixed ASAP. That an "all hands on deck" push to get this promised patch out will become a priority.

A "retreat to the hills" attitude isn't going to restore my confidence. You have obviously purchased a broken product in Multistore and 9.0. Please fix it.

Best,
Mick

Mick, and, indeed, everyone . This is really important. I'm not sure which of my words led you to believe that the return of v8 was happening instead of pressing forwards with v9, but please forgive my lack of clarity.

Dana and I , and everyone at both Vortx and AspDotNetStorefront ....... we are all totally committed to the community of users and to the product. To be honest, we are crawling all over version 9, and version 8, and 5 and 6 and 7, to determine who we can help, and how. We plan to drive really hard, with passion and energy, for a dual roadmap. Essentially, there will be a fork in the road, with a very real, quality future for both v8 and v9. At some point there will also be a bridge built between the two so that users can move from one to the other, or can have multiple satellite stores which mix and match the two versions, and with a messaging bus between the two. But all of that is way in the future.

For now, we can hardly sleep at night, with all the work we have to do. We are driving relentlessly to fix version 9 in the best way possible, and sometimes "best" is not quite the quickest. We acquired the company on Thursday and on Friday we reached out to the seventeen registered DevNet partners via a conference call. We have asked for collaboration to bring together the bug fixes that the community at large has found and implemented. We have to form a repository and a test lab for these, to make sure that standards are applied and that integration is professional and smart, and that will add a little more time, but it will mean that the next build has integrity. We have a number of our own staff working away at the next release, but we have a steep learning curve and we won't fib to you - there is much wrong that needs putting right.

I just need, please, to ask for your tolerance and support while we do our utmost to honor your trust. Anyone can call me anytime, night or day. My cell is (how stupid am I? there are over 10,000 active members of this forum!!) 541 944 1428. Better still, please form an alliance with one of the devnet partners, if you haven't already done so. These are amazing companies, and they aren't just looking for a fast buck. They are smart, and committed, and there to help. Perhaps I can ask some of them to chime in here and verify the fact that the new owners are actively seeking help to put things right.

Okay, I hope I'm clear. Mick, you have my word, and I'll steal yours! An "all hands on deck" push to get this promised release out is already our priority and will remain so.

I very much hope that helps, even if just at the edges?

Jo

Jo, quick question. You mentioned a conference call with DEV NET partners and bring together bug fixes ....

Were/are you all going to go through support tickets? I can tell you I personally submitted many, many support tickets and many of those had my own personal resolutions to them. Im not saying my resolutions were necessarily the best, but my tickets certainly point out many areas of deficiency's.

Thanks!

Oh, yes, ssgumby, we are sifting through as quickly as we possibly can, trying to remove duplicates and "un-do"s and making sure that we don't trample on anything precious. It's one heckuva job, but we are putting diligence ahead of haste, and all will be good before we know it. Thanks, I'm finding yours and being very glad of them.

Greetings All (& a warm welcome to Jo),


I'll just throw my hand up here & ask a couple of questions & voice a couple of opinions....


1. You mentioned some of the Guys by name, but there are some that you didn't - have the others gone to a beach somewhere? Rob/Dan?

2. Have you bought AspDotNetStorefront or have you bought Discovery? (The main site still looks as if it's owned by Discovery Productions).

3. I love xmlpackages & can get them to do pretty much anything I want.

4. I've never touched user controls & am not sure I have the time to learn them.

5. It looks like Alkaline's posts in this thread are all along the lines of "Hey! Hey! look at me - I've got something I want to sell to the new owners. Let's say how great this is & maybe I'll make some money" - Sorry Mate, I've always respected your posts on here, but that's how it comes across to me.

6. Erm.... that's about it for now - it all seems very sudden maybe have more to say when I've thought about it a bit more.


TTFN

BFG

Its not a swipe at anybody but here is my two cents from a customer's view point.

[LIST=1] Ver 9 was supposed to be out last July and customers had waited way too long for it to get released.

When asked for release date the constant drumbeat was well it will be released when ready as we dont want to rush it and dont want to put a release date.

When it was finally released, it was full of bugs.

And now we are talking about taking a pause again.

I understand your side of the story but again understand customers side too and appreciate the fact that we have waited way too long and asking us to wait again is little too much.

For what I have seen at VORTX website and at the poll link where single page checkout was being sold for $400 from VORTX I fear that idea is to have multiple add ons that will provide the same features as they were originally included in the software going forward.

Somebody commented about $175 a month for mobile skins. Yes you can make the arguement that hey its not much but then to some it can be a big amount too and then all these features were supposed to be built in so why should somebody pay extra for the same features.


I am sure I am completely off base but I fear that is the route is being planned i.e. of multiple add on that would need to be purchased or there would be basic strip down feautre available in ASPDNSF but to really make it worthwhile or usable in practicle world, one would have to buy an add on..


You are making the same argument that ASPDNSF folks made that we will not release a moment soon till its ready and not have any deadline or set release date. I know some will argue that its not the right model but at the same time it brings some predictability and in my view focuses the dev team to deliver. Yes, release dates can be moved if the product is really not release quality but there must be some time line.


Lately at forums the mood had shifted to .. hey hire a dev net partner for your needs... and seems like that is being suggsted again that partner with dev net.. I have no problems or issues with it.. but for folks like me who can not afford it and would like to do things on their own, their should be a support mechanism and all the information should be readily available. This forum was a great place but lately it has been more like a solicitation market and seen a reluctance on even ASPDNSF support to make the information public.

