[Answered] v1.4 upgrade issues - see constructive answer from PS at the end !

[rv01]

Hi all,
reading the forum is very scary, for a release -1.4- heavily advertised by Prestashop and having had numerous test versions.
I am very curious to read about a success story of a real shop, taking orders etc, with a customized template, and able to continue production after upgrading to 1.4.
Just to find someone having followed the advised procedure and getting it right.
If there is someone courageous and smart (or lucky) like that please give us the starting release and some infos.
Thanks
RV

[tisi]

I successfully updated my shop on local machine from 1.3.7 to 1.4, but 1.4 is too slow to go live on web hosting. Page loading takes 6 sec . I guess maybe dedicated hosting will help but I do not have that amount of profit right now from my shop to pay for it.
I would recommend back up everything, do upgrade on your local machine, test it and when transfer all new files and new database (presta 1.4 change some database files when updating) to hosting. In this case you can easily go back if something happened.

I'm going to wait few months for fixing all bugs and then try it again. If you have live shop what sells good, do not go to 1.4, stick with 1.3.7 for a while and then go for update; otherwise, you risk.

[cool cellphone case]

i get erros in modules tab, it is blank page and i can't see any module in the module page after upgrade to v1.4 !

[rv01]

Well, it seems there is nobody, nor successful nor happy: could it be true?!?

[hawaii350]

I just spent a bunch of time upgrading following directions carefully and my products are all blank in the front office, have not looked for other problems yet...unfortunately this is a live show so I will likely need to restore the back up.

[hawaii350]

Well luckily I found the problem. If you are using a custom theme and are having issues try toggling the Use Smarty 2 instead of 3 in backoffice>preferences. Goodluck!

[zoveress]

I have upgraded yesterday apart from the fact that the vouchers are not working for now I am happy. I also did apply a new theme on my shop. I have upgraded from 1.3.1.1 to 1.4.0.17

A couple of tips:

Set the friendly URL at Back Office->Preferences->SEO for all items. They were not set by default and if you switch to search engine friendly URLs none of these links will work.

Before upgrading try to build up a development environment on you home server, download the database and the files and do the upgrade locally. It is much faster, and once you are done just upload it all back to your production server. This way you can switch environments very quickly. Don't forget to edit the settings.inc.php to set the right folder for the shops location

Even though I had only English enabled as a language on my backend the imported did create 3 entries for each product in ps_product_lang like there was every other language enabled. Therefore I had to delete the additional languages completely. This is only a problem if you have custom scripts using this table.

I couldn't move the editoral.xml propely meaning I have copied it but the module never recognised it. I reinstalled the editoral module and added the text manually.

The manual says to move everything in the /img folder apart from the /img/admin. Now moving everything completely wrecked my store for some reason. Finally I have only moved the folder "p" and folder "c". p=product images, c=category images.

If you use paypal you will need to get an API key from paypal as the new paypal payments module requires that.

Finally the upgrade with all the testing, uploading, downloading, playing around took me around 8 hours. So make sure you have enough time to do this

[rv01]

Hi,
Thank you for this and congratulations.
Can you please add some info:
- is your site performance OK?
- your clients can and have ordered yet?
- Paypal money went trough with the new module?
- no problem with Google referencing? I mean: same positioning after the upgrade?
- stats and data about your clients and products are ok?
- orders, invoices, emails... all OK?
- can we see your shop?
Best,
RV

PS:
I use 3.0 and I have just a light customized theme, nothing fancy.
I was thinking of upgrading before installing a heavily modified theme.
Will try to upgrade as well and report.

[zoveress]

Hi,

Yes site performance is OK. Even though I am not using the category module at all! That is usually the one that loads very slow.
No orders since, I have tested paypal and hipay it should all be OK as far as I can tell.

No changes on google positioning.

Stats, products, categories, and customer data has been migrated properly.

The site's address:

www.megaperfumeshop.com

Hi,
Thank you for this and congratulations.
Can you please add some info:
- is your site performance OK?
- your clients can and have ordered yet?
- Paypal money went trough with the new module?
- no problem with Google referencing? I mean: same positioning after the upgrade?
- stats and data about your clients and products are ok?
- orders, invoices, emails... all OK?
- can we see your shop?
Best,
RV

PS:
I use 3.0 and I have just a light customized theme, nothing fancy.
I was thinking of upgrading before installing a heavily modified theme.
Will try to upgrade as well and report.

[rv01]

I tried myself, from 3.0 to latest 4:
Upgrade done locally (Mac-Mamp) from scratch to finish in one hour, not bad.

It works more or less, BUT, just a few quick ones:

Editorial module does not work (that's obviously the first thing you see). This even if I re-install it.
"Add to basket" works but you don't see it unless you click on your basket.
The categories are not coming in the same order. You have to re-sort them.
IT IS DESPERATELY SLOW, SLOW, SLOW for the front office, it takes 6+ sec to get any page, locally on a very good Mac, imagine this will lead to 25 sec load time on the Internet.
The zoom on image does not show anything. I even tried to re-generate the images.
Fidelity points are multiplied by 10?!? That's not funny at all

Verdict so far: USELESS, shame.
-------------------------------------

[rv01]

As it is clearly impossible to migrate without heavy development and debugging, and as it is like that for every single release of PS, maybe I should consider to migrate to another cart.

Anyone ever tried Magento or another, using a tool to migrate (c2c) or hiring a pro?

[johnmoore84]

Hi, since there such bad posts about v1.4 I though I would tell you my experience. I was using v1.2.5 and wanted to upgrade to 4.1.

Anyway after alot of problems I managed to get some help off someone on this forium and now my shop is 100% working with no problems. The only thing I cant do is install my original theme as it is not compatable so I am using the stanard 1.4 theme.

I also dont have the offline credit card module on all though I no there is a version out that works but paypal seems to be doing the job.

There were a few bugs but nothing that cant be sorted out.

seasrch stakehill nurseries on google to see my site if you want to get an idea of what it looks like and how it preforms..

[Guest]

Not happy at all, after 5 hours of trying to get the latest stable to work, I had to go back to 1.2.5.0

Just bunch of mysql errors on upgrade and then autoload could not load pages. Bleebing joke, even the installation says something "You dont need to worry about that you haven't updated other major version" Would have loved to do that, but as working as freelancer I had not this option as new client who I did module development and had the upgrade in contract. Which I have to keep obviously. Cant go saying, I have the module here, you were pleased for it. But at the moment I cannot continue with the upgrades. Would not be a problem but client actually waited the 1.4 to be released.

#UPDATE

Got the 1.4 working today, still does not change my feelings for the whole progress. On each click I was afraid what will happen next.

[nikmagnus]

I have just got my PS1.4 shop working on a localhost (MAMP), almost ready to go live.

I started designing the site in 1.3.6, and started porting it over to 1.4.0.3 as soon as it came out.
I found that the upgrades of Smarty made it a quite different version, so in the end I did my custom theme from scratch.
The homepage edits are stored in a different place so that's why it doesnt upgrade.

After updating the beta periodically with the beta 2 through beta 5, and then finally 1.4RC1 (1.4.0.17!) i found that I had a slow slow beast. Again, I started from scratch. I came accross a few difficulties regarding shipping, but all in all it seems to be working and should go live in a day or so.

Summary: if you want to use PS 1.4, start from scratch. In the back end, it's a big upgrade.

[dr_dre]

I tried several scenarios with my test environment but non of them im happy with. Several sql failures and too many back office problems.
Ive got speed problems aswell atm and i cant tweak them to a suitable level.

im holding back until 1.4.1 .

