great plugin, now broken

  • This plugin has been the best way to do what it does for several years, and I rely on it for the structure of a couple of sites. It does not deserve a one-star review for it’s functionality.

    The problem is that the current version does not function. When freshly installed, the current plugin version cannot be activated due to a fatal error. But when updating an active copy of the plugin, it white screens the front and back end of the site. To get it back, the plugin folder must be renamed or removed from the server.

    That’s unfortunate, but it happens. Everyone makes mistakes. What matters it how they’re handled.

    The new maintainers of this plugin broke the last update by leaving out a required file. As someone in the support forums pointed out, it can be easily fixed by simply adding this small file back in. But the maintainers themselves have not responded. And have not updated the plugin with this very minor fix. As of the time I write this, it’s been nearly a week since the put a site-killing update in the repository, and they’ve just… left it there.

    The thing that’s kind of a last straw is that the new code that broke everything is for monetization. Which is fine. People gotta get paid. But I’d expect a developer to be especially careful about updating parts of the code that get them paid, since they require literal buy-in from users. Maybe run a few tests? Keep an eye on the support forums? Make sure the thing that asks the greatest degree of trust isn’t the thing blowing everything up? No?

    If this is how they handle the monetization code, it makes me think this the actual functional parts of this plugin don’t have much of a future. So while I still like this plugin (when it works), I have to give it 1 star as a warning.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Contributor Dejan Markovic

    (@dejanmarkovic)

    Hi @zota,
    I am really sorry to hear of the issue with plugin.

    We are trying to monitor the support as much as we can but since we have 4 plugins it’s becoming hard to us especially if plugins are free.

    I am not sure that you were aware but we have a contact form under the plugin settings and if you have used that I would get the message directly as it looks like that I am getting only some from www.ads-software.com not sure why.

    Anyway, we will update the code base soon and I will contact you to let you know as soon the codebase is ready.

    Thanks and have a nice day!
    Dejan

    Thread Starter zota

    (@zota)

    Hi Dejan.

    Thank you for responding. I just checked, and it doesn’t look like you’ve responded to the open support threads on this issue? If you get a chance, I’m sure it would be appreciated.

    Regarding the plugin’s built in contact form — when I went through the automatic update process, my entire site went down completely, both public-facing and admin a white screen. So I couldn’t use the plugin’s contact form.

    After FTPing to my server and disabling your plugin to bring the site back up, it couldn’t be re-activated due to the fatal error. So again, I could not access the contact form in the plugin.

    And when I came here to the support forms, saw that the issue was days old, the cause had been identified by another user, with a working fix, but the developer still hadn’t spoken up? I have to be honest. It just didn’t seem like reaching out directly would do much good at that point. Whereas leaving a review did, in fact, get a response.

    I truly hope you get a handle on maintaining this plugin. But in the meantime, is there a way for you to remove the current version? Because anyone who tries to install it now and gets a fatal error is probably never coming back to give it another try.

    Hi Dejan,

    if you would have had a look into the support-forum you would have seen, that you forgot to pack the new dependecy for freemius into the plugin.

    I really don ‘t understand why it weeks to fix such an obvious problem.

    Best Regards,
    Carsten

    Plugin Contributor Dejan Markovic

    (@dejanmarkovic)

    Hi @zota and @partyfrikadelle,

    I am really sorry for the inconvenience this release has caused. I have replied on your thread in the support forum a few minutes ago. Since I was not receiving any notifications from www.ads-software.com from support or even for this review …(I have found about it by checking the plugin page) I have created a new post where I describe how to get in touch. That post is available here.

    @zota I have fixed the plugin as soon as I could and we will be creating the public repository on Github where users will be able to contribute to the code and documentation too so we can all speed up the process. I have to do it a “Github way” in order to make sure the code quality.

    I would really appreciate if you can test the new release. If everything works I would really appreciate if you could update this review with the rating that plugin deserves.

    @partyfrikadelle Fix was not a big problem at all. Time was the problem and notifications (not receiving the notifications was a major problem).

    I am wishing you both a great day ahead.
    Dejan

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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