There are known bugs and fixes.. they should be publicly made available. Do I really need to read all these messages to figure out oh if it has been reported and supposedly there is a fix from support.. go to support for each and request a fix. Should I not be entitled to receive the information about all issues at one place easily and automatically?

I am not arguing against bringing back ver 8 but shouldn't resources be devoted to one product and work towards making it better. why create multiple products and having to split to available resources and get nowhere. In my view limited resources at ASPNSF got stretched way too much to support multiple products like ML/DNN/multi store etc..


How will it be any different than before .... maybe only time will tell.

Thanks

Thanks, everyone. I don't think you can beat a public forum for the sharing of views. Guptaat, I can only ask that you trust that time will indeed show that we are trustworthy and sounds. We will restore order, I promise you that. As for selling add-ons that "should have been in core" - we take the line that we want to make this core product as affordable and flexible as possible. If we pack it full of "extraordinary features" then there are two downsides (1) those people who just wanted a robust but feature-lite cart end up paying for things they don't want and (2) it becomes monstrously difficult to maintain and support. We would sooner be providing a really great and affordable thing, with a community of extensions, than pushing prices up and complexity out. And please know that the extensions will not all be "ours" - if any of you have quality add-ons that will aid the store-owners, please approach us with them and we'll (test and then) put them on our forthcoming marketplace.

BFG - thanks for your thoughts. Dan left some time ago, actually. Rob has gone off to pursue pastures new. We did not buy Discovery Productions - I'm sorry that we haven't cleaned up aspdotnetstorefront.com yet and made it our own, but truth is that many of you would rightfully criticize me if I put our own marketing ahead of your pain!

And Alkaline, he's right ....... Please, folks, this is a real forum. Let's not use it for hitting people up for sales. People should be here to find, or give, real information for free.

guptaat - I feel your pain in many regards but none more so than this ;

Code:

There are known bugs and fixes.. they should be publicly made available. Do I really need to read all these messages to figure out oh if it has been reported and supposedly there is a fix from support.. go to support for each and request a fix. Should I not be entitled to receive the information about all issues at one place easily and automatically?

I found/find it insane that each and every user/devloper must find their own defects, post and then be told to open a ticket to get the known fix. If it is known, then it must be made known to the users. See my post here http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.co...ad.php?t=23275

It was so frustrating to see over and over people asking the same questions and being told to open a ticket. Sometimes the post were flat out deleted and a PM was sent telling us to open a ticket. I assume this was all because they didnt want to appear that the software was buggy, but well, it is what is is. Better to have open and honest communication to resolve the buggy issues than to put lipstick on the pig and keep pushing it out.

I have said this before, but i tested v9 very very extensively and found lots of issues fixing many, hiring developers to help with some, and getting ASPDNSF to help with some. I know there are still many issues but it is definitely a lot closer to working than it was months ago.

Originally Posted by BFG 9000

Greetings All (& a warm welcome to Jo),
5. It looks like Alkaline's posts in this thread are all along the lines of "Hey! Hey! look at me - I've got something I want to sell to the new owners. Let's say how great this is & maybe I'll make some money" - Sorry Mate, I've always respected your posts on here, but that's how it comes across to me
TTFN

BFG

Right, we just gave away an app that we could easily charge well over $500.00 that you have personally requested a key for but we're looking for money. I'm sorry but you clearly didn't read that post; I simply was looking for options to add this to the v9 core? This was a plea directly to vortx not to any individual user, what would it cost you? Nothing If it came packaged in a release it would be free.

But whatever floats your boat BFG.

Anyway, back to the thread. Jo regarding the devnet, as you know Aspdnsf had suspended devnet applications for a month or so and getting on the devnet was not possible. I can see now why it was suspended because of the pending sale of the company. What can pending devnet developers do and how can they contact you?

I literally have ONE bug that preventing me from getting all of my four stores up in multi-store. I've worked around all the other bugs, and can live with others for now.

I have people breathing down my neck to launch a site that was supposed to live at the beginning of summer, and I can't because one little bug causes unmapped categories to show up on a site where they aren't supposed to. Support tells me this has been fixed internally, and would be part of the next release, which now seems what weeks? months? away.

It's a little frustrating to hear about further delays in getting my site running. I don't have the resources to hire outside development to fix things either.

Alkaline - I have your number, I'll call you this week, I promise.

Jerm324 - how about you call me 541 944 1428? who knows, maybe ssgumby (who is fast becoming my superhero) has already fixed your issue.

Ssgumby - I have spent the last two days appointing smart people to just pull in useful fixes from all over the place - its quite incredible how much stuff has been fixed by forum-users and devnet guys, so I just have to find an intelligent way to integrate those and we will quickly be in much better shape. I'm off to see if I can recover nuked posts!!

thanks, everyone. I feel you all caring and helping and it brings me enormous comfort.

Originally Posted by Alkaline

Right, we just gave away an app that we could easily charge well over $500.00 that you have personally requested a key for but we're looking for money. I'm sorry but you clearly didn't read that post; I simply was looking for options to add this to the v9 core? This was a plea directly to vortx not to any individual user, what would it cost you? Nothing If it came packaged in a release it would be free.

But whatever floats your boat BFG.