Cheers,

Dre

[rv01]

We still would like to see ONE production site in 1.4 (upgraded) and have the chance to look at it,
especially the performance etc...
I know by experience that as long as you do not have real customers it looks easy.
Then you begin to manage your shop for real, and discover the BO and its shortcomings,
then you buy addons, you correct bugs...
and eventually you house into a release that you cannot leave anymore, because an upgrade is impossible.
Not even speaking of the template/theme, a case in itself.
Weird hey? Was that meant to be?

[petek]

We still would like to see ONE production site in 1.4 (upgraded) and have the chance to look at it,
especially the performance etc...
I know by experience that as long as you do not have real customers it looks easy.
Then you begin to manage your shop for real, and discover the BO and its shortcomings,
then you buy addons, you correct bugs...
and eventually you house into a release that you cannot leave anymore, because an upgrade is impossible.
Not even speaking of the template/theme, a case in itself.
Weird hey? Was that meant to be?

A poster above gave us the url of his production site here. I've had a look and the site appears to be slow to me. I'm using 1.3.3 with a slightly modified Prestashop theme so I should be ok to upgrade but I'm not looking forward to it. 1.3.3 works fine so why fix something that aint broken ?

[rv01]

I agree with you, it is very slow and an image is missing on the front page (I use Chrome on a Mac).

The reason to upgrade is the many new features in the BO.

I have seen that the MAJOR problem about performance is coming from the use of a previous THEME.
If you just use the standard theme speed is fine.

So: Better to start from scratch for your theme when updating.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[petek]

I agree with you, it is very slow and an image is missing on the front page (I use Chrome on a Mac).

The reason to upgrade is the many new features in the BO.

I have seen that the MAJOR problem about performance is coming from the use of a previous THEME.
If you just use the standard theme speed is fine.

So: Better to start from scratch for your theme when updating.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

No, I'm staying put even tho' I use the standard theme. I've had a look on the French side of the forum and they're all screaming over there, sites slow or broken, modules that don't work anymore, impossible to change certain criteria in the back-office, the list is long ! The consensus is that if you are fortunate enough to have not upgraded, don't do anything until the next version comes out. The Prestashop people are completely vacant (what a difference when you compare them to the folks at Zen Cart !) so I imagine they're all working on fixing their software.

Sitting tight....

[Guest]

Have to contribute bit more to topic

Ok, so I got the upgrade done. And all my custom modules working, this is great. Just moment ago got a call from my client. No product names, group names nor category names are shown at back office. They show if you edit them. But not in the catalog listing as example.

The page speed is good, set up all caches and smarty compiles etc. So no worries with it. If the smarty compile is in "development" mode. The page will be slow as h**l to say it nicely. But that is obvious thing.

# UPDATE to this also

Aaaaaaah.. *beeeeb*.. cannot increase stock any more, the dropdown is filled with increase/decrease values.. but all of the decrease only. And if no selection is done, will get fatal error on save.

I believe this list will go on and on.. and on.... oh yeah, on and on

If you are planning to use Prestashop as a new user. I recommend it from my heart. I like to use it and many people who I have met like to use it.

[rv01]

OK, I surrender, staying put as well and waiting till "1.4.next" comes out.
Anyone having a clue of what the plans are about that?

They are really impolite, these developers (no sound, no image) are just letting us down.
Anyway, they have enough to chew on, like would say my dog if ever they read the forum or care.

[petek]

OK, I surrender, staying put as well and waiting till "1.4.next" comes out.
Anyone having a clue of what the plans are about that?

They are really impolite, these developers (no sound, no image) are just letting us down.
Anyway, they have enough to chew on, like would say my dog if ever they read the forum or care.

Actually, to be fair, I reckon that if you use the standard theme and ensure that all your custom modules have been properly updated, you shouldn't have a problem. I would like to hear from satisfied users who have gone down this route. My other experience with CMS is with Zen Cart and they say that following a major release, you should wait several months before updating so as to allow the developers time to update their themes and modules. Prestashop is probably just the same.

[bighenry]

I was dreading an upgrade but thought I would give it a go.

Everything seemed to go fine except for 6 Sql errors

I used the standard theme and no 3rd party mods

but the mods that came with it were not working properly
stats/cart/customer info/slow etc

it seems the problems are with the data base when upgrading for

I have also done a clean install on another site and it is 100% ok or so it seems

a full day out of my life including including a re install of my old site

I like the new version but can not afford the down time trying to fix the problems as my old site

is now finally being found and beginning to make money plus I have no problems with it

BigHenry
1.3.1

[petek]

I was dreading an upgrade but thought I would give it a go.

Everything seemed to go fine except for 6 Sql errors

I used the standard theme and no 3rd party mods

but the mods that came with it were not working properly
stats/cart/customer info/slow etc

it seems the problems are with the data base when upgrading for

I have also done a clean install on another site and it is 100% ok or so it seems

a full day out of my life including including a re install of my old site

I like the new version but can not afford the down time trying to fix the problems as my old site

is now finally being found and beginning to make money plus I have no problems with it

BigHenry
1.3.1

And here's me thinking I could get away with upgrading using the standard theme. Oh well, better stick with 1.3.3 for now.

[Mallee Boy]

You know, I really love prestashop, but I have never enjoyed upgrading. It feels like your sitting on a time bomb through the whole process. I am running 1.3.3 and would love to upgrade but it all sounds very disappointing.

Henry is right to stay where he is. When the forums start filling up with, "wow, just upgraded without a hitch, great release, even accepted my customised theme without any problems...", then I will upgrade.

No way am I willing to risk losing customers and money while hacking away at a new release that takes my shop down for so long while I fix bug after buggy bug.

[Mallee Boy]

Hi,

Yes site performance is OK. Even though I am not using the category module at all! That is usually the one that loads very slow.
No orders since, I have tested paypal and hipay it should all be OK as far as I can tell.

No changes on google positioning.

Stats, products, categories, and customer data has been migrated properly.

The site's address:

www.megaperfumeshop.com

From iwebtool speed test.

www.megaperfumeshop.com: Size: 97.5 KB - Load Time: 8.48 seconds - Average Speed per KB: 0.09 seconds (on ps1.4)

www.gamesfromeverywhere.com.au: Size: 41.51 KB - Load Time: 2.64 seconds - Average Speed per KB: 0.06 seconds (on ps 1.3.3)

[rv01]

Hi David,
Thanks for the iwebtool , I did not know them.
As I said, the speed problems lie in the theme, if you start with the new theme and re-customize: less problem.
Anyway, I wait the 1.4.1 and comments from the first explorers
... if there is someone within PS of course.
RV

[Mallee Boy]

Its true, the test I did showed that all the delays were from theme files when loading the site. However, starting from scratch on account of the theme and with every upgrade is not exactly an attractive option. I am with you. Will wait till the dust settles.

[jfriday]

I'm going to have to give a negative here as well. I'm having huge problems resolving a checkout issue (carriers won't show up, even on clean install from 1.3.1 database). Otherwise it's been ok - no BO issues thus far.

Oh, and on the positive side I'm getting <3 sec page loads on a heavily modified heavy-graphics theme. I am not sure why my installation would be quick when everyone else's is so slow...

[tomerg3]

You know, I really love prestashop, but I have never enjoyed upgrading. It feels like your sitting on a time bomb through the whole process. I am running 1.3.3 and would love to upgrade but it all sounds very disappointing.

Henry is right to stay where he is. When the forums start filling up with, "wow, just upgraded without a hitch, great release, even accepted my customised theme without any problems...", then I will upgrade.

No way am I willing to risk losing customers and money while hacking away at a new release that takes my shop down for so long while I fix bug after buggy bug.

The way to do a proper upgrade is to do it on a test site first.

