Project too young

  • As with some OS projects, there is very little contribution. There are more requests for support than there is support. The releases depend up-on the author. They are sporadic.

    Mind you, this plug-in has great promise! But so do most projects. If you want help from the author, you might be quoted “a full day job at $80 per hour.” You have to buy support tokens in advance. You might pay a lot for even the simplest support requests.

    I have enjoyed my installation. It was easy enough to install. After first installation, I have found that deactivating and reactivating clears up most errors. The stable version is stable enough. The Beta updated in Dec 2007 is unusable, I have found.

    I would recommend it if you have a previous knowledge of PHP. I have found phpMyAdmin useful to sort items, more useful than the plug-in’s capabilities itself.

    The gold edition is only worth buying if you want to use other sites than Paypal. I suggested to the author to come up with a new business model: a) clean up the stable version; b) create a platinum version where people would buy a fuller functional version at say $100. But the author would have to do more work on the stable version, offer more functionality. I think therein lies the problem.

    Either the author is not capable or does not have the time to more with his plug-in. His expensive approach to offering support might be indicative of many things.

    Again an excellent plug-in for a hacker to start with, but it is not user-ready for a newbie.

    https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • rowan

    (@rokwan)

    This isn’t even an open source project, right?

    I agree that it has promise, but it’s still at the frustrating state. That’s not the author’s fault; it’s just that the WordPress community as a whole hasn’t generated a good solution.

    If it’s any consolation, the Drupal and Joomla offerings even worse.

    Not the author’s fault?

    I respectfully beg to differ……..and I really hate to criticize others, especially those who give their time and expertise to create something useful to those not capable of producing it themselves, which includes the author(s) of the wp-commerce plugin.

    BUT, all that being said, what’s most frustrating about wp-commerce is that there ARE things within the author’s control and realm of responsibility that are NOT being addressed – which in my opinion are most definitely his fault – such as providing adequate documentation, fixing critical bugs, and responding to user’s requests for help with things the plugin SHOULD be doing but is not (and I’m not referring to every newbie’s plea for “please help – how do I install this?” type of request – those are a never-ending time-sponge and can be answered by following the basic set of instructions given). As it is, the plugin author does not respond to any support requests in either the WP Support Forum or his own forum – any answers given (which are rare) are generally from other users, and in quite a few cases are either quesses or work-arounds, not solutions. If the author would simply provide better documentation there would be far less need for support.

    You can, of course, purchase support, but I really think that’s an acceptable model only when the product is adequately documented and bug-free.

    But you’re absolutely right about it being at a frustrating state because it has SO much potential to be great, and yet it isn’t, with very little alternatives at the moment (and I’ve tried all of the shopping cart plugins I could find).

    One plugin on the horizon that I’m hoping will be a good alternative is Shopp – the developer started work on it out of frustration with wp-commerce and some of the other currently available options. If anyone is interested in beta testing or helping in some other way, check out his page.

    Two things.

    1/ WP e-Commerce 3.6.7 is about to be released with lots of fixes and a few new features including google checkout lv2 integration & USPS support. A hell of a lot of excellent developers have spend a lot of time optimizing this baby… its looking real good.

    2/ There is now a WP e-Commerce bible. More info on Shayne Suandersons site.

    Okay. Three things. Stick with WP e-Commerce!!! And read the WP e-Commerce forums… and if you want to Install WP e-Commerce it goes in the plugins directory – like all other plugins ??

    Ciao,

    Dan

    Even if possibly wp-ecommerce is one of the harder plugins for most average users to get up and running, the latest free version, 3.6.6(I’ve been using wp-ecommerce almost since it was released) is really amazing. The improvement level over the previous version is vast.It might be that because I’ve struggled along with it for a year that I freak out a little less if something goes wrong than a new user(who then comes here and starts a thread like this).
    You are getting something for free that can make you money.
    Give support. The more support and positive statements the more this essential plugin will advance.

    I like wp-ecommerce but I have to say, the complete lack of any documentation, install or readme literature in the download or on the author’s website is a source of much anguish.

    I paid for the grid display, and it didn’t come with a readme file. I asked the author how to install it via email, and he literally sent me a screenshot showing his server’s directory structure and said “If your files look like our files, you should be fine.” LOL. Followed these “instructions”, and, nope, it doesn’t display items as grid or allow me that option in my wp shop’s presentation settings area. Oy vey…

    And it’s not like I can legitimately bitch, either, after all…$15 is nearly free.

    WP e-Commerce Update

    WP e-Commerce 3.6.7 is ready for consumption and it is kicking butt. Last night we had hundreds of downloads, many positive emails, and one or two bug reports which we have already resolved.

    The WP e-Commerce Documentation is getting better, if your files are placed in the same location as described in our documentation (there is an image there too) then you will be okay. If not then it could be your server – if it is your server then we can help if you ask and provide us access, we cant fix your install by magic ??

    Documentation
    https://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/documentation/

    @mccormicky thanks for the positive feedback. I appreciate it.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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