Anyway, back to the thread. Jo regarding the devnet, as you know Aspdnsf had suspended devnet applications for a month or so and getting on the devnet was not possible. I can see now why it was suspended because of the pending sale of the company. What can pending devnet developers do and how can they contact you?

Mate - chill out & grab a beer. I was not suggesting that you were trying to sell to users - I was suggesting that (to me) it looked like you were pitching something to Vortx - again this was just how it looked to me.....


Jo - just thought of a more valid point number 6 :-

6. I'm concerned that ADNSF will become something that needs loads of ( paid (monthly?) ) extras to make it work. e.g. your modifications to the single page checkout look great - but will it be included in the core or will it be a paid extra? Same goes for mobile commerce - included or extra?


TTFN

BFG

I would like to comment on another thing that I think is really ruining aspdotnetstorefront:


INEXPERIENCED DEVELOPERS:
90% of the problems can be traced back to here because people don't understand that aspdotnetstorefront is really a FRAMEWORK system that REQUIRED TWEAKS and Changes to work to your spec and even small bugs and fixes here and their. Many shop owners and entry level developers get their hands on the cart and the few small bugs that they encounter seems to cause a big ruckus.

The fact: all vesions of aspdotnetstorefront have had small issues, but developers working on the system were able to quickly fix them, they have never been huge blunders just small logical bugs that can be mended quickly.

I really wish vortx considers a requirement test for any 3rd party developer that is looking to build websites for clients. Working on volusion's or yahoos admin doesn't make you a developer which is what majority of the "developers" seem to hinge upon.

I'm not taking shots at any body, but just pointing this out if you build sites for customers you should have the source code, understanding of sql and asp.net development. If you don't you are really doing your client a disservice because aspdotnetstorefront does require technical expertise to produce a quality result. Once you have these prerequisites, you'll find many small bugs are fixed easily.

Originally Posted by BFG 9000

Mate - chill out & grab a beer. I was not suggesting that you were trying to sell to users - I was suggesting that (to me) it looked like you were pitching something to Vortx - again this was just how it looked to me.....
TTFN

BFG

Ohh, I think it was very clear what you were saying BFG:

Originally Posted by BFG 9000

"Hey! Hey! look at me - I've got something I want to sell to the new owners. Let's say how great this is & maybe I'll make some money"

Sadly, your right and wrong, YES we do want to SELL something to VORTX directly, in the form of hey we can add this to v9 and perhaps you could give us free aspdnsf licenses and devnet position *barter*

But NO, we weren't looking to sell directly to customers because we already do this, however, if vortx would let us add our components to the core, it would obvisouly be free for end users with an upgrade plan so every one wins in the end.

I appreciate the gesture of having a bear, I plan to later on the day But you should really think before you label a development firm so quickly; yes this is our bread and butter and it hurts us when potential customers see us as "maybe I'll make some quick money, he he he he"

Anyway, Jo I left you a message please get back to me regarding the devnet applications.

Originally Posted by Alkaline

I would like to comment on another thing that I think is really ruining aspdotnetstorefront:


INEXPERIENCED DEVELOPERS:
90% of the problems can be traced back to here because people don't understand that aspdotnetstorefront is really a FRAMEWORK system that REQUIRED TWEAKS and Changes to work to your spec and even small bugs and fixes here and their. Many shop owners and entry level developers get their hands on the cart and the few small bugs that they encounter seems to cause a big ruckus.

The fact: all vesions of aspdotnetstorefront have had small issues, but developers working on the system were able to quickly fix them, they have never been huge blunders just small logical bugs that can be mended quickly.

I really wish vortx considers a requirement test for any 3rd party developer that is looking to build websites for clients. Working on volusion's or yahoos admin doesn't make you a developer which is what majority of the "developers" seem to hinge upon.

I'm not taking shots at any body, but just pointing this out if you build sites for customers you should have the source code, understanding of sql and asp.net development. If you don't you are really doing your client a disservice because aspdotnetstorefront does require technical expertise to produce a quality result. Once you have these prerequisites, you'll find many small bugs are fixed easily.

Alkaline, are you speaking of V9? I can assure you they were not small bugs causing a ruckus. There were bugs that physically prevented a customer from checking out, several actually. Bugs that caused issues with rounding, you put in $49.79 as a price and it saves as $49.00. These are simple basic things that would pass ANY QA testing if proper test scripts and tools are implemented. I do not consider any software EVER defect free but I would hope that 90% of all corner cases are hit, tested and full regression tested to cover existing functionality.

Originally Posted by Alkaline

Ohh, I think it was very clear what you were saying BFG:

Yup - I would have thought it was perfectly clear - but apparently not - let me highlight the bit that you appear to have missed :-

Originally Posted by BFG 9000

"Hey! Hey! look at me - I've got something I want to sell to the new owners. Let's say how great this is & maybe I'll make some money"

This is pointless though - I thought you were out of order - you didn't - let's leave it at that....


TTFN

BFG

Originally Posted by ssgumby

guptaat - I feel your pain in many regards but none more so than this ;

Code:

There are known bugs and fixes.. they should be publicly made available. Do I really need to read all these messages to figure out oh if it has been reported and supposedly there is a fix from support.. go to support for each and request a fix. Should I not be entitled to receive the information about all issues at one place easily and automatically?