Copy your existing site to a subfolder (copy the DB as well and make all the other changes), then you can safely upgrade the test site, and see what is working and what is not, and try to fix any open issues.

Once you have tested all the features (orders, adding products etc..) you can upgrade the live shop.

I have upgraded my shop http://www.presto-changeo.com/ to 1.4 (from 1.2.5) about 2 weeks ago, and upgraded my theme a week ago.

I had a few issues that required special handling, but overall I am very happy with 1.4

[Mallee Boy]

Friday, tha tis good to here.

Tomo, Yes, I would always do my installation on a test server first. The problem is really the time taken in tweaking and cleaning up and getting it all working.

Lets hope things continue to improve and we hear good feedback.

[cbjarnson]

This upgrade has been a nightmare. I know people will say just revert to 1.3, but I am in the inbetween state, having spent the last week trying to get my stores working again, and the frustration of having to revert and loose all of that work. I don't understand that if something is suppose to be stable it should be stable. Loosing a ton of sales has been frustrating as well.

I love prestashop and think it is great but the new version has broken all of my shipping and taxes. I have looked at forum after forum on this. I have looked at forum after forum on shipping. What makes this harder is even if using previous configuration that I had in 1.3 shipping options would randomly show up. Using the USPS module, random shipping options would show up. Bought presto changeos usps module and still not working. Taxes sometimes show for my state and sometimes dont. Upset that we have been spending all of this time and money on just getting the shipping and taxes working again (among many other errors). Shipping and taxes should be basic things. All the bells and whistles can't make up if customers can't place orders.

Cant really think of jumping ship from prestashop since we have spent so much time and money on modules, themes, etc.

I guess I just needed to vent.

P.S. I know that shipping options show up for different weights and locations and so do taxes. When I say randomly show up it means two separate computers can place the exact same order for the exact same products to the exact or in the same city address and the shipping and tax options can be completely different.

[cool cellphone case]

feel the same lol,

[beatngu]

Well im glad that im not the only one thinking ps 1.4 should never been released yet.
To be honest i had verry little problems with 1.3.7 but after the update the bugs came flying inn.

1 week later after my update im still fixing bugs and still have a damn long way to go.
And considering all the GREAT help you get in here then i should be fixing bugs the rest of the year.

So my feedback about ps 1.4 stay away its not worth all the problems!!

[EQ10000]

Thanks David for the tools... I setup two versions with sample data in my box.

ps1.4.1.0 with sample (added on 2011-4-23)
29.59 KB 8.17 seconds 0.28 seconds (added on 2011-4-23)
29.59 KB 8.22 seconds 0.28 seconds (added on 2011-4-23)
ps1.4.0.17 with sample
29.18KB 12.38 seconds 0.42 seconds
25.58 KB 10.43 seconds 0.41 seconds (added on 2011-4-23)
ps1.3.7.0 with sample
21.86KB 3.56 seconds 0.16 seconds
21.86 KB 9.44 seconds 0.43 seconds (added on 2011-4-23)

So, hold my upgrade...

And find a way on researching what is going on and tried to tune it and share those ways.

And I hope to see the 1.4.0.18 this week, three weeks after official 1.4

Could we have beta at least... please!

[cbjarnson]

Prestashop should remove 1.4 from stable, to a release candidate. This version has way to many errors and has taken up so much of my time trying to get things working again. Is very misleading about its state.

[cbjarnson]

looking at bug report comments by the staff it looks like they are going to release an upgrade at the end of this month (April). I hope this is not true! So long to wait.

[rv01]

Prestashop should come now with 1.4.1 as the correct(ed) version,
then work on a efficient upgrade policy and fast bug solving (no more upgrades until they respect their users).

[edrad80]

I cannot believe all the problems I am encountering. I have build 6 shops over the last year using the old version and all are working fine. WTF is going on here, why was this even released????

when i add a sub category all the products from the category above stops showuing on the site, delete the sub cat and they are back!!!! this is just one issue, import not working either

still cannot see the list of categories in the backend when editing a product.

[rv01]

I saw a message on the French forum, official from Prestashop (M. Foletete):

.quote:
Cette version a vu le jour une fois stabilisée, nous avons effectivement de nombreuses remontés de bugs cependant la plus part concernent des problèmes de configuration, mise à jour, … ou des bugs mineurs, très mineurs.

Je tiens à vous faire remarquer également que contrairement aux versions précédentes nous avons beaucoup travaillé afin de rendre plus “facile” le passage à une version 1.4: ....
Nous préparons, actuellement, activement la version 1.4.1 qui intégrera de nombreuses corrections de bugs mineurs.
.unquote

So, they consider all the bugs as "VERY minors", that's calling us idiots !!!
On top of it he says that this specific release 1.4 is designed to ease the upgrades... well done!

What to expect next?
Very disappointed
RV

[Nebojsa Stojanovic]

Hi,

we are doing our best in order to solve all the problems you can encounter during upgrades.
We hope that everything we'll be ok in the next release. Install are OK but we still have some problems on the upgrades and we apologize.

Can you please report all your bugs you have on our issue tracker with upgrade TAG, 3 members of the team are actually working on all this issues, that are very important for us.

For the moment we are working on 3 major bugs, and 8 other are in progress all other have been solved and you can get it on SVN repository, you can see all our work here :

http://forge.prestashop.com/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa

If you have some other bugs, please post it, and don't worry, every issue is important for US.

Best regards

Nebojsa STOJANOVIC
CTO @ PrestaShop

[rv01]

THANK YOU Nebojsa,
this answer can make us waiting and staying with PS.
Saying "minor bugs" was just adding insult to injury.
Just an acknowledge for the mistakes, no need for "sorry" but a bit of positive communication, that's all folks.
Waiting the 1.4.1 to go forward!
Cheers,
Rene

[curtdonohue]

cbjarnson,

I put together a video tutorial on setting up taxes in version 1.4.0.17 and I've managed to get at least the tax side working. You can find the tutorial at http://www.prestatraining.com/set-up-taxes-in-prestashop-v1-4/.

I'm not sure if there is a flaw with the shipping code beyond that. Let me know if the tutorial works for your issue.

[EQ10000]

...
For the moment we are working on 3 major bugs, and 8 other are in progress all other have been solved and you can get it on SVN repository,
...
Nebojsa STOJANOVIC
CTO @ PrestaShop

I tried to look for some instructions on steps to install SVN. e.g.
1. rename install-dev to install
2. rename admin-dev to admin (maybe not)
...
Before SVN update
1. rename install to install-dev
2. rename admin to admin-dev
...
Is there a wiki or a thread about the way? please let us have more information. We would like to try on testing before 1.4.1

[a_smith]

you don't need to rename anything. simple do install svn client on your server (i.e. http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html), create svn repository folder, download current svn content, go to yourdomain.com/yoursvnfolder/install-dev and you will see an installation page. and after you install you can go to yourdomain.com/yoursvnfolder/admin-dev and log into the BO

[riga]

I have installed new V1.4 cause upgrade from 1.3 to 1.4.... was not sucessfull...
So the Version instaled is "STABLE" (from the PS point of view)

It seems yes, exepting that the client can not pay.....
Paypal module is not working (even if i allow only payment from paypal account )

And as it seems that PS made new agreement with moneybooker, all the problem with paypal will be never solved...

So quick advice :

1 : if you consider that stable is to do not get trouble with client as they can not buy, the PS 1.4 is for you
2 : if you consider that a stable version is a non working version, then PS1.4 is for you.
3 : if you are not expecting any help from de PS Team, then prestashop is for you.
4 : if you like to pay for addons which has to be basically included, then Prestashop is for you
5 : If you like the french cars, you will like prestashop : before to own it, all looks great. but after you just discover that it's rubish

[cbjarnson]

So is it safe to install the svn?
There are warnings about using it.
If it is more stable than the current version, shouldn't the same warnings be on the current version?

