Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
We are an Able Commerce customer and paid the "big bucks" for the source code version. The product is very powerful but not user friendly and more than a little obfuscated. If you're having trouble with one store you can imagine our fun developing and hosting multiple sites at once. I recently discovered an Able Commerce knock-off called CFWebstore which might be a much better solution for smaller stores. CFWebstore costs $150, less in quantities. http://www.cfwebstore.com I don't know anything about the product but the price is definitely right. $150 for full source code. At that price you can afford to do some bug fixing. We're thinking about giving our customers the choice of which software they want us to use for their site. --Bill At 02:44 PM 4/16/00 , you wrote: I am only about 4 months into Cold Fusion. Able is the first CF store package for me to use. I have been very frustrated with it's "Wizards" mostly due to a lack or non-integration of help files. Figuring out how to customize something is mostly a 'try and see what happens' process. Their documentation is not easily accessible as far as trying to find specifically what you want to do. I started with the standard version and was too limited, so I had to upgrade to the open source. I'm not saying they do this, but it almost seems that they limit what you can do just so you'll have to pay another $1500 for open source. I'm just starting to get comfortable with it and would probably use it again since I would be much more familiar with it the next time around. The backend is very solid and with my limited experience with CF I wouldn't even want to try to build everything the program does. If I were able to give Able some advice, it would be to add a help button to every page of the admin section. Hitting the button would load a pop up window with help that is specific to where you are in the program. This would have saved me hours in learning it... and having to call support to figure it out. Chris Giminez Owner - Cyber Scriber Web Site Design 831-728-4469 ICQ# 2628000 I have tried to get Able Commerce which is built on Cold Fusion templates up and running as an e-commerce solution. Problem is the program seems so utterly rigid in deployment that there's no way to get into the pages to customize the look. The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. Hence changing the look is critical, yet apparently impossible when you go to the editing web pages section. Is Able Commerce truly an impossible program to work with and could anyone for the love of God please recommend something more user friendly and actually usable. We've lost a good two weeks messing around with Able Commerce, it has all in all been a highly frustrating experience. Would appreciate a reference to any other shopping cart e-commerce solution. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. - Bill Poff - ICN.NET INTERNET HOSTING - DEVELOPMENT - CONSULTING SERVICES PO Box 2570, Roanoke, VA 24010 - 540-343-8322 - Fax: 540-343-0691 - -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
I was extremely impressed with cfwebstore. Very customizable, and the developer (Mary Jo Sminky) has a support forum and mail list if you run into problems. Anytime I posted to the forum or list I had a response within 24 hours. A great deal for $150. -Original Message- From: Bill Poff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 11:05 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? We are an Able Commerce customer and paid the "big bucks" for the source code version. The product is very powerful but not user friendly and more than a little obfuscated. If you're having trouble with one store you can imagine our fun developing and hosting multiple sites at once. I recently discovered an Able Commerce knock-off called CFWebstore which might be a much better solution for smaller stores. CFWebstore costs $150, less in quantities. http://www.cfwebstore.com I don't know anything about the product but the price is definitely right. $150 for full source code. At that price you can afford to do some bug fixing. We're thinking about giving our customers the choice of which software they want us to use for their site. --Bill At 02:44 PM 4/16/00 , you wrote: I am only about 4 months into Cold Fusion. Able is the first CF store package for me to use. I have been very frustrated with it's "Wizards" mostly due to a lack or non-integration of help files. Figuring out how to customize something is mostly a 'try and see what happens' process. Their documentation is not easily accessible as far as trying to find specifically what you want to do. I started with the standard version and was too limited, so I had to upgrade to the open source. I'm not saying they do this, but it almost seems that they limit what you can do just so you'll have to pay another $1500 for open source. I'm just starting to get comfortable with it and would probably use it again since I would be much more familiar with it the next time around. The backend is very solid and with my limited experience with CF I wouldn't even want to try to build everything the program does. If I were able to give Able some advice, it would be to add a help button to every page of the admin section. Hitting the button would load a pop up window with help that is specific to where you are in the program. This would have saved me hours in learning it... and having to call support to figure it out. Chris Giminez Owner - Cyber Scriber Web Site Design 831-728-4469 ICQ# 2628000 I have tried to get Able Commerce which is built on Cold Fusion templates up and running as an e-commerce solution. Problem is the program seems so utterly rigid in deployment that there's no way to get into the pages to customize the look. The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. Hence changing the look is critical, yet apparently impossible when you go to the editing web pages section. Is Able Commerce truly an impossible program to work with and could anyone for the love of God please recommend something more user friendly and actually usable. We've lost a good two weeks messing around with Able Commerce, it has all in all been a highly frustrating experience. Would appreciate a reference to any other shopping cart e-commerce solution. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. --- --- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. - Bill Poff - ICN.NET INTERNET HOSTING - DEVELOPMENT - CONSULTING SERVICES PO Box 2570, Roanoke, VA 24010 - 540-343-8322 - Fax: 540-343-0691 - -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards with graphics hit hard by an ugly stick. Not only is the program not easy to use, the resulting PREVIEWS look so bad due to the layout/ugly icons, I dare not show them to my client. At 01:19 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: I do not understand - you can change all the icons in any version of Able Commerce. I agree they do not supply an icon library but there are so many of those anway. Can you be more specific about what you cannot easily customise. I have no commercial interest in Able just want to see a fair representation of the product. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Adrian, Try to customize the look and feel of your pages and then let me know if I am being unfair. The basic look created by Able Commerce is so ugly there should be a law against it. In fact I'm writing my Senator about it right now - i.e. abolish any net tax incentives but do enact a web site ugliness law to incentivise the folks at Able Commerce to come up with some at least half way decent looking icons instead of those hit hard with an ugly stick. We want visitors to stay on a site, not run away from it due to torture to the eyeballs. I would write to Clinton but hes no doubt sidetracked with some intern:) Bottom line is this is a totally frustrating piece of software, there has to be something out there thats more user friendly. I've tackled more complex jobs than a mere shopping cart deal in the past, but this Able Commerce is unfortunately despite a GUI admin very user unfriendly. Again, appreciate any help as far as a ref to a workable program. Regards, Pardee. At 12:54 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. I think you are being somewhat unfair to Able Commerce from my experimentation with it :-) But as I don't use the program yet in production, perhaps others who do could address your concerns. While I am here - I need recommendations for CF based eCommerce system, which will enable full online order tracking by shoppers - Amazon style etc.. Any recommendations? I also have a client who wants an auction system (the customer is always right) - what is the best CF based auction system out there? Emaze looks good - anyone used it? Thanks. Adrian Cooper. - - Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/c f_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards with graphics hit hard by an ugly stick. Not only is the program not easy to use, the resulting PREVIEWS look so bad due to the layout/ugly icons, I dare not show them to my client. At 01:19 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: I do not understand - you can change all the icons in any version of Able Commerce. I agree they do not supply an icon library but there are so many of those anway. Can you be more specific about what you cannot easily customise. I have no commercial interest in Able just want to see a fair representation of the product. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Adrian, Try to customize the look and feel of your pages and then let me know if I am being unfair. The basic look created by Able Commerce is so ugly there should be a law against it. In fact I'm writing my Senator about it right now - i.e. abolish any net tax incentives but do enact a web site ugliness law to incentivise the folks at Able Commerce to come up with some at least half way decent looking icons instead of those hit hard with an ugly stick. We want visitors to stay on a site, not run away from it due to torture to the eyeballs. I would write to Clinton but hes no doubt sidetracked with some intern:) Bottom line is this is a totally frustrating piece of software, there has to be something out there thats more user friendly. I've tackled more complex jobs than a mere shopping cart deal in the past, but this Able Commerce is unfortunately despite a GUI admin very user unfriendly. Again, appreciate any help as far as a ref to a workable program. Regards, Pardee. At 12:54 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. I think you are being somewhat unfair to Able Commerce from my experimentation with it :-) But as I don't use the program yet in production, perhaps others who do could address your concerns. While I am here - I need recommendations for CF based eCommerce system, which will enable full online order tracking by shoppers - Amazon style etc.. Any recommendations? I also have a client who wants an auction system (the customer is always right) - what is the best CF based auction system out there? Emaze looks good - anyone used it? Thanks. Adrian Cooper. - - Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/c f_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
The basic look created by Able Commerce is so ugly there should be a law against it. Agreed. Programmers who design web pages should be beat with ugly stick. The default web look is so bad it is an obstacle to appreciating the technical aspects. ie, you like ACB "in spite of" the ugliness. Len -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Pardee, I can't think of anything with the look and feel of an Ablecommerce that you couldn't modify. Finding where to modify them could be frustrating. Ask how to do what you want on their forums, it will save frustration. http://www.ablecommerce.com/forums/index.cfm?cfapp=1; -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