I found/find it insane that each and every user/devloper must find their own defects, post and then be told to open a ticket to get the known fix. If it is known, then it must be made known to the users. See my post here http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.co...ad.php?t=23275

It was so frustrating to see over and over people asking the same questions and being told to open a ticket. Sometimes the post were flat out deleted and a PM was sent telling us to open a ticket. I assume this was all because they didnt want to appear that the software was buggy, but well, it is what is is. Better to have open and honest communication to resolve the buggy issues than to put lipstick on the pig and keep pushing it out.

I have said this before, but i tested v9 very very extensively and found lots of issues fixing many, hiring developers to help with some, and getting ASPDNSF to help with some. I know there are still many issues but it is definitely a lot closer to working than it was months ago.

I agree with ss here. There should be a public list, I have had to find many on my own. Just 2 days ago ss found one and shared it with me in a post... even offered to make the change so Firefox add-to-cart would work. I might have to keep a tally and share (PM) notes. If Vortex wants to win hearts and minds some transparency will be required. I will give them some time to get this in gear but not long.

MSD

Originally Posted by MSD

I agree with ss here. There should be a public list, I have had to find many on my own. Just 2 days ago ss found one and shared it with me in a post... even offered to make the change so Firefox add-to-cart would work. I might have to keep a tally and share (PM) notes. If Vortex wants to win hearts and minds some transparency will be required. I will give them some time to get this in gear but not long.

MSD

I suppose along the same sort of lines here, I always though the Knowledge Base had potential but was far under utilized. There is some really good info in there, but it is not easily found or made known nor easy to navigate. Maybe the ideas above and an improved knowledge base could both be accomplished so that issues can be made known and fixes as well all while being well organized and accessible by the whole community. Hope what I am saying makes sense .

Dear Upscale (great name - your parents had good taste ....) What you say makes enormously good sense, although I confess that nobody has yet shown me the knowledge base. I'm off right now on a hunt to find it and see what we can do. Meanwhile I spent most of the night hunting around to see how quickly I can create a single bug list - haven't satisfied myself yet that we have our arms around everything that goes on behind the scenes. While I find my feet, I am terribly (wonderfully!) grateful to you all for you support and nudges. Collective thinking is the best form.

I hope to have news for you soon about visibility.

Originally Posted by ssgumby

Alkaline, are you speaking of V9? I can assure you they were not small bugs causing a ruckus. There were bugs that physically prevented a customer from checking out, several actually. Bugs that caused issues with rounding, you put in $49.79 as a price and it saves as $49.00. These are simple basic things that would pass ANY QA testing if proper test scripts and tools are implemented. I do not consider any software EVER defect free but I would hope that 90% of all corner cases are hit, tested and full regression tested to cover existing functionality.

Hi, these are small semantic bugs you have mentioned, the other checkout bug can be traced to a css issue. Look all I am saying that if you have been working with version 6.x and above 9.x is not THAT big of a deal, its about the same as any other previous version with small hickups; their are no real big blunders. You are asking a lot from a cart that only cost 1250 and has a limited user base. Look at the closest aspdnsf competitor with the same feature set and they start at 10 grand, even they have problems.

Here is an example of a blunder:
They left out the gateway classes from the assembly. Ok you can't quickly fix this, but if a gateway isn't working that's easily a small fix probably and you can be on your way in a couple of mins. V8.x had these minor issues as well but they weren't anything to cry a river about and most devs were able to fix.

If you look, all the devs on the devnet would never complain about this to storefront, instead they would simply email the fix to them so they can have it included in the next release.

However, you are expecting that complaining and stomping your foot down about it would be the better route Just email the dev team they'll fix it. Or a fix will be posted and you can move on.


I personally think what would solve 95% of Aspdotnetstorefront issues is that it should change its model from selling directly to end-users to a partner based system like Microsoft does with its Dynamics Suite. Sage and other large companies do this as well and it works great for the end user. You have a personal point of contact that can accommodate your needs and fix any issues you have.

Jo your thoughts on changing Aspdotnetstorefront to a Partner only Based solution instead of selling directly to end-users?

Wow Alkaline, im am stunned at your attitude with regards to this.

First, a cart that only cost $1250 should have defects? I came from a cart that cost $199 had had MUCH fewer defects than this 9.x did. I do not expect to have critical issues that could easily, and I mean easily, caught by traditional testing. No matter the cost you are selling a critical piece of software to peoples income ability.

As to your point about all developer on dev net would never complain and would just offer the fix to ASPDNSF. Flat out WRONG! I contacted two DEV NET partners and both told me certain issues were defects and I needed to go back to ASPDNSF. I in turn have resolved MANY defect on my own and offered the fix back to ASPDNSF.

Im also confused as to where I am complaining and stomping my foot down? I have went way out of my way to test, test, test and fix and help diagnose issues. I have offered my help free of charge to anyone who wants it.

ASPDNSF is an excellent solution that has helped my store greatly improve in the search engine rankings over my previous cart. My store does very well, but I do not think $1200 is anything to sneeze at. You make it sound like ASPDNF is some shoddy solution aimed at people who can't afford better and should just accept these issues. Completely and totally unacceptable, any business putting a product out should put out the best they can, period.

Originally Posted by ssgumby

Wow Alkaline, im am stunned at your attitude with regards to this.

First, a cart that only cost $1250 should have defects? I came from a cart that cost $199 had had MUCH fewer defects than this 9.x did. I do not expect to have critical issues that could easily, and I mean easily, caught by traditional testing. No matter the cost you are selling a critical piece of software to peoples income ability.