First Question is a legitimate concern.

[a_smith]

svn i always svn and not a stable release. and svn version (as I believe) have some debug feature embedded as well. svn is not suitable to install it and to treat as the base for the production website.

[Bruno Leveque]

Hi,

I agree with you, don't use SVN versions in production mode or you may encounter weird issues.

However, SVN versions are including several bug fixes, and we will provide nightly builds soon (.zip file downloadable).

We will try to integrate unit tests for these releases in order to check if the major features are working correctly (cart, checkout, product page...).

Regards,

[alvarengarichard]

Having a serious problem with my Prestashop.

I upgraded from 1.3.1 using the installation instructions, and I followed them very carefully. The upgrade appeared to have been run successfully and the www.domain.com/install tool told me that the database changes were made and the upgrade went successfully as well.

So after deleting the readme and install files (per instructions on the guide) my site is completely down...does anyone know the reason for this? I don't see why this was happen as I use very few modules, and the theme is almost completely default.

Anyone have suggestions?

[Bella]

I had a "happy and successful" upgrade to ver 1.4.0.17 from 1.3.1.1. Sure, it was nerve-wracking and took time, and sure I had a few ID10T errors (i.e., operator error on my part because either I did not understand the directions clearly or I did not follow them to the letter). But when I followed the directions to the letter, everything installed okay.

And, as with any program on a website, there are minor issues to work out, usually involving configuration of modules, your theme, et cetera. Obviously, if you install it on localhost (test/sandbox environment) you can work out most of the issues before going "live" which cuts down on the stress and crankiness quite a bit.

I want to stress that this is not limited to PrestaShop - I have several programs that I pay quite a bit of money for that *always* have minor issues after installation (and upgrades) as well. The developers work their fannies off to make these programs for us to use, and they do the best they can before releasing it to us. But there will naturally be some bugs to work out - there always, always are - for any software like this, free or paid.

But I want to give my heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to everyone on the PrestaShop team for all of the incredible work they do - for FREE! This is something one cannot lose sight of- after manually uploading all of the files, it becomes obvious how much work it truly takes to get this program together. So I wanted to express my acknowledgement for what is clearly, most of the time, a thankless job - except this day:
THANK YOU, PrestaTeam!!

[BigZ]

don't get so foolish - they don't do it for free...
any way i'm kinda pissed of by prestashop's upgrade policy : they release versions way before they are stable ! 1.4.0.17 wasn't, as they released a new version one month after... and this new one is not much more of a stability monster !

Please, stop trying to get all the newbies happy with one new version every month, this is just killing the business, big websites will prefer something way more reliable than something that get hundres of bugfixes and new features every month ! you will end with only crappy websites using your solution !!

non speaking about the business model and the non-availabilty of efficient free modules : even the ones you have to pay for are crappy. FUCK ! where is the community ?

[Bella]

Oh, maybe I am the only one who didn't pay for PrestaShop?

[BigZ]

i guess you got me, sorry for the ruff talk.
What i meant is that it is kinda specific to prestashop; mostly because of their one-new-version-every-month policy wich i blame here; and that this is clearly a commercialy-oriented strategy.

the community feeling here is very weak and that point is, i think, one of the reasons that keep developpers away from this board.

[rv01]

Simply said, Prestashop is free for the core software.
Then you have to pay them for quite expensive modules and a theme to run a professional shop.
Keeping a very low profile you house eventually spending a fair amount.
That said if you are handy in IT, its cheap, say around a 1,000 €.
But if you compute the time needed to modify, tune, upgrade (!) and solve kind of bugs... then it is very expensive.
Cheers,
RV

[jhnstcks]

My upgrade went fine from 1.3.6 to 1.4.0 and now 1.4.1, but then i have a decent host, not some large company like hostgator or godaddy that use over-populated servers and suspend your account if you have 2 spiders on the site at the same time and treat you like cattle, not a business. Havent tested the speed of the site but its http://www.snowboarding-goggles.co.uk have a go yourself.

Please, stop trying to get all the newbies happy with one new version every month, this is just killing the business, big websites will prefer something way more reliable than something that get hundres of bugfixes and new features every month ! you will end with only crappy websites using your solution !!

Comments like this make me chuckle, on one side you have people shouting out for the stable release, oh theres too many alpha or beta versions, when the new release ready for products blah blah blah.

And then theres people like you BigZ who moan when they release a "stable" version which has bugs.

Its the same as new upgrades for bits of code, like smarty, jquery. People virtually demand that Prestashop be upgraded to these newer, better codes. But when it happens other people moan because their themes/modules don't work anymore.

Which group should they keep happy?

The problem is there are not enough testers for the alpha and beta versions, so not all the bugs are found during that testing phase. Yes there was some stupid little bugs that shouldnt have been in there, like the cms friendly url error.

If people are stupid enough to jump right in and try to upgrade their site without a decent backup or testing the new version on WAMP and a live server, then more fool them. A backup isnt a backup unless it works, otherwise its just a bunch of useless files.

Then you have to pay them for quite expensive modules and a theme to run a professional shop.

I didnt pay for any expensive themes or modules, i think the only one i paid for was tomerg3's url redirection module and an advanced homefeatured module that let me change content to newproducts, specials etc neither of which were expensive in my opinion.

[Lem]

I went from 1.3.1 to 1.4 without too much grief. - > www.nimuyarns.co.uk
I had a problem with virtual products on 1.3.1 and we'd just started selling PDF patterns as well so jumped to 1.4 soon after release. Only bad bug is that pagination in new-products.php isn't working for me, clicking on page 2 or next fails.

Not a deal breaker as I just removed my new products link and having virtual products working more than makes up for it. Will probably up to 1.4.1 later this week.

[davers44]

I'm setting up my new shop and honestly I'm scared of what hear about 1.4 stability. Do you consider the new 1.4.1 ok now or should I better start my shop with 1.3.7 and forget about 1.4 for the moment?

[werepair]

to be honest mate i had less issues when using 1.3.7, although 1.4 will give your more options in the BO, do you need them ?, i am stuck on 1.4.0.17 at the moment, i still have quite a few bugs to try and solve so i am not going to upgrade any further , is it worth the hassle and from what i have read 1.4.1 is still pretty buggy so an upgrade for me is out of the question. Google checkout does not work with 1.4 even though they state they have fixed the bug, this is still a bug on our site and i have hired 2 freelancers and they have failed to fix it, google checkout was our main payment on our site now we are stuck with using paypal, if the bugs cant be fixed then i will be moving away from prestashop. also with 1.4.1 it drags the arse out of your server so make sure you have a good one.

[tomerg3]

I'm setting up my new shop and honestly I'm scared of what hear about 1.4 stability. Do you consider the new 1.4.1 ok now or should I better start my shop with 1.3.7 and forget about 1.4 for the moment?

If you are starting a new shop, definitely go with 1.4 (most of the bugs were related to upgrades)

[rlwelch4646]

As a new user of PrestaShop I have to say the experience has been extremely difficult. From a business standpoint, how can PS release something this bad and believe they can keep up user retention numbers? The thing that really bothers me is the general lack of support. I have sent messages and bug requests with not even an acknowledgement that they are working on any of the issues. If they want to run a sustainable business their customer support can't be composed of strangers asking each other for assistance and countless Google searches trying to find help.