I've had good results with CFwebstore (http://www.cfwebstore.com ). I know it's not as robust on the back end as AbleCommerce but it let's you customize the hell out of it on the GUI side. The scenario you describe below is definitely possible. You still need to know CF and HTML though. I did a site for my uncle recently with it - http://www.workmens.com . -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 8:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards with graphics hit hard by an ugly stick. Not only is the program not easy to use, the resulting PREVIEWS look so bad due to the layout/ugly icons, I dare not show them to my client. At 01:19 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: I do not understand - you can change all the icons in any version of Able Commerce. I agree they do not supply an icon library but there are so many of those anway. Can you be more specific about what you cannot easily customise. I have no commercial interest in Able just want to see a fair representation of the product. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Adrian, Try to customize the look and feel of your pages and then let me know if I am being unfair. The basic look created by Able Commerce is so ugly there should be a law against it. In fact I'm writing my Senator about it right now - i.e. abolish any net tax incentives but do enact a web site ugliness law to incentivise the folks at Able Commerce to come up with some at least half way decent looking icons instead of those hit hard with an ugly stick. We want visitors to stay on a site, not run away from it due to torture to the eyeballs. I would write to Clinton but hes no doubt sidetracked with some intern:) Bottom line is this is a totally frustrating piece of software, there has to be something out there thats more user friendly. I've tackled more complex jobs than a mere shopping cart deal in the past, but this Able Commerce is unfortunately despite a GUI admin very user unfriendly. Again, appreciate any help as far as a ref to a workable program. Regards, Pardee. At 12:54 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. I think you are being somewhat unfair to Able Commerce from my experimentation with it :-) But as I don't use the program yet in production, perhaps others who do could address your concerns. While I am here - I need recommendations for CF based eCommerce system, which will enable full online order tracking by shoppers - Amazon style etc.. Any recommendations? I also have a client who wants an auction system (the customer is always right) - what is the best CF based auction system out there? Emaze looks good - anyone used it? Thanks. Adrian Cooper. - - Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/c f_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. --- - -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
I agree with you on your comments about help etc. Their documentation is weak. The product however, is very robust and flexible. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: Chris Giminez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 7:44 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I am only about 4 months into Cold Fusion. Able is the first CF store package for me to use. I have been very frustrated with it's "Wizards" mostly due to a lack or non-integration of help files. Figuring out how to customize something is mostly a 'try and see what happens' process. Their documentation is not easily accessible as far as trying to find specifically what you want to do. I started with the standard version and was too limited, so I had to upgrade to the open source. I'm not saying they do this, but it almost seems that they limit what you can do just so you'll have to pay another $1500 for open source. I'm just starting to get comfortable with it and would probably use it again since I would be much more familiar with it the next time around. The backend is very solid and with my limited experience with CF I wouldn't even want to try to build everything the program does. If I were able to give Able some advice, it would be to add a help button to every page of the admin section. Hitting the button would load a pop up window with help that is specific to where you are in the program. This would have saved me hours in learning it... and having to call support to figure it out. Chris Giminez Owner - Cyber Scriber Web Site Design 831-728-4469 ICQ# 2628000 I have tried to get Able Commerce which is built on Cold Fusion templates up and running as an e-commerce solution. Problem is the program seems so utterly rigid in deployment that there's no way to get into the pages to customize the look. The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. Hence changing the look is critical, yet apparently impossible when you go to the editing web pages section. Is Able Commerce truly an impossible program to work with and could anyone for the love of God please recommend something more user friendly and actually usable. We've lost a good two weeks messing around with Able Commerce, it has all in all been a highly frustrating experience. Would appreciate a reference to any other shopping cart e-commerce solution. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm? sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf _talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Dear Paul, I tried this with medium and large sized store. Unfortunately the templates don't allow you to go in and customize them to look exactly as you want. The output is nowhere near what the client is looking for. Normally in other programs you can go into the code and do this, but in Able Commerce, when you're using a wizard you're apparently not able to get into the source code. Try to get into the underlying CFM file and you find that its encrypted. Any ideas? Thanks for the feedback. At 01:38 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: 1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards with graphics hit hard by an ugly stick. Not only is the program not easy to use, the resulting PREVIEWS look so bad due to the layout/ugly icons, I dare not show them to my client. At 01:19 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: I do not understand - you can change all the icons in any version of Able Commerce. I agree they do not supply an icon library but there are so many of those anway. Can you be more specific about what you cannot easily customise. I have no commercial interest in Able just want to see a fair representation of the product. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Adrian, Try to customize the look and feel of your pages and then let me know if I am being unfair. The basic look created by Able Commerce is so ugly there should be a law against it. In fact I'm writing my Senator about it right now - i.e. abolish any net tax incentives but do enact a web site ugliness law to incentivise the folks at Able Commerce to come up with some at least half way decent looking icons instead of those hit hard with an ugly stick. We want visitors to stay on a site, not run away from it due to torture to the eyeballs. I would write to Clinton but hes no doubt sidetracked with some intern:) Bottom line is this is a totally frustrating piece of software, there has to be something out there thats more user friendly. I've tackled more complex jobs than a mere shopping cart deal in the past, but this Able Commerce is unfortunately despite a GUI admin very user unfriendly. Again, appreciate any help as far as a ref to a workable program. Regards, Pardee. At 12:54 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. I think you are being somewhat unfair to Able Commerce from my experimentation with it :-) But as I don't use the program yet in production, perhaps others who do could address your concerns. While I am here - I need recommendations for CF based eCommerce system, which will enable full online
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Dear Jeff, That's exactly the problem, find where to modify this stuff. They make it so darn difficult that you get totally fed up with this program. Thanks for the tip, will try right now. At 08:13 AM 4/16/2000 -0500, you wrote: Pardee, I can't think of anything with the look and feel of an Ablecommerce that you couldn't modify. Finding where to modify them could be frustrating. Ask how to do what you want on their forums, it will save frustration. http://www.ablecommerce.com/forums/index.cfm?cfapp=1; -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
but extremely user unfriendly. I give it my vote of the most user unfriendly program I've ever used in the last 10 years. Considering they designed it to make the developers life easier, I would have to say it is a failure on that front. Hopefully someone at Able Commerce will see some of these comments and be embarrassed enough to do something constructive such as making the program actually easier to use so we can get back to our lives instead of getting frustrated by a rigid and ugly looking interface. At 08:22 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: I agree with you on your comments about help etc. Their documentation is weak. The product however, is very robust and flexible. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: Chris Giminez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 7:44 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I am only about 4 months into Cold Fusion. Able is the first CF store package for me to use. I have been very frustrated with it's "Wizards" mostly due to a lack or non-integration of help files. Figuring out how to customize something is mostly a 'try and see what happens' process. Their documentation is not easily accessible as far as trying to find specifically what you want to do. I started with the standard version and was too limited, so I had to upgrade to the open source. I'm not saying they do this, but it almost seems that they limit what you can do just so you'll have to pay another $1500 for open source. I'm just starting to get comfortable with it and would probably use it again since I would be much more familiar with it the next time around. The backend is very solid and with my limited experience with CF I wouldn't even want to try to build everything the program does. If I were able to give Able some advice, it would be to add a help button to every page of the admin section. Hitting the button would load a pop up window with help that is specific to where you are in the program. This would have saved me hours in learning it... and having to call support to figure it out. Chris Giminez Owner - Cyber Scriber Web Site Design 831-728-4469 ICQ# 2628000 I have tried to get Able Commerce which is built on Cold Fusion templates up and running as an e-commerce solution. Problem is the program seems so utterly rigid in deployment that there's no way to get into the pages to customize the look. The basic look made by Able Commerce is so ugly that the resulting pages make one desire to throw up. Hence changing the look is critical, yet apparently impossible when you go to the editing web pages section. Is Able Commerce truly an impossible program to work with and could anyone for the love of God please recommend something more user friendly and actually usable. We've lost a good two weeks messing around with Able Commerce, it has all in all been a highly frustrating experience. Would appreciate a reference to any other shopping cart e-commerce solution. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm? sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf _talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
At 09:19 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 April 2000 20:58 but extremely user unfriendly. I give it my vote of the most user unfriendly program I've ever used in the last 10 years. Considering they designed it to make the developers life easier, I would have to say it is a failure on that front. Hopefully someone at Able Commerce will see some of these comments and be embarrassed enough to do something constructive such as making the program actually easier to use so we can get back to our lives instead of getting frustrated by a rigid and ugly looking interface. But Able Commerce has been around for years and years - I remember when they started out marketing the original version of the program when their company was called " Little Red Caboose" or some such thing. I am not necessarily disagreeing or agreeing with you, but it is an extremely well established and respected award winning product. Adrian Cooper. But extremely user unfriendly, so what difference does it make how long they have been around. If you can't get it to provide the solution you paid for, it is useless. And how come it is still so ugly after all these years? Surely someone must have at least some level of taste back there. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
- Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 April 2000 21:16 And how come it is still so ugly after all these years? Surely someone must have at least some level of taste back there. That is the point I was making - it is a matter of opinion. Obviously ymmv. Adrian Cooper. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