As to your point about all developer on dev net would never complain and would just offer the fix to ASPDNSF. Flat out WRONG! I contacted two DEV NET partners and both told me certain issues were defects and I needed to go back to ASPDNSF. I in turn have resolved MANY defect on my own and offered the fix back to ASPDNSF.

Im also confused as to where I am complaining and stomping my foot down? I have went way out of my way to test, test, test and fix and help diagnose issues. I have offered my help free of charge to anyone who wants it.

ASPDNSF is an excellent solution that has helped my store greatly improve in the search engine rankings over my previous cart. My store does very well, but I do not think $1200 is anything to sneeze at. You make it sound like ASPDNF is some shoddy solution aimed at people who can't afford better and should just accept these issues. Completely and totally unacceptable, any business putting a product out should put out the best they can, period.

Ok then so maybe I should hold off on my Ver9 build and build it in Ver8 for a brand new store we are doing? If someone in the know can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I was told by aspdnsf staff 5 months ago to use Ver9 and not ver8 for a new buildout

THANKS

v8 to v9. I've had the upgrade option for a while now, but have never taken it because: v9 seems buggy (based on forum posts) and I don't have the time/resources/software/knowledge to learn ASP controls or VB or whatever it is.

New ownership scares the crap out of me, to be honest. I came to ASPDNSF from a free cart and chose ASPDNSF because of compliance, usability, scalability and ease of use. v9 doesn't seem easy to me and has kept me from recommending ASPDNSF for at least a few months.

With v8XML, there really wasn't anything I couldn't 'do' usually with the help from a few people on the forums. I don't know ASP and I don't know XML. I came from PHP to ASPDNSF and with little to no knowledge, and I made something that I am proud of, me, the little guy - end user/owner/tech support all rolled into one. This is my site, http://www.hbcsurf.com a site made by a guy who barely understands (not at all really) ASP or XML, but I spent enough time in it to figure out most of it. 99.9% of all the work done on the site was with notepad.

v9 seems/ed to be going in a direction that would have completely eliminated the DIY mom and pop online business models and I think that was ASPDNSF's niche. There aren't many people in this economy who can afford the big money on the cart + hiring someone to make it work/look they way they want it to look.

Over the last few years, I've recommended hundreds of people to ASPDNSF, people who contacted me via my blog, QuickBooks and FedEx contacts and THub - all for no compensation. At $1250 it's not an easy sell, when they're looking as OS/Zen/Magento/et all.. It was this community of support and the relative "ease" of the system that would sell these people.

I am fairly active at digitalpoint forums as well and in the last 8 months, the community opinion of ASPDNSF has dwindled. I attribute this to the new path of v9. If you're a developer and know ASP, then maybe it's the cat's meow, but a lot of people buying ASPDNSF aren't developers, they're your average Joe who's trying to keep their brick and mortar above water by supplementing their sales with online and spending $1250 on a cart, plus another $1250 on a dev, another $600 a year on hosting, gateways take their percentage, Google wants their cut and for most mom and pop places, in the end, it's not worth it. These users need something that works, is fairly simple to use and has a good support/forum network.

v8 is robust, solid and with a little patience and practice, it's easy to use. You only need notepad to work on it and there's not a lot you can't do, even without the source. Keep it easy to use and you'll make it an easier choice for people to buy you.

This is only one person's opinion and I may well be off base here, but look through the sales records and see how much revenue is based off the big boys and how much comes from the little guys. I really do hope that ASPDNSF keeps an easier to use XML model because most of the people I know using it don't know how to use VisualBasic applications and can't afford to buy it or the $150/hr on a developer.

Originally Posted by caraj

Ok then so maybe I should hold off on my Ver9 build and build it in Ver8 for a brand new store we are doing? If someone in the know can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I was told by aspdnsf staff 5 months ago to use Ver9 and not ver8 for a new buildout

THANKS

caraj - my .02

I would build it in V8 if you want it up and running sooner rather than later.

I have two stores, one has been up a while on V8. Runs great and no issues to be found.

The other one is not yet live, its V 9.0.1.3 and im a little worried about going live with it. If I had to do it over I would have done it in 8.0.1.2. Its not just the defects, the admin is much more complicated. This is a direct quote from our employees who add products/categories update inventory/pricing, etc. The day to day operations of the current V9 business process are according to my staff much slower with more clicks.

You can't go wrong with 8.0.1.2 ... its a great, stable product and well worth the money!

Originally Posted by ssgumby

caraj - my .02

I would build it in V8 if you want it up and running sooner rather than later.

I have two stores, one has been up a while on V8. Runs great and no issues to be found.

The other one is not yet live, its V 9.0.1.3 and im a little worried about going live with it. If I had to do it over I would have done it in 8.0.1.2. Its not just the defects, the admin is much more complicated. This is a direct quote from our employees who add products/categories update inventory/pricing, etc. The day to day operations of the current V9 business process are according to my staff much slower with more clicks.

You can't go wrong with 8.0.1.2 ... its a great, stable product and well worth the money!

Thanks for that answer!!

We were surprised to read this news today. Honestly, having integrated many tech solutions before (from ERP to ASPDNSF), I'm always leery about having a packaged platform such as ASPDNSF change hands. But having read through Jo's initial responses here, I have more confidence in the transition of ASPDNSF to Vortx. Jo, thanks for being open and honest.