You market your product as a CMS that is readily available and easy to use and it's neither of those things. I can understand users of previous versions understanding that this is just the cycle of new releases (i.e. bugs are fixed, etc.) but for a new user deciding on which CMS to use I am at an impasse and how can I support and use a product such as this?

All of my frustration stems from a small error I've encountered on day 2 of my development and I'm at a standstill because of it. Product images! Why can I not upload freakin' product images. Such a simple action should not have stopped my shop development since it is one of the most crucial elements! And as such, should not have been broken upon release of the latest build. For the past week I am scouring forums from the past 2 years, trying countless attempts to fix the system, and asking people I don't know for help. Is this the business model PS wants to be built upon?

I would have probably purchased various modules or themes by this point and been well on my way to e-commerce bliss but now PS and I are in a lose-lose situation because I'm not making any money to give to them (and their partners) for upgrades to my shop. It's a partnership that is built, PrestaShop, and this is what you have failed to realize. Now some may call me naive because I am new to the PS community and CMS, but I am one of their target demographics as I am a novice developer/private business owner looking to expand his web presence and in need a viable CMS.

This is what frustrates me the most because as a business owner I understand the importance of customer support and branding and these people have utterly failed. All of this could have been avoided by sending a simple boilerplate email saying we're working on it buddy- stay tuned or, God forbid, releasing a product that's not broken. But I'm left here looking through code so I can f***ing upload a damn image of a product.

[tomerg3]

Did you create a thread with full description of your problem? If so, what's the link to it?

[Canarias]

I have also many problems after upgrade to 1.4.1.
I can not back to an older version because the backups don't work
It is not possible to place an order in the shop for my cutomers
The layout is mostly empty
I have many orders every day, and i lose now many customers in a day
Please help
Thanks
Eddy

[tomerg3]

I know there is a new support for upgrade provided by Prestashop, although I'm not sure about the email / phone number.

I'm sorry to say this, but you are the only one to blame here, as one should never try to upgrade a live site without first trying it on a test copy of the site, once you are confident the test site is fully functional, you can upgrade your live site.
Also, after creating a backup of your site, the first thing to do it make sure you know how to restore the back, or it's useless....

Any proper developer knows this, and anyone who doesn't ends up learning the hard way.

You other option is to try and hire a developer to help you get things back on track, as it's a pressing matter, you can post in the jobs section.

[rlwelch4646]

I'm shocked that a member of the PrestaShop team would criticize one of their users like that.

Was he blaming you for him updating his shop? He was pleading for help and your help was in the form of a critique of his web development process.

Good lord, seriously? Do PS a favor and take your Presta team member designation off if you're going to continue to criticize people trying to use your product.

I know there is a new support for upgrade provided by Prestashop, although I'm not sure about the email / phone number.

I'm sorry to say this, but you are the only one to blame here, as one should never try to upgrade a live site without first trying it on a test copy of the site, once you are confident the test site is fully functional, you can upgrade your live site.
Also, after creating a backup of your site, the first thing to do it make sure you know how to restore the back, or it's useless....

Any proper developer knows this, and anyone who doesn't ends up learning the hard way.

You other option is to try and hire a developer to help you get things back on track, as it's a pressing matter, you can post in the jobs section.

[tomerg3]

I am not a member of the PS team, but just a devoted moderator and a constant supporter of the furom (It shows Prestateam since it was the only way to give a moderator ban permissions, and the forum has been crawling with spammers lately posting 50+ message at times).

I'm sorry if you feel my response was out of place, I'm not sure why (there was nothing mean-spirited about it), as I offered 2 ways he can go about getting help (since posting in this thread will not get him any help), as that is the most important thing right now.

I did criticize the steps he took, as this is unfortunately more common than it should, and hopefully anyone else who is reading this post will be able to learn from those mistakes.

[rlwelch4646]

I don't wish to dwell on this but this is a perfect example of the type of support, or lack there of, that us users are getting from PS or whoever deemed a "spokesperson" of their service. Your response was:
a) Contact someone from PS [this is extremely helpful]
Contact a web developer [probably would have done this from the onset if he wanted or could afford]

Your help was useless to him. What I'm saying is that your "support" as a devoted moderator is exactly the type of help we've been getting from PS. You epitomize their customer support so I applaud you!

All I saw was someone more willing to bash someone than to help him- hence, my reaction.

Please help us by providing concrete assistance. Tell him, "Thank you for your feedback, I'm letting the developers know the issues you're facing and we'll do our best to assist you." These aren't figments of our imaginations, these are issues with PrestaShop and we're trying our best to get them resolved, regardless of our expertise in web development. Like I've said in a previous post, this is a lose-lose situation for PS and your users and our feedback and frustration is justified. I'm hoping PS is using this feedback as an example of how not to handle future releases because this tarnishes their reputation and retention.

Sir or madam, all we ask is that you do what you can to assist us and if you can't, don't criticize us or downplay our frustrations. This may just be a passing hobby for you, moderating that is, but this is our livelihoods whether that be as a developer or as a small business owner. You are belittling that and PS via their actions, or inactions, and general apathy is as well.

I am not a member of the PS team, but just a devoted moderator and a constant supporter of the furom (It shows Prestateam since it was the only way to give a moderator ban permissions, and the forum has been crawling with spammers lately posting 50+ message at times).

I'm sorry if you feel my response was out of place, I'm not sure why (there was nothing mean-spirited about it), as I offered 2 ways he can go about getting help (since posting in this thread will not get him any help), as that is the most important thing right now.

I did criticize the steps he took, as this is unfortunately more common than it should, and hopefully anyone else who is reading this post will be able to learn from those mistakes.

[tomerg3]

You should do some research before posting.

I have over 3000 posts and along with Rocky (another moderator) have helped hundreds of users in this forum at my own time.

When someone asks a specific question, I try to help, if there were more people from the PS community that would invest some of their time in supporting this forum, I'm sure you and other will get faster answers.

In this particular case, the user did not post any questions, or even the problem he's having, and my answer was as general as the question.

If someone is losing money everyday because the site is down (trust me, I know how frustrating that can be, and when I get contacted by a person in that situation for help, I usually try to make it a top priority), the best thing is to get it back up ASAP, and the best way to do that is to hire a good developer.

[jhnstcks]

If you pm me some ftp and admin login details i will have a look for you and see what I can do.

Where is the original post of your problem as I must have missed it.

As a new user of PrestaShop I have to say the experience has been extremely difficult. From a business standpoint, how can PS release something this bad and believe they can keep up user retention numbers? The thing that really bothers me is the general lack of support. I have sent messages and bug requests with not even an acknowledgement that they are working on any of the issues. If they want to run a sustainable business their customer support can't be composed of strangers asking each other for assistance and countless Google searches trying to find help.

You market your product as a CMS that is readily available and easy to use and it's neither of those things. I can understand users of previous versions understanding that this is just the cycle of new releases (i.e. bugs are fixed, etc.) but for a new user deciding on which CMS to use I am at an impasse and how can I support and use a product such as this?

All of my frustration stems from a small error I've encountered on day 2 of my development and I'm at a standstill because of it. Product images! Why can I not upload freakin' product images. Such a simple action should not have stopped my shop development since it is one of the most crucial elements! And as such, should not have been broken upon release of the latest build. For the past week I am scouring forums from the past 2 years, trying countless attempts to fix the system, and asking people I don't know for help. Is this the business model PS wants to be built upon?

I would have probably purchased various modules or themes by this point and been well on my way to e-commerce bliss but now PS and I are in a lose-lose situation because I'm not making any money to give to them (and their partners) for upgrades to my shop. It's a partnership that is built, PrestaShop, and this is what you have failed to realize. Now some may call me naive because I am new to the PS community and CMS, but I am one of their target demographics as I am a novice developer/private business owner looking to expand his web presence and in need a viable CMS.

This is what frustrates me the most because as a business owner I understand the importance of customer support and branding and these people have utterly failed. All of this could have been avoided by sending a simple boilerplate email saying we're working on it buddy- stay tuned or, God forbid, releasing a product that's not broken. But I'm left here looking through code so I can f***ing upload a damn image of a product.

[rlwelch4646]

Again, with the loaded response/critique. Listen, why should I have to research your posting history before I make a remark about your response. That's ridiculous. If you have to be so defensive about your actions then you shouldn't be a moderator, especially in circumstances such as this.

You say if someone asks a question you're extremely helpful, but this sorry sap forgot to post in the form of a question so he got a critique instead. The fact remains that the way you speak to people resonates with the rest of us and tarnishes the PS brand. That was my point and you're only reinforcing it by continuing this conversation.

The forum topic is about this very issue and you are just perpetuating our frustrations tomerg3. Your colleague has kindly asked me to send a PM regarding my issue. If you had approached the other person's issue the same way he is this would have been a nonexistent issue. But, you chose to put your pride in front of your duty as a moderator and lecture the man on how he is not in the elite web development circle and should be testing before putting it live... DUH! Your response of him getting web development help was just icing on the cake. I thank you for raising the issue of his web development prowess for us to discuss.

It's not the fact that many of us are not happy with the new updated PS, it's not the fact that we are ignored daily by members of the PS staff, it's not the fact that many of us, regardless of our developmental process, are left twiddling our thumbs while potential business opportunities go to waste because of PS's inability to make a functional product, no it's none of these things.

Sir, that fact remains that we are frustrated and PS should be too because our loss is as much theirs because it is a symbiotic relationship. If we suffer, so do they and so do you. Your remarks are salt on the wounds. If you want to help, as you've stated you've done many, many times in the past (I should have done my research.. sorry), implore your friends at PS to help... oh and even better! Since you're an expert on coding why don't you leave this topic and work out some of the bugs. You are the web development expert are you not?

You should do some research before posting.

I have over 3000 posts and along with Rocky (another moderator) have helped hundreds of users in this forum at my own time.

When someone asks a specific question, I try to help, if there were more people from the PS community that would invest some of their time in supporting this forum, I'm sure you and other will get faster answers.

In this particular case, the user did not post any questions, or even the problem he's having, and my answer was as general as the question.

If someone is losing money everyday because the site is down (trust me, I know how frustrating that can be, and when I get contacted by a person in that situation for help, I usually try to make it a top priority), the best thing is to get it back up ASAP, and the best way to do that is to hire a good developer.

[tomerg3]

I have tried to get my point across, but you seem to miss it.

A moderator is here to moderate the forum (remove spam, and make sure people are posting in the right place, use proper language etc..).

It is not my job to help anyone, but something I try to do to help the community, as I once was a PS beginner looking for help in the forum.

I try to spend at least an hour a day, but surely you can understand that I cannot help everyone.

Anyway, this is my last response here.

P.S
I have looked at all your posts, and did not see even 1 detailing the problem you had properly, I responded to one of those places asking you to post more info so we can help.

[jhnstcks]

I have also many problems after upgrade to 1.4.1.
I can not back to an older version because the backups don't work
It is not possible to place an order in the shop for my cutomers
The layout is mostly empty
I have many orders every day, and i lose now many customers in a day
Please help
Thanks
Eddy

Eddy

Have you tried asking you host if they have any server backups they can restore? I've had to this a few times and my host was more than helpful.

[rlwelch4646]

You don't get it and never will. If you're a moderator and don't have to help people then so be it. Does that mean you can criticize people though? Do you understand what I'm saying... does any of this make any sense to you? If you're not going to help then why make it worse... get it? No? That's fine.

Good day tomerg... it has been a pleasure. You have set a fine example of "moderating" the PS forums for all to see. I don't say you have an easy job but all I'll say is the way you approach speaking to people as a representative of a business has an effect on customers' perceptions of said business. And taking into account the topic you're speaking in I don't feel you're making this stressful situation any better for us.

Take care.

I have tried to get my point across, but you seem to miss it.

A moderator is here to moderate the forum (remove spam, and make sure people are posting in the right place, use proper language etc..).

It is not my job to help anyone, but something I try to do to help the community, as I once was a PS beginner looking for help in the forum.

I try to spend at least an hour a day, but surely you can understand that I cannot help everyone.

Anyway, this is my last response here.

P.S
I have looked at all your posts, and did not see even 1 detailing the problem you had properly, I responded to one of those places asking you to post more info so we can help.

[werepair]

The chances of you getting any help here is very slim, i have 3 other live stores , 1 running Zencart and the other two running Oscommerce, the zencart community and moderators are second to none and help each other through thick and thin as do the zencart team - DrByte Posts: 47,683 , Ajeh Posts: 58,294, Kim Posts: 33,007 and Wilt Posts: 2,609 they are constantlly monitoring the forum posts and offer help and solutions without the blink of an eye, none of this " we will fix this bug in the next version" they help you there and then, their shopping cart is rock solid, they release updat patches and none of this upgrade to version blah blah blah, as do oscommerce, Oscommerce community is exacally the same, every module released is fully supported in their forum and the community offer great support and also tweak and upgrade the modules on a regular basis.

Prestashop have a lot to learn, i have been screaming about bugs , i upgraded from 1.3.7 to 1.4.0.17 this never fixed the issues, i then upgraded to 1.4.1 and guess what this never fixed it either , i have now rolled back to 1.4.0.17, they keep stating they have been fixed in version blah, blah, blah and close the bug report, believe me the bugs are still there and before you leave a cocky remark "hire an experienced coder" i have done this on 2 occasions and they cant fix the errors.

As far as i can see there there is only one helpful moderator in the prestashop forum "Jhnstks" he tries is best to offer support where he can, the prestashop team are usless when it comes to support, in my opinion they should have at least 1 coder permantlly monitoring the forum and offering their support to their members because the way things are going they wont have any members, if i cant get these bugs removed i will be moving my store to another platform were i will get support, as i am sick off begging and writing up bugs to just get them closed.

its a pity as prestashop could be the best platform out there if it wasnt for all the upgrading and poor support.

[R0BJ3]

We still would like to see ONE production site in 1.4 (upgraded) and have the chance to look at it,
especially the performance etc...
I know by experience that as long as you do not have real customers it looks easy.
Then you begin to manage your shop for real, and discover the BO and its shortcomings,
then you buy addons, you correct bugs...
and eventually you house into a release that you cannot leave anymore, because an upgrade is impossible.
Not even speaking of the template/theme, a case in itself.
Weird hey? Was that meant to be?

I won't join the discussion about who's right and who's not.

I just noticed this post on the first page and just wanted you to know I upgraded to 1.4.1 succesfully. Before going live I had some unsuccesful upgrades local using XAMPP. With the help and information I found on this forum, I managed to get a final good upgrade. The instruction video helped a lot as well.
In the beginning I experienced performance issues as well, but I think the performance at this moment is acceptable. You have to choose the settings in the Preferences -> Performance tab wisely.