I had the same dilemma a few months ago. AbleCommerce looked good, but a bit intimidating on the back end, as far as customizing it. Plus we could not afford to pay for the open source version. I bitched to the list about the current crop of apps - I looked at CartEase, CFWebStore, and AbleCommerce - was not satisfied with either as far as out of the box functionality, but was pretty much told - "fuck off, if you don't like it, write your own...". I ended up getting CFWebstore, and customized it to our needs. Took longer than I wanted, but it works and is cheap. I think there is a great market opportunity for a CF shopping app solution that is more object-oriented than the ones are available. What I would like to see is a well documented application that doesn't concern itself with presentation, but just business logic. -Original Message- But extremely user unfriendly, so what difference does it make how long they have been around. If you can't get it to provide the solution you paid for, it is useless. And how come it is still so ugly after all these years? Surely someone must have at least some level of taste back there. -- -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
- Original Message - From: stas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 April 2000 21:39 I think there is a great market opportunity for a CF shopping app solution that is more object-oriented than the ones are available. What I would like to see is a well documented application that doesn't concern itself with presentation, but just business logic. I agree with you absolutely on that one! Considering the power, flexibility and database connectivity of CF, there are really no, what I would call, "industrial strength" shopping/eCommerce systems available for CF which I find rather curious considering how fundamental such a system is these days, and considering how many other brilliant CF applications there are out there - and coders. Adrian Cooper. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Please do Also, with the consideration of "other than tangible" hard-goods to be sold. IE - insurance, technical documents, subscriptions..??? Thx, Stephen M. Aylor Aylor Insurance Agency, Inc. "Specialized Insurance for IT - We Cover IT" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 949.581.2333 (v) 949.581.2814 (f) That's an interesting point. Fuseware looked at developing an e-commerce solution. We decided the market wouldn't support another CF-based shopping cart system, with a heavy hitter like Able Commerce in the market, as well as several lower price competitors and freely available code to write your own. Maybe its time to rethink that position. Chris Evans [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fuseware.com -Original Message- From: Adrian Cooper [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 4:49 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? - Original Message - From: stas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 April 2000 21:39 I think there is a great market opportunity for a CF shopping app solution that is more object-oriented than the ones are available. What I would like to see is a well documented application that doesn't concern itself with presentation, but just business logic. I agree with you absolutely on that one! Considering the power, flexibility and database connectivity of CF, there are really no, what I would call, "industrial strength" shopping/eCommerce systems available for CF which I find rather curious considering how fundamental such a system is these days, and considering how many other brilliant CF applications there are out there - and coders. Adrian Cooper. -- -- -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Dear Chris, Try using the progam and then I think u will see that there is a huge opportunity for someone willing to create a user friendly program. Take a look at coolcart.com and there are some interesting ideas there. i.e. u should be able to take code and past it into HTML for any kind of desired look. Or at the least be able to customize templates with great ease. Able Commerce has been such a time waster for me, I can't show the end result to the client because its unacceptable and unfortunately I can't get into the templates since they are encrypted. In this situation the client will not pay another $1500 for open source. If u look at Able Commerces icons, considering that the product has been out for years, I think u will see a major opportunity for anyone willing to do something more elegant and simpler to use. Cold Fusion is well respected now, u could do well just hosting e-commerce sites administered via a browser like Miva at miva.com At 04:58 PM 4/16/2000 -0400, you wrote: That's an interesting point. Fuseware looked at developing an e-commerce solution. We decided the market wouldn't support another CF-based shopping cart system, with a heavy hitter like Able Commerce in the market, as well as several lower price competitors and freely available code to write your own. Maybe its time to rethink that position. Chris Evans [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.fuseware.com -Original Message- From: Adrian Cooper [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 4:49 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? - Original Message - From: stas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 April 2000 21:39 I think there is a great market opportunity for a CF shopping app solution that is more object-oriented than the ones are available. What I would like to see is a well documented application that doesn't concern itself with presentation, but just business logic. I agree with you absolutely on that one! Considering the power, flexibility and database connectivity of CF, there are really no, what I would call, "industrial strength" shopping/eCommerce systems available for CF which I find rather curious considering how fundamental such a system is these days, and considering how many other brilliant CF applications there are out there - and coders. Adrian Cooper. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body. -- Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/list/cf-talk To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=listsbody=lists/cf_talk or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