That said, I'm more on the side of ssgumby. We deployed a successful 8.0.1.2 site currently in production and learned to love how the XMLPackage framework can accommodate for styling changes without having to rebuild code. We have source code, but we try to stay away from having to modify code for styling changes.

However, when we needed to launch a multi-store solution, we decided it was easier to move forward on v9 multi-store with master pages than to modify 8012 into multi-store. It took a lot of effort for us to get v9 multi-store to where we are today. We're closer to launch now than before but we still got some bugs that are show-stoppers like entities navigation (categories, sections, etc) not showing correctly in multi-store. We submitted the tickets to ASPDNSF and hope those will still get resolved.

And I agree with a lot of the posts here that if there's a public bugs list, it'd save ASPDNSF, dev partners, and us customers the duplication of efforts trying to log it and fix it when someone else may have already done so. IMHO, perhaps we can have 1 topic thread listing out all the bugs only (no fixes, opinions, flames, etc) where everyone can add to it and have ASPDNSF (or Vortx now) have the final approval (i.e. de-dupe, reword, close out non-issue, etc) that everyone can see, it'll go along way. Then as new releases are put out, have a text file listing which bugs got resolved. We as customers are aware of bugs and you know you can't just sweep them under the rug so might as well work together to fix them. Basically, similar to how many software projects are done on sourceforge, but obviously, this is not open-source so the process will need to be tweaked appropriately.

Just my 2-cents.
Ben

Originally Posted by benjamin

perhaps we can have 1 topic thread listing out all the bugs only (no fixes, opinions, flames, etc) where everyone can add to it and have ASPDNSF (or Vortx now) have the final approval (i.e. de-dupe, reword, close out non-issue, etc) that everyone can see, it'll go along way. Then as new releases are put out, have a text file listing which bugs got resolved. We as customers are aware of bugs and you know you can't just sweep them under the rug so might as well work together to fix them. Basically, similar to how many software projects are done on sourceforge, but obviously, this is not open-source so the process will need to be tweaked appropriately.

Just my 2-cents.
Ben

Absolutely agree with this.

osdude - I had the same initial reaction to new ownership, but after talking to Vortx, seeing Jo and other post here and just the general open attitude of Vortx I feel a relief that they bought it out. I feel they will right the ship and make all of us happier.

benjamin - I agree, Jo has done a great job of coming here and really opening communications to make everyone feel better about the transition.

Yesterday was a day of total overwhelm and I was really sorry that I couldn't add to any of the debates on the forum. I love reading the threads I didn't have time to jump onto during the day, and seeing just how much intelligence is going on. There is so much opinion about versions 8 and 9 and so I have decided that it's time for a webinar on the topic. As a company, we try desperately hard to not start anything until we have thought it through to the end, and so I won't hastily announce when or any details. I need to test out the webinar software that we just acquired, and think about time zones, and audiences, (and try to figure out just how much of my voice people can stand ....) but I will commit now to the fact that I will host two webinars next week, and that one of those will be dedicated to the product roadmap. I will also guarantee that they will be recorded and posted, so that we don't all have to give up our day jobs to listen to Jo!

We now have, we believe, a comprehensive v9 bug list. Our next job (read above ... we're not going to hastily make the list available and be met with a chorus of "oh, but I fixed #AD235") is to now work hard on matching fixes to bugs and making sure that we have a full picture. Issues have been fixed by our staff, by our devnet partners, by active forum users and by clients. I have to reach far and wide to rediscover most/all of those and change the status of those issues from open to "awaiting integration" or "awaiting QA" so there is still work to be done, but I hope that you'll be slightly reassured to know that we are systematically closing in on the challenge and being as thorough and yet expeditious as we can.

More later ......

Congratulations, Jo and Vortx, on the acquisition. I would have missed the news had it not been for Google Alerts for 'ASPDotNetStorefront.' (Press Release and Ashland Mail Tribune's coverage)

I echo osdude and ssgumby's sentiments. I came from LAMP, but my work required Windows. ASPDNSF stood out. If configuring and setting up a site is as easy as modifying some XML/XSLT, this would be a dream come true, I thought.

We had vers. 7.x ML/DNN--DNN for the content side. That disastrous marriage ended in a divorce--very quietly. Neither DNN nor ASPDNSF notified us about the rumoured divorce. Stuck with an aging version of DNN and unable to upgrade either platform, we ditched DNN.

Then we moved to vers. 8.x ML which seemed easier. And without DNN, it was indeed simpler. I learned to customize, bought a book about XML and XSLT, and nearly worshipped MS SQL. In vers. 9.x ML/64, I have spent more time tracking down bugs than building. And I hoped, in 9.0.1.4 or 9.0.2, all major bugs would magically vanish.

This forum, however, has been the single greatest source of help. This community inspired me with workarounds, examples and even bug fixes. I hope the forum stays.

At least until a stabler version is released, I would like to see a single bug list with daily status updates. If I see a bug on that list, then I can stop wondering whether it was my incompetence that broke something. Luckily my employers are very understanding of fluid deadlines. :-)

I see two great companies joining forces. And I hope this benefits as many of us as possible.

Thanks!

Well just logged in to do a search for a issue and found this

First of all congratulations on the acquisition.
Looking forward to better quality control for sure. Make sure the VB version lives as we are NOT all C# Devs. At 55 and 20+ years of developing don't feel like learning a new language and the reason I purchased ASPDNSF was because of VB availability.