After upgrade I received several orders which went perfectly.
Just a have look at my site at www.shaveandmore.com

[Trip]

All the ones blaming here PS Team and wasting time of honorable person like tomerg3 ...
maybe you start your own projects with free customer support and learn how it feels spending a lot of hours for the community and than get insulted. I admire tomerg and all the others for there patience and hard work that they even sometimes give away for free.
I for myself released some free modules but from my experience I stopped releasing more of my work as people think when you give it away for free they deserve a 24 hour free support also. Than they want this feature and that fixed and I simply don't have the time and nerves caring for people who even don't know the basics.
Maintaining such a complex software needs knowledge .. if you don't have it you have to hire a professional.
99% of the people with a wracked car go a professional garage to fix it (of course not for free) but they are aware that they can't do it on there own. Here you get a car for free but blame other people that you're not able to maintain it properly?
Errr, yes. I know already that some of you are impervious to advice but maybe you think of it it. You are the ones which kill the fun of spending time for the community.
Regards, trip

[BigZ]

Once again, prestashop team members don't work for free !! Maybe tomerg3 does, and doesn't desserve the blame ( exept for coding that super-crappy module call filter by on wich i spent tons of hours before i recoded it back completly - sorry for getting personnal, lol -); but that doesn't change the fact that there is no one from the prestashop team to help on the forums; they leave that job to the good-willing devs that hang out round here... and save money that way !

But there is another fact i agree with : too many newbies that take eveything for granted, crying out for any small problem they cannot solve, and i guess that's because of prestashop policy on "every one can start an ecommerce for free"; that's totally fake ! you MUST hire a developper or be one yourself if you wanna do something on the internet, no other way ! too many people are fooled this way thinking everything will be free and easy and that they will earn millions... FAKE again !

But then, for the developper forced to use prestashop and upgrade it... fuck what a headache ! and i don't imagine the next version, when they will recode that super-crappy, hard-coded, admin and that we will have to recode every modioification we've done in there... it gets me angry just thinking about it !!!
Why didn't they wait to get 1.4 out and get it clean, that way we could plan long-term websites on it ??

Prestashop is making us loosing a lot of time and money sometimes !!

[Canarias]

My apologies folks, I just ask some help.
I have lost none of my products.
I can still use the admin panel
The only problem is that the layouts will not work as it should.
Blocks are missing, if you click on a picture there is only a white screen, etc..
I can not go back to an older version because the backups still more problems.
I've already downloaded the default theme for PrestaShop 1.4.1, without success
Currently I have disabled the shop until I can solve anything.
Thanks in advance
Eddy

[rlwelch4646]

Let it be known that despite our differences earlier in this forum topic, tomerg3 is currently assisting me in another forum topic and I greatly appreciate his help.

But I must disagree with your perception of PrestaShop. Take the module shop as a perfect example... aesthetically, that is set up for a business owner- not a web development professional. It looks like what would have been an earlier/rudimentary version of Apple's app store. Whether you wish to believe it or not, PS is, in part, marketed to people who are novices in web development, not just web developers solely. All these new tools and analyzers are in part for the developers to help sell but also for the business person to leave Quickbooks and whatever CMS/developer they're using and come to the all-powerful PrestaShop, "The All-in-one Wonder."

Now my biggest frustration, and I said it in my post, is PrestaShop's horrible business model. You try to market this product as a CMS for the small business person but they are doing it so utterly poorly. It seems to me they have a problem identifying their market and because of that, their overall business and the public's perception suffers. If a large part of your business hinges on the community "selling" and "supporting" their software then you better damn well supplement and nurture that! From what I'm seeing, that is not happening currently.

On the other hand there is me, the other demographic, the one I mentioned earlier. The small business owner who has a small web presence and knows enough to do this and that but really wants a powerful tool to sell his/her wares. Now I'm who PS SHOULD/DO want. Now how do they go about trying to keep my business? Keep me buying themes and modules and future versions? They ignore me and my peers- they release software that they shouldn't be proud to release because their potential "partners," because that's what we are, are leaving for their competitors. They shouldn't have to depend on people like tomerg3 or whoever to support their product because that's not their job and tomerg3 even said that.

PS is at a crossroads- one road is to continue depending on the developers and ignore the business person, and the other is to almost supplant the developer and make the tool idiot-proof so even a simpleton developer like myself won't need developers like you to put up a webshop and will, by default, have countless sales/analytical tools at my discretion. The problem is is that they are walking in between these two roads and I feel we're all getting the short end of the stick

Trip, I hope you see that I'm not directing any angst or bitterness at you at all. I'm just saying that the perception that many people have that PS is doing a great service to the community by releasing broken open source material is not true. They are trying to make money just like you, just like me, and they are going about it in a very disjointed manner. One that I don't feel is sustainable for long-term growth for either parties. They need us, whether you're a small business owner or a web developer, but they need to act like they need us. They need to cultivate a partnership just like you do with your clients and I do with mine. This is where frustrations are stemming from.

All the ones blaming here PS Team and wasting time of honorable person like tomerg3 ...
maybe you start your own projects with free customer support and learn how it feels spending a lot of hours for the community and than get insulted. I admire tomerg and all the others for there patience and hard work that they even sometimes give away for free.
I for myself released some free modules but from my experience I stopped releasing more of my work as people think when you give it away for free they deserve a 24 hour free support also. Than they want this feature and that fixed and I simply don't have the time and nerves caring for people who even don't know the basics.
Maintaining such a complex software needs knowledge .. if you don't have it you have to hire a professional.
99% of the people with a wracked car go a professional garage to fix it (of course not for free) but they are aware that they can't do it on there own. Here you get a car for free but blame other people that you're not able to maintain it properly?
Errr, yes. I know already that some of you are impervious to advice but maybe you think of it it. You are the ones which kill the fun of spending time for the community.
Regards, trip

[Trip]

Hi rwelch,
I think the discussion is going of the topic but I am using prestashop successfull for over 2 years now. I bought 2 or 3 modules and spent a lot of hours to make my own modifications and even tried to fix some annoying I18n behaviour in the core.
Many of the things seemed to be fixed in the new version (I must admit - years to late) but anyway. I made some test but besides it consumes more server power some optimisations seem to speed up loading time as they reduced the requests from over 100 to 30 per page view. They implemented one page check out und guest check out... everything a bit to late for my opinion but there is not much like "multiple stores" and m-commerce that makes it a real good shop system.
The workflow of the backend is so easy that every one can learn it in half an hour. I tried magento and had a look at some other carts and I am glad that I am using PS. For sure magento has a beauty code base but I played around it for 2 weeks to understand that this is really not what I want. I tried a lot of installations on my local mashine and every time I had a different result but it was never working 100%. Maybe have a look at the changelogs on magento site and you start to wonder that this thing is really working. They release stable Versions and than do thousands of bug fixes like any other project.
From the other carts I have tested I won't even loose a word about.
But I also admit that I did not update PS for 2 years now because I did not see advantages in the newer versions and I can not afford shop downtime. At the monent I am carefully inspecting upgrade process.Most thing seem to be minor so far but I do not have very complicated product combinations or somenthing.
But my rule of thumb is... never take the first stable but wait one or two versions untill the major bugs are fixed.
Regards, trip

[rlwelch4646]

Trip thanks for your reply. I totally understand your opinion because frankly that's how I felt 2 weeks ago when I originally downloaded PrestaShop. I looked at the other CMS options (Magento, Zen, etc.) and felt this was for me. I'm sticking around trying to figure my problems out because I feel I can successfully use PS for years to come.

All I'm frustrated about, and you hinted at it too, is that PS has amazing potential and they are really depriving the community a powerful tool and depriving themselves of a robust bottom line. That's why I originally said it is currently a lose-lose situation. While many of the expert developers can play with the code and make it work, they are failing others that may be skilled but can't invest the resources to fix the problems or others that aren't skilled but are being marketed to and are disappointed at what they perceive as a frustrating and insurmountable problem. Their solution should not be talk on the forums or hire a developer because if that's what I wanted to do I would have done it originally and saved myself hours and hours of learning the amount of development knowledge I have garnered or currently trying to make this PS platform work.