You use the 'Styles' to set, say a group. So the first step would be to design a style for your group. In the style you may insert any HTML code at various points. So, for example design your trucks header with photo etc and insert it into a style as header one - in the wizard for the group select the style you have just designed and turn of all navigation options etc. In the style also decide on colours etc for the background. here is a site with thousands of able commerce pages - I have used a Java navigation applet in the right hand frame to be able to navigate to any counter - I call their 3 levels, Department, counter and product - rather than use their terminology. The counters on this site only take minutes to design in able commerce. http://www.fishtec.co.uk Kind regards Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 8:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Paul, I tried this with medium and large sized store. Unfortunately the templates don't allow you to go in and customize them to look exactly as you want. The output is nowhere near what the client is looking for. Normally in other programs you can go into the code and do this, but in Able Commerce, when you're using a wizard you're apparently not able to get into the source code. Try to get into the underlying CFM file and you find that its encrypted. Any ideas? Thanks for the feedback. At 01:38 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: 1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards with graphics hit hard by an ugly stick. Not only is the program not easy to use, the resulting PREVIEWS look so bad due to the layout/ugly icons, I dare not show them to my client. At 01:19 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: I do not understand - you can change all the icons in any version of Able Commerce. I agree they do not supply an icon library but there are so many of those anway. Can you be more specific about what you cannot easily customise. I have no commercial interest in Able just want to see a fair representation of the product. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Adrian, Try to customize the look and feel of your pages and then let me know if I am being unfair. The basic look created by Able Commerce is so ugly there should be a law against it. In fact I'm writing my Senator about it right now - i.e. abolish any net tax incentives but do enact a web site ugliness law to incentivise the folks at Able Commerce to come up with some at least half way decent looking icons instead of those hit
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Dear Paul, I have no problems with inserting Header and Footer styles with HTML. The problem is getting the CF output of products to display the way the client desires. i.e. There should be an output of only VANS items on one page. When you click on VAN SEATS then for example, there should be a list of all Van seat products in a column with either with or without a thumb nail. When you click on the product, you get to a detail page with the shopping cart function displayed. On all pages the header and footer should be consistent, but I am having a hell of a hard time getting Able Commerce to allow me to customize the CF output of the products. For example, I can't get one group displayed on a page by itself. I can get all 3 groups - VANS, TRUCKS and SUVS But then when you click on Van Seats for example, you see 2 products and for the result you have to click a next button. that's ridiculous and when you try to change the format, lo and behold, theres no way to get into the templates. As you can see, after two weeks I am totally fed up with this so called solution, but if you have any workable ideas I'm still willing to give it a shot. Thanks Pardee. At 09:52 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: You use the 'Styles' to set, say a group. So the first step would be to design a style for your group. In the style you may insert any HTML code at various points. So, for example design your trucks header with photo etc and insert it into a style as header one - in the wizard for the group select the style you have just designed and turn of all navigation options etc. In the style also decide on colours etc for the background. here is a site with thousands of able commerce pages - I have used a Java navigation applet in the right hand frame to be able to navigate to any counter - I call their 3 levels, Department, counter and product - rather than use their terminology. The counters on this site only take minutes to design in able commerce. http://www.fishtec.co.uk Kind regards Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 8:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Paul, I tried this with medium and large sized store. Unfortunately the templates don't allow you to go in and customize them to look exactly as you want. The output is nowhere near what the client is looking for. Normally in other programs you can go into the code and do this, but in Able Commerce, when you're using a wizard you're apparently not able to get into the source code. Try to get into the underlying CFM file and you find that its encrypted. Any ideas? Thanks for the feedback. At 01:38 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: 1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards with graphics hit hard by an ugly
Re: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
Try asking Able for the wizards source code. They gave them to me after I complained and I was able to customize some things as needed. It turned out it wasn't enough so I had to pay the $1500 for source of everything, but they may give you the wizards at least without charging. Chris Giminez Owner - Cyber Scriber Web Site Design 831-728-4469 ICQ# 2628000 What I meant is when you click on Van Seats for example, you see only 2 products out of maybe 30. Then to see the other 28 (since they're no displayed in one column), you have to click a next button over and over again to see them in groups of 2. And when you try to change the format so they display in one column in total or in groups of say 10 in a column, lo and behold, theres no way to get into the templates. The wizards in Able Commerce are quite cryptic and help section is not very helpful. If anyone found a way to get around these obstacles without buying the open source version (another $1500), please let me know. Thanks. At 09:52 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: You use the 'Styles' to set, say a group. So the first step would be to design a style for your group. In the style you may insert any HTML code at various points. So, for example design your trucks header with photo etc and insert it into a style as header one - in the wizard for the group select the style you have just designed and turn of all navigation options etc. In the style also decide on colours etc for the background. here is a site with thousands of able commerce pages - I have used a Java navigation applet in the right hand frame to be able to navigate to any counter - I call their 3 levels, Department, counter and product - rather than use their terminology. The counters on this site only take minutes to design in able commerce. http://www.fishtec.co.uk Kind regards Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 8:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Paul, I tried this with medium and large sized store. Unfortunately the templates don't allow you to go in and customize them to look exactly as you want. The output is nowhere near what the client is looking for. Normally in other programs you can go into the code and do this, but in Able Commerce, when you're using a wizard you're apparently not able to get into the source code. Try to get into the underlying CFM file and you find that its encrypted. Any ideas? Thanks for the feedback. At 01:38 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: 1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead of seeing a listing of all seats one after another vertically in a column, the visitor is expected to click on an ugly NEXT button to see the next one. No thumbnails, highly arcane looking navigation system created by their templates/wizards
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
I am a little baffled by your problem. You seem to be confusing Catgeory, Group, Product. Think of them as Department, Counter, Product. Your Department page would show all the department (ie categories) ie vans, tricks etc. Click on the one of interest eg Vans - you then see all the counters (groups) relating to vans, including as one of them Van seats. Click on Van seats you see a list of van seats - click on any of those and you get the detail of that van seat - click on More Detail and you get even more details of that van seat. I had a problem grasping how they did this at first, probably my own stupidity, but it is easy. In the example store I gave you the Java navigator enables you to go to any counter instantly. The fly rods Department lists different makes - in the Airflo Classic rods for example you will see a Flash animation presenting the rods - it was all quick to implement. Here is another store http://www.timesreadersoffers.co.uk Create a category Vans - then inside that category create a few (counters)groups including van seats - then inside each create the products. At the highest level you see a page showing all departments (categories), when you click on vans you just see van counters. I am puzzled - I hope you cam make sense of the above. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 10:46 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Paul, I have no problems with inserting Header and Footer styles with HTML. The problem is getting the CF output of products to display the way the client desires. i.e. There should be an output of only VANS items on one page. When you click on VAN SEATS then for example, there should be a list of all Van seat products in a column with either with or without a thumb nail. When you click on the product, you get to a detail page with the shopping cart function displayed. On all pages the header and footer should be consistent, but I am having a hell of a hard time getting Able Commerce to allow me to customize the CF output of the products. For example, I can't get one group displayed on a page by itself. I can get all 3 groups - VANS, TRUCKS and SUVS But then when you click on Van Seats for example, you see 2 products and for the result you have to click a next button. that's ridiculous and when you try to change the format, lo and behold, theres no way to get into the templates. As you can see, after two weeks I am totally fed up with this so called solution, but if you have any workable ideas I'm still willing to give it a shot. Thanks Pardee. At 09:52 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: You use the 'Styles' to set, say a group. So the first step would be to design a style for your group. In the style you may insert any HTML code at various points. So, for example design your trucks header with photo etc and insert it into a style as header one - in the wizard for the group select the style you have just designed and turn of all navigation options etc. In the style also decide on colours etc for the background. here is a site with thousands of able commerce pages - I have used a Java navigation applet in the right hand frame to be able to navigate to any counter - I call their 3 levels, Department, counter and product - rather than use their terminology. The counters on this site only take minutes to design in able commerce. http://www.fishtec.co.uk Kind regards Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 8:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Paul, I tried this with medium and large sized store. Unfortunately the templates don't allow you to go in and customize them to look exactly as you want. The output is nowhere near what the client is looking for. Normally in other programs you can go into the code and do this, but in Able Commerce, when you're using a wizard you're apparently not able to get into the source code. Try to get into the underlying CFM file and you find that its encrypted. Any ideas? Thanks for the feedback. At 01:38 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: 1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve
RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless?
