Perhaps the best solution would be to develop it in the way you are most comfortable with, and provide an API for everyone else to make modifications.
Russ -----Original Message----- From: Mary Jo Sminkey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 05 January 2007 01:50 To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: "Richest" ColdFusion E-Commerce Site >Port it to FB 4 or 5 and it'll be the sexiest EVER! Is it in an MVC >pattern in FB3? No way! A large percentage of my users struggle with just the FB, MVC would shatter their brains. LOL Seriously, the number of people that buy my software that even have a clue about stuff like MVC and OO is so low that it just isn't even a consideration to go there. That's assuming I had a year or more to kill and completely reprogram it that way. Ecommerce buyers generally care about two main things...the features the software has, and how easy it will be for them to go in and make modifications. I try very hard to cover both bases well, and moving to MVC really would not serve either. Honestly, I do get far more people that complain that FB is too confusing than ones that want something like MVC. Granted, there are *definitely* some users that would like this, but it's a very small minority. In a recent survey of my users, less than 20% even cared about converting the software from FB3 to 4. They cared *way* more about the actual feature set. So I've spent over a year making it the best, most feature-rich software that I could. And I do believe I have that...I just have to get all the last bits of code completed, everything beta-tested, update all the docs, write all those complicated update scripts, etc. No problem, I just won't sleep this month. ;-) And even after this release is done, I have a pretty long list of even more feature and code improvements I want to make and I hope to do another major release in a relatively short time (1 year as opposed to typically several years.) E-commerce is still a rapidly growing field and everytime people see something cool on Amazon.com, they want it too. ;-) >I think there are some experts around with alot of experience porting >apps from FB3 to 4 or 5. Sure, if I had thousands of dollars to pay them for it. Believe me, it would be a pretty big undertaking to do, because it's not just a matter of converting the basic code (which is difficult enough.) It has to be done in a way that I don't have to make my current users completely redo all their store layouts (the current system for product/category/store pages, etc. is very tied into a FB3 layout system) and it has to deal with converting my entire role permissions and content access system that is based on the Hal Helms security model for FB3. The security system has been extended to do all kinds of things in the software, from selling memberships to the store to controlling which products an admin can edit, so it's going to be very tricky to deal with and to update existing sites as well. It's a very different matter to take an off-the-shelf software product and convert from FB3 to FB5 than it is to take an individual site and do it, because I can't leave all my current customers in the dust. >I bet if you gave a few licenses away to some Fuseboxers you'd get all >the help you need. I would help out. Oh, I have offered, to the ones that have bought my software. And a number have offered to help in the past, but once they look at what *really* is involved and the hurdles that have to be cleared, it usually scares them off. After all, even a couple licenses doesn't go far in paying a developer's salary. ;-) Still, if the CF community continues to grow and my new version is as successful as I hope it will be, it may be more feasible for me to pay a really top-notch Fuseboxer to help convert the code. I agree that the improvements in FB4/5 are nothing to sneer at, and even though I do believe it's a fair amount harder for newcomers to understand than 3, it's still a goal of mine to get there at some point. But I still am proud of having one of the few e-commerce products out there that follows *any* kind of framework. It may not be the latest and greatest framework...but even if I did get it converted, it would just be out-of-date again in a few years any way! -------------------- Mary Jo Sminkey http://www.cfwebstore.com CFWebstore, ColdFusion E-commerce ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:265771 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