When a user can't upload images, and I'm not alone, that is a fundamental and critical problem. For them to act as absentee partners when I'm trying to use their product to build a business is just, for lack of a better expression, bad business. You may be used to this process as a practiced developer but I, the other demographic, is not and I expect more. Even your fellow peers, the developers, are upset with the process and I think that sums it up perfectly. They're (PrestaShop) stressed, we're stressed... lose-lose situation.

Thank you for your response though. I'm hoping this will hopefully raise flags that their "back end" needs tinkering and refinement so we can all flourish in the years to come.

Please take our money PrestaShop and all of your third party partners! We want you to want us!

Hi rwelch,
I think the discussion is going of the topic but I am using prestashop successfull for over 2 years now. I bought 2 or 3 modules and spent a lot of hours to make my own modifications and even tried to fix some annoying I18n behaviour in the core.
Many of the things seemed to be fixed in the new version (I must admit - years to late) but anyway. I made some test but besides it consumes more server power some optimisations seem to speed up loading time as they reduced the requests from over 100 to 30 per page view. They implemented one page check out und guest check out... everything a bit to late for my opinion but there is not much like "multiple stores" and m-commerce that makes it a real good shop system.
The workflow of the backend is so easy that every one can learn it in half an hour. I tried magento and had a look at some other carts and I am glad that I am using PS. For sure magento has a beauty code base but I played around it for 2 weeks to understand that this is really not what I want. I tried a lot of installations on my local mashine and every time I had a different result but it was never working 100%. Maybe have a look at the changelogs on magento site and you start to wonder that this thing is really working. They release stable Versions and than do thousands of bug fixes like any other project.
From the other carts I have tested I won't even loose a word about.
But I also admit that I did not update PS for 2 years now because I did not see advantages in the newer versions and I can not afford shop downtime. At the monent I am carefully inspecting upgrade process.Most thing seem to be minor so far but I do not have very complicated product combinations or somenthing.
But my rule of thumb is... never take the first stable but wait one or two versions untill the major bugs are fixed.
Regards, trip

[uddhava]

Just performed an upgrade from 1.3.2 to 1.4.1.
I ran into quite a few issues. I used a backup from my live site on a local machine with xampp installed.
I must say that the upgrade document for 1.4 is quite confusing in terms of language and there are some obvious grammer problems with it.
So probably some errors are caused by me. But here is a list of issues:

* all categories are duplicated.
* ssl setting still enabled
* old url (from live site) still used.
* friendly url enabled.

The settings can be changed by going into phpmyadmin, but it is annoying. Preparing your live site (disable friendly url and ssl) should help.
The duplicate categories is not so nice. Dont know how to fix that.

I find the official upgrade doc confusing, especially the part of renaming the admin folder and copying the settings.inc.php.
If anybody can enlighten me than please do. I am just confused. Let me explain:

If i copy the settings.inc.php, do i edit and change any setting before i start the upgrade?
For example on my local machine i have the following folders:

localhost / varsana (old PS installation)
        / varsana-new (new PS installation)

The old settings.inc.php contains this variable:
define('__PS_BASE_URI__', '/');

Do i need to change this to the new folder name (varsana-new)?
and what more ?

[uddhava]

* all categories are duplicated.

How wonderful. This is a confirmed bug and supposedly will be fixed in 1.4.2.
I understand that bugs are part of any development, but this one is so obvious that i cannot understand why it was left in. It seems that the 1.4.1 and previous ones were a bit rushed and not tested properly.
And it is double too bad that no one from the PS team does ever give some sort of answer about it.

Its a bug in 1.4, the ps team have fixed it in the developer version 1.4.2, it will be release 11 may!

Look here
http://forge.prestashop.com/browse/PSCFI-1616

[ImpulsoTecnologico]

You should do some research before posting.

I have over 3000 posts and along with Rocky (another moderator) have helped hundreds of users in this forum at my own time.

When someone asks a specific question, I try to help, if there were more people from the PS community that would invest some of their time in supporting this forum, I'm sure you and other will get faster answers.

In this particular case, the user did not post any questions, or even the problem he's having, and my answer was as general as the question.

If someone is losing money everyday because the site is down (trust me, I know how frustrating that can be, and when I get contacted by a person in that situation for help, I usually try to make it a top priority), the best thing is to get it back up ASAP, and the best way to do that is to hire a good developer.

I myself can testify for that. Tomerg has helped me several times with his posts. I've also experienced his professional support through the purchase of one of his commercial modules. I think we should be grateful for the people who dedicate part of their time for nothing in return to help us.

Thanks again Tomerg.

[Scotty501]

I have started looking at Zen and OS as alternatives - the big winner from them is their forums gets answered! This is my greatest annoyance. Bug Trackers closed - when the problem is still live or even worse, its ignored like many posts. A known bug springs up - and no one communicates (from PS).

On a personal note - Tomer, JH, and Rocky are tremendous, and have helped me many times over the years.

Recent times ( last few months) the forums repsonses have just stopped. I try to help others with my limited knowledge as that is what a community is about, but PS should be monitoring the unanswered posts. There was a time where a post was made and answers flew in - now you would be lucky to have any answers at all. Something simple could stop a business trading, but appears to be an irratation to PS and the team.


The below quote sums it up pretty well.

As far as i can see there there is only one helpful moderator in the prestashop forum “Jhnstks” he tries is best to offer support where he can, the prestashop team are usless when it comes to support, in my opinion they should have at least 1 coder permantlly monitoring the forum and offering their support to their members because the way things are going they wont have any members, if i cant get these bugs removed i will be moving my store to another platform were i will get support, as i am sick off begging and writing up bugs to just get them closed.

its a pity as prestashop could be the best platform out there if it wasnt for all the upgrading and poor support.

[Bruno Leveque]

Dear everyone,

1. This community forum is intended to allow members to help each other, and to progress faster in building and managing their e-commerce store. We do our best to help with tools such as the Forge (which allows you to report bugs and send feature requests at http://forge.prestashop.com). We are also organizing "Community Days", an event taking place several times a year with merchants, developers and agencies to improve PrestaShop. Lastly we also try to post on this forum (mostly in French, but more and more in English now).

We are working very closely with moderators like Rocky, Tomerg3, Melinda and John. Keep in mind that they are here to moderate and not necessarily to provide free support to 100% of your issues ;-). They do their best to help everyone and we owe them our appreciation.




2. We performed various tests on the 1.4 upgrade process, with the help of the community. However as you know each case is very specific due to shops/server configuration and are very hard to detect. In anticipation of the version 1.4.2 which will be available in the coming days, the technical team has worked hard to resolve all the latest bugs on the Forge.

We made more than 100 upgrade tests with live shops in preparation of the release of version 1.4.2. This should make the upgrade process smoother. In the future, we will continue to perform upgrade tests on live shops to minimize the number of problems related to upgrades.



3. For those interested, you can also join the group of "beta testers". This group has access to upcoming versions of PrestaShop in order to test the upgrade process. Your role will be to test the upgrade before the release and to report any potential bugs on the Forge. Send me a PM with "Join Beta testers group" in the subject if you are interested.



4. We are in the process of setting up a new forum to encourage and entice members to help other members by offering rewards to the most active contributors. For instance on every message on the forum will have a link "Did you find this answer useful?", this is called "Member Reputation" and is used by many web-communities.

We will reward the members with the highest reputation, and help build a stronger PrestaShop community



I remain available to you by PM if you have any questions, I get a lot of messages so do not blame me if you do not receive a response within hours. Please do not send me your technical problems via PM, they must be posted on the Forge ;-)

Regards,