When you click on van seats you can see as many products as you like - look at the top of the group wizard - you simply set the maximum number that can be displayed - you really can see as many van seats in the van seats counter as you wish. It seems you are setting the maximum number of displayed items in a counter to 2, not the 20 or 30 you may need. You may also choose to display in 1, 2 or 3 columns. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 10:53 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? What I meant is when you click on Van Seats for example, you see only 2 products out of maybe 30. Then to see the other 28 (since they're no displayed in one column), you have to click a next button over and over again to see them in groups of 2. And when you try to change the format so they display in one column in total or in groups of say 10 in a column, lo and behold, theres no way to get into the templates. The wizards in Able Commerce are quite cryptic and help section is not very helpful. If anyone found a way to get around these obstacles without buying the open source version (another $1500), please let me know. Thanks. At 09:52 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: You use the 'Styles' to set, say a group. So the first step would be to design a style for your group. In the style you may insert any HTML code at various points. So, for example design your trucks header with photo etc and insert it into a style as header one - in the wizard for the group select the style you have just designed and turn of all navigation options etc. In the style also decide on colours etc for the background. here is a site with thousands of able commerce pages - I have used a Java navigation applet in the right hand frame to be able to navigate to any counter - I call their 3 levels, Department, counter and product - rather than use their terminology. The counters on this site only take minutes to design in able commerce. http://www.fishtec.co.uk Kind regards Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 8:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? Dear Paul, I tried this with medium and large sized store. Unfortunately the templates don't allow you to go in and customize them to look exactly as you want. The output is nowhere near what the client is looking for. Normally in other programs you can go into the code and do this, but in Able Commerce, when you're using a wizard you're apparently not able to get into the source code. Try to get into the underlying CFM file and you find that its encrypted. Any ideas? Thanks for the feedback. At 01:38 PM 4/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: 1. You can achieve exactly that in Able Commmerce. Choose a large store option and you have three levels. Top level - create categories vans, trucks and suvs. Now create groups within each of those ie ford trucks, nissan trucks etc. Now create products within the groups. For each group, go to the style for that group and simply enter up your photo etc to show just what you are asking for. You must have set it up wrong if you are not achieving this - what demo store did you copy? You need at least a medium size store for what you wish to achieve. Paul Burgess -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2000 1:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Is Able Commerce truly user-unfriendly and hence useless? I have a site with 3 categories: 1. VANS 2. TRUCKS 3. SUVS So what I need to do is have three tabs on the home page, each tab going to a page that has the group listings of each category on the next page. So if a visitor clicks on VANS, they go to a page with a nice picture of a van and a listing of all VAN products. When they click on a product, they see a display, etc. This I have not been able to accomplish with Able Commerce's so called wizards. Next, I need to change the icons, that I agree is not such a big deal but I was amazed that they would have enough courage to ship their product with such an ugly set. A real montrosity, I share this to vent my frustration with the user-unfriendliness of the product. I couldn't even get one page to list all 3 categories in a table with 3 rows. And finally to add insult to injury, when someone clicks on SEATS as a group listing, on the next page, instead