We are currently running 3 stores all on V8.0.2, did look at V9 but opted not to implement and glad I didn't.

Looking forward to some good works from the new folks.
Features are great but quality is a must.

Jaime (Cano) Noriega

I second the need to keep VB.net.

Jo, your thoughts on this?

Sorry to be blunt, but I need to get a multi-store platform. I can't afford to "hope" that a stable v9 release will come out in 3 months. do i need to move or will a stable v9 be out within 3 months?

I've been with ADNSF since 2005 and have setup probably a hundred stores. I loved it but over the last 6-9 months its been pretty rough. Can you explain why Vortx will be better? i.e. more/better developers, maybe more money to invest in tools?

my 2 cents...

first, i hope that Vortx first removes all features that cause or have bugs. i would MUCH rather have a product that is (1) polished (improve css, clean code, ease of use, internal navigation, etc and (2) bug-free.

if Vortx doesn't want to remove features then at least put a halt on all new feature development and ONLY focus on polish and fixes.

unlike most customers, i would rather have Vortx sell a modestly priced basic shopping cart with tons of add-ons. this will allow us as business owners to only pay for the features we need. and hopefully be a good business model for Vortx because i would rather have a financially strong company behind my platform.

lastly, speed and caching. imo, its got to be improved somehow. maybe moving to small core cart with a few add-ons would trim code and speed everything up.

Well, finally I see enough clarity to be able to talk to you all "out loud". I will be hosting a live webinar on Thursday 08/19 at noon, Eastern time, to tell you about the status of the product - on Monday we will post a registration mechanism at aspdotnetstorefront.com. I will collate all these questions before then. Please, though, hear me when I say that I won't be telling you "in December it will do blah blah and by March it will do such and such". I would have to fib , to do that. I will tell you the plan for the next two - three weeks. I will tell you why I think that you can trust us, and why I am confident that things will get quickly better. I will tell you a little about our hopes and dreams and I will be honest about the things we plan to grow and the things we don't.

I will make sure that the webinar is recorded and posted so that you don't all have to put your daily work aside.

We all know that things i say will please half the people, half of the time. All I can do is my honest best, and I promise you all that. You might like to know that, at the close of our first full week, we are tired but hugely reassured. This is a community of really good people and we have been overwhelmed by your support and by the integrity and intelligence we find awaiting us. Thank you, all of you who have supported us in so many ways (and that includes really positive use of this forum - you have all used it to "find out", and not just to snark at me, and I'm really thankful). I can do a lot with a culture like the one I find here.

I have to say that I'm both excited and worried by the news of aspdotnet being bought out. I'm excited that maybe some new blood will push this great cart to newer heights and that it will finally perform some of the functions that I've always wanted it to. I'm worried because I don't want to be "nickle & dimed" to death on addons. One of the main reasons we bought this cart was because it included nearly everything and had the potential to have even more included in future releases. I was also like confirmation that the option for vb source code will remain. I have nothing against C# but I just don't have the time nor the care to learn one more language that I don't need to. When we first bought this product a few years back, there was nothing else on the market that could touch it for the price. Today though, the competition is gaining. Even the free NopCommerce package is looking pretty nice for the price and includes much of the same functionality. Lets hope aspdotnetstorefront reclaims it's crown.

MarcJ - It's really clear that you represent many of our strong community with your concerns. If you could see me, I am smiling, knowing that in the passage of just a short amount of time, I will be able to show you that your concerns are groundless. Now, tell me that your biggest concern is that some tall British woman was going to be running the place and then I'd have to worry (since I can't really help being all of those things) but tell me that you are worried that you won't get value for money and I can relax because you will. Tell me that you are worried that VB will go away and ....... you can relax, because it won't!! There .... does that help? Within hours we will be posting the registration platform for the webinar we are hosting on Thursday. Sign up and join me, will you please? I'm hoping for a really great turnout to hear all about our plans.

Thanks for caring. We do, too.

...some tall British woman.....

some tall British women are HOT ! ...we'd be happy if the boss was a tall Brit !! lol

If we have a British person as part of the asp team does that mean VAT will be calculated correctly? Will the software become less Americanised?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by e-tradecounter

if we have a british person as part of the asp team does that mean vat will be calculated correctly? Will the software become less americanised?

Thanks.

I AGREE !!!....a VAT fix applies to ALL European Union countries where VAT is charged - it's a big requirement for this to work correctly !

Yes, I am, of course, acutely conscious of many of the extra needs of my European friends. Not only must we fix VAT, but 3Dsecure, and SMS must be taken more seriously. We are looking to expand our portfolio of partners in the UK and throughout Europe, so please, if you're active as an AspDotNetStorefront advocate on that side of the pond, then reach out to me and let's find a way to work together. (And I don't want the Americans to feel ignored here. I am "naturalised". I'm even prepared to spell it "naturalized". I drive on the right side of the road, eat fries (instead of chips), know that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and am slowly learning that football is a game, while soccer is a match.

From what I know and have seen. A hub of knowledge regarding aspdotnetstorefront for the UK would be BFG 9000 and webopius (sorry if I missed the others, they are the first ones that come to mind for UK based developers.)

I know webopius has countless fixes for issues on ver 9 for the UK market.

Thanks for the mention of Webopius, I appreciate it. I'm also a tall Brit but male and not hot I'm afraid.

Yes, we've worked on a number of v7 to v9 amends to support the European market including:

- Getting the VAT and Totals to calculate correctly - no more out by 1p/1cent
- SagePay gateway improvements along with 3D Secure handling
- SagePay error reporting (tells the customer why the card was rejected)
- Royal Mail warehouse fulfilment integration
- Product importer that can support multi-locale descriptions
- Shipping tax corrected
- Dropping the (EUR),(GBP) display from the listing pages to just use £ and €
- Country specific product pricing based on where the Customer is viewing the site from
- Hiding products if Customers are viewing from specific Countries

Just for the fun of it, we've also extended V9 with some more generic work...

- Packs in V9
- Quantity Discounts mapped to Customer Level rather than entity
- Automated stock updates and shipping feeds. No more clicking 'mark as shipped'
- Custom VAT amounts (e.g. for a pack that consists of VATable and non VATable items)
- High speed product import, runs in minutes rather than hours for 100k+ products
- Complex Shipped (e.g. vary cost by product type, stop certain products going via air, stop some exports to specific countries)
- Various new payment gateways

Most of this is custom work though but it would be good to see them in the standard product.

I've been in dialog with Lisa previously about the European market. Would be good to follow up on although I'll need to hire more staff as I'm running this on a skeleton crew!

Adam

I know that everyone on this thread will be very interested in a webinar Jo will be holding this Thursday, see this post for details and to register your seat:

http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.co...ad.php?p=92229

Originally Posted by jo@vortx.com

Now, tell me that your biggest concern is that some tall British woman was going to be running the place and then I'd have to worry

The British are coming, the British are coming!

Originally Posted by jo@vortx.com

Thanks for caring. We do, too.

Jo, if your attention to everyone posting in these forums is any indication, then I would say we don't have anything to worry about on that score.

Originally Posted by philipb

The British are coming, the British are coming!



Jo, if your attention to everyone posting in these forums is any indication, then I would say we don't have anything to worry about on that score.

I couldn't agree more .... seeing the Vortx interaction in these forums so rapidly and so often has certainly put a level of security on this situation as it is obvious they are concerned about their customer base and very detailed in their approach.

Had they come right out and said "were going to add this and this and do this and that and yada yada" THEN I would have been worried.

Philipb........us brits have always been around but very quiet on the forums.

Its just that we're too busy spending hours changing the language strings ; cart to basket, tax to vat, shipping to post and packing, yada yada


Quick nod to the xml setup........we're not developers, just business owners that learned how to use aspdnsf and got a little inexpensive help from the dev network on the way.......that must be how to win over clients ?!

Ps.......aspdnsf captures £200k of online sales a year for us and aside from the mind numbing bugs its done us proud for the last 5 years

Hi Jo,
Looks like we are a little late to the party....hope this thread is still active. First of all, congratulations! This is very exciting news...we are one of the many mighty fans of the DNN version of ASPDNSF, and although it was put on the shelf at the end of last year... I just have to ask: Will you resurrect it??

I understand if the answer is no. Our hopes have been so utterly dashed that they are but a glimmer in the distance... Regardless of your decision, we (like many others) will need support upgrading and/or migrating our client sites soon. I will be requesting development quotes for both upgrading the DNN/ML version to work with Dotnetnuke 5.x - and a separate quote for making it PCI compliant. Whatever the cost, we need to know what it is before we can weigh it against the expense of re-building sites like this (http://corteclean.com) outside of DNN.

Obviously, we would like to split this expense with other users. And of course, see the platform brought back to life and sitting on top of snowcovered.com's best selling list by the end of the year... ohman, I just cant let it go

Any input or advice you may have regarding the quotes we need is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

As of today October 25th, an interim bug list is available.

We have compromised on this, because we plan to launch a service pack within a few weeks of today and all of our effort continues to be invested in making that as significant an improvement as we can, while at the same time hurrying it out before the silly season strikes. Still, if you are looking for a record of bugs and/or fixes, then we hope it will at least be a good step forwards.

The bug list is available as a free subscription through AspDotNetStorefront. To get access, add the following product to your cart and checkout free of charge: http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p...wn-issues.aspx

After checking out with the free subscription, you can access the bug list here: https://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/t-knownissues.aspx

Looks like you are further than"a few weeks" away from launching a service pack. So far there are only 31 of 314 on the list of issues that have solutions you can email for. It has been 9 1/2 weeks since the conference call saying a bug list would be made available... for 31 fixes...how much longer (realistically) for the rest?

Looks like you need to de-duplicate this bug list to reduce the count further. For example bugs 5295 and 5179 are the same issue: 'SagePayUK gateway 'StatusDetail=3049 : The StartDate format is invalid'

This particular issue and another SagePay problem: 5181 have been fixed by us and the solution was emailed to support a few months ago.

I'm sure other developers have also coded fixes and would be happy to work with you to submit these and to close other open issues. The result would be a more stable release delivered sooner. Just get in touch if you want to discuss.

Adam

That is a massive list, and I GREATLY appreciate you all releasing it.

I think I submitted 90% of them .. kidding of course

5282 another checkout1.aspx page bug.

We have problems with customers using our checkout1 and they are created without any customer information. What I mean is Customer First Name, Customer Last Name, Customer Email and Customer Phone do not exist. Thus when that data is moved to the order, the order does not have an email or any of the customer details. However addresses are fine.

Doesn't seem to be any new fixes yet for ver 8.x

Still a step forward is a step forward.