Serious Question

[quetevendo]

I'm using oscommerce for 6 years, living, breathing, transpired the code every day, I have many clients and belong to the oscommerce community in Spanish.

 

I'm the biggest advocate of the code, I have defended in all forums and others, but today I got the time to answer this question. Oscommerce where it goes?

 

Came the new version and not much else is known of HARALD for almost 2 months, the blog and progress are dropping.

 

Hundreds left the boat to Magento and PrestaShop.

 

The question is what will happen?, appear something at the last moment and save the code.

 

Ebay just bought magento (making it unreachable). Prestashop it is stealing the few remaining fans, and everywhere people are discrediting oscommerce by lack of progress, the problems of hacking, because version 2.3 is not compatible with the majority of contributions (which makes strong oscommerce ) And the version 3 this desert looks abandoned and a new version of php or even 5% of the servers are running.

 

I would like to receive apreciasiones you.

 

Thank you all for what they do selflessly, all made of oscommerce the largest community ... but when you have to be honest there is no place for bigotry.

[♥toyicebear]

well the v3.0 framework is available so you and others can take it and further develop it at will.

 

I still have "faith" that Harald will get back to it, but as have been the norm for osc progress it might still take quite some time....

 

2.31 is also a good alternative for a live shop, any of the old 2.2 add-ons can easily be made to work with 2.31.

 

I am not surprised though that some are jumping ship, and for those considering alternatives they should have a look at Open Cart.

[blackwater]

The 3.0 core is still being developed and hence delaying the admin applications. The key is deciding when to stop adding new features and focus instead on stability. Currently, the intershop DNS is still being worked on eg "admin.site.com". This should be the cut off point for new features IMHO. On a smaller scale, there are some tweaks and bug fixes, some from the osc3.a5 still present in the 3.0x release.

 

I've used the 3.0a5 release, but not tested the 3.0x in any serious way, but so far I see a couple familiar quirks that need to be fixed. hopefully I will get some to time report changes before the 3.02 release. Unfortunately, some of the fixes were in the admin applications themselves which are not yet released.

 

You look in the forums and see a lot of people apparently downloading 3.01 and expecting to see a store they can use. I think this is counter- productive and gives a bad impression. We need to have a testing and stable code section of the downloads (again?) to avoid wasting people's time.

 

Not sure whats to be done about the many different versions of community addons with many different contributors. It is a mess. This could probably use a testing and stable section as well.

 

Then then the forums! People post anywhere they like without regard for versions etc. Understandably, they don't have time and just need help, but they should be forced to find out what version they are using before being allowed to post. We have seen a recent change to sort out this situation with bug reporting, by having a 2.3 and 3.0 link which is an improvement, but still needs another step to determine whether it is a genuine report or a question.

[multimixer]

[...]

Then then the forums! People post anywhere they like without regard for versions etc.

[...]

 

I guess many people don't know what version they have. So you can see any number combination containing "2", "3" and "1" eg 2.3.1 or 3.2.1. Sometimes there is a "0" in the game, so it becomes easily 3.0.1 or whatever. Also, if it is a host installation, then people think they have the "latest" and "newest" and this is on the download page version 3

 

Anyway, this is a complete mess, people ask version 2.2 questions in the version 3 forum, insisting they have version 3, and get answers for version 2.3.1 !

 

Regarding version 3 not being marked as "test" or "alpha" or "sigma" or "kuku" or anything saying it is not ready to use, I think this is on purpose, what purpose, I don't know

 

Edit: As for development, we can all refer to the "roadmap for [enter anything you like here - maybe a ui calendar, why nor]"

[♥14steve14]

I agree that the forums are a mess. I also agree that version 3 should be marked as still in developement to stop people downloading it.

 

As to people moving away from oscommerce, it is happening in droves. A lot of hosts used fantastico to install oscommerce 2.2. They stopped doing this as it was constantly being hacked and causing them problems. Some are now installing 2.3.1, which must be good. The biggest complaint againt oscommerce in other forums is that it is lacking features. Most other open source or free stores come with so many features as standard, where oscommerce you have to add those features. Most people do not have the time or ability to add contributions so they are choosing an already tried and tested store front, and who can blame them. Until the people behind oscommerce see this, the software will never be fully used.

 

version 2.3.1 took years to redevelope, mainly because of a certian legal case over the name. For a brief period of time they worked on the new setup. That has now almost stopped again, so i dont think version 3 will be fully ready for a few years yet, then it wont be what people want.

 

Enough of my rant now. Oscommerce is good, if you have the time to work on it and make it do what you want. Oscmax comes fully loaded, so why not use that. Prestashop comes with many features so why not use that. Oscommerce has to at least keep level with these other free storefronts if it want to be viable.

[blackwater]

Some of the other free solutions are good choices and deserve the credit, but considering some are not really developed by a large community, but by a closed group possibly with a strategy to gain market share for paid services later. In that scenario the future is still bright for oscommerce.

 

Things just need to be cleaned up and the update cycle shortened.

 

For starters,

 

* "End of Life" should be announced for all versions below 2.3.1 and these forums moved to archive on such date.

 

* All addons for such versions removed from the main site and to the same archive server.

 

* every effort should be made to make versions 2.3.1 and 3.0x rock solid stable.

 

* Beside the core, an optional package of select addons should be available for updates that competes directly with other carts.

 

* Addons should be evaluated on a professional level by the community and classified by stars.

 

* Instead of everyone publishing a new release for the same package in the same contrib and getting everything confused for the outside world, there

should be one maintainer or one team that applies the changes and investigates bug reports. When that person/team moves on or refuses to answer

emails then a new maintainer should then be requested from the community. If no one is found then that addon remain closed and noted as such, but

should still be able to receive bug reports. Others can start their own addon if not wanting to take it up.

[quetevendo]

Thanks for the reply, now I would like someone from the "team" give us some sign.

 

My big question is because they leave things "just like that" that lends itself to confusion, no official announcements or there are incomplete and ellipsis.

 

Someone from the team could bring a little clarity on the future and direction of oscommerce.

 

I appreciate your answers.

[Guest]

no way! magento sold to ebay..... how much whwn??

[Guest]

Someone from the team could bring a little clarity on the future and direction of oscommerce.

 

 

A reply and clarity ? At the same time ? You're not asking for much are you ? :lol: